Pat Antaki (seeBOOST) on Becoming an Olympian at 42 and Giving Sight to the Visually Impaired

The Guest

Pat Antaki is the founder and CEO of seeBOOST, a company creating a prescription glasses solution for people with vision impairment. The device incorporates an optimized, video pass-through AR system over one eye of the glasses.

Pat is a former MIT grad with a long history in microelectronics design and engineering, including spending several years working with industry expert, Karl Guttag.

These days Pat is committed to improving the quality of life for millions of people with vision impairment due to Macular Degeneration and Diabetes. But a few years back, he took a detour from his career as an engineer and entrepreneur. As he was entering his 40s, Pat set his sights on becoming an Olympic athlete and participating in the 2006 Torino Winter Games.

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The Conversation

In this conversation, we talk through his mindset as he embarked on his Olympic adventure, including his work on microdisplays at the turn of the century.

Pat goes on to describe his decision, his preparation, and some challenging experiences on his road to the Olympics to compete in the Skeleton. It’s a really great story where his technology innovation plays a key role.

We also talk about the impetus and focus of his work at seeBOOST, including some of the design tradeoffs and lessons learned in bringing the product to market. It turns out, aesthetics matter, even when the device is so critical, users can’t see these words without it.

Jason McDowallconsumer, hardware, startup, micro displays