The SBIR Program is an

important part of the Army’s

science and technology

program. SBIR allows the

Army to tap the most

innovative community in our

country today — our small

businesses.

Congress has strengthened

and expanded the SBIR

Program to increase dual use

and technology transfer

opportunities. The program

provides our nation with

significant technological and

economic benefits, when

innovative ideas are

transformed into viable

products.

We are proud to present this

Fiscal Year 1995 Edition of

Army SBIR Accomplishments.

This edition provides a

glimpse of the commercial

and military benefits

generated from the

commercialization of SBIR

initiated technologies.

Additional SBIR success

stories appear at the end of

this brochure. As time goes

by, more winners will have

marketed and sold their

innovative products.

The firms featured in this

brochure have successfully

transitioned their ideas into

dual-use revenue-generating

products. Their success

stories represent a small part

of the return on our SBIR

investment. We salute these

firms and all other

participants in the Army SBIR

Program.

Introduction

The Army SBIR Phase II

Quality Awards Program

recognizes Phase II

companies for their

technological achievement

and contributions as well as

their potential for success in

Phase III. The above symbol

indicates that the featured

firm was recognized as a

Quality Award Winner.

1994

Quality

Award

Winner
Mobile

Electric

Power

n Analytic Power

Corporation sold two

units commercially.

n Other commerical uses:

medical emergency,

natural disaster relief,

and others.

n $13,000 in sales to date.

Phase III Impact

“Only with the support of the Army SBIR program

could we research and develop this technology.”

Future soldiers must rely on

portable, efficient power

sources with silent operation

and background -

indistinguishable thermal and

acoustic signatures. Analytic

Power Corporation

successfully developed an

innovative fuel cell

technology which meets

these requirements.

The Century Series Fuel Cell

operates on hydrogen and air

and produces electricity and

water.

It is compact, silent, and

pollution free. Currently, the

power source is being

demonstrated at Natick

Research, Development and

Engineering Center for

soldiers’ microclimate cooling

systems.

Commercially, Analytic Power

Corporation has sold the

units to the Niagara Mohawk

Gas Corporation and an

overseas company.

Analytic Power Corporation

U.S. Army Research Office

1994

Quality

Award

Winner
An

Electronic

Compass

KVH Industries, Inc.

U.S. Army Tank-Automotive

and Armaments Command

Phase III Impact

n The United States

Marine Corps

purchased $1.5

million of digital

compasses for its

fleet during Operation

Desert Storm.

n KVH has won a

contract for $9.6

million to produce a

compass for a fleet of

1,000 foreign vehicles.

n KVH developed a new

compass technology

that surpasses those

of its foreign

competitors.

commanders and drivers.

Moreover, KVH developed a

complete new line of high

end commercial compass

products as a result of this

SBIR-funded effort.

“Through SBIR, KVH

products are widely

recognized as the very

best magnetic

compasses available.”

KVH developed a new

technology compass which

works well on the M1 Abrams

tank and is compatible with

the new Global Positioning

System (GPS). This project

was especially challenging

because of the massive

amounts of metallic armor on

the Abrams, and the rotating

turret which constantly

changes the magnetic

characteristics of the tank.

The Army enabled KVH to

develop software that

accepts vital steering

information from GPS and

displays it in an easy-tounderstand format for vehicle
Noise

Buster

Phase III Impact

n Demand is increasing

dramatically in the

commercial market for

applications in vehicle

collision avoidance

and remote imaging

including airport

security, ground

mapping, etc.

n Noise/Com sells over

4,000 noise products

annually, and

generates over $8

million in sales

annually.

Noise/Com, A part of

Wireless Telecom

Group, Inc.

U.S. Army Research

Laboratory

“SBIR helped us develop a global line of costeffective products that will continue to impact the

future of communications. All this because the

U.S. Army saw the benefits of something called a

noise generator.”

Noise in electronics is

inevitable. Noise is a natural

phenomena that distorts a

signal when it is exposed to a

real world environment.

Users of cellular telephones,

modems and other methods

of communications cannot

talk to each other if noise

isn’t minimized or eliminated.

Noise/Com’s product emits a

measurable signal that allows

the engineer to mimic

interference encountered in

the real world. This high

frequency noise generator,

the first of its kind, has had

widespread commercial

successes. More than 30

jobs were created through

this effort. Customers

include AT&T, Motorola,

Compaq Computer, Ortel,

Cirrus Logic, Ericsson

(Sweden), Samsung (Korea)

and many others.
Crystal

Clear

Water

Los Alamos Technical

Associates, Inc. formed the

MIOX Corporation to spin-off

SBIR funded mixed oxidant

water purification technology.

MIOX manufactured its first

production unit in November

1994. This followed over ten

years of research and

development, three years of

laboratory testing, and one

year of field testing at

locations spanning from

Bolivia to British Columbia.

MIOX water disinfection is

more effective than chlorinebased systems; operates on

site anywhere, runs off

virtually any power source;

requires little maintenance

and training; maintains the

EPA-required chlorine

residual; and has no

chemical after effects.

Treated water appears,

smells, and tastes good.

Larger cells or several cells

used together can be

configured to produce even

greater amounts of treated

water on demand.

n Three U.S. patents

held and three others

pending.

n The pictured MIOX

logo is registered in

the U.S. and 15 foreign

countries.

n Sales are projected to

reach $2.5 million by

the end of 1995.

n Technology used in

Latin America, Bolivia,

British Columbia, New

Mexico, Colorado, and

California.

Phase III Impact

Los Alamos Technical

Associates, Inc., MIOX

Corporation

U.S. Army Tank-Automotive

and Armaments Command
Cruising

the

Information

Highway

Phase III Impact

n NOVA R&D, Inc. plans

on incorporating IVAS

in a proprietary x-ray

imaging system.

n XICON, Inc. plans on

customizing IVAS for

medical x-ray purposes.

n Additional $290,000 in

non-SBIR revenue

received from U.S.

Army.

n Sales to date total more

than $50,000.

ENSCO, Inc.

U.S. Army Tank-Automotive

and Armaments Command ENSCO’s system combines

data originating from a

variety of sources: X-rays,

ultrasound, computer images,

or infrared. The system is

accurate, user-friendly and

easy to master.

The Image Viewing and

Analysis System (IVAS) is a

powerful, yet inexpensive,

image spreadsheet tool that

operates on any Apple

Macintosh II series or Quadra

computer. It incorporates

powerful and elegant data

visualization routines that

enable the user to quickly

analyze and draw

conclusions from raw or

processed data. The user

has access to text, graphs,

charts, or images; can zoom

in on a particular region of

interest; or can play back a

movie of several images.

“The program led to commercially successful

products and created new employment

opportunities.”

Today, IVAS has evolved into

a multi-use tool. The

company is developing a

real-time imaging system for

baggage inspection. As the

system evolves, it will benefit

many diverse industries:

medicine, transportation, and

environmental engineering.
Virtual

Gamer

Ralcon, Inc., Virtual I/O

U.S. Army Research

Laboratory

Phase III Impact

n Two Virtual I/O

personal display

systems retail for under

$400 and will be

available nationwide in

1995.

n Sales already total $1.2

Million with more than

2,000 units sold.

Ralcon, Inc. designed and

constructed full color, stereo

helmet-mounted displays for

the Army. Mountable on any

helmet, their displays enable

the soldier to view camera

and computer generated

signals overlaid on the real

world. The result is a safe,

ergonomically designed,

optically-perfect, headmounted display. Producing

it has created forty new jobs.

The commercial i-glasses!

are a lightweight, 3-D

capable, full-color, highresolution head mounted

display that can be operated

in either see-through or

immersive mode. The

system allows people to play

video games in a realistic,

three-dimensional setting.

The company has developed

a line of Personal Display

Systems that includes a

virtual reality helmet

customized for the electronic

and personal computer game

markets.

1994

Quality

Award

Winner
Laser-Safe

Eyes

Phase III Impact

n U.S. patent 5,173,808

n 48 pairs of goggles

supplied to the U.S.

Army

n Several thousand

dollars worth of sales

to hospitals

n Under evaluation by a

major American Safety

equipment firm for

their product line

John Brown Associates Inc.

U.S. Army Medical Research

and Materiel Command

“Because of SBIR, our customers now include

military field personnel, civilian police, and

medical and research laboratory workers.”

There is a growing need for

laser eye protection for

military and civilian

personnel. A laser beam

causes permanent eye injury

before you can blink. Army

equipment protects against

some but not all lasers.

Current state-of-the-art laser

goggles interfere with color

perception.

John Brown Associates’

innovative goggle protects

against lasers while

maintaining full natural color

vision. It transmits only

three narrow spectral bands,

one red, one green and one

blue, and is opaque to the

rest of the visible spectrum.

It is popular with soldiers and

police who report that vision

through it is excellent.

Outdoor scenes appear bright

and clear and are in full

natural color like a pair of

fine sunglasses, but without

usual color distortion.
Teams

Work

Klein Associates Inc.

U.S. Army Research Institute

for the Behavioral and Social

Sciences

Phase III Impact

n The Duke Power

Company has used

Advanced Team

Decision Making to

develop essential skills

for the emergency

response requirements

of a nuclear power

station.

n Phase III sales exceeded

$50,000 at the end of

Phase II.

n One year after

completion of Phase II,

total Phase III sales

exceed $150,000.

Most teams struggle with

decision-making, without

knowing what the difficulties

are. Members of teams

performing well cannot

describe the process

employed or the specific

behaviors exhibited that

produced their excellent team

performance.

Klein Associates, Inc. studied

teams to develop a theorybased training program.

Their researchers observed

teams during decisionmaking exercises. A

resulting product, The

Advanced Team Decision

Making package, describes

the specific processes and

behaviors of excellent teams.

Other products help teams

develop skills for observing

their own team processes,

and illustrate feedback skills

that lead to improvement

generating strategies.

“As a result of this

SBIR success,

Advanced Team

Decision Making is

now embedded in the

core curriculum at the

Industrial College of

the Armed Forces.”
Hearing

Through the

Noise

advantages unavailable with

earcup type hearing

protection.

Civilian applications include

heavy industry and

manufacturing, firefighting

and other emergency

operations, airport ground

functions. The equipment

benefits any environment

where loud noise is a hazard

and communication among

members of a team or crew is

essential.

Phase III Impact

Sensor Electronics, Inc.

U.S. Army Medical Research

and Materiel Command

n U.S. Patent No.

4,985,926 and

corresponding foreign

patents for the

earplugs

n Developing new

hearing aids under

grant with the National

Institute of Health

n 1994 fiscal year

revenues of

approximately

$300,000

“This SBIR project

has allowed Sensor

Electronics, Inc. to

pursue development

of other auditory

safety and hearing

devices.”

Army pilots, tank and artillery

crewmen, and soldiers

operate in high level noise

environments which require

them to wear hearing

protection while trying to

understand speech.

The Electronic Earplug, is a

rubber cylinder which

protects the ear from high

level noise. The hollow core

of the cylinder houses a

miniature earphone for voice

communication. The

earplugs were designed to

protect against noise hazards

and to withstand vibration

and shock. They are

contained within the ear, and

are compatible with

eyeglasses, military helmets,

and chemical defense

ensembles, thereby offering
Real Time

Graphics

Displays

Phase III Impact

n Sales total $340,000

n Infinite new product

possibilities; numerous

commercialization

markets.

SRS Technologies

U.S. Army Space and

Strategic Defense Command

“This SBIR project has broken ground on a new

frontier of computer Graphic User Interfaces

(GUI).”

Army SBIR developments

produced a library of display

formats which can be

adapted to a number of

applications. The work will

save lives of civilians and

soldiers, and augment realtime displays for decision

makers from all facets of

industry.

The Ground Based Radar

Program needs display

technology to augment

current real-time display

designs. This SBIR project

has improved the ability of

operators to perceive data

during a real-time mission by

augmenting data presentation

methods. For real-time

displays, user performance is

vital to mission success and

casualty reduction.

Several commercial display

applications exist, including

test monitoring, emergency

health diagnostics, air and

ship board operations, traffic

control, manufacturing plant

monitoring, bank tellers, ATM

displays, information Kiosks,

and cockpit operations.
Alternative System

Concepts, Inc.

2 Inwood Circle, P.O. Box 694

Pelham, NH 03076-0691

(603) 635-3553

VBIT (VHDL Built-in Test)

Automatic Test Insertion Tool

$125,000

Analytic Power

Corporation *

268 Summer Street

Boston, MA 02210

(617) 542-6352

Mobile Electric Power

$13,000

Analytical Software Inc.

10939 McCree Road

Dallas, TX 75238

(214) 349-5977

Telecommunications and

Multimedia

$150,000

Computational Mechanics

Corportation

601 Concord Street, Suite 116

Knoxville, TN 37919-3382

(615) 546-3664

Bore Evacuator Design and

Interactive Finite Element DFD

Code

$130,000

Delta Information

Systems, Inc.

300 Welsh Road, Suite 120

Horsham, PA 19044-2273

Desktop Video Teleconferencing

System

$21,600

ENSCO, Inc. *

5400 Port Royal Road

Springfield, VA 22151

(703)321-9000

Cruising the Information Highway

$50,000

EWS, Ltd.

1 Journey’s End

Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520

(914) 271-5356

Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP)

Enclosures

$100,000

Foster-Miller, Inc.

195 Bear Hill Road

Waltham, MA 02254

(617) 290-0992

High Barrier Polymeric

Thermostabilized Meal Tray

$600,000

J.A. Woollam Co., Inc.

650 J Street, Suite 39

Lincoln, NE 68508

Materials Processing Analysis

with In situ Ellipsometer

$100,000

John Brown Associates

Inc. *

329 Main Avenue

Stirling, NJ 07980

Laser-Safe Eyes

Several Thousand Dollars

Klein Associates Inc. *

582 E. Dayton-Yellow Springs Rd

Fairborn, OH 45324

(513) 873-8166

Teams Work

$150,000

KVH Industries, Inc. *

110 Enterprise Center

Middleown, RI 02842

(401) 847-3327

An Electronic Compass

$11.1 million

Mak Technologies, Inc.

380 Green Street

Cambridge, MA 02139

(617) 876-8085

The VR-LINK DIS Networking

Toolkit

$2.5 million

Materials and

Electrochemical Research

Corporation

7960 South Kolb Road

Tucson, AZ 85706

(602) 574-1980

Producing Intermetallic Powders

with Improved Sinterability

$378,950

The Top of the
* Companies and their

projects are

highlighted on the

preceding pages of

this brochure.

Los Alamos Technical

Associates, Inc. *

MIOX Corporation

5500 Midway Park Pl. NE

Albuquerque, NM 87109

Crystal Clear Water

$2.5 million

Noise/Com, A part of

Wireless Telecom Group,

Inc. *

E. 49 Midland Avenue

Paramus, NJ 07652

(201) 261-8797

Noise Buster

$8 million

North Star Research Corp.

9931 Lomas N.E., Suite A

Albuquerque, NM 87112

(505) 296-3596

Nested-High-Voltage Generator

$100,000

Ortel Corporation

2015 W. Chestnut St.

Alhambra, CA 91803

(818) 281-3636

Ultra-Wide Band Optoelectronic

Microwave Mixer for Phased

Array Radar

$275,000

Princeton Scientific

Instruments, Inc.

7 Deer Park Drive, Suite C

Monmouth Junction, NJ 08852

(908) 274-0774

A Continuous Muzzle Reference

System for Tank Ballistics

$420,000

Ralcon, Inc. *

8501 S. 400 W. Box 142

Paradise, UT 84328

(801) 245-4623

Virtual Gamer

$1.2 million

Rochester Photonics

Corporation

330 Clay Road

Rochester, NY 14623

(716) 272-3010

Diffractive Optical Systems

$ 675,000

Sensor Electronics, Inc. *

56 Bridge Rd.

Medford, NJ 08055-4205

(609) 261-6777

Hearing Through the Noise

$300,000

Southwest Sciences

Incorporated

1570 Pacheo Street, Suite E-11

Santa Fe, NM 87501

(505) 984-1322

Near-Infrared Diode Laser

Hygrometer

$280,000

SRS Technologies *

Systems Technologies Division,

500 Discovery Drive

Huntsville, AL 35806

(205) 971-7000

Real Time Graphics Displays

$340,000

TACAN Corporation

2330 Faraday Avenue

Carlsbad, CA 92008

(619) 438-8362

Multi-Channel Precision

Temperature Measurement

TAI, INC.

7500 Memorial Parkway, # 119

Huntsville, AL 35802

(205) 881-4999

In-Line Defect Inspection System

for Optical Fiber Drawing

$90,000

Ultrox International

2435 South Anne Street

Santa Ana, CA 92704

(714) 545-5557

Ultrox D-TOX Process

$150,000

 1994 Class
Army SBIR

Participating

Commands

n Army Materiel Command

n Corps of Engineers

n The Surgeon General

n Space and Strategic

Defense Command

n Army Research Institute

1983 1995

Budget Trends

Phase III

Phase I

Phase II

Cumulative Awards

$92M

Army SBIR Program Management Office

United States Army Research Office

ATTN: AMXRO-W (Dr. Kenneth A. Gabriel)

Room 8N31

5001 Eisenhower Avenue

Alexandria, Virginia 22333-0001

Phone: (703) 617-7425

FAX: (703) 274-8274
Army SBIR Accomplishments

1994

United States Army

Small Business

Innovation Research

(SBIR)
Phase I—

Feasibility Study

Phase I contracts are

awarded to small businesses

to study the feasibility of

innovative concepts. The

SBIR Program is competitive.

Approximately one in ten

proposals are funded.

Phase I awards are generally

limited to six-month, $70,000

efforts.

Phase II—

Development

Successful Phase I efforts

may result in Phase II

contracts for research,

development, and prototype

production. Phase II awards

are for a period of up to two

years with a funding ceiling

of $600,000.

Phase III—

Commercialization

Phase III culminates all SBIR

initiatives. In Phase III, a

product, process, or service

developed in Phase II is

marketed outside the SBIR

Program. Small firms achieve

Phase III by private sector

commercialization or through

non-SBIR government followon contracts.

The Army and U.S. Small Business...

A Powerful Combination