Kopin to Deliver SDK for Golden-i Head-Mounted Display
Kopin will deliver its Golden-i head-mounted display (HMD) software development kit to Motorola Solutions with a goal of bringing product to market in first-half 2012, Kopin executives said Thursday on an earnings call. Golden-I combines Kopin’s 0.6-inch LCD microdisplay with 800x600 resolution with Microsoft embedded 6.0 software, Texas Instruments OMAP processor, and Hillcrest Labs’ six-axis position tracker in an HMD. SDKs will be released by month’s end with plans for Motorola to start HMD production by year-end, Kopin Chief Financial Officer Richard Sneider told us. The software will be built into TI’s OMAP processor, he said.
The initial market for Golden-i HMDs will be industrial applications including distribution centers and manufacturing, Sneider said. In industrial applications, the display and processor could be attached to a holder built into a hard hat. Golden-i is designed to link to a PC via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, Sneider said. Prototypes of the device have used a 1,200-milliampere battery with an 11-hour run time. There are no immediate plans for a Golden-i consumer version, although there may be some products for the consumer market, Sneider said. Kopin will get a share of Golden-i optical engine and software sales as well as a per unit royalty, CEO John Fan told analysts.
Kopin said Q4 net income slipped to $4.67 million from $5.2 million a year earlier as revenue edged up to $33.1 million from $33 million. The increase is sales came despite a “customer issue” that arose in November and cost Kopin about $1 million in Q4 revenue, Sneider said. The issue wasn’t related to Kopin’s heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT) that are used in cellphone power amplifiers. Sneider declined to identify the customer, but said the issue has been resolved.
Kopin’s Q4 HBT sales rose to $15.1 million from $15 million a year earlier, while revenue from its CyberDisplays, which are used in thermal weapons sites as well as video glasses and electronic viewfinders, was flat at $18 million. Consumer video glasses-related revenue was $1.6 million in Q4 and $4 million for the year, Sneider said. By year-end, Kopin expects to have doubled HBT production from early 2010 at plants in Taunton, Mass., and Taiwan, Sneider said. As Kopin develops HBTs for more complex smartphones, it will hire additional middle-management engineers this year, Sneider said. Kopin’s military business accounted for 69 percent of Q4 revenue, down from 76 percent a year earlier, while consumer rose to 26 percent from 16 percent. For the year, sales to Skyworth Solutions, which uses Kopin’s HBTs, represented 25 percent of total revenue, while Raytheon was 18 percent and Advanced Wireless Semiconductor 12 percent.
Kopin expects 2011 revenue at Fourth Dimension Displays, which it acquired in January for $11 million, to be flat with a year earlier at $6 million, Sneider said. Fourth Dimension, which develops high-end ferroelectric LCoS microdisplays for simulation and training, shares some customers with Kopin including Rockwell-Collins and L3, Sneider said. It will remain based in Scotland with in the “mid-30s” of employees and continue to manufacture LCoS displays, he said. Fourth Dimension, once known as CRLO Systems, demonstrated a 0.9-inch microdisplay in November with 2,048x1,536 resolution and 24-bit color. It recently landed contracts with the U.S. and Australian air forces to use displays in F-16 and F-18 fighter jet simulation training.