MAXX IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Richard Mauran often thought about the words of his mother, “Richard, don’t sit so close to the TV … you’ll go blind.” Watching his own children strapping Virtual Reality (“VR”) glasses to their faces, Richard had become deeply concerned that VR glasses would eventually cause harm to his kids, and to the kids of every parent silly enough to ignore the hazards of Virtual Reality technology rushed to market without long term medical studies. Richard had read that VR glasses rewire the human brain. He had also read prolonged use of VR glasses could cause retinal damage. In fact, he had seen two different VR headset brands in his home with warnings from the manufacturers that their VR headset should not be used for more than 30 minutes each day. Richard had told his children they could not spend so much time playing video games, but it was increasingly clear that video games were designed to be addictive. When Mark Zuckerberg announced he would spend billions to persuade children to abandon the real world in favor of the “metaverse”, accessible through his Oculus glasses, Richard concluded that technology companies were willing to sacrifice the health of millions for their own enrichment. 

Richard vowed to change Virtual Reality and Zuckerberg’s Metaverse in favor of real-world immersion. He reasoned he would first need to change movies, and then change the games based on video created for movies.

In early 2022 Richard Mauran invested in Netherlands based Borealis Interactive Group NV (“BIG”), and their Da Vince Genius technology in Berlin Germany. BIG had been set up to compete with the Toronto company, Lighthouse Immersive, which had brought the Van Gogh Immersive Show to America. Richard determined that both the BIG and Lighthouse immersive technology only delivered, “faux immersion”, and that movie fans and virtual reality gamers…like his children…would demand “true immersion” before they would abandon their VR glasses.

In June 2022, in partnership with Maxx Technologies, Inc., Richard established Maxx Immersive Technologies (“MIT”), with a mandate to engineer a true 720-degree immersive movie experience, then to move from a two dimensional to a three dimensional 720-degree movie experience, and finally add interactivity to play video games in a 720-degree immersive environment.

Richard believes that MIT can add enough artificial intelligence that the video can react and render in real time changes in response to the movements of a User.

Richard is the inventor or coinventor of 5 patent pending technologies being employed by MIT. Engineering and experimentation are at the heart of MIT. Richard believes that not all experiments yield the expected results, but many inventions are the result of “happy accidents”. For example, a recent mistake taught MIT engineers that light projected into melting black ice, yielded a result that could not have been predicted based on what is known about the physics of optics. This makes one wonder about the high level of dark matter in the universe, perhaps Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity doesn’t tell the whole story of light.

Under construction in Houston is the first 720-degree Immersive Theater. The MIT Immersive Test Theater and Video Research Center is expected to be completed during the summer of 2023. 

MIT has completed engineering and has filed patents for: 720-degree theater design; specialized seating that permits a movie to be viewed on all four walls and the ceiling of the theater; an array of cameras that will capture a film or a sporting event in the 720-degree format; and other innovations that will permit three-dimensionality and AI-powered video interactivity.

MIT recently signed a contract to purchase a French technology company that has developed software that will permit a movie to be seamlessly stitched across all four walls and the ceiling of the MIT Immersive Test Theater. By the fourth quarter of 2023 MIT expects to deliver a functional Immersive Theater to Mark Welton, the President of IMAX. The first IMAX focus group audience is expected in the Houston Immersive Test Theater by the end of 2023.

Sister company, Maxx Sports TV, is installing a fiber optic cable from the University of Houston athletic facilities (i.e., stadium and arenas) to the MIT Immersive Test Theater. MIT will work with the Maxx Sports TV’s proprietary multi-stream camera technology to test 720-degree live sports which it is hoped will give fans the ability to experience the live away game without travelling.

MIT is also experimenting with 720-degree virtual travel, 720-degree virtual telecommunications, and 720-degree defense and emergency response simulations and training.

Richard Mauran is a serial inventor, with a long history of developing and funding new and innovative technologies. Richard was the co-inventor of laser scanning technology that is used by MRG, Inc to make precise three-dimensional reproductions of museum artworks. Richard was passionate about preserving priceless art that was rapidly deteriorating because of severe air contamination in the cities where these priceless artworks are housed. Richard was also co-inventor of the Protopak printing technology that lowers the environmental impact of consumer products by using plant-based printing and packaging instead of conventional plastics.

Richard sits on the Boards of Elora Resources, Pacific Coast Marinas, and Maxx Technologies. Richard has worked at Mauran family businesses, including Swiss Chalet, Harveys, Elizabeth Arden Cosmetics, Industrial Funds, and McKenzie Financial. 

“Over time, our immersive technology will take the place of conventional 2-D television. TV has been the center of home entertainment for nearly a century. It is time the TV was disrupted! Our early engineering proves that a video image can be projected up to five feet forward from the surface of our experimental projection medium. This experimentation and engineering will ultimately put the Star Trek Holodeck in every home in America.”