AfterLight
Memory deserves a place to rest.
A reflective, memory-grounded experience. Share memories at your own pace. Ben, an AI reflection companion, helps you organize and find meaning in what you’ve shared.
Learn more →Presence deserves to last.
Umbrella Research builds ethical, human-centered AI — a reflective space for memories of a loved one, and living guides for the places people visit.
B2B + B2CDual Revenue
UnlimitedLanguages
EU-OnlyInfrastructure
ZeroApp Install
What is Umbrella Research?
Umbrella Research is a small team focused on ethical, human-centered approaches to memory and AI.
Our technology powers two products: AfterLight, a reflective space for organizing and revisiting memories of a loved one, and ALIVE, an AI-powered avatar guide that brings physical venues to life through natural voice conversation.
We value transparency, user agency, and clear ethical boundaries in everything we build.
ALIVE
Your venue, brought to life.
AI-powered avatar guides for physical venues. Visitors scan a QR code and talk to a lifelike digital guide — in their language, about the space they are in.
Learn more →Not using the state of the art. Redefining it.
We combine research-grade neural rendering, real-time audio AI, and privacy-first infrastructure into products that did not exist before.
01
Gaussian Splat Avatars
3D Neural Rendering
Photorealistic 3D avatars from photographs using Gaussian Splatting — not pre-rendered video, not 2D filters. Real geometry, real-time rendering, running in a browser.
- 3D Gaussian Splatting from photos
- Real-time browser rendering at 60fps
- 52-channel blendshape animation
- Single-photo to full 3D pipeline
02
Real-Time Voice AI
Gemini Live + LAM Pipeline
Bidirectional native audio conversation with real-time lip sync. Audio drives 52 blendshape channels through our LAM audio-to-expression pipeline — the avatar speaks with natural mouth movement, not canned animations.
- Gemini 2.5 Flash native audio
- LAM audio-to-expression (A2E)
- Sub-2-second first response
- Auto language detection (5+ languages)
03
Privacy-First Architecture
EU-Only, Zero-Trust
All data processed and stored in the EU. Scale-to-zero GPU infrastructure means cost only during active use. No data leaves Europe, no biometric templates stored, full GDPR compliance by design.
- EU-only data residency (Belgium)
- AES-256 encryption at rest + TLS 1.3
- Scale-to-zero GPU (NVIDIA L4)
- 5 independent Cloud Run microservices
AI that serves people, not the other way around.
Every design decision is guided by ethical principles. Our products are not simulations of consciousness — they are tools for reflection and guidance, constrained by design.
Consent First
No avatar is ever created without explicit, cryptographically verified consent from the subject. Consent can be modified or revoked at any time.
Psychological Safety
Our deployment guidelines draw on input from clinical psychologists and human identity researchers to prevent dissociation, misrepresentation, or harmful use.
Transparency by Design
Rendered output is cryptographically watermarked, with a provenance API planned so any observer can verify whether content was AI-generated or human-captured.
Independent Review
We are establishing an independent ethics board — AI safety researchers, bioethicists, and civil rights advocates — to review high-stakes deployments.
Building at the edge of what’s possible.
Umbrella Research is scaling from incubation to market with two products, a first live venue deployment, and EU-native infrastructure built for GDPR from day one.
B2B + B2CDual Revenue Model
Real-TimeNeural Lip Sync
EU-NativeGDPR by Design
1st DeployNeckarCup 2026
Company Roadmap
Q1 2026Incubation CompleteCore platform built — AfterLight reflection engine, neural avatar pipelines, full EU infrastructure.
Q2 2026ALIVE Launch & AcceleratorFirst ALIVE venue deployment (NeckarCup). Accelerator program entry. Legal entity setup in Germany and Romania.
Targeting Q3 2026Office LaunchPlannedOpening offices in Germany and Romania. First research partnerships formalized.
Targeting Q1 2027Platform BetaPlannedPublic beta with pipeline access for early adopters and research partners.
Targeting Q2 2027Commercial LaunchPlannedGeneral availability with enterprise tier and API access.
Invest in human-centered AI.
We’re raising seed funding to scale infrastructure, expand venue deployments, hire key research talent, and bring both products to market.
Join the research frontier.
We are selectively onboarding research partners, early adopters, venue operators, and academic collaborators. Access to our platform and ALIVE venue deployments is available to qualified applicants.
EARLY ACCESS PROGRAM
Get in touch
Tell us about your work and how you’d like to collaborate. We review every application.