We report on a first application of the infrared surface brightness technique on a Cepheid in the Large Magellanic Cloud , the variable HV 12198 in the young globular cluster NGC 1866 .
From this one star , we determine a distance modulus of 18.42 \pm 0.10 ( random and systematic uncertainty ) to the cluster .
When the results on further member Cepheids in NGC 1866 become available , we expect to derive the distance to the LMC with a \pm 3-4 percent accuracy , including systematic errors , from this technique .