Inside the Startup Reinventing War
A Finnish startup is bringing mixed reality to warfare, turning transparent surfaces—windshields, visors, goggles—into 3D displays that overlay thermal imaging, night vision, and real-time sensor data onto the battlefield. Born from the ashes of Varjo, Europe's premier VR company, Dispelix is building augmented reality for soldiers and drivers that feels straight out of science fiction. But this isn't entertainment: it's survival tech forged by a nation that shares a border with Russia and knows the cost of unpreparedness. Can a two-year-old company deliver superhuman perception to tank commanders and infantry in time to matter?
Points clés
Dispelix uses lenticular lens arrays and real-time eye tracking to send different images to each eye through transparent surfaces, creating true 3D light-field displays with infinite pixel depth.
The company has conducted over a dozen field trials with the Finnish military, including live tank operations at minus 36°C and 65 km/h, proving the technology works in extreme combat conditions.
Founded by Varjo veterans motivated by the war in Ukraine and Finland's proximity to Russia, Dispelix is positioning mixed reality as a tool for sovereignty and soldier survival, not entertainment.
The platform integrates any sensor type—lidar, thermal, infrared, visible light—allowing operators to «see through» smoke, darkness, and obstructions in real time, whether in a tank, car, or on foot.
Despite being only two years old, Dispelix has already partnered with Kia for automotive heads-up displays and is showing defense equipment behind closed doors to military officials and defense primes.
En bref
Dispelix has built the world's most advanced transparent 3D light-field display and is racing to deploy it in defense and automotive applications—offering soldiers night vision, thermal imaging, and situational awareness through ski-mask form-factor AR, all while operating in Arctic conditions at lethal speeds.
From Varjo to the Battlefield: A CEO's Mission Shift
After eight years building Europe's best VR headsets, the founder pivoted to defense tech.
Urho Konttori co-founded Varjo in 2016, the premium mixed reality headset company that became the gold standard for mission-critical training—used everywhere from civilian aviation to defense. After eight years, he stepped back to focus on family, but the break was short-lived. Within a year, he co-founded Dispelix with former Varjo colleagues and Apple veterans, motivated by a very specific geopolitical reality: Finland shares a border with Russia, and the war in Ukraine made the threat visceral.
The company's ethos is rooted in the ancient maxim «Si vis pacem, para bellum»—if you want peace, prepare for war. Konttori believes that raising the stakes high enough maintains the status quo, which is peace. Dispelix isn't building entertainment hardware; it's building survival technology. The goal is to help soldiers execute missions better, come home alive, and protect civilians by delivering near-perfect situational awareness. For a two-year-old startup, that's an audacious mission—but the technology they've already deployed suggests they're not bluffing.
The Core Innovation: True 3D Light-Field Displays
«We Need to Be Part of the Solution for Ukraine and Europe»
The founder explains why a VR veteran pivoted to military technology.
“We really like a field of pain happening in Ukraine. We have been at war with them. We have heard the stories of our grandfathers and we started feeling that we need to somehow be part of the solution for both Ukraine as well as the sovereignty and keeping the sovereignty of Europe because you need to have power that you can extend to be able to keep the peace.”
Field-Tested in Arctic Combat Conditions
The startup has run over a dozen military trials, including live tank ops.
Sensor Fusion: Seeing Through Smoke, Darkness, and Walls
The platform integrates lidar, thermal, infrared, and visible light for superhuman perception.
Sensor Array Capture Lidar, thermal, infrared, and visible-light cameras mounted on helmets or vehicles capture multi-spectral data in real time.
Real-Time Fusion Software combines sensor feeds and overlays them onto the transparent display, aligned with the operator's gaze and head position.
Contextual Augmentation The system highlights heat signatures behind obstacles, outlines targets in smoke, and provides night vision—adapting to mission context.
Depth-Correct Rendering Because of infinite pixel depth, augmented objects appear at the correct real-world distance, preventing depth confusion during high-speed maneuvers.
Dual-Use Architecture: From Kia Concept Cars to Tank Visors
The same core technology powers automotive HUDs and battlefield AR.
The Predator Vision Demo: Driving Blind at 50 km/h
A live test proved the system works in total darkness using only thermal imaging.
The Predator Vision Demo: Driving Blind at 50 km/h
In a demonstration on a private road, the CEO drove an EV6 at 50 km/h in complete darkness with the headlights off, relying entirely on thermal vision projected through the windshield. He described it as «dangerously close to real-world driving» and noted full depth perception. The system also saw through artificial smoke, revealing a person hidden behind it—mimicking the infrared vision from the movie *Predator*.
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