Jan Burianek (left) of AV Media talks with UMD's Adam O'Donovan, CTO of VisiSonics, at the 2010 GPU Technology Conference. Photo courtesy of NVIDIA.

By Dan Collinge, Office of Technology Commercialization

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- VisiSonics, a University of Maryland startup that's not yet a year old, is already turning heads-in the real world and in the virtual world.

VisiSonics RealSpaceTM sound camera

In late September, the company was named one of the top startups at the Emerging Companies Summit sponsored by NVIDIA, a multinational computer graphics company. College Park-based VisiSonics was one of 60 startup companies participating in the summit and one of five recognized with "One To Watch" awards for their "promising technology and potential market impact." In addition to the recognition, VisiSonics and the other winners each received $15,000 in goods and services. The summit was part of the larger NVIDIA-sponsored Second Annual GPU Technology Conference, which brings together companies, universities, and organizations engaged in graphics processing unit (GPU) research. Originally developed to make possible high quality computer graphics, the massive parallel processing power of GPUs now is being harnessed for a broad range of high performance computing applications.

"The companies at this year's [Emerging Companies Summit] showed great breadth in innovations that harness the power of GPUs," said Jeff Herbst, vice president of business development for NVIDIA. "We saw a wide range of technology that will change the market and create whole new business opportunities," Herbst said in an NVIDIA release.

	University of Maryland computer scientist Ramani Duraiswami.

"We launched VisiSonics earlier this year to commercialize the results of several years of academic research developing new algorithms and technology for the capture and reproduction of spatial sound," said CEO Ramani Duraiswami, a faculty member in Maryland's highly rated department of computer science. "We are extremely thrilled to be recognized with this award. Using GPUs to accelerate our algorithms, VisiSonics is creating revolutionary products for many markets and hopes to win many more awards in the coming years."

The company's cutting-edge cameras have multiple applications. The cameras are able to identify the direction of gunfire, and can improve security and surveillance technologies. They can be used by architects to design concert halls with improved acoustics. And individuals on video- and teleconferences could speak more directly to other members at remote locations, aided by the RealSpace^TM camera's ability to pinpoint voices and separate them from the noise created by the other conference participants. In essence, VisiSonics technology could create a next generation of remote conferencing. RealSpace^TM also has impressive 3D entertainment, simulations, training and 3D gaming applications.

VisiSonics a Conference Standout Amid the din of the conference's three jam-packed days in the San Jose Convention Center, Maryland's VisiSonics clearly stood out. Then again, VisiSonics has developed technology that allows any sound to stand out. The company's RealSpaceTM Panoramic Audio Camera can "see" noise by creating audio images from sound arriving from all directions. The device can capture, store, retrieve and process real-time integrated and synchronized audio and vision data, effectively recreating all aspects of the audio visual world that an individual would experience if his or her head were in the location of the Audio Camera. It provides a 360 degree audio visual representation, which VisiSonics claims is "as good as being there."

Firm Started by Former UMD Students Also "One To Watch" Also named as one of the five top startups at the 2010 Emerging Companies Summit was Scaleform, a provider of user interface solutions for the video game industry.Scaleform was established in 2004 by two former University of Maryland students, cofounders Brendan Iribe and Michael Antonov. According to the company website, Scaleform's "products were first used with great success in the highly popular Sid Meier's Civilization IV, and have since been widely adopted by the games industry for use on all major gaming platforms." Read more about Scaleform here.

In addition to the cameras, VisiSonics offers software and hardware to integrate computers with the RealSpace^TM cameras, as well as computers specifically designed for audio visual analysis.

VisiSonics was founded in February, 2010 by Duraiswami, his research assistant Adam O'Donovan, and experienced technology entrepreneur Bill Strum, who is not affiliated with the university. The university's Office of Technology Commercialization granted VisiSonics an exclusive license to all intellectual properties developed over the past decade by its founders, which include pending and issued patents as well as additional proprietary technology.

The company grew out of research conducted at the University of Maryland by Duraiswami, O'Donovan and Nail Gumerov, also from the Computer Science Department. In 2007 their "Audio Camera for Efficient Sound Localization." was named a University of Maryland Invention of the Year by the Office of Technology Commercialization. This technology would become VisiSonics's RealSpace(tm) camera.

OTC's executive director Gayatri Varma commended the successful startup. "We are very happy for VisiSonics. As they move rapidly from invention to commercialization. VisiSonics embodies our mission to stimulate the local economy, provide valuable products to the public and help fuel new research partnerships," said Varma.