This story is taken from Business at sacbee.com.
The Folsom-based company, SynapSense Corp., will attempt to gain a foothold in the nascent but fast-growing market for wireless sensors -- tiny devices that measure such things as temperature, humidity, motion and atmospheric pressure and relay the information via radio signal to a computer or other controller.
The sensors can be used to monitor temperatures for heating and air-conditioning systems, keep tabs on a hospital patient's vital signs, read meters for utilities, or check soil moisture to see when to turn on lawn sprinklers.
It's become a hot technology because of the sensors' ability to transmit such data via radio waves, eliminating expensive wiring, which can cost more than the sensors themselves.
"What is so (exciting) about this is that … we will have the ability to connect almost everything to a wireless network," said Peter Van Deventer, one of the company's co-founders.
The company was formed in March by President and Chief Executive Van Deventer, who spent 10 years at Intel, and Raju Pandey, an associate professor of computer science at UC Davis. Van Deventer most recently was marketing director for Intel's flash memory products in Folsom. Pandey, who has worked extensively in wireless sensor research at UC Davis, will take a leave from the university in July to work as SynapSense's chief technology officer.
Citing competitive issues, Van Deventer and Pandey declined to say what specific market SynapSense will mine, nor how many employees the company would initially hire, other than joking that the entire company would be able to travel in a minivan.
Wireless sensor technology has advanced significantly in the past year as researchers worldwide have developed ultra-low-power transmitters that draw very little battery current. The ZigBee Alliance, a U.S.-based group that sets standards for wireless sensors, estimates that two double-A batteries could power a sensor for five to 10 years.
Many sensors are now about the size of a quarter and are expected to shrink even further in the next 12 to 18 months, Van Deventer said.
Wireless sensor technology is attracting the attention of major companies such as Honeywell International Inc. and Motorola Inc., as well as startups like SynapSense, said Mareca Hatler, director of research at On World Inc., a San Diego firm that follows the wireless networking industry. On World expects 126 million sensors could be deployed worldwide by 2010. Industry revenue could total $8 billion in 2010, up from $300 million this year.
The challenge for companies large and small, she said, is to make the systems work seamlessly.
"The end users don't want it to be technical. They just want it to work," Hatler said. "It's a huge opportunity for these companies, but it's also a huge challenge."
The bulk of SynapSense's funding -- $1.25 million -- comes from Roseville-based American River Ventures, with another $250,000 from DFJ Frontier of West Sacramento. American River principal Corley Phillips said he is on the verge of securing $500,000 from another investor. The $2 million should be enough to get the company on solid ground, he said.
Van Deventer said he left Intel in March 2005 with the idea of forming a new company that would capitalize on the growing use of wireless technology. He contacted Phillips, who in turn talked to UC Davis Connect, an arm of the university that aims to link the school with the region's business community.
"A couple of months ago, Corley introduced me to Raju," Van Deventer said. "Raju was a technologist who needed a business partner."
The two talked and in March agreed to form a new company.
Van Deventer's role marks one of the relatively few times an Intel executive from Folsom has struck off on his own to start a new company in the Sacramento region.
Local economic development officials had hoped for a surge of spinoffs from Intel and Hewlett-Packard Co. when the two high-tech firms launched capital-area operations more than two decades ago. But those hopes never panned out.
A handful of Intel employees formed ShareWave Inc. in 1997 but it never gained traction in its effort to transmit data from PCs to television sets. It was sold to Cirrus Logic in 2001 and closed in 2003.
More recently, a group of former Intel executives formed chip design firm KeyEye Communications in 2001.
Oleg Kaganovich, chief executive of the Sacramento Regional Technology Alliance, said firms didn't have extensive research and development operations in the area.
"Until there's more R&D here, it will be hard to get the engineers and researchers to start their own companies," he said.
About the writer:
- The Bee's Clint Swett can be reached at (916) 321-1976 or cswett@sacbee.com.
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