Monday, April 21, 2008

Splinternet expands from VoIP network to radiation detection

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

A small Connecticut company, originally founded to provide VoIP services to consumers, has found a new business for its networking technology -- radiation detection.

Norwalk-based Splinternet Holdings Inc. is now bringing its products to market, fueled by the acquisition of a radiation-detection firm and pilot tests in hospital and casino settings.

The shift in markets moves Splinternet from the thin-margin world of consumer voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) to the growing private-security industry. "It was clear that the business model was not going to hold up in the long run, so we were looking for other opportunities for the technology we had in hand," said Jim Ackerly, CEO of Splinternet. "We're basically changing (the endpoint from) a phone into a radiation-detection device."

The system -- called DefendTect -- uses sensors built into a video-surveillance infrastructure to spot radiological events and routes alerts to phones, computers, PDAs or other devices. The system uses the same network structure Splinternet had created for VoIP, replacing the handset with radiation sensors and the voice data traffic with sensor data. The sensor components are off the shelf, and the firm adds proprietary software code to customize features.

To help provide expertise in the radiation detection market, the company is also putting the final touches on its acquisition of Vidiation LLC, a video-based radiation detection technology company that was spun out of East Hartford's Advanced Fuel Research Inc. (AFR) in early 2007. The acquisition provides Splinternet with the expertise and contacts Vidiation has built up, but license rights for its tech, which can visually spot radiation through IP video, will be returned to AFR, according to Mike Serio, president of AFR.

The two groups, each with six employees, began working together in 2007, and the combination has already paid off, according to Frank O'Connor, the president of Vidiation, which will become a subsidiary of Splinternet after the transaction. The system is in a "revenue-generation pilot" at an unnamed Las Vegas casino, said O'Connor, and the firm is in negotiations with an unnamed hospital for a similar deployment.

According to Ackerly, the team hopes to add new sensors and expand beyond radiation to biological and chemical threats in the future.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, the homeland security industry has spurred a convergence of different technologies. According to a 2007 report by Frost & Sullivan, the North American chemical, biological and nuclear detection market reached almost $200 million in 2005, and is expected to surpass $545 million by 2012.

Splinternet's VoIP business has not gone away completely. Last year, Splinternet, whose shares are traded over the counter, reported $375,000 in revenue, mostly from its VoIP business. The company will continue to operate that unit for the time being, Ackerly said.