Scene Sharp Technologies Inc., a Fredericton software company that improves the quality of colour digital photography, has closed a $300,000 round of angel financing, which it hopes will help to commercialize a new product for security cameras.

President Ian Lucas said in an interview yesterday that the company received backing from enough Atlantic Canadian angels to close the seed round last week. However, he will still be canvassing possible investors and hopes to raise an additional $1 million in the next year.

Scene Sharp is the corporate body set up to commercialize the research of Yun Zhang, the Canada Research Chair in Advanced Geomatics Image Processing at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. Zhang has created software that greatly enhances the precision of digital photography, so it improves the colour of satellite photos, the resolution of high-speed shots and a camera’s sensitivity to light. (The photo on the company's home page uses this technology to capture with perfect clarity a bullet being shot through a business card.)

Lucas and Scene Sharp are finding commercial outlets for the technology and have so far honed in on two products. FuzeGo is an industry-proven algorithm that improves the resolution of satellite images, and is already being sold to end-users. And the company has applied for a patent and is seeking a development partner for a second product, a software that lets digital cameras produce high-quality images in lowlight conditions.

“With our camera, it’s a full-colour image as if it were light,” said Lucas. “It’s extremely sensitive in low-light situations and it’s our intention to commercialize it in the security camera market.”

Scene Sharp is now working at forming a partnership with a larger corporation so they can jointly develop the software into a product for security camera manufacturers, which Lucas hopes to have on the market possibly within a year.

Lucas added that the product could also have applications in consumer products, because people could take photos with cell phones or tablets without needing a flash, and in 3-D imaging.

Scene Sharp first gained public recognition when it won $145,000 in cash and in-kind services at the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation’s Breakthru competition in the spring of 2011. Breakthru is a biennial competition that gives budding New Brunswick entrepreneurs the resources they need to start a business. The agency will launch the 2012-13 Breakthru contest on Oct. 23.

Scene Sharp’s prize included a $100,000 investment from NBIF, and a private investor also came in with a $50,000 equity investment.  The company received $400,000 in further financing from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the government of New Brunswick. The university also received $1.9 million in funding from the Atlantic Innovation Fund to help finance Zhang’s research, which in turn will produce IP for Scene Sharp to commercialize.