Miravex started as a company in September 2009 but the project itself started some four years previously. Guido Mariotto and some colleagues, research fellow Dr. Roman Kantor and Professor Igor Shvets, both of whom went on to become co-founders with Guido, were toying with some ideas in the School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin.

In the course of their experimentation they developed a technology where basically by illuminating any surface with a light in a particular fashion it becomes possible to reconstruct the shape of the surface.

They realized that this platform technology, which can be applied to a range of surfaces such as paper, fabrics, skin and leather, had the potential for commercialization. The filed filed a patent application to protect their intellectual property and in parallel to the product development they also started to analyze the market opportunity.

Guido explains further, “We looked at the paper industry and the quality control of paper. We also looked at the area of biometrics, fingerprint recognition and scanning facial features for security screening at airports.

“In the end we concluded that the best opportunity lay in the field of dermatology and cosmetic medicine. For two reasons. One is that the technology works particularly well on skin. The other reason is that the cosmetic medicine market is very large and is constantly growing.”

There seemed to be a requirement for a device that could quantify the results of these treatments.

“Our market research showed that there was no imaging device available that could quantify and measure a number of parameters.

“If you undergo a laser treatment for the resurfacing of the skin, a very common treatment, where clinicians us a laser to burn off the outer layer of the skin and the result should be a smoother skin, there was no way of measuring how much of an improvement there was.

“This was something that clients of cosmetic clinics were starting to require because not all treatments show an immediate result. There is a need for a device that can show the trend for treatment outcomes over a period of time and over a number of sessions to prove that these treatments have an efficacy.”

They have three beta machines in Ireland and one in Italy and have been busy gathering data from the first users. They acquired their first distributor in May, 2010 and have been generating sales since following July.

Miravex is one the companies that will be showcasing their technology at the 4th Annual Silicon Valley Technology Leaders Awards on April the 5th.

“Our strategy was to establish our product in Europe for geographic, regulatory and resource reasons. But the main market is the United States and this is where we want to get.

“The ITLG event will provide us with an opportunity preliminary contacts with potential distributors or beta-testers in the United States. So, it is very important for us to be able to showcase our product at Stanford.”