Interview from the 3 co-founders of ISKN who will present a new technology called iSketchnote at SIGGRAPH 2013 !
You’re here at the French SIGGRAPH stand to launch a new technology called “iSketchnote”. Could you tell us a little more about the how this project originated? What usage need does this fit?
For this target group, we also stand out from our competitors because – to date – iSketchnote is the only product to provide the possibility of real-time digitizing of sketches and drawings using an array of colors.
Could you briefly describe your professional background and also what led you to take up this challenge?
There are 3 cofounders with totally different but complementary profiles.
Tristan, a graduate of ENSEIRB-MATMECA (electronics and embedded systems), recently hired at CEA-LETI (2012), has worked on the very first developments of the ISKN technology and is now leading ISKN’s R&D.
As for Timothée Jobert, an expert in user-centered design, in 2006 he began to work managing the CEA’s open innovation division and participated in the exchanges on the Movea start-up. Taken on by the LETI in 2010 he takes charge of user-centered design operations and also heads different R&D projects. His set aim in managing usages/user-experience dimensions is to design value-enhanced proposals to fit the needs and expectations of end-users.
As for myself, an engineer trained in microelectronic materials and graduate of the Grenoble Business School, I began my career at the OpSitech start-up, specialized in the design and production of new optical components for broadband t telecommunications. After that I held various positions within the CEA-LETI, in information and communications technologies, including regular work in both nanoelectronics and MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical System). In 2010, while head of the CEA-LETI laboratory, and having lengthily explored technologies that could lead to creation of a business concern, I decided for value-enhancement and joined with Timothée and Tristan to found a start-up. Today I’m in charge of the market and strategic affairs for ISKN.
The shared beliefs and motivations of the 3 co-founders:
To help maintain employment in France (at our own level) by creating direct and indirect jobs through a 100% French high-tech product, covering design on through to implementation.To participate in the changeover to digital environments and play a significant role through a new approach. This approach, on the one hand, consists of imparting increased digital value to the physical objects of our daily lives and, on the other hand, of enriching the interaction of physical object with the digital world, while pinpointing the paucity of digital interactions existing today.
Individually, this represents a renewed opportunity to be part of the start-up horizon, to enhance a high-potential and “magical” technology, to change course, and to personally develop through this new professional challenge which is entrepreneurship.
You’re here at the SIGGRAPH: what do you hope for with this event? What are the stakes for you?
We hope to benefit from more buzz thanks to the specialized media at Siggraph, to obtain more coverage via the press or other top blogs (wired, techcrunch, best of media…).
We’d like more buzz or visibility among the big players in CGI animation, gaming or drawing, players who might integrate our technology into their products. If possible, we hope to set up contacts for future co-development or partnership discussions…
We also want to show the worth of our technology for such fields as gaming or CGI animation.
Last of all, we hope to accelerate this showcasing and save time in our value approach especially via networking, to expand on the contact opportunities that this type of international event can provide.
For more information about isketchnote
Phone: +33(0) 6 32 63 11 84 / www-leti.cea.fr / www.isketchnote.com
Contact: Jean-Luc Vallejo / jean-luc.vallejo@cea.fr
