Award recipients Craig Arnold and Christian Theriault at the 38th Annual RDCNJ Edison Patent Awards
Imagine driving your car and being able to see the instruments on your dashboard and at the same time being able to see a truck that is 10s or even 100s of meters away.
PRINCETON, N.J. (PRWEB) November 08, 2017
The Research and Development Council of New Jersey has recognized TAG Optics’ founders with the prestigious Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award for their work on bringing the TAG Lens from the research laboratory to the market. This marks the first time the Edison Patent Award has been granted in the category of Technology Transfer; a tribute video was produced for the event. The award was one of 14 that was bestowed at a ceremony on November 2nd 2017. Over 4,000 patents are awarded every year by the United State Patent Office to entities based in the state of New Jersey.
Originally developed at Princeton University under the direction of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor Craig Arnold, the TAG Lens technology is the result of multiple years of research on the interaction of sound waves and light in a liquid medium. During the laboratory development phase, Arnold was aided by then graduate students and postdoctoral fellows Euan McLeod, Alexandre Mermillod-Blondin and Martí Duocastella, all now distinguished researchers at various institutions throughout the world. In 2011, Arnold teamed up with Christian Theriault to found TAG Optics Inc. with the goal of translating the technology into a commercial product. The technology and products that were subsequently developed are making a noticeable impact in markets ranging from academia to industrial applications.
Prof. Arnold said of the technology:
“The cool thing about the tag lens is you can watch what is happening at one location and then some nanoseconds or microseconds later see what is happening at another location – in many instances that is simultaneous. Imagine driving your car and being able to see the instruments on your dashboard and at the same time being able to see a truck that is 10s or even 100s of meters away.”
In mid-2016, TAG Optics, Inc. was acquired by the Mitutoyo Corporation, a global leader in precision measurement tools. The company now operates as an R&D and prototype manufacturing facility based in Princeton, NJ, continuing to develop the TAG Technology and building systems that harness its unique features. “Having the backing of Mitutoyo, a large multinational corporation, brings great synergy to help promote the TAG technology worldwide. Incorporating the TAG Lens in as many products and market verticals as possible will expand the impact of the technology and enable new paradigms in fields ranging from medicine to machine vision,” said Theriault.
TAG Optics’ is currently focusing its effort on the machine vision and ultra-high speed part inspection markets. Its latest product prototypes, such as the TAG Inspector 3D and the TAG ZIP, enable in-line inspection stations used for quality assurance in manufacturing to significantly increase their throughput as well as perform 3D volumetric scene inspection and analysis.
About TAG Optics Inc.
TAG Optics Inc. is a company headquartered in Princeton, NJ, with the goal of transitioning the TAG Technology, originally developed at Princeton University, from a laboratory device to a commercial product. It has since been recognized as a world leader in high-quality tunable lenses, winning several international awards for the technology and its TAG Lens™ family of products. Its products are currently used throughout the world in applications ranging from ultra-high precision microscopy to 3D machine vision. For more information, visit http://www.tagoptics.com
About Mitutoyo Corporation
Mitutoyo Corporation is an international company specializing in measurement instruments and metrological technology, headquartered in Kawasaki, Japan. The company is the world's largest provider of measurement solutions offering the most complete selection of machines, sensors, systems and services with product lines encompassing CMM (Coordinate Measuring Machines), vision, form and finish measuring machines, as well as precision tools & instruments, and metrology data management software. The company’s vast network spans more than 31 different countries. For more information, visit http://www.mitutoyo.co.jp/global.html