The SRI International Digest #3, Spring 2002

SRI-SARNOFF VENTURE, ROSETTEX, TO DEVELOP AND COMMERCIALIZE TECHNOLOGIES FOR NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE
The National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) has awarded a five-year procurement agreement to the Rosettex Technology & Ventures Group, a joint SRI International and Sarnoff Corporation venture, to advance and commercialize technologies of interest to the U.S. Government's National Technology Alliance (NTA). NIMA serves as the executive agent for the NTA and executes the program on behalf of the Intelligence Community, Department of Defense, and other government agencies. Rosettex will propel innovations in geospatial intelligence, information management, and digital infrastructure technologies. The agreement has a potential value of more than $200 million.

Rosettex will accelerate innovations from the lab to the marketplace with a team of 64 partners, which include major technology consulting firms, independent research institutes, premier academic institutions, government contractors, and new and emerging companies. The Rosettex Venture Fund will invest in technologies, products, and companies that address broad national security needs.

More info
 
SRI SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE USED IN AFGHANISTAN
Peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan are using a handheld, wireless computer, called the Phraselator, to translate more than 1,000 spoken English phrases into languages such as Arabic and Pashto. The Phraselator, which incorporates SRI's Dynaspeak(tm) speech recognition software, includes a library of phrases such as "Hello, may I help you", which play in sound files of native speakers. Marine Acoustics, Inc. built the Phraselator under a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

More info about SRI's Dynaspeak
More info on the Phraselator

 
TRANSEDA LICENSES SRI'S FORMAL VERIFICATION SOFTWARE
TransEDA PLC, a leader in ready-to-use verification solutions for electronic designs, has entered into a 10-year exclusive licensing agreement for SRI's formal verification software used to verify properties of microelectronic component designs. TransEDA gains access to several key SRI technologies, including a state space exploration tool kit that may be used to build model checkers, simulators, and symbolic simulators. The technology is used in the avionics, aerospace, automotive and nuclear energy industries.
 
ENVIROTECHNICAL PROGRAM HELPS PROTECT MARINE LIFE
SRI's Envirotechnical Program is preparing an environmental assessment of a proposed expansion to the National Ocean Service Kasitsna Bay Laboratory in Alaska. The proposed facility upgrade will be evaluated for potential effects on subsistence clamming, local populations of sea otters, and archaeological sites.
 
More info: http://www.sri.com/esd/envtek/ and http://www.sri.com/esd/eia_projects.html.
 
DISCERN COMMUNICATIONS COMPLETES FUNDING ROUND
SRI spin-off Discern Communications has received a strategic investment from Spanlink Communications, a provider of products and services for customer contact centers. The funds will be used to build Discern's sales and marketing infrastructure for its automated customer service software, which makes self-service more precise, extensible and sustainable. Discern's technology is based on more than 10 years of natural language R&D at SRI.
 
More info
 
STUDY SHOWS POSITIVE IMPACT OF HANDHELDS IN CLASSROOMS
SRI and Palm, Inc. recently announced new results in their first-of-a-kind study of the integration of handheld technology in K-12 classrooms. Results are based on 100 classrooms that use handhelds in the Palm Education Pioneer (PEP) program, which is administered and evaluated by SRI's Center for Technology in Learning. The study showed that 96% of respondents agreed that handhelds are an effective instructional tool for teachers.
 
More info and report results
 
SIMCALC: A BETTER WAY TO BRING CALCULUS TO STUDENTS
SRI's Center for Technology in Learning (CTL) is contributing to the multi-institution SimCalc project, whose mission is to enable mainstream students to understand the fundamental concepts of the mathematics of change, and to employ those concepts beyond classical calculus. CTL is developing a prototype digital library, determining how to apply research methodology to validate SimCalc's effectiveness, and studying how to exploit handheld networked computers.
 
More info: www.simcalc.umassd.edu/.
 
DIGITAL HOME ENTERTAINMENT
"Devices and Services for the Home: Forecast 2002," a new report by SRI Consulting Business Intelligence, examines the emerging market for broadband, digital television, DVD/video players and recorders, and hard-disk-drive video recorders such as TiVo.
 
More info
 
SARNOFF CEO TO TRANSITION
Jim Carnes, President and CEO of Sarnoff Corporation, an SRI subsidiary, has announced his retirement, effective June 1, 2002. Dr. Satyam Cherukuri, currently the company's Chief Operating Officer, will replace Carnes, who will continue as a senior advisor to the company.
 
ABOUT SRI INTERNATIONAL
SRI is celebrating more than 55 years as the "soul of Silicon Valley". SRI introduced the computer mouse and the foundations of personal computing in 1968, demonstrated the first mobile wireless Internet transmission in 1977, developed life-saving cardiovascular drugs in the 1980s, and designed revolutionary speech recognition systems in the 1990s. SRI International, a nonprofit corporation, was founded as Stanford Research Institute in 1946, and has been independent since 1970. Visit our website at www.sri.com.
 
CONTACT US:
For more information on SRI's innovations and how we can help you, contact bizdev@sri.com.
 
The SRI Digest welcomes your feedback. Please send suggestions or comments to newsletter@sri.com.

Previous Issues