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May 12, 2008 - 11:32PM
Rolls-Royce, SkySong combine to sponsor contest
Comments | RecommendEd Taylor, Tribune
SkySong, the Arizona State University innovation center in Scottsdale, and Rolls-Royce are searching for entrepreneurs to market a Rolls-Royce identity-verification system.
The technology, called SignHear, can verify a person’s signature based on the sound that a metal pen makes on a metal pad. Rolls-Royce engineers say it has applications for time and attendance, access and verification controls.
Rolls-Royce and ASU are sponsoring a business-plan competition to select a team that would form a joint-venture business to sell and distribute the product in North America, said John Mitchell, business development director for SkySong.
“The contest is for who has the best idea on how to approach the market and the best team of people,” he said.
Information sessions for entrepreneurs have been scheduled for 7 p.m. today and 11 a.m. Wednesday at SkySong, 1475 N. Scottsdale Road.
The deadline for submitting business plans is June 30, and the sponsors hope to decide the winner in mid-August, Mitchell said.
The winning company will set up its offices at SkySong, and the innovation center also will provide access to venture capital and ASU faculty advisers, he said.
The systems might be manufactured in Nogales, Mexico, he said.
The SignHear technology is an outgrowth of Rolls-Royce’s work with jet engines.
“They can hit a (jet engine) blade and can tell if there are cracks in it based on the sound,” Mitchell said. “With that acoustical expertise they developed handwriting recognition based on sounds you create when writing your signature.”
The British company, which formerly made luxury vehicles and now is concentrating on aerospace and marine engines, has been spinning off noncore technologies to joint-venture partners like the one envisioned for SignHear, Mitchell said.
The company sold its famous Rolls-Royce auto business to BMW and Bentley Motors to Volkswagen in 1998.
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