Venture a result of city/county trade mission. Reverse mission to Dayton in September, trade office in Haifa by end of ’09 in works.

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

Aug. 21, 2009

Last summer, Israeli technology wasn’t on Tony Manuel’s radar. When the city of Dayton and Montgomery County approached Manuel, the president of STAN Solutions, to participate on its September 2008 tech-oriented business mission to Israel, he wasn’t interested.

STAN Solutions President Tony Manuel

“I didn’t think it was going to benefit my immediate business,” he recalls.
Now he says he’s glad he went.

STAN Solutions, a Dayton-based network systems and sensor technologies firm, just inked a deal with Adaptive Imaging Technologies of Haifa, Israel to acquire the exclusive North American distribution rights for a high-resolution, panoramic camera produced by Adaptive.

Manuel says STAN is partnering with the University of Dayton’s Institute for the Development and Commercialization of Advanced Sensor Technology (IDCAST) to expand the camera’s capabilities.

IDCAST was a key player on last year’s trade mission. Manuel is quick to say that the partnership with Adaptive came about through STAN’s work with IDCAST.

He envisions uses for the camera across markets including the military, Homeland Security, and police and fire departments — in technological ways that are currently “unheard of.”

“We purchased it (the camera) while it was still in the development stage,” Manuel says. “This allows us to add other sensors and technology onto a camera, such as anomaly detection. We can provide the port authority with a way to watch thousands of containers that come into the country a day, where we can actually monitor the containers. This camera will let us know when a container has been entered. And we can see if that was a lawful or an unlawful entry.”

The camera, he says, could also have the capability to detect forest fires at early stages, before disaster strikes.

“We would have an early identifier that would allow us to know if there’s smoke in the area and that there is potential fire,” he says.

Working with IDCAST, STAN will also develop an illuminator function to yield a much clearer image of nighttime activity than is currently possible with infrared.

“Adaptive is our partner and they will continue to develop the camera, and as technology evolves, more features — faster, smaller, better,” Manuel says.

Established in 2004, STAN provides support to U.S. Army missions in Iraq, Homeland Security initiatives, and network design and engineering.

Manuel plans to locate the camera’s North American distribution center in the Dayton area. Adaptive will produce the cameras at its industrial center in Yokneam Illit, Israel; all cameras sold in North America will come through Dayton.

“Anyone that was working on the cameras or distributors — they would be trained here,” Manuel says.

He is considering several potential distribution sites. “We have a facility at The Entrepreneurs Center, and we’re looking at also having a facility at Tech Town.” STAN’s manufacturing facility in Miamisburg is another possible site.

“We’re hoping that a lot of jobs will be created,” he says, though he’s not certain how many, because of the potential for use of the device with numerous markets.

“We are looking at putting a system together for the police department in Dayton,” he says, “where anyone that shoots a gun, we would be able to tell. We have an acoustic sensor that will be tied to the camera.

“Let’s say that Dayton would set up two cameras, where we’re running 360 degrees, and we have the ability to see six miles on each camera, so we can cover over 12 square miles on two cameras. So if someone would discharge a gun, we can tell where that person is standing within 20 feet. Once the coordinates are set out, you can basically take the camera and go in reverse and see who did it. This is unheard-of technology.”

He adds that the camera’s anomaly detection feature would also offer the Secret Service unprecedented security applications.

The STAN-Adaptive partnership is the second to result from last summer’s trade mission. The first came about in March, when Tel Aviv’s Tidex Systems signed a joint venture with IDCAST and Woolpert to form i23D. This project will develop applications for cutting-edge 3-D technology that Tidex created.

“There’s a third cooperative business venture that’s in the negotiating process, as well as a few other strategic business alliances that are also being negotiated,” says Montgomery County Assistant Administrator for Economic Development Joe Tuss.

The goal of these joint ventures, he says, is to generate new jobs and new investment in the county, particularly in high-tech areas.

Partners that also led last year’s mission were The Dayton Development Coalition and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

“The results of the trade mission are exceeding our expectations,” said County Commissioner Dan Foley, in the announcement of the latest join venture. Foley was a co-leader of the mission. “In less than a year, we are seeing real results between companies in the Dayton region and Israel.”

Expanding efforts
To increase the momentum, the city and county will host leaders of Israeli companies as part of a reverse trade mission, Sept. 7-10. Highlights will include a reception and dinner at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force on Sept. 8 and a public press conference on Sept. 9 at 11 a.m. at the Engineers Club to celebrate the upcoming opening of a Dayton Region trade office in Haifa, Israel.

Tuss says the city and county plan to open the trade office by December. The office will be funded through private donations.

“The office will work for and with Dayton companies, with the Haifa companies as well as the economic development people in the municipality of Haifa,” Tuss says. The aim is to create a continual flow of ideas for potential tech development that could be brought to market.

“We will have fund-raising efforts wrapped up by the end of September,” Tuss says. The goal is to raise $350,000 to support the office for three years. To date, he says, contributions of $200,000 have been pledged to support the trade office.

“We’re well on our way,” Tuss adds. “We are more than comfortable that we’ve raised enough funds to go forward and establish the office.”

Manuel says he can’t thank city and county leaders enough for their cooperation, particularly Foley, Montgomery County Commissioner Debbie Lieberman, and Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin.

“They made this possible,” he says. “To care enough about your city that you realize you have to bring in jobs, and you have to bring in technology — that’s a bold move. You had county personnel involved, assistant city managers. They did an excellent job in putting this together and making it possible for just a regular business like mine — that is looking to having a possibility to compete. It gives me that possibility.”