Having recently closed funding and international distribution deals, Resolution Optics Inc. of Halifax is conducting research and development projects on fascinating new products that will help to develop the holographic microscope maker on an international scale.

Resolution Optics was founded by Dalhousie University professors Manfred Jericho and H. Juergen Kreuzer with the goal of making submersible and desktop microscopes producing real-time “4D” images of particles and micro-organisms, meaning the devices show them from three angles as they move over time.

In the last year, the company has targeted two industrial markets: detecting algae blooms and other harmful organisms in water, and helping the oil and gas industry characterize oil in water during oil spills.

To attack these markets, the company recently raised $125,000 in equity financing from private investors. It has also applied for funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and received a line of credit from iNova Credit Union.

This increase in capital is helping the company to develop its two recent distribution agreements. The company has signed a deal covering China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau with Shanghai’s Zealquest, which specializes in distributing products for water monitoring and profile applications and ocean technology. The deal was the result of a trade mission to China organized by Nova Scotia Business Inc.

The second agreement is with Toyo Corp. of Japan. It is one of the largest distributors of marine monitoring equipment in that nation.

 “The business possibilities in these two countries alone would make a very telling story,” said CEO Stephen Jones in a recent interview in the company’s offices. “We now have excellent distribution in the two largest Asian economies.”

With the funding and distribution agreements in place, the company is working on enhancing the functionality of its products to help clients in its target market segments.

Since July, Resolution Optics has been working on “morphology recognition software,” which is technology that can readily identify micro-organisms, especially algae and parasites.

 “We have this vision of having a global database that can be viewed around the world,” said Jones.

The idea is that Resolution Optics microscopes would automatically recognize harmful organisms in water supplies and alert clients when they are found. The research on this product should be completed within four to five months.

The company is also working on a module that could be mounted on automated or robotic submersible vehicles to give clients images in real time in corners of the ocean that are inaccessible for human divers. This would offer the company and its clients more flexibility in deploying the microscopes.

It could be especially useful in helping clean up oil spills, especially in Arctic regions, because it could determine whether spills are dissipating in deep water and under ice.

The Asia Pacific region has become a key market for Resolution Optics since it signed a memorandum of understanding with State Key Laboratories in Shenzhen to research the growing algae problem in Lake Taihu in eastern China.

China has become such an important market that all its software operates in Chinese and English.