Back in 2002, when the first significant camera phone appeared on the European market (the 7610 of Nokia fame), my partner and I developed a vision that has driven the development of our company to this day: camera phones can do more than taking pictures.

Rooted in our combined expertise in image processing and artificial vision, the company we launched in Paris in 2003, Realeyes3D, quickly became a recognized leader in the nascent field of mobile imaging, selling embedded image processing libraries to handset manufacturers in Asia and Europe. Today, Realeyes3D’s clients list include handset manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, and Sanyo. Together they have shipped nearly 80 million phones with our software libraries installed.

Realeyes3D is VC-funded since its A-round in April 2003, and has benefited since then of the support of Partech, I-Source, Atlas Venture, Tempo Capital (formerly Siemens Mobile Acceleration).

In 2006 Realeyes3D launched the first-ever mobile document copy service for camera phone users, qipit, on the US market. Qipit is a service designed to help people copy and exchange documents from their phone. Since the launch of Qipit, people have used Qipit in ways were never imagined. They use Qipit to capture everything from whiteboards and wine labels to class notes and floor plans. Users invoice clients, get forms back to the office, and get deals closed on the spot. We even had someone copy a 350 page book.

Qipit is free to use at www.qipit.com. All that is needed is a 1 mega pixel camera phone (or better; autofocus cameras gives best results): watch the video. Developers who want to integrate the Qipit document copy functionality in their own applications can register to use the recently launched Qipit API at http://developer.qipit.com. More information on the ins and outs of the Qipit technology can be found in our online presentation. Today, Qipit is enjoying a sustained viral growth in its free form (at www.qipit.com), and we are rolling out added-value versions targetted to specific markets.

To support the launch of QIpit, we incorporated Qipit Inc, based in San Francisco in December, 2006. After reorganizing the team and putting a strong management structure in place in Paris and Tokyo to support a highly distributed operating organization, I moved to the Bay area in 2007 to drive the business of both Qipit and Realeyes3D from San Francisco, and to drive corporate development opportunities.

This is my second stay in the US. I lived and worked in Austin, TX and Phoenix, AZ for over 4 years in the 1990’s, which gave me the opportunity to become the ‘proud’ father of a native Texan (as the bumper stickers say): my youngest daughter.

Written by Benoit Bergeret, Co-Founder, President & CEO.