Research Frontiers Incorporated

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Research Frontiers Investor Conference Call to discuss the third quarter of 2024 results of operations and recent developments. During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen-only mode, and following the presentation, the conference will be open for questions by pressing star 1. This conference is being recorded today. A replay of this conference call will be available starting later today in the Investor section of Research Frontier's website at www.smartglass.com and will be available for replay for the next 90 days. Please note that some of the comments made today may contain forward-looking information. The words expect, anticipate, plans, forecast, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to applicable safe harbor provisions. These statements reflect the company's current beliefs and a number of important factors that could cause actual results for future periods to differ materially from those expressed. Significant factors that could cause results to differ from those anticipated are described in our filings with the SEC. Research Frontiers undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements to reflect new events or uncertainties. The company will be answering many of the questions that were emailed to it prior to this conference call, either in the presentation or as part of the Q&A session at the end. In some cases, the company has responded directly to email questions prior to this call or will do so afterwards in order to answer more questions of general interest to shareholders on this call. If you find that your question has been substantially answered, as a courtesy and to allow time for other shareholders to ask their questions, please remove yourself from the queue by pressing star 2. Also, we ask that you keep your questions brief in the interest of time. I'll now turn the call over to Joe Harari, President and Chief Executive Officer of Research Frontiers. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Erica, and hello, everyone, and welcome to our third quarter of 2024 Investor Conference Call. As we anticipated in previous calls, based upon the leading indicators that we typically look at, we saw strong momentum this quarter. Compared to Q3 last year, royalty income grew over 115%, fueled by triple-digit growth in our two largest markets, the automotive and aircraft markets. For the first nine months of this year, royalty income rose by over 93% compared to the same period last year. This was driven by double-digit percentage growth in the aircraft and architectural markets and triple-digit percentage growth in our largest market, the automotive market. In fact, we're on track to almost double the number of roofs sold to Ferrari and triple the number of roofs sold to McLaren compared to last year. This marks our seventh consecutive quarter of revenue growth, and looking ahead, we expect to finish the year with double-digit revenue growth over last year. In fact, as of the end of the third quarter of this year, we have already surpassed revenues for all of last year. Our expenses were down by $92,000 this quarter alone and by over $150,000 over the nine months. With higher revenues and lower expenses, our quarterly net loss is one-third of last year, and for the full nine months is about half, translating to zero cents or almost break-even per share for the quarter and two cents per share for the full nine months. Barring strategic reasons, we do not anticipate needing additional capital in the near term. we remain debt-free with over $1.65 million in cash and stable working capital sufficient for more than five years of operations. Now let's break down these results by market so we can all better understand where we are and what we could all expect. There's been a steady march forward in the automotive and aircraft industries towards the adoption of our SPD smart glass technology, starting with Mercedes, then McLaren, then Ferrari, and now this quarter, Cadillac. In aircraft, our bread and butter were SPD smart EDW windows and turboprops like the King Air and jets like the Honda Jet, and now much larger aircraft from Daher to Seoul, and especially Boeing and Airbus aircraft, all with far more windows per plane. And more vehicle introductions using SPD technology are expected as early as this coming year. Sales of cars using our SPD Smart Glass technology at Ferrari and McLaren remain quite strong, and Cadillac is just starting now. An extremely high percentage of Ferrari customers and McLaren customers are all opting for the SPD Smart Glass roof, and the SPD Smart Glass roof is standard on the Cadillac Celestic. We are on track to almost double the number of roofs sold to Ferrari and triple the number of roofs sold to McLaren compared to last year. So there are excellent results with existing models as SPD Smart Glass roof options become more and more popular on the cars that offer it. Now regarding new customers and new models. After good meetings in Asia in August and in Europe starting in September and October and more recently this week, I am quite optimistic that we will see multiple new car models with SPD Smart Glass come out as early as 2025 from car makers in these different regions of the world. What's particularly exciting is that the manufacturing cost of products using our technology has decreased significantly, making it feasible for use for the first time in moderately priced vehicles. This creates opportunities for higher volumes of SPD smart glass technology in middle market cars worldwide. Our launch project in Asia for this is still on track. All of this and the expansion both among new OEMs and the extension to new car models within each OEM, reinforces the strong validation of the value of our SPD smart glass technology that we offer to the automotive market. Following LTI's retrofit product debut in AIA in June, we're seeing increased interest in SPD projects worldwide. While details aren't yet public, we expect further growth as architects adopt SPD for its energy-saving technology. and instant glare control capabilities. As recently as this week, we discussed more new projects and opportunities for SPD in the architectural market and their specifications. I spent some time discussing our largest market automotive and new models coming out there shortly, as well as architectural markets. I now want to move to our second largest royalty generating market aircraft. We also once again had higher revenues with double digit growth in the second quarter and triple-digit growth in the third quarter. There have been fundamental improvement in that market for us as well. This stems from the way that decisions are made. For general aviation aircraft, we're on the HondaJet and the King Air, among other aircraft. In those and other areas, the OEM made the decision about putting our high-performing SPD technology on the aircraft. The significant shift is that in the larger aircraft made by Boeing and Airbus, Now the customer decides. This has been tremendously enabling for our licensees selling SPD EDWs because the performance in terms of switching speed is instantaneous and the wide change in tint, also being uniform, has made it an easier choice by the customer to pick SPD. And airlines and owners are picking SPD when given the choice. Apart from the obvious benefits of improving the passenger experience by giving them more control over their environment, and reducing noise in the aircraft cabin, there are temperature benefits as well. In automotive, we see a side-by-side reduction of 18 degrees Fahrenheit in a car. In aircraft, we have seen as much as a 26-degree Fahrenheit reduction in cabin temperatures simply by using SPD. Once again, and our growth in revenue from the aircraft market reinforces the value we add to the aircraft and airlines around the world. In the interest of time and to cover as much ground as possible today, I have taken a number of questions that we have received by email and have incorporated them into my presentation today. I'm now going to open up the conference call to additional questions, and first I'll read and answer some of the questions we received by email, and I encourage people to email in their questions before the conference call so we can tailor our presentation to cover the most ground for the benefit of all shareholders. So here are some of the additional questions that were emailed to us. And in some cases, I'm combining several related questions into one. They basically cover three areas. One, the effect of the war in the Middle East. Two, use of competitive technologies. And three, the architectural market. First, on behalf of our friends at GALSI, we appreciate the questions about the situation in the Middle East and their safety. Everyone is, in fact, safe. The war in Israel has not affected Gauzy's operations. They planned and then built redundancy into the Stuttgart facility for both emulsion and film production. They also have redundancies in other areas and a worldwide footprint in factories in the U.S., Germany, France, and of course, Israel. Our next question. Joe, on prior conference calls, you mentioned that you were going to see other technologies tried on cars. We see some cars coming out with PDLC in the roof.

Can you comment on this?

First, I think it's important to understand the path that these other technologies might have to get into a car. And we've given a lot of thought and analysis to this. One path is due to suppliers overpromising the benefits of these other technologies. Another may be trying to avoid paying a royalty on our hundreds of patents. And a third might be the automaker simply trying to pick the cheapest solution or to keep the price point of a car within a certain range vis-a-vis their competitors' models. So let's first take a look at this first path, focusing on the benefits. The benefits of SPD Smart Glass are quite clear and have been demonstrated over tens of thousands of cars produced by Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari, and now this quarter, Cadillac. The benefits of PDLC, on the other hand, have really focused on its ability to deliver good privacy. However, in the areas of heat, light, and glare control and shade, this technology does quite poorly and less enhanced by using other technologies in conjunction with it. And if you read the blogs and the online user forums for car owners, you'll see that there have been numerous complaints about the use of PDLC in the roof systems of cars. It basically does nothing other than providing privacy, and personally I question why anyone would need privacy from people looking in through the top of their sunroof, especially since the SPD solution blocks 99.5% of the light. So both technologies will deliver privacy, but SPD also delivers the heat, light, and glare control which is essential for energy efficiency and occupant comfort. From a benefits standpoint, it's clear that SPD Smart Glass offers the most practical benefits and the ones that the car makers need. I'm also pretty confident that the automakers monitor these user forums and aware that the PDLC solution leaves a lot to be desired. Let's talk about the other path. of getting an alternative technology into the car that I mentioned earlier, which is trying to avoid our 250 or so patents. You can see that some older and much lower performing technologies in SPD are currently trying to be introduced. You know, when personal computers first came out, I'm going to show my age here. The first popular computer chip was the Intel XT chip. And about two years later, the AT chip came out. And after that, various Pentium and dual-core processor chips came out. Moore's Law, named after Gordon Moore, says that computing power doubles every 18 to 24 months or so. So if you take a 20-year lifespan of a patent and try to use technology that is 20 years older than what's available today, you undoubtedly would get much lower performance. In the case of a computer chip, over a 20-year lifespan, the effect of computing power was 1,000 times better with the new technology. And the reason I use a 20 year lifespan as an example is because that's a typical term of a patent. So if someone wanted to use off patent SPD, they're using 20 year old technology, or they're risking substantial liability for infringement, as well as the ability to be shut down in any area of the world that respects intellectual property rights. My experience has been that no reputable car maker that sells cars outside of China will introduce a car using infringing technologies. I'm going to show my age again. A similar analogy might be someone trying to introduce an 8-track tape player into a car today. It's not going to work. The third path to getting an alternative technology into a car is similar and related to the benefits discussion we just had. It's cost versus performance. And car makers are trying to figure out whether cheaper smart glass technologies, such as PDLC, are going to deliver any functional difference and deliver on their promises? We know the answer to that, but they just have to see it for themselves sometimes. And car makers typically try to make the best car they can at a price point that competes with others in their price class for that model. Sometimes a few dollars is the difference between being in one class or another for these car makers. And this situation leads sometimes to bad decisions. Credible influencers certainly have an impact, and I'm sure that automakers pay attention to consumer sentiment and complaints. And, of course, different technologies and products in the automotive market coexist with each other. Take tires, for example. There are many different manufacturers of tires of varying quality and performance that automakers put on their cars, and sometimes it's a matter of getting to a particular price point. But if there's too big of a difference between the cost of the tires and they all had roughly the ability to do a similar job, then the OEMs would pick the cheapest solution. But in our case, they're not. So it brings us back more directly to the question about PDLC versus SPD. Those technologies will coexist for a little while, but the fact of the matter remains that PDLC does little or nothing to block heat from visible light. which makes up half of the heat entering a vehicle through the roof. So that's where the tire analogy somewhat breaks down because you don't have relatively similar performance between two technologies. And it comes down to being an education process. We and our licensees are doing that education. And at the same time, we're also working hard and succeeding at bringing down the cost differential between PDLC and SPD. And that will also make the decision-making a much different, easier, and favorable process for us and for SPD.

Our next question comes from Jordan.

Gauzy produced a press release about Ferrari's adoption of SPD glass a few weeks ago, but Research Frontiers did not. Will Research Frontiers submit a public press release for when the Asian OEM model becomes official?

Thanks, Jordan.

Well, Jordan, we expect to make such an announcement, but first let me say that sometimes automakers can put interesting conditions on who, what, when, and even how something can be said. RFI, Vision Systems, and Gauzy have all experienced this over the years. Ferrari put some conditions on the recent press release. Rather than wait what could have been a long time to clarify or remove such conditions, we and Gauzy decided to release what we could sooner rather than later, and with Gauzy naming Research Frontiers and SPD Technology in their press release. Also, even though Gauzy put out the Ferrari press release on October 23rd, RFI noted Ferrari much earlier. As a matter of fact, a little more than two years ago, I started talking about the Ferrari Piro Sangue by name, even before the car came out. In fact, I actually discussed it on all nine of our last conference calls. And just to complete the question, we hope that the Asian carmaker, as well as the other OEMs and the car models that I mentioned earlier, are in our near-term pipeline, that many of the things that we've been saying on these conference calls will be confirmed directly multiple times.

Next question is somewhat of a technical one. Hold on.

Joe, can you please comment on the recently completed study on SPD conducted in Saudi Arabia? Well, thanks for the question. The study is entitled Daylighting Optimization of Integrated Suspended Particle Devices Glazing in Different School Typologies. And it's a mouthful. And it highlights SPD smart glasses' substantial benefits for energy efficiency and daylighting control, particularly in hot climates like Saudi Arabia. You know, prior to this, the most visible study on SPD was from Cambridge University, and it found that SPD was very effective in and maintaining building temperatures by its ability to vary the tint of glass precisely. The new study goes a bit further. It talks about the best places in different areas of the building to use SPD to meet design and engineering challenges and to optimize the environment with a focus not just on temperature, but on energy efficiency and daylighting. And some of the key insights from the study include, and this is pretty remarkable, So they compared SPD to high energy efficient low E double glazing. And the study concluded that compared to these low E IGUs, SPD smart glass reduced net energy consumption by up to 58% thanks to the dynamic control of heat and light. And also this feature eliminates the need for additional shading devices, cutting both energy and maintenance costs. The other thing with daylighting optimization, the SPD study, the glass that we used had a dynamic range of 0.1 to 60% light transmission for reducing glare and enhancing visual comfort. And the study demonstrates that SPD's effectiveness across various building elements like skylights, courtyards, and clerestory windows was dramatic. You know, years ago, over 6 million visitors saw these and other benefits of SPD firsthand at the World's Fair USA Pavilion. Their SPD glass was integrated into a 10,000-square-foot roof, controlled in real time, allowing for automatic adjustments as well as manual adjustments. For instance, in the peak sun, the glass darkened to reduce heat and protect occupants. But during evening events, it created a dynamic, flashing disco event in the roof. What the study also noted in Saudi Arabia was that SPD Smart Glass is especially advantageous for hard-to-shade areas like skylights and atrium, offering a simpler, more reliable solution than mechanical shading systems. This flexibility helps architects tailor lighting to specific zones, such as maintaining optimal lighting in classrooms or enhancing user comfort in any environment. And if you notice that the study has zeroed in on the optimum tint, to be used on different areas of the building. And this is quite helpful data for architects and highlights the benefits further of SPD smart glass technology. So let's say, for example, you're trying to maintain a 30% transmission rate in your skylights or glass atrium, which they said was the good target. With changing outdoor lighting conditions, such as any movement of the sun or time of day, the ability to dynamically adjust the tint of glass to result in this 30% light transmission is quite easy and automatic with SPD. And the study also noted that SPD smart glass helps achieve balanced daylighting distribution in clerestory windows. So basically, the idea is that there can be on-demand control. For example, when I was at CERN, where the super particle collider is in Switzerland, they use our SPD smart glass in the large dome at the visitor center. And when the head of CERN met me and gave me a tour of the facility, You notice that they constantly use the SPD smart glass in different ways. For example, if they're having an event under the dome, they may let more light in. If they're doing a multimedia presentation inside the dome, they will darken the glass at the top of the dome using the SPD. So there's the on-demand application of SPD, and there's also the set it and forget it ability where in real time the glass can change instantly and automatically based on your user preferences, to maintain constant control over heat, light, and glare. Now, one of the questions we got from John Nelson is, will AI be used to control our glass? And it's very, very simple to do that. And here's a good example where you could either use simple methods like photocells or timers or building control systems, or you could use AI to automatically tell the glass what to do. And because we have instant response time, John, you get much better results than having to wait 40 minutes for your windows to switch as you would with an electrochromic window. So just getting back to the Saudi Arabian study, it concludes that SPD Smart Glass proves to be an efficient, adaptable daylighting solution with transformative potential across various types of spaces, especially in climates where controlling heat and light is crucial. The study also adds to the body of knowledge started by the prestigious Cambridge University study about the benefits of SPD technology among architects and building designers and engineers. Getting back to some of the other series of questions that John Nelson had asked, or which I'll answer here or include in my closing remarks, any indications that Ferrari is going to expand the SPD roof option to other models? John, we expect that to happen. based upon recent discussions I've had with Ferrari, and also because it has happened with all of the other OEMs that adopted SPD, and also when you consider this is a highly successful future for Ferrari, I think it looks very good. Any potential for SPD used by the military for aircraft and or vehicles? Yes. The answer to that is yes. And Here's one about competition. I've seen ads by Home Depot for smart glass windows and storm doors. Are any of these using SPD? Well, not the ones in the Home Depot. Note this is a small surface area of PDLC. Think of it as like an electronic depot. And, you know, the economics and requirements of these big box stores are not really conducive to SPD, which will likely require a premium window and custom sizes. for a high-end home. So things like store stocking requirements or the lack of standard sizes for premium windows makes it less than an ideal distribution approach for SBD. Keep in mind we're in the high-end, they're custom windows, and it would be very hard for our licensees to stock the inventory of what might be needed as opposed to what's actually needed at all these stores. But I do leave open the possibility of using the retrofit application to address distribution in these stores. So, you know, similar to when you're buying carpet, you come, you have your home measured, and then they come and install it. And that's kind of what the retrofit application is going to allow us to do. And just this week, we had some very specific discussions about that and even the analogy to the carpet sales.

Another question from a different shareholder.

In light of Tuesday's election results, can you indicate whether a repeal of the Dynamic Glass Act would significantly reduce SPD's chances of architectural success, or has the film cost decreased enough to minimize the possible impact? Well, let me first say it's always better to have smart windows receive a 30% to 50% investment tax credit like they do now. And I also don't know whether the entire Inflation Reduction Act may be repealed, whether it will be left in place, or maybe just some of the pork barrel or other provisions will be repealed. You know, as a former Federal Reserve economist, I've always refused to call the legislation the Inflation Reduction Act because many of the provisions have the opposite effect. And so I appreciate in the question the fact that you refer to it as the Dynamic Glass Act or as Gazi referred to in the – Benzinga interview that came out yesterday. Sometimes we call this the Gauzy Act. And it's important to keep the Dynamic Glass Act separate and distinct from the overall Inflation Reduction Act. You know, and also our area of the Dynamic Glass Act is similar to the incentives for other established energy efficient home and office products like energy efficient windows, water heaters, etc., So hopefully that part will survive and they won't throw the baby out with the bathwater. And you'll see this discussed more if you listen to the Benzinga All Access interview. So the bottom line is that while tax incentives are very helpful, our costs have come down naturally because unlike our current and former competitors, there are demonstrable economies of scale that exist with our SPD Smart technology that have now allowed us to take on mid-market and not just premium market for SPD windows. And there's one other thing I want to add here. The cost of the film, the cost of the lamination, the reliability of the product, proven over tens of thousands of installations, have all worked very hard to bring the cost down of the basic materials. And there's one other thing, which is the delivery system. So if you think about how a window is installed in a building, there's a lot of costs of ownership. I'll mention a few. Number one, if you're going to put this on an office building in, let's say, Manhattan, if it was just replacing the glass with new smart glass, you would have to build scaffolding, hire unions to do that, and also you'd have to basically take the property out of circulation and and disrupt the tenant's operation. So there's a lot of cost involved with that. This week, we also discussed a very specific project, and that project talked about a bid by a competitor where the price per square foot of their glass, which was extremely highly subsidized, was lower than ours. But when you factored in the fact that their technology, the electrochromic technology, is very sensitive to voltage fluctuations and can be burnt out. The cost of the controllers brought the per square foot price and the annual cost of just maintaining those controllers well above SPD. So even in a subsidized market, we have a cost advantage, and we've seen that in current bids. So A lot of that is just the natural tendency, as I mentioned, for the cost to come down. And the other is the delivery system, because if you think about it, you're avoiding substantial expenses by not having to do a lot of the things that you would do with an ordinary window. So we've discussed a lot of exciting topics so far today. And now I'm going to ask our operator, Erica, to open up the conference to any additional questions people participating today might have that we've not already covered. You know, I've gone through a lot of detail with some of the questions, so please, if you can, keep your questions short and focused in the interest of time.

If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad now. You'll be placed into the queue in the order received. Please be prepared to ask your question when prompted. Once again, if you have a question, please press star 1 on your phone now. Our first question comes from Alan Ginsberg. Please say your question.

Yeah, hi, Joe. How are you? Good. Hi, Alan.

How are you?

I'm fine. I have two questions, both comments on your prepared remarks. I was curious, the Saudi study, which sounds very positive, did you have – excuse me, was there a press release on that?

No, we don't – We didn't do a press release on that. Yeah, okay. It's part of our white papers, and it's part of our data that we discuss with architects. And what's really good about this also is that for the first time, it's giving some meaningful targets for optimum daylighting and tint levels, which are all different between skylights, atrium, clerestory windows, classrooms, and other things. It really is giving some really practical data. And if you think about the challenges of achieving variable tint, I mean, right now, if you didn't have SPD smart glass, you're not going to get any tint change or lighting change with PDLC. So you throw that out, and you're going to have a 40-minute or more delay with electrochromic. And then if you're putting shades or blinds or curtains, they work. They're cumbersome. No, I agree. I think you brought home the concept.

I agree, and I thought that because it's so compelling that a press release would be a good thing for the shareholders to see. It certainly would be good for me.

We might do that, and it's not a bad idea, and I'm going to have to discuss that with Gowsey to see if there are any restrictions placed on the public use of that.

Okay, I have one other question, again on your prepared remarks, on the intellectual property issue. is it possible to give us some updates on, you know, the patents, how long they are in effect, and if there are any new patents, that type of thing?

We always have new innovations coming online. Some are patented, some aren't. I believe our existing patents at least go through 2034 and perhaps beyond, depending on when the ones issue. We have about 250 patents worldwide. So, you know, it's quite an extensive patent portfolio. And, yeah, we have some pretty exciting stuff coming, you know, some of which people would consider the holy grail of our industry. But I don't want to promise timing or announce it until it's ready for prime time.

And those types of holy grail patents, if they do come about, will they be in your – SEC filings, that type of thing?

Yeah. To the extent material, they will always, you know, we have an obligation to disclose material information. So, yeah. Okay. Thanks very much. From a marketing standpoint, yeah, from a marketing standpoint, you know, the Holy Grail stuff, you know, is meant to generate ever-increasing levels of sales, especially in some of the newer applications that we're posting. Okay.

Well, I can make my guess what that is, but that's just a guess. So I appreciate, you know, all the information. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Michael K. Please state your question.

Hello, Joe. I have a few kind of lightning round questions, and they'll be very short.

Okay, let me give you the answers. Yes, no, maybe yes. How's that? Okay.

Is Gauzy the only company that's making SBD film, and do they plan to have a plant in the United States?

You can ask the question about their future plans on their conference call next week. However, they are the only company. They bought the Shoedenko business from them. So right now, Gauzy has, you know, the supply advantage here. They don't have an exclusive license, but right now they're the only ones. And they're doing a great job. You know, when you see companies like Ferrari tell you that they want to put this in more and more cars and it's such a successful item, it speaks volumes of that. And, you know, we've been very blessed to have them as partners.

And also... When will the sun visors be available that could be retrofitted to existing automobiles?

We have multiple approaches to getting that into the market. Some are very near-term, and some are more intermediate and longer-term. The intermediate to longer-term ones, and we're not talking about great periods of time, are incorporating it into the shade band of the windshield. If you look on any car, there's something called the AS line. And from a regulatory standpoint, you could do anything you want tint-wise on the windshield above the AS line. So sometimes you'll see a blue band across a car. That's usually the shade band, and you could do what you want there. And then there's the, you know, the one where you could either have the fold-down visor, you know, traditional visor, but have the SPD functionality. you know, an aftermarket or semi-aftermarket item.

But was the goal set in terms of when they'd be available to the public?

Goals are always set and expectations are always set within the companies that are producing this. They're not things I could share.

Yeah, it's been a long time. Also, is Mercedes still involved in any way?

We have an involvement, and so does Gauzy with Mercedes. And, you know, I think that a lot of the things that are on their wish list are things that we're going to be able to deliver. And, you know, when they see all of their other premium cars putting SPD on it, you know, it just makes them realize that, you know, they had the first dance at the prom with the prettiest girl, and, you know, maybe they should keep dancing.

Do you anticipate, even though it's lagging behind, that eventually the architectural market will be the largest for SBD, even surpassing autos and aircraft?

I think so, and I think the drivers of that is the constant reduction in the price of the film, the retrofit application, and what that really does. I mean, I'll just give you one example of how it can grow very, very fast. The GSA, the Government Services Administration, is the buyer of materials for the government. Our licensee that has the patents on the retrofit application is on the GSA schedule of approved vendors, and they currently supply them with different types of advanced glass for the GSA to pick from, and it comes on a menu. So, you know, just like you go to a restaurant, you could order a retrofit window with X, Y, or Z type of glass. And that Z type of glass would be SPD. So we're kind of already, you know, very much with our foot. It's not our toe in the door. It's probably our entire foot and maybe our torso and three friends helping to pry open the door. So, and that's the biggest customer in the world. So that's one area where if you wanted to see stellar growth, that could happen. And just, we were discussing, some of the projections, they could be astronomical for us and our licensees, even in year one of that. So something that, you know, I expect to be bigger. And then you have the more traditional ways of installing the glass and, you know, more traditional new construction and things like that. And that also is big because, you know, basically almost 70% of the world's glass is going to the architectural market.

And the final question, even though you once said that the sweet spot in terms of cost and attractiveness to the car manufacturers had been reached, I assume the company is still trying to reduce the cost of SBD so it'll even have a point of market. Yeah.

Yeah, all the time. So, you know, there's two things you want to do. You want to decrease the cost of... the materials that are going to the customer. And you want to decrease the cost of ownership by constantly making it better, more versatile, more durable, et cetera. So we're constantly doing that. And just simple basic economies of scale, because remember, we're a roll-to-roll web-pressed process of production. We're not a sputter-coated, you know, vacuum deposition process that doesn't really have economies of scale as view is painfully aware of. Our yields are high. The efficiencies of production are high. The logistics are great because you could ship film anywhere you want in the world and then have it laminated relatively locally. You don't have to ship fragile, heavy, expensive glass around the world. You can throw a couple rolls of film on an air freight and get it there the next day without any real meaningful shipment costs. So these are the things that really, you know, I think are the hallmark. And then I talked about another one today, which is the reduction in the cost of delivery through things like the, you know, the retrofit application where you don't have to have scaffolding put up. You don't have to even have maybe electricians come to the site. So a lot of benefits there.

Thank you very much. I appreciate your responses to those questions.

Thank you, Professor K. Appreciate it.

Our next question comes from Leonard Litzow. Please say your question.

Good afternoon, Joe.

I noticed in Gowsey's original S1 report, they said that they had sold out all of their manufacturing that contracts on it all for the year. And apparently a lot of things got pushed off from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. Is that what happened?

Yeah, most of that that they reported in their most recent revenue guidance was related to their production of the end products for aircraft in their French facility. And If you notice, the lead on that was that they got permission from the union to add a shift. So those kind of things don't really – those problems don't really exist in all parts of the world, but in some areas it's harder to get unions to agree to do things. You know, happy to say also that the union issue with some of the architectural applications is zero to nonexistent because of the nature of it.

Okay, those are both positive things. Very much so.

And the other thing to keep in mind, Len, is that part of this was because of the war. And, you know, sometimes good decisions come out of bad situations. When they went public, you know, I'm sure they got more than their fair share of question about what happens if something happens to their Yafo Tel Aviv facility. So they started expanding even before this because they're planners, emulsion production outside of Israel.

But when that happened, they stepped up that process.

So expanding emulsion and film production capability was something that very much was in the works. And I will say that In the automotive market, I mean, you see these, you know, very stellar growth rates that have been consistently high. You know, this year they've been asked to exceed what their requirements were for that for certain customers, and they've done it. They stepped up to the plate and they got it done. So, you know, neither them nor us are companies that like to turn down good business.

Okay, which means that the fourth quarter should be pretty exciting.

I think every quarter going forward is going to be exciting.

And, you know, well, let me leave it at that. Thank you for that, Joe.

Our next question comes from John Nelson.

Please state your question.

Hi, Joe. I have a question. A couple of questions just related to comments made earlier. Sure. The Saudi study, related to the Saudi study, they are constructing a giant new city in the desert. Will this study help to market SPD for potential use there?

I think it will. I think it will. I think that, you know, if you consider the whole Saudi Arabian market, they've built remarkable buildings there. And most of them use glass. And glass is very good and very bad in the desert. Very good in that it withstands a lot of abuse, but it's very bad in that it brings in a lot of heat, light, and glare. So being able to control it becomes even more important. And if you look at the study, they were talking about schools, but the study really has applicability on any place that glass is used in a building, whether it's an atrium, which they have plenty of, skylights, conference rooms, entranceways, everything like that. And what's really good about it is I think that they've now put some traction underneath what the target should be for designing those buildings, which is very good. And if you have a choice of several ways of achieving those, you know, um, tint targets, you know, well, one is, you know, the old fashioned way. If you need 30% tint, you put glass with a 30% tint and it doesn't switch, which means many times during the day is wrong because the sun has moved. Um, or you have hard to shade areas like a glass atrium. I mean, imagine trying to put a skylight shade, you know, 50 feet in the air. It's very hard to do. Um, Or you could have the glass do it. So I think it's really going to be a layout, not only in Saudi Arabia, but pretty much anywhere that people are either building corporate headquarters or museums or, you know, very high-profile installations. And this city would be great, you know, when it happens. Mm-hmm. Okay. And, you know, one other thing. One other thing. I think this is... maybe a testament to the importance of the retrofit. So I was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, and an architect friend of mine told me early on when I first started asking him questions about SPD. Now we're talking about the 1990s. He said, Joe, we always get the tint wrong when we design a building here in South Florida. What do you mean? He said, well, we usually put too heavy a tint on the outside of the building. And because of that, we have to waste energy by putting more interior illumination, more lighting. Or we put too less of a tint and we have to spend more money on air conditioning. And if we spend more money on air conditioning, sometimes you could do it and sometimes you have to totally revamp your mechanical rooms to be bigger and have less rentable space. So what you're doing, this was even before we were commercial with this, what you're doing can be very, very important. Now we add to that, John, the layer of the ability to take, that basic fact, which is architects, nothing wrong with them. They often get it wrong in terms of what tint to put on a building. They're not perfect. The ability to retrofit that building with SPD, they're going to tend to err on the side of less tint in the glass because they know that if they're wrong, they could dial in the tint in those problem areas with SPD. So it really changes, I think, the dynamic and the risk profile of doing you know, these, you know, majorly beautiful buildings.

That kind of, just kind of an add-on question to that is, are you, what else are you doing, you know, what else are you doing to increase the awareness of the product and its capabilities?

one thing is, you know, being on a plane whenever you can, because this is a very visual technology that if you see it and, and press the button, uh, you're hooked. And I think anybody that's had the opportunity to press an SPD smart glass window will always remember that feeling. And it doesn't wear off for me almost 40 years later. So, um, you know, it's, it's that that becomes demonstrable. And, um, and also coordinating with these ever-expanding marketing departments and business development partners at our licensees. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in my closing remarks. But, yeah, the marketing is something that's becoming a lot of fun now that we have architectural with film and iconic brands that are using this and visibility. Okay, excellent.

And on the new models mentioned for 2025 introduction, have they decided yet?

Thank you for picking up on its models, plural, and 2025.

Sure.

Have they decided yet whether it's going to be an option or standard on certain of those models?

In some cases, I think it may be standard. In some cases, it's going to be entirely new uses of SPD, I believe. So it's going to be kind of exciting because it has the ability to, you know, to really open up new thinking about SPD. You know, it's not just for sunroofs anymore.

Okay, good. And then you mentioned LTI and getting specs on several projects. Without disclosing names, can you describe the types of buildings that these projects are involved?

Well, I'll do my best without compromising the fact that we are competing against some of the electrochromic blast people on it. But I think we're going to do fine because the data is just so compelling why you would do this. But they're commercial, not residential. They are big users of glass. And, you know, sophisticated building management systems need sophisticated glass and shading systems. And, you know, we check all the boxes. So that's about all I could say right now. And then on the government side, you know, we've identified a number of projects that, you know, the government would like to upgrade. And, you know, that's good because when you think about government buildings, first of all, you have the GSA mandate to make their buildings more energy efficient. And this has been around for not just the current administration but the prior administration that you have these mandates to do this because some of these buildings have just you know, very old, monolithic, not even insulated glass unit glass structures, and to upgrade them with the latest and greatest, especially with a retrofit, becomes a no-brainer. And what you can do is basically test it out. So, you know, you may have a certain corner of the building that has a particularly bad glare problem. You put it there first, and then You basically expand to other windows on the floor and other floors in the building and other buildings in the area to do this once you've kind of proven it out. So it's a way for the government to really get some real good, firm data as to how and why and where to deploy this glass. And, you know, the thing I must say also is, you know, to me remarkable is that you could come in over the course of a weekend and do lots of windows. So you're not really taking the building out of service or disrupting the flow of the building in order to upgrade it to smart glass using the retrofit. So it's a very, very compelling area. And, you know, our licensee in that area, LTI, is expanding to do that.

Excellent. Last question. Now that the Boeing strike is settled, are you, is SPD either certified or ordered on any of their models?

Yes. Yesterday at the Benzinga interview that's online. Yalpeso said this, so I guess I could say it too, that two airlines have done this.

Okay. Great. That's it. Thanks very much. Thanks, John.

Our next question comes from Art Brady.

Please say your question.

Hi, Joe. Art Brady here. Hey, Art.

About three weeks ago, Hitachi mentioned that they are expanding into the building of new data centers, and I'm wondering if any of this has come across your desk.

Well, you've got to look at which division of Hitachi did that. Hitachi is like General Electric. Hitachi Chemical, which was sold to Showa Denko, which... has now been named Resnirak, is a different division. And I'm not really sure these data centers would be ideal places for this because they typically don't have windows. So I'm not sure why they would put it there. But, look, I've been wrong about many things. I could be wrong about that, too.

What they're trying to do is to build these data centers in areas where there are very strong amounts of oil fields so that they can generate power very readily.

Right. But the thing to think about, Art, is whether the building itself needs SPD if it doesn't have any windows. And I think that, for the most part, if you're building a data center, you're going to probably want to make it like a bomb shelter. which means no windows, you know, very thick concrete and other things. So, you know, we'll see, but I don't think it's the low-hanging fruit, at least.

Another question I have is you used to have, when we had meetings, and as you walked into the meeting, you had a couple of Lincoln cars that had SPD in them. Anything happen with Lincoln that we can hook up with them again?

Well, we keep good contact with the whole Ford organization, and I've been there many, many times, even since the Lincoln Continental came out in concept with our stuff. So you keep in contact with everyone. You work with everyone. You try to understand their needs. And then you figure out the best licensees to help them achieve those needs. And that's a pretty simple but straightforward approach to all the automakers.

Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Art.

Our next question comes from Michael Foster. Please say your question.

In light of this, what sounds like a very rosy picture about sales and the I'm reminded of what you told us when Gauzy was added as a film supplier. That was a great development because OEMs like to have more than one supplier. So what has been done to add SPD film producers beyond Gauzy?

So there's a balance, Michael, between having too many suppliers

film suppliers and having the ones that you have have every incentive to invest in innovation, quality assurance, and everything like that. Otherwise, we become like PDLC, which is a very spotty technology in many areas, not at Gauzy. They do a great PDLC product, which is what we love about them, is that they have the same commitment to quality we do. It has not been a consideration by any of the car makers that we're dealing with. Not one of them has mentioned that as an issue anymore. I think they're comfortable with the fact that, A, they've done site audits of Gauzy. They know their production facility. They know their capacity. There's not going to be a capacity constraint if, you know, Ford or GM decided to put this on every car, being able to produce enough film for that. And they also know that if there was and if Gauzy didn't make the necessary investments to produce continue to replicate capability like they've been doing throughout the world, we could always license new companies to do this. So that hasn't been an area. But the other part of your question, I think, is on the end product side, we find that the glass laminators are the ones that the car makers focus on having redundancy on because they're the ones that are buying the film and pricing it and selling it to the automakers. And there we have very good redundancy across multiple suppliers for the automaker. So they like that. And, you know, some of our discussions recently have been, you know, making sure that we always preserve it on the end product side.

Well, I wasn't being critical of Gauzy.

They seem to be.

Oh, no, I don't think you were.

I don't think you were. I just think it's a good question. Yeah, it's about volume.

If we have this great opportunity to sell product. It sounds like we would benefit from having somebody else who's producing film just so that there is an adequate supply. And that's why I'm asking what has been done to add film producers.

Discussion specifically about capacity expansion plans and also the ability to talk to other licensees

prospective licensees to make film. I can't say more about it.

I can't say any more about it. It's strategic, and this is an open call. But it hasn't been a factor in terms of capacity. I've looked at Gauzy's expansion plans. They can make as much film as we think is going to be needed, and they have every intention of doing that.

Okay, I'm good on the question. Okay, thanks.

Our next question comes from Chuck Michaels.

Please say your question.

Hi, Joe. I've got a few questions. Hi. First of all, actually, isn't it even a question so much as I read an article that indicated that I was not aware of this previously that flight attendants actually have health issues. just from the light that comes into the airplanes is like a commercial aircraft. And I was thinking that possibly that might be something to check into in terms of marketing SPD.

Right. And that's similar to what we call trucker's arm. If you look at the left arm of most truckers, they have a higher incidence of skin cancer because their elbows are sitting right next to the glass or out the window. And, you know, we've blocked so much UV that there's certainly a health benefit there. You know, the other thing that is a little bit crazy is the restrictions that the flight attendants unions placed on their flight attendants that are not necessarily in the flight attendants' best interest. You know, they can't require them to open and close windows, for example. So you notice sometimes when you land, They'll make an announcement, you know, voluntarily, please close your window. We're, you know, flying into Miami International, you know, or whatever other hot climate you're in. But they can't require the, you know, and that would be much better for the passengers and for the flight attendants. But, yeah, the health issues are things that we're very cognizant of. And, you know, we've had discussions about why this would be good for health.

Okay, good. Another thing was, actually, I had sent a question about it. I don't know if you covered it. I got in about five minutes late on the conference call, but I was wondering if Gauzy had a press release about this car vision camera system, and I was wondering if that used your technology or not.

It doesn't. The smart light tech, you know, which is the safety tech division where they have cameras on buses and things, It's a very sophisticated AI base, if that's what you're talking about. Moving ahead a little bit, cars have a lot of sensors, and glare can really blind these sensors. So I wouldn't rule out the possibility of maybe not in Gen 1 of these things, but maybe in Gen 2, the SPD having a more meaningful role in protecting or enhancing the ability of these sensors to do their job, and in some cases, you know, protecting the sensor from damage.

I see.

Okay. And one more thing. I was noticing on your financials in your press release that cash and cash equivalents current amount as of the end of September was about double what the decrease in cash and cash equivalents was during last quarter. So are you going to be raising more funds, or how is that going to be dealt with?

We don't need to. As I think we said in the press release, we don't anticipate raising capital unless there's a strategic reason like, you know, Mercedes wants to make an investment in us or something like that for the next five years at least. I think we're going to be fine. Okay. All right, very good. Thank you. Especially with our loss going down. Yeah, with our loss going down so dramatically.

Right, that helps. Okay, thank you. Definitely does. Thanks.

Our next question comes from William Berg. Please state your question.

Thank you. Some time ago, Joe, you stated that investors would be made happy, but that happiness was pushed back a little bit. Today you mentioned 2025. And are you saying that the Asian car maker is going to be named in 2025 and that they're going to have more than one model and it won't be just sunroofs but other windows on the vehicle as well?

No, I'm not saying that.

What I said is that in Asia and in Europe we expect multiple car models to come out and some of those are going to have different areas than what people are traditionally used to. And our expectation is those come out in 2025. I'm not pinning it on, you know, which one is going to have the non-sunroof application and, you know, whatever. But that's our expectation.

Okay. So I'm not asking for, you know, which models will have what. But you stated that it will be more than just the sunroof. There will be other windows as well.

Other uses, yes.

That's what I said.

Okay. Which I think is exciting because every time something like this happens, and we'll just take, for example, the augmented reality windshield that Bobcat put in their construction vehicle at CES, it sparks interest. Other companies were at CES that saw that and approached us and said, we want this too. We like it. We saw it work. Every time there's a new use for this, it opens up many doors beyond what we have open now.

Okay, thank you. Thanks, Phil.

Our next question comes from Tom McCarthy. Please say your question.

Hi, Joe. I'm sorry if I missed it, but I'd like more information on the Saudi study. Who funded it? Who conducted it? How extensive was it? How rigorous are the results published?

It was very rigorous and had some very good specific information. I don't know if you heard our discussion about it. I'm going to refer you to the article itself. I don't have it in front of me right now about who did it, who funded it. It wasn't us. It wasn't Research Frontier. Is the article on your website? No. I mean, they have the copyright in it, but you can get it online.

I think it's been fairly widely available. And how do I access it? What's the title of it?

If you listen to the transcript, which should be out tomorrow, there'll be some data on it, but it's a mouthful.

Okay. Sorry, Joe. Thanks.

No, it's okay, Tom. Good talking to you.

At this time, we have no further questions.

Okay. In that case, if any of you had questions that we haven't fully answered, if you thought of anything else, just email us. We do our best to answer them. And now I'd like to make some closing remarks. The outlook for the smart glass industry remains extremely promising, and I think we've proved that every quarter and every day, bolstered by growing revenues in automotive and aircraft and increasing regulatory support and tax incentives, and then new product introductions like the retrofit. Research frontiers has a solid position and a strong foothold in the smart glass industry. We're well positioned as a recognized leader with an innovative, high-performing, and reliable solution. Our recent results underscore that SPD's smart glass technology is increasingly viewed as the industry standard, solidifying our leadership even further. With our guidance, our entire industry has been strengthened as well, with licensees gaining resources to expand and our technology being adopted across a diverse range of products and industries. In the interview yesterday, Gauzy mentioned that they had 700 employees. When I first met Eyal Peso, they had 50. Demand is rising from highly visible, iconic global brands and their customers, further validating our technology's transformative power. SPD's smart glass technology is enhancing customer experiences across sectors, especially in automotive and aerospace, where it sets new standards of comfort and energy efficiency and performance. And in some industries where the customer, such as airlines, can finally now choose to They are selecting SPD as shown by the new Airbus and Boeing programs. This quarter, we continued our track record of growth and progress with Research Frontiers and our licensees building traction and momentum across multiple industries and continued growth in our established markets, while we also opened up new markets and uses for SPD's smart glass technology. The third quarter of 2024 marked our seventh consecutive quarter of revenue growth compared to the prior year. In some areas where we are the established leader, we have a strong foothold, such as in automotive and aerospace. In other emerging markets for us, such as architectural, infotainment, and information display and consumer electronics, we're just getting started. But because it's virgin territory and because of our track record in the other areas, I think we have the leg up there. We've been in business the longest and have the largest network of world-class companies offering our SPD smart glass technologies. We build upon our base of success and high performance and reliability proven across tens of thousands of cars and aircraft that have been in use for decades. No one else has that longevity or track record. Each partnership, each project, and each installation further validates our leadership and the undeniable value that our SPD smart glass technology brings. Competitors have tried to do what we have succeeded at. Most have failed or are failing. In my opinion, this is because of their flawed business models, high costs, bad logistics, and inability to scale, and the poor performance of their technologies. Just in the second half of this year, we've seen multiple bankruptcies among our competitors, such as Vue and Helio. The architectural market, for example, has proven too difficult for others in our industry. Not for us. We see tremendous potential in the retrofit market for buildings, offering opportunities to drive sustainable solutions into existing infrastructures worldwide. No one else can do this. Because we are a film-based light control technology, the logistics for us and our licensees are far better. SPD's smart light control film can easily be shipped anywhere in the world that's needed. The introduction of SPD into new premium vehicles, as well as current initiatives to tap into the market for more moderately priced vehicles, also marks a significant milestone, broadening our reach and making SPD technology more visible and more accessible to a wider audience. As we look ahead, we can see more clearly what the future holds for our industry, and Research Frontiers is more optimistic than ever. With the support of a strong, growing industry network and partners like GALSI, who share our vision for expanding SPD's reach, we are well positioned to capitalize on the promising opportunities that lie before us, such as the several new car models that I had mentioned earlier in Europe and in Asia, that are expected to be introduced in 2025 using our SPD smart glass technology and, as I mentioned, some in new places and in new ways. Thank you once again for your trust, confidence, and commitment to our journey. We look forward to continuing on this exciting path together, continuing the momentum, and to sharing more achievements with you.

We expect, like our shareholders, further growth, visibility, and success.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for attending.