- SRI International
SRI International, based in the United States, is one of the world's largest contract
research institutes . It was founded as Stanford Research Institute in 1946 by the trustees ofStanford University as a center of innovation to support economic development in the region. Later it became fully independent and was incorporated as anon-profit organization under U.S. andCalifornia laws. SRI's headquarters are inMenlo Park, California , near the Stanford University campus.Curtis Carlson , Ph.D., is SRI's president and CEO. Year 2006 revenue for SRI, excluding its subsidiary,Sarnoff Corporation , was $308 million. Consolidated 2007 revenues were $435 million.SRI, a
nonprofit research institute, performs client-sponsoredresearch and development for government agencies, commercial businesses, and private foundations. In addition to conducting contract R&D, SRI licenses its technologies, forms strategic partnerships and createsspin-off companies. [ [http://www.sri.com/about/spin.html About SRI: Spin-offs ] ]SRI's focus areas include communications and networks,
computing ,economic development and science and technology policy,education ,energy and the environment,engineering systems,pharmaceuticals andhealth sciences,homeland security andnational defense ,materials and structures, androbotics [http://www.sri.com/robotics SRI International: Pioneering Robotics ] ] .SRI has more than 1,000
patent s and patent applications worldwide. [ [http://www.sri.com/rd/hot.html SRI International: Hot Technologies for License ] ] SRI International conducts research and development in many areas, both independently and for hire, and sells reports on independent research.In 1970, the Stanford Research Institute formally separated from Stanford University and, in 1977, became known as SRI International. The separation was a belated response to Vietnam war protesters at Stanford University who believed that SRI's
DARPA -funded work was essentially making the university part of themilitary-industrial complex .In the 1970s, SRI undertook a number of research projects outside of the scientific mainstream, including research into expanded human consciousness and claims of extraordinary human abilities such as those attributed to celebrity psychic
Uri Geller (see below).Research History
The following is a summary of some important SRI research projects. [ [http://www.sri.com/about/history/ SRI official web site history page] ]
1940s
In 1948, SRI began research and consultation with the petroleum company Chevron to develop an artificial substitute for
tallow andcoconut oil used in makingsoap s. SRI's investigation confirmed the potential ofdodecyl benzene as a suitable replacement, and laterProcter & Gamble used the substance as the basis of their successful laundrydetergent , Tide.1950s
In the early 1950s, the Disney brothers sought SRI's advice regarding a small amusement park called
Disneyland which they intended to build in Burbank,California . SRI provided them information on such topics as location, attendance patterns, and economic feasibility. SRI also selected a much larger site, inAnaheim , and prepared reports covering many aspects of operation. They also provided on-site administrative support and continued an advisory role for some time as the park expanded.In 1952, the
Technicolor Corporation contracted with SRI to develop a near-instantaneous electro-optical alternative to the manual process of timing during film copying. In 1959, theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented the Scientific and Engineering Award jointly to SRI and the Technicolor Corporation for their work on the design and development of the Technicolor electronic printing timer which greatly benefited the motion picture industry.In 1954, Southern Pacific asked SRI to investigate ways of reducing damage during rail freight shipments by mitigating shock to railroad box cars. This investigation led to the development of the
Hydra-Cushion technology, which remains standard today.In the 1950s, SRI worked under the direction of the
Bank of America to develop ERMA (Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting ), andmagnetic ink character recognition (MICR) which as of 2007 is still the industry standard in automated check processing.Fact|date=October 2007 The ERMA project was led by computer scientistJerre Noe , who was at the time SRI's Assistant Director of Engineering.1960s
Doug Engelbart was the primary force behind the design and development of theoN-Line System , or NLS. He founded SRI'sAugmentation Research Center (ARC), and his team there developed the original versions of many modern computer-human interface elements. These included: bit-mapped displays,collaboration software ,hypertext , and precursors to thegraphical user interface including thecomputer mouse . As a pioneer of human-computer interaction, Engelbart is arguably SRI's most notable alumnus. He was awarded theNational Medal of Technology in 2000.In 1964, Bill English, then chief engineer at the ARC, built the first prototype of a computer mouse from Engelbart's design. Originally they intended to call it a "turtle," but when a mouse ran across their workbench they changed their minds Fact|date=March 2007.
In the 1960s,
liquid crystal display (LCD) technology was developed at RCA Laboratories, which is now theSarnoff Corporation , a wholly owned SRI subsidiary.From 1966 through 1972, SRI's Artificial Intelligence Center developed the first mobile
robot to reason about its actions. Named "Shakey", the robot had atelevision camera , a triangulating range finder, and bumpsensor s.Shakey the Robot used software for perception, world-modeling, and acting. The Artificial Intelligence Center marked its 40th anniversary in 2006.Hewitt Crane and his colleagues developed the world's first all-magnetic digital computer, [ [http://www.sri.com/about/timeline/allmagnetic-logic.html SRI Technology: All-Magnetic Logic ] ] , based upon extensions to magnetic core memories. The technology was licensed to AMP, who then used the technology to build specialized computers for controlling tracks in theNew York City subway and on railroad switching yards.In 1969, ARPANET, the world's first electronic computer network, was established on
October 29 between nodes atLeonard Kleinrock 's lab atUCLA andDouglas Engelbart 's lab at SRI.Interface Message Processors at both sites served as the backbone of the firstInternet . [ [http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/stories/2004/Internet35.htm UCLA, Birthplace of the Internet, Holds Forum to Mark 35th Anniversary ] ]In addition to SRI and UCLA,
UCSB and theUniversity of Utah were part of the original four network nodes. ByDecember 5 ,1969 , the entire 4-node network was connected.1970s
In the 1970s, SRI developed other technologies, including
packet-switched radio (precursor to wireless networking),over-the-horizon radar ,Deafnet ,malaria treatments, vacuum microelectronics, laser photocoagulation (a treatment for some eye maladies), and software-implemented fault tolerance.In 1972, Dr.
Harold E. Puthoff , then aresearcher at SRI, put forth proposals to studyquantum mechanics inlife process es. This resulted in a series of studies inparapsychology , including the now controversialremote viewing programs that have been discontinued and partially declassified (see below).In the late 1970s social scientist and consumer futurist Arnold Mitchell created the Values and Lifestyles
psychographic methodology (VALS ) to explain changing US values and lifestyles. VALS was formally inaugurated as an SRI International product in 1978 and was later cited by "Advertising Age " as "one of the ten top market research breakthroughs of the 1980s." [ [http://www.sric-bi.com/VALS/ Sric-Bi | Vals ] ]1980s
In the 1980s, SRI developed, among other things,
Zylon , stealth technologies, improvements toultrasound imaging, two-dimensional laser fluorescence imaging, a multimedia electronic mail system,intrusion detection expert system s, theory of non-interference in computer security, a multilevel secure (MLS)relational database system calledSeaview ,LaTeX [cite web
book
curly=yes
last=Lamport
first=Leslie
title=LaTeX: A Document Preparation System
year=1986
publisher=Addison-Wesley
isbn=0-201-15790-X
url=http://research.microsoft.com/users/lamport/pubs/pubs.html#latex
accessdate=2008-08-01] , and order-sortedalgebra . On January 17, 1986, SRI.com became the 8th registered ".com " domain.1990s
In the 1990s, SRI developed, among other things, ground- and foliage-penetrating radar, Open Agent Architecture (OAA), dry-powder drugs,
remote surgery (aka telerobotic surgery), bio-agent detection using upconverting phosphor technology, an easy-clean oven surface, the cancer drugTirapazamine (now in clinical trials), ammonium dinitramide (ADN) - a novel environmentally benign oxidizer,network intrusion detection system , theMaude system (a declarative software language), the INCON and REDDEcommand and control system for the U.S. military, IGRS (integrated GPS radio system), an advanced military personnel and vehicletracking system , natural languagespeech recognition , assisted hydrothermal oxidation for safe, cost-effective disposal of hazardous materials, an advanced letter sorting system for theUnited States Postal Service , PacketHop, a revolutionary peer-to-peer wireless technology to create scalable ad hoc networks,electroactive polymer aka “artificial muscle”, and several landmark education and economic studies.2000s
In the 2000s, SRI developed, among other things, new uses for
diamagnetic levitation ; the Deployable Force-on-Force Instrumented Range System (DFIRST), which usesGPS satellites, high-speed wireless communications, and digital terrain map displays to train armored combat units during battle exercises; live-virtual-constructive training systems for theCalifornia National Guard ; Pathway Tools software, which aims to accelerate drug discovery by usingartificial intelligence and symbolic computing techniques to analyze complex biological processes; BioCyc, SRI’s growing collection ofgenomic databases and software tools used by biologists to visualize genes within achromosome , complete biochemical pathways, and the fullmetabolic maps of organisms; the advanced modular incoherent scatter radar (AMISR), a novel relocatable atmospheric research facility under construction for theNational Science Foundation ; the Centibots, one of the first and largest teams of coordinated, autonomous mobile robots that explore, map, and survey unknown environments; andspeech recognition and translation functionality for the VoxTecPhraselator handheld speech translator, which has enabled U.S. soldiers overseas to communicate with local citizens in near real time. SRI researchers made the first observation of visible light emitted by oxygen atoms in the night-sideairglow ofVenus , offering new insight into the planet’s atmosphere. SRI education researchers conducted the first national evaluation of the growing U.S.charter schools movement. For the World Golf Foundation, SRI compiled the first-ever estimate of the overall scope of the U.S.golf industry’s goods and services ($62 billion in 2000), providing a framework for monitoring the long-term growth of the industry.In 2006, SRI was awarded a $56.9 million contract with the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to provide preclinical services for the development of drugs and antibodies foranti-infective treatments foravian influenza ,SARS ,West Nile virus ,hepatitis , and more.Also in 2006, SRI announced it has selected
St. Petersburg, Florida as the site for a new marine technology research facility. The new facility will be called SRI-St. Petersburg and aims to accelerate research and development of technologies related to ocean science, themaritime industry andport security . SRI's expansion intoFlorida is a collaboration with theUniversity of South Florida College of Marine Science and its Center for Ocean Technology, and is supported by the City of St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, and the state of Florida.SRI celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2006.
Research outside of the mainstream
Clairvoyance and ESP
In 1972,
Harold Puthoff andRussell Targ initiated a series of human subject studies to determine whether participants (the "viewers" or "percipients") could reliably identify and accurately describe salient features of remote locations or "targets". In the early studies, a human "sender" was typically present at the remote location, as part of the experiment protocol. A three-step process was used, the first step being to randomly select the target conditions to be experienced by the senders. Secondly, in the viewing step, participants were asked to verbally express or sketch their impressions of the remote scene. Thirdly, in the judging step, these descriptions were matched by separate judges, as closely as possible, with the intended targets. The termremote viewing was coined to describe this overall process.In order to explore the nature of remote viewing channel, the viewer in some experiments was secured in a double-walled copper-screened
Faraday cage . Although this provided attenuation of radio signals over a broad range of frequencies, the researchers found that it did not alter the subject's remote viewing capability. They postulated thatextremely low frequency (ELF) propagation might be involved, since Faraday cage screening is less effective in the ELF range. Such a hypothesis had previously been put forward by telepathy researchers in theSoviet Union .Kogan I, "Information theory analysis of telepathic communication experiments", Radio Engineering,v23, March 1968, p 122.] The first paper by Puthoff and Targ on psychic research to appear in a mainstream peer-reviewed scientific journal was published in Nature in March 1974; in it, the team reported some degree of remote viewing success.Targ R & Puthoff H, "Information transmission under conditions of sensory shielding", Nature, 251, October 18 1974, pp 602-607.] One of the individuals involved in these initial studies at SRI wasUri Geller , a well-known celebrity psychic at the time. Theresearch team reported witnessing some of Geller's trademark metal spoon-bending performances, but admitted that they were unable to conduct adequately controlled experiments to confirm any paranormal hypothesis about them.Electroencephalography (EEG) techniques were also used by team to examine ESP phenomena. In these investigations, a sender, who was isolated in a visually opaque, electrically and acoustically shielded chamber, was stimulated at random by bursts of strobe-light flickers The experimenters reported that, for one receiver, differential alpha block on control and stimulus trials were observed, which showed that some information transfer had occurred. In contrast, this person's expressed statements of when the stimulus occurred were no different than that which would be expected by chance. The researches were unable to identify the physical parameters by which the EEG effect was mediated. [Rebert C & Turner A, "EEG spectrum analysis techniques applied to the problem of psi phenomena", Behavioral Neuropsychiatry, v6(1-12), Apr 1974 Apr-Mar 1975, pp18-24]Psychokinesis
Another series of experiments in the early 1970s focused on
psychokinesis , which concerns how human consciousness may influence the behavior of external physical systems. In these studies, the support came fromNASA on a contract administered byJPL . They involved building an electronic apparatus that would randomize images presented to an individual, who was asked to predict them in advance. By coupling the randomizer with encouraging feedback and reinforcement for successful predictions, the system was intended to measure how individuals develop theirclairvoyance or othertelepathic powers. The entire data-gathering process was supposed to be automated, in order to limit the potential for experimenter interference. However, this part of the protocol had been violated for several experiments. A JPL review of the final report noted that, when these parts were omitted from analysis, no evidence of ESP performance could be identified. NASA concluded that there was no basis for further support of this work. [Targ R, Cole P, & Puthoff H, "Development of Techniques to Enhance Man/Machine Communication", NASA-CR-157886 Final Report, August 1974.]Replication studies
After the publication of these findings, various attempts to replicate the remote viewing findings were quickly carried out. Several of these follow-up studies, which involved viewing in group settings, reported some limited success. They included the use of face-to-face groups,Hastings A & Hurt D, "A Confirmatory Remote Viewing in a Group Setting" Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol 64, No 10, p 1544-1545, October 1976. ] [ Whitson T, Bogart D, Palmer J, & Tart C, "Preliminary Experiments in Remote Viewing", Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol 64, No 10, p 1550-1551, October 1976.] and remotely-linked groups using computer conferencing. [Vallee J,Hastings A, & Askevold G, "Remote Viewing Experiments Through Computer Conferencing", Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol 64, No 10, p 1551-1552, October 1976.]
The various debates in the mainstream scientific literature prompted the editors of 'Proceedings of the IEEE' to invite
Robert Jahn , then Dean of the School of Engineering atPrinceton University , to write a comprehensive review of psychic phenomena from an engineering perspective. His paper [Jahn R, "The Persistent Paradox of Psychic Phenomena: An Engineering Perspective", Proceedings of the IEEE, 7 2, Feb 1982, pp 136-170] , published in February 1982, includes numerous references to remote viewing replication studies at the time.Controversy
The descriptions of a large number of psychic studies and their results were published in March 1976, in the journal "Proceedings of the IEEE"Puthoff H & Targ R, "A perceptual channel for information transfer over kilometer distances: Historical perspective and recent research", Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol 64, No 3, pp 329-354, March 1976.] . Together with the earlier papers, this provoked an extended debate in the mainstream scientific literature. Numerous problems in the overall design of the remote viewing studies were identified, with problems noted in all three of the remote viewing steps (target selection, target viewing, and results judging). A particular problem was the failure to follow the standard procedures that are used in
experimental psychology .Calkins J, "Comments on 'A perceptual channel for information transfer over kilometer distances: Historical perspective and recent research'", Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol 64, No 10, p 1547-1548, October 1976.]Several external researchers expressed concerns about the reliability of the judging process. Independent examination of some of the sketches and transcripts from the viewing process revealed flaws in the original procedures and analyses. In particular, the presence of sensory cues being available to the judges was noted [Marks D & Kammann R, "Information transmission in remote viewing experiments", Nature, 274, pp 680-1, Aug 17 1978.] . A lengthy exchange ensued, with the external researchers finally concluding that the failure of Puthoff and Targ to address their concerns meant that the claim of remote viewing "can no longer be regarded as falling within the scientific domain" [Scott C, "No "remote viewing"", Nature, 298, p 414, July 29 1982.] [Marks D & Scott C, "Remote viewing exposed", Nature, 319, p 444, Feb 6 1986.] .
Procedural problems and researcher conflicts of interest in the psychokinesis experiments were noted by science writer
Martin Gardner in a detailed analysis of the NASA final report.Gardner M, "Concerning an effort to demonstrate extrasensory perception by machine", Scientific American, v233, October 1975, pp 114-8.] . Also, sloppy procedures in the conduct of the EEG study were reported by a visiting observer during another series of exchanges in the scientific literature. [Diaconis P, "ESP Research, Letters", Science, 202, December 1978, p1146.]References
Further reading
* Citation
last =Potera | first =Carol | date =2008-08-01 | year =2008 | title =SRI Boasts Abilities in Early- and Late-Stage R&D
periodical =Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | series =Company Updates | publisher =Mary Ann Liebert
volume =28 | issue =14 | pages =18 | url =http://www.genengnews.com/articles/chitem.aspx?aid=2549 | issn =1937-8661
accessdate =2008-09-27External links
* [http://www.sri.com/ SRI International website]
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