The following SMART 100 profile and the information it contains is a duplication of content submitted by the applicant during the entry process. As a function of entry, applicants were required to declare that all details are factually correct, do not infringe on another’s intellectual property and are not unlawful, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, obscene, or otherwise objectionable. Some profiles have been edited for reasons of space and clarity. More about the SMART 100.
This innovation initially came to life when…
Paul, Southern Innovation’s founder, was researching new technologies for the detection of antipersonnel landmines. Landmines, which lie active for decades after a conflict, are one of the most insidious artifacts of conflict, severely restricting communities getting back on their feet. Paul was investigating technology which could detect the explosive in the landmines; however, the detectors were so inefficient that detecting a single landmine could take 20 minutes. Paul and his PhD supervisor Prof. Rob Evans came up with a data-processing algorithm which would provide a twentyfold improvement in the efficiency of radiation detectors.
WHAT & HOW
The purpose of this innovation is to…
…improve the detection efficiency of X-ray and gamma-ray detectors. Our technology has a wide range of applications including screening of air cargo; oil and mineral exploration; early detection and staging of cancers; and nuclear security.
It does this by…
…decoding and recovering, in real time, information corrupted by pulse pile-up in the radiation detector. Current radiation detection systems cannot cope with a lot of radiation. The stronger the radiation source, the more pulses are emitted in quick succession. Detectors can’t distinguish between the pulses and instead sums them together as a single pulse – referred to as ‘pulse pile-up’.
PURPOSE & BENEFITS
This innovation improves on what came before because…
…the current technique for dealing with pulse pile-up is to identify pulses that have piled-up on top of each other, reject that information, and then analyse only ‘clean’ pulses. In many industrial applications where this technique is used, it is common to reject up to 80% of all detector data.
Its various benefits to the customer/end-user include…
…a dramatic increase in the data collection rate from radiation detectors: not only do we extract more data but the data we produce is better quality. Customers can build products which produce faster and more accurate scans.
COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
In the past, this problem was solved by…
…identifying data which has been corrupted by pulse pile-up and throwing it away. This approach of ‘pulse pile-up rejection’ has been the standard in the industry for 60 years. Throwing out all this data made getting timely results difficult in many application, e.g. cargo screening in ports, and has limited the number of applications for radiation detection and measurement.
Its predecessors/competitors include…
…two companies which have been around since the early 1960s, Canberra Industries and Ortec. This duopoly has resulted in slow innovation in technology and little price competition (a primary driver of purchasing decisions is what people are used to).
TARGET MARKET
It is made for…
…original equipment manufactures of radiation detection and measurement systems. Southern Innovation’s technology has application across a range of industries including: the use of medial imaging for cancer detection and staging ($2.5 billion); oil-well logging, for discovering new reserves and extending older fields ($12.6 billion); homeland security for shipping and air cargo screening ($3.1 billion); and X-ray and gamma-ray instrumentation ($2.7 billion). In a recent Frost & Sullivan research report the 2010 market for X-ray Instrumentation was estimated at over $1.1 billion, with a growth rate of 6.7%.
DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
It is available for sale through…
…direct license agreements with Southern Innovation.
Our marketing strategy is to…
…become the ‘Dolby’ of radiation detection and measurement. At Southern Innovation we ‘stick to our knitting’, focusing on developing the best technology, ideas and algorithms and then license this IP directly to equipment manufacturers.
SUPPORTING IMAGES AND/OR VIDEO
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To check out the Anthill SMART 100 Readers’ Choice winner for 2010, click here.
