UMaine Alum Wins SBA Award for Innovative “iPointer
Contact: Chris Frank, 866-6521; Debbie Neuman, 866-6500
ORONO — UMaine graduate and president of Intelligent SpatialTechnologies (iST) Chris Frank recently received the Small BusinessAdministration’s prestigious Maine Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awardfor his innovative “iPointer,” a digital tour guide product his companyis developing.
The device gives visiting users information about landmarks by simply pointing at them.
To be eligible for consideration, an entrepreneur must be under the ageof 30, and the business must be at least three years old. Frank learnedof his recognition in late January. Frank was nominated for the SBAaward by Debbie Neuman, director of UMaine’s Target Technologyincubator located in the Target Technology Center in Orono, whichhouses iST.
Frank founded the small technology company in April of 2003, hoping torealize the commercial potential of providing location-basedinformation for people on the go, he says. He based the company onresearch conducted at UMaine’s Spatial Information Science andEngineering department.
Since the company launched in the Target Technology Center, it hasgrown to five employees. Funding for continued development of theiPointer has included several seed grants and a development award fromthe Maine Technology Institute in Gardiner.
The iPointer is in its final stages of commercialization, and will bethe first product to come out of iST. Its target clients are historicalsites and museums, where visitors on site would use the iPointer. Thecompany has two potential customers in Maine and Virginia, Frank says,and he expects the product to be available to the public by the end ofthe year.
The iPointer system consists of a hand-held, multimedia computingdevice, a wireless network and a powerful geospatial database.iPointer’s hand-held device consists of a Microsoft MobileOS-based computer integrating a digital magnetic compass (that recordsthe device’s pointing direction), a GPS receiver (that records theuser’s current location), and a wireless connection to iST’s databasevia the Internet. iST’s database, built on an Oracle 10g platform,contains geospatial data, descriptive and multimedia data, and runsiST’s advanced pointing landmark selection algorithms to accuratelyidentify landmarks selected by users.
iST’s iPointer system empowers users to explore a defined area,pointing and learning at will. Users select landmarks or items ofinterest and the iPointer delivers multimedia information based on theuser’s geographic location and orientation. Unlike currentproximity-dependent self-guided tour technology, the iPointer system iscomposed of global positioning system (GPS) and digital compasstechnology integrated into a pocket PC, a wireless network, and iST’sgeospatial database. This combination of technologies gives iPointerusers unprecedented freedom to selectively explore an area.
Target Technology Center provides a nurturing environment forinformation technology development and commercialization activities forstart-up businesses. In addition to the incubator, the facility housesUniversity of Maine researchers and private sector technology firms.
The incubator provides developing firms with space, support servicesand resources necessary to get started. The facility was developed bythe Bangor Target Area Development Corporation in partnership with theUniversity of Maine. It is one of seven centers in Maine designed toassist firms engaged in technology related activities.