Volume 9, Number 5 • September/October 2001 • Technology Transfer

RTTC Delivers Licensee for Ames Technology

Working in concert with the NASA Ames Commercial Technology Office, the Far West Regional Technology Transfer Center (RTTC) has pioneered a novel approach to technology transfer. A pilot project demonstrated the success of the approach when the Far West RTTC identified BreakAway Technologies and brought the company to Ames. BreakAway, a small, minority-owned business based in Los Angeles, licensed the Ames Spatial Auditory Display communications tool. The firm is focused on creating “smart neighborhoods” in which residents, businesses, churches, community-based organizations, social services and health agencies, schools and libraries are connected via digital technologies and have access to a virtual community of goods, services and information. Since 1998, BreakAway has established more than 200 community technology centers throughout the United States, primarily in California, whose function is “to strengthen the technological infrastructure of the urban community,” according to Joseph Loeb, founder and presi-dent of BreakAway Technologies.

The December 2000–January 2001 issue of Zone News magazine hailed Loeb as one of a small number of architects and pioneers of the business world for the year 2000. With corporate sponsors such as Microsoft, Sony, AT&T and Pacific Bell, BreakAway is in a strong position to create the strategic alliances that will enable successful commercialization of NASA technologies. BreakAway is interested in commercializing several Ames technologies, but initially selected the Multichannel Spatialization System for Audio Signals, also known as the Ames Spatial Auditory Display (ASAD), for its immediate promise in the field of audio technology.

The ASAD is a three-dimensional (3-D) audio processor designed to manipulate multiple sources, which places up to five different communication channels at fixed virtual auditory positions about the listener. This capability gives the listener a spatial sense of each channel originating from a unique position outside the head, as if five people were standing around the listener, speaking from different directions. BreakAway Technologies intends to further develop the technology for the computer and entertainment industries.

Over a period of several months, the Far West RTTC worked with the NASA Ames Technology Commercialization manager, David Lackner, and the small business to prepare and submit a license application and business plan for ASAD. As part of the license application effort, the Far West RTTC helped BreakAway collect market and competitor information for the enhanced technology. In May 2001, BreakAway Technologies negotiated and signed a non-exclusive license agreement with NASA for the ASAD patent.

Before the license application was prepared, the Far West RTTC assisted BreakAway Technologies in defining several technological enhancements and extensions to the basic NASA technology. This approach to technology transfer strengthens the value proposition by bringing NASA/Ames R&D closer to a viable product. BreakAway and the Far West RTTC feel that these extensions to the basic, underlying ASAD technology could lead to a vastly improved commercial position for the resulting enhanced technology. RTTC’s involvement in the project continues, as they assist the nascent venture in securing funding.

“We applaud the efforts of our Far West Regional Technology Transfer Center in supporting the transfer of this NASA technology, while at the same time assisting a small, minority-owned empowerment zone company with the commercialization process,” said Carolina Blake, chief of the NASA Ames Commercial Technology Office. Q

For more information, contact David I. Lackner, Technology Commercialization Office, NASA Ames Research Center, 650/604-5761, 650/604-1592, or dlackner@mail.arc.nasa.gov or Durand R. Begault, Spatial Auditory Display Laboratory, NASA Ames Research Center, 650/604-3920, 650/604-0255, or dbegault@mail.arc.nasa.gov Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

NASA Official: Jonathan Root • Web Design: Printing & Design Office, NASA Headquarters • Credits