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Applied Minds

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Applied Minds, LLC
Company typePrivate
Industry
Founded2000
Headquarters
Burbank, California
,
US
Key people
Websiteappliedminds.com

Applied Minds, LLC is an American technology studio founded in 2000 by Bran Ferren, Danny Hillis, and Doug Carlston.[1][2] The company provides a range of services for government and commercial customers, including technology design and development, rapid prototyping, engineering, research and development (R&D), and consulting. The company is headquartered in Burbank, California,[2] with offices in New York City and Washington, D.C..

History and culture

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Bran Ferren and Danny Hillis worked together at Walt Disney Imagineering, where Ferren was president of research & development and creative technology and Hillis his vice president,[3] when they decided to start a new venture that would serve wider industries beyond entertainment.[3] When the pair left to start Applied Minds in 2000, they rented the new company's first warehouse space from Disney.[1]

Applied Minds "quickly acquired a reputation as a sort of military-industrial toy shop."[1] The culture at the company has been described as "laid back, more startup than military, with employees in casual clothes and readily available snacks."[2] According to Applied Minds co-founder and chief creative officer Ferren, potential projects are evaluated on the basis of three criteria: "design and technical excellence, making the world a better place, and making more money than [the company] spends."[2] Ferren "takes a unique approach to building his team" by likening the process to casting roles for "engineers, designers, military strategists, and rocket scientists."[2]

In 2005, the team building a new centralized database to improve Internet searches spun off from Applied Minds to create a separate company called Metaweb Technologies.[4] Metaweb's database, Freebase, structured information as millions of related entities, so that software could generate shorter, more relevant responses to users' search queries.[5] Google acquired Metaweb in 2010 and stated part of the acquisition was to improve search and make the web richer and more meaningful for everyone.[6][7]

The firm has spun out as several companies, including Metaweb Technologies,[6] TouchTable,[8] which specializes in interactive mapping visualizations, and Applied Proteomics, whose early-stage cancer diagnostics business was acquired by DiscernDx in 2018.[9]

In 2014, Danny Hillis spun off a portion of the company into a venture called Applied Invention.[10]

Projects

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Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, poses with Eric Angelson and Bran Ferren
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin E. Dempsey tours Applied Minds' interactive 3D maps showcase in 2013

Some of the clients involved with Applied Minds include General Motors,[3] Intel,[2] Smithsonian,[11] Northrop Grumman,[3] Lockheed Martin,[2] Herman Miller,[3] Harris Corporation,[12] Sony,[2] Sun MicroSystems,[13] and every branch of the United States military.

In 2005, through a partnership with Herman Miller, Applied Minds created a technology to scramble conversations for the privacy and productivity of office workers. Called Babble, the device uses a sound processor to capture voices within range and then repeats back random segments of speech to create an undecipherable hum of background noise.[3][14][15] Babble earned several awards for Herman Miller in 2005: the Best of Innovations Award from the Consumer Electronics Association,[16] Best of NeoCon Gold Award in Workplace Technology,[17] and inclusion on Esquire Magazine's annual "Best and Brightest" list.[18]

The Air Force through its Air Force Research Lab were researching ways to minimize and prevent helicopter brownout conditions, which occur when rotors kick up fine sand, dust, and debris, reducing visibility and leading to three out of four chopper accidents overseas.[19][20] Applied Minds produced a prototype for a Photographic Landing Augmentation System for Helicopters (or PhLASH),[21][22] which uses high-intensity infrared strobes to capture a series of high-resolution images of the landing area before brownout occurs.[23][24] The system then processes these images into a video-like display that is geo-rectified to the aircraft's current position, so the pilot can navigate the simulated landing area from the instrument panel regardless of visibility conditions outside.[25] In 2007, the Office of the Secretary of Defense selected the PhLASH "see and remember" prototype system to receive quick-reaction funding to develop a permanent installation onboard military helicopters.[20]

In 2010, a Mayflower test satellite built by Applied Minds in partnership with Northrop Grumman became the first commercial CubeSat deployed into orbit by SpaceX,[26][27] and the first spacecraft to prove the viability of a novel solar cell deployment system.[28][29]

In 2013, an Apple lawsuit against Samsung over the pinch-to-zoom feature was invalidated because the function was previously patented to Applied Minds cofounders Ferren and Hillis in 2005 to describe multi-touch gestures.[30][31][32][2]

To enable troops to build on-demand solutions to their challenges, Applied Minds worked with the Army's Rapid Equipping Force (REF) to create deployable Expeditionary Lab – Mobile (ELM) modules.[33] Enclosed in a standard 20-foot container that can be transported by helicopter, the ELMs include 3D printers, CNC machines, laser cutters, plasma cutters, welding equipment, and other rapid prototyping tools.[34][35] The mobile laboratories enable engineers to design and fabricate technologies to address the problems they encounter in remote outposts, where it typically takes years to deliver new technologies.[36] The first ELMs were deployed to forward operating bases by the Army in 2012 and 2013.[37]

In 2015, Applied Minds debuted the KiraVan at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show in Las Vegas,[38] after five years of development on the custom built expedition mobility platform.[1] The KiraVan is a 51,700-pound expedition vehicle that serves as a public showcase and experimental demonstrator for technologies developed by Applied Minds.[39] It is a successor to the earlier MaxiMog[40] vehicle that was showcased at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.[41][42]

Applied Minds lead design work on the Clock of the Long Now ("10,000-year clock") for the Long Now Foundation,[43] which was founded by Hillis in 1996.[44] He had already began working on the clock back in 1989.[45]

Awards

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The Smithsonian American Art Museum named Applied Minds as the winner of its international design competition to renovate the Renwick Gallery's Grand Salon in 2013.[11] The company's concept proposes deploying high-definition projectors and speakers to create an immersive and changeable display environment without altering the building's historic structure.[46][47]

In 2016, Applied Minds was awarded the Coolest Tech Award at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada for its submission in partnership with Genworth, a long-term care insurance company.[48][2] The Genworth R70i Aging Experience is a wearable exoskeleton designed to provoke a national conversation about aging by simulating its effects on the wearer's hearing, vision, and mobility.[49][50]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Raftery, Brian. "The Most Insane Truck Ever Built and the 4-Year-Old Who Commands It". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Peek Inside the Applied Minds Innovation Factory". April 5, 2019. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Jardin, Xeni. "Applied Minds Think Remarkably". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  4. ^ "Deeper understanding with Metaweb". Official Google Blog. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  5. ^ Markoff, John (March 9, 2007). "Start-Up Aims for Database to Automate Web Searching". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  6. ^ a b Rao, Leena (July 16, 2010). "Google Acquires Metaweb To Make Search Smarter". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  7. ^ NOSOWITZ, DAN (July 16, 2010). "Google Buys Metaweb, the One Company That Could Revolutionize Google Search".
  8. ^ "Terrain, Touch and Symbolic Tables". walkerart.org. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  9. ^ "Applied Proteomics Sells Assets to DiscernDx for $1.85M | GenomeWeb". July 11, 2020. Archived from the original on July 11, 2020. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  10. ^ "Danny Hillis - Co-Founder at Applied Invention | The Org".
  11. ^ a b "Smithsonian American Art Museum Selects Winner for Renwick Gallery Grand Salon Design Competition". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  12. ^ "Harris to build software interface for NSA". Military Aerospace. March 10, 2005. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  13. ^ "Sun Modular Datacenter". Technifex. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  14. ^ Markoff, John (May 30, 2005). "No Privacy in Your Cubicle? Try an Electronic Silencer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  15. ^ Jardin, Xeni (June 14, 2005). "Talk Freely Behind the Fortress of Babble". NPR.
  16. ^ "New in Box Herman Miller Babble Voice Privacy System". Acme Mid-Century + Modern. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  17. ^ "NeoCon'05: A Gold award for Babble by Sonare, voice privacy without walls". FMLink. June 17, 2005. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  18. ^ "Innovations of the Year: Babble". Esquire. February 25, 2007. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  19. ^ Ray, Jonathan (April 1, 2010). "Beating Brownout". Avionics International. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  20. ^ a b "AFRL Develops Partial Solution to Helicopter Brownout". Wright-Patterson AFB. August 28, 2007. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  21. ^ "AFRL Looks to Camera to Solve Brownout". Air & Space Forces Magazine. October 27, 2006. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  22. ^ "Flying Blind in Iraq: U.S. Helicopters Navigate Real Desert Storms". Popular Mechanics. October 1, 2009. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  23. ^ Colucci, Frank (August 1, 2007). "'Sandblaster' Gives Helicopter Pilots Hope for Safer Landings". www.nationaldefensemagazine.org. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  24. ^ "Brown, not out - helicopter shoot-downs in Iraq". Flight Global. May 29, 2007. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  25. ^ Ray, Jonathan (April 1, 2010). "Beating Brownout". Avionics International. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  26. ^ ShareX (May 12, 2011). "Northrop Grumman/Applied Minds announce success of Mayflower test microsatellite launched on Falcon 9 in December".
  27. ^ "Newsroom". Northrop Grumman Newsroom. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  28. ^ "Mayflower Test Satellite, Jointly Developed by Northrop Grumman and Applied Minds, Proves Successful During Recent SpaceX Mission". NBC News. May 11, 2011. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  29. ^ "MAYFLOWER: NEXT GENERATION CUBESAT FLIGHT TESTBED". digitalcommons.usu.edu.
  30. ^ US7844915B2, Platzer, Andrew & Herz, Scott, "Application programming interfaces for scrolling operations", issued 2010-11-30 
  31. ^ Mueller, Florian. "Tentatively invalid: the most valuable multitouch patent asserted by Apple at Samsung trial". Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  32. ^ Rougeau, Michael (July 30, 2013). "Apple's pinch-to-zoom patent meets its second end". TechRadar. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  33. ^ Parsons, Dan (May 1, 2013). "3D Printing Provides Fast, Practical Fixes". www.nationaldefensemagazine.org. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  34. ^ Cox, Matthew (October 31, 2017). "Mobile Labs Build On-the-Spot Combat Solutions". Military.com. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  35. ^ Barrie, Allison (March 24, 2015). "Star Trek replicators for the Army". Fox News. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  36. ^ Tarantola, Andrew (August 22, 2012). "The Army's New Mobile Fab Lab Is a Front Line MacGyver Factory". Gizmodo.
  37. ^ "US army sent 2nd mobile 3D printing lab to Afghanistan". 3ders.org. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  38. ^ "Travel Channel to Film Special Episode of "Extreme RVs" at the SEMA Show". SEMA. 2015.
  39. ^ Crucchiola, Jordan. "A 51,000-Pound RV Made for a Little Girl Is Coming to Vegas". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  40. ^ "MAXIMOG". www.maximog.com. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  41. ^ "HISTORY". passion for perfection. November 22, 2021. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  42. ^ Kipnis, Jeffrey (June 1, 2001). ""Workspheres"". Artforum. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  43. ^ Sterling, Bruce. "The Long Now Clock. They're actually building it". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  44. ^ "The Clock Of The Long Now". Science Museum Blog. July 31, 2013. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  45. ^ "10,000 Year Clock". www.10000yearclock.net. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  46. ^ "American Art Museum Announces Winner for Renwick Gallery Grand Salon Design Competition". Museum Publicity. June 15, 2013. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  47. ^ Institution, Smithsonian. "Renwick Grand Salon - Capitol". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  48. ^ "Digital Trends Top Tech of CES 2016 award winners". Digital Trends. January 7, 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  49. ^ "CES 2016: The Coolest Technology We've Seen So Far". ABC News. January 7, 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  50. ^ "I Aged 40 Years In A Minute & Here's What I Learned". Bustle. April 20, 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
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