IEEE Spectrum November, 2016 - 4

BAcK StorY_
Editor in chiEf

Susan Hassler, s.hassler@ieee.org
ExEcutivE Editor

Glenn Zorpette, g.zorpette@ieee.org
Editorial dirEctor, digital

Harry Goldstein, h.goldstein@ieee.org
Managing Editor

Elizabeth A. Bretz, e.bretz@ieee.org
SEnior art dirEctor

Mark Montgomery, m.montgomery@ieee.org
SEnior EditorS

Stephen Cass (Resources), cass.s@ieee.org
Erico Guizzo (Digital), e.guizzo@ieee.org
Jean Kumagai, j.kumagai@ieee.org
Samuel K. Moore (News), s.k.moore@ieee.org
Tekla S. Perry, t.perry@ieee.org
Philip E. Ross, p.ross@ieee.org
David Schneider, d.a.schneider@ieee.org
Brandon Palacio, b.palacio@ieee.org
Randi Klett, randi.klett@ieee.org
aSSociatE art dirEctor Erik Vrielink, e.vrielink@ieee.org
photography aSSiStant Yuki Mizuma, y.mizuma@ieee.org
dEputy art dirEctor

photography dirEctor

The Startup Around the Corner

SEnior aSSociatE EditorS

Rachel Courtland, r.courtland@ieee.org
Eliza Strickland, e.strickland@ieee.org
aSSociatE EditorS

Celia Gorman (Multimedia), celia.gorman@ieee.org
Willie D. Jones (News), w.jones@ieee.org
Amy Nordrum, a.nordrum@ieee.org
vidEo producEr Kristen Clark, kristen.clark@ieee.org
SEnior copy Editor Joseph N. Levine, j.levine@ieee.org
copy Editor Michele Kogon, m.kogon@ieee.org
Editorial rESEarchEr Alan Gardner, a.gardner@ieee.org

enior editor tek l a S. Per ry h aS been dr awn to the

Silicon Valley startup Light like a moth to...well, a light. Her first
glimmer was a mention of Light in a 2014 report of venture investing; the company had closed a US $9.7 million funding round.
The official word about what the company was doing was pretty
vague: A "team of creative technologists [were] on a mission to
reimagine the art and science of photography."
She started combing the Internet, and discovered that Light cofounder Rajiv Laroia had in 2013 been identifying himself at conferences
as the founder of Tinz Optics. On a hunch, Perry walked the 10 minutes
from her home in Palo Alto, Calif., to the building listed as Tinz headquarters-next to her favorite Caribbean restaurant-and indeed, there was a
paper sign on the door that read "Light." (Later, next door, she bought a
Ting soda and wondered if the name had been the inspiration for "Tinz.")
Peeking in the windows told her nothing. So she combed the online
want ads, to see just what kind of engineers Tinz/Light was hiring. The
company had been seeking an "imaging scientist with a deep understanding of computational optics" who could develop "innovative computation
algorithms to combine multiple recorded images into a single image....and
increase image dynamic range." The job had been filled; some LinkedIn
sleuthing suggested that the hire was a research scientist from cameramaker Ricoh who had written papers about multi-aperture imaging.
Perry concluded that Light planned to use several small cameras to
get better images-and she was right. This January, she held the prototype herself [above] at a private showing at the CES technology show, in
Las Vegas. A few weeks earlier, Perry had finally met Laroia; in this issue, he reveals Light's details in "A Pocket Camera With Many Eyes."
That guess about Ting being the inspiration for Tinz? Way off base. The
name comes from the first letters of the names of Laroia's four children. ■

adMiniStrativE aSSiStant

Ramona L. Foster, r.foster@ieee.org
intErn

Andrew Silver

contributing EditorS

Evan Ackerman, Mark Anderson, John Blau, Robert N.
Charette, Peter Fairley, Tam Harbert, Mark Harris, David
Kushner, Robert W. Lucky, Paul McFedries, Prachi Patel,
Richard Stevenson, Lawrence Ulrich, Paul Wallich
Peter Tuohy
Roy Carubia
SEnior ElEctronic layout SpEcialiSt Bonnie Nani
dirEctor, pEriodicalS production SErvicES
Editorial & WEb production ManagEr

Shannan Brown
Jacqueline L. Parker
MultiMEdia production SpEcialiSt Michael Spector
product ManagEr, digital

WEb production coordinator
Editorial adviSory board

Susan Hassler, Chair; David Brock, Jason Cong*, Sudhir Dixit,
Limor Fried, Robert Hebner, Joseph J. Helble, Grant Jacoby, Leah
Jamieson, Deepa Kundur, Norberto Lerendegui, Steve Mann,
Allison March, Jacob Østergaard, Umit Ozguner, Thrasos Pappas,
John Rogers, Jonathan Rothberg, Umar Saif, Takao Someya,
Yu Zheng, Kun Zhou, Edward Zyszkowski
* Chinese-language edition
Editorial / advErtiSing corrESpondEncE

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Nov 2016

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11.16

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum November, 2016