clients & industry contributions

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Due to the confidentiality of most of our client relationships and work, below is a partial, public list of "the company we keep". This list includes enterprise and recent startup clients, as well as past and other spinoffs, spinouts, licensees, and ventures with PARC contributions. 

To see a list of clients and at-a-glance overview of PARC today, please download our fact sheet.

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LG Chem Power
battery management systems

PARC and LG Chem Power (LGCPI), a subsidiary of LG Chem, have been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to enter award negotiations for developing an optically based smart monitoring system prototype targeting batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). The system will use PARC's compact wavelength-shift detection technology and machine learning/sensor network expertise -- part of PARC's optics and optoelectronics and intelligent automation work -- to enable effective real-time performance management and optimized battery design. Capabilities will range from inferring state and health information to predicting remaining life, and the resulting commercial EV-grade battery module with embedded optical sensors and readout unit will undergo industry-standard validation at LGCPI's facilities. These innovations will significantly improve performance and help reduce costs of next-generation energy storage technologies.

related:

• Selected by ARPA-E for $4M+ award for Advanced Management And Protection Of Energy-Storage Devices [diagram]

 

 

P&G
consumer electronics

P&G, the world's largest consumer products company, is a recognized leader in open innovation, developing external partnerships through its Connect+Develop program with the aim of accelerating the rate and efficiency of innovation delivery. When P&G identified compelling growth opportunities in the areas of consumer electronics, it also recognized the need for additional expertise beyond in-house capabilities to help deliver on those opportunities. PARC brought to the table a breadth of expertise and ability to innovate within industry constraints and market economics. Together, P&G and PARC have worked on prototype development, technology evaluation, and product roadmapping.

related:

• Forbes: PARC, 10 Years After Xerox Spin-Off, Says It's All About Innovation [in the news]

 

 

HexaTech
UVLEDs

Bulk AlN substrates supplier HexaTech, Inc., is working with PARC to gain our know-how and expertise in UVLEDs to move upstream towards more valuable devices.

related:

• PARC Power of 10: open innovation - client stories [video]
• PARC...Demonstrates Commitment to Accelerating Time to Market for Startups [news release]

 

 

Dentsu
ethnography services beyond marketing insight

Dentsu, Inc. holds the largest share of the Japanese advertising market and is ranked in the top 5 agency companies by Advertising Age. Dentsu Marketing Insight advances corporations. research processes and solutions with marketing research conducted for more than 5,000 projects annually. Going beyond typical market research and findings, PARC's ethnography services for Dentsu and Dentsu Marketing Insight will deliver extensive understanding of human behavior, in-depth insights, and comprehensive outlooks on people's lives/ contexts.

related:

• PARC Collaborates With Dentsu and Dentsu Marketing Insight... [news release]

 

 

Glo-USA/ glo AB
novel nanowire-based lighting

PARC is helping GLO-USA, Inc. develop device processing strategies for GLO's novel nanowire-based III-V lighting technology. This relationship highlight's PARC's ability to quickly respond to startup-customers (less than 4 weeks from initial contact to signed contract) and to invent, develop, and deliver novel technology focused on customer needs.

 

 

Sony
mobile telepresence

Leading technology and entertainment company Sony Corporation worked with PARC to strengthen its capabilities in developing products. The company wanted to gain a deeper understanding of customer practices and uncover unmet needs in the area of mobile telepresence. PARC ethnographers identified an emerging multi-connected content-sharing and communication phenomenon, which they dubbed "channel blending", and recommended specific technology opportunities for Sony to take advantage of it.

related:

• The channel blending (vs. multitasking) phenomenon and opportunities [post] 
• Uncovering new ways people use technology to connect [case study]

 

 

Thin Film Electronics
printed memory with logic

Thin Film Electronics ASA ("Thinfilm") is working with PARC to develop next-generation printed memory solutions that combine Thinfilm's memory products with PARC's printed thin-film transistor technology. Complementing each other's strengths to move the industry beyond components and towards consumer-facing applications, the two companies recently announced they produced a working prototype of the world's first printed non-volatile memory device addressed with complementary organic circuits (the organic equivalent of CMOS circuitry). This demonstration is a significant milestone toward the mass production of low-cost, low-power ubiquitous devices that are a key component of the "Internet of Things".

related:

• PARC Power of 10: disruptive innovation - client stories [video]
• Thinfilm, PARC Win FlexTech Alliance Innovation Award for Printed Addressable Memory [news release]
• Thinfilm Unveils First Scalable Printed CMOS Memory [news release]
• Thinfilm Works with PARC to Develop Next-generation Printed Memory Solutions [news release]

 

 

BASF
materials and display prototyping

BASF creates the chemistry for materials and other component products that enable multiple industry applications. With the goal of expanding beyond its existing business into new areas, the company worked with PARC to integrate transistors for backplanes and displays using BASF's portfolio of organic chemistry-based materials targeted at display manufacturers.

related:

• Enabling value-added offerings for new market [case study] 

 

 

PowerCloud Systems
networking as a service (NaaS)

PARC spin-out PowerCloud Systems is a leading software platform provider for enabling Networking as a Service (NaaS). The technology underpinning its CloudCommand platform was developed at PARC, and is supported by 10 patents in areas ranging from cloud-virtualized network controllers to usable security. PowerCloud Systems' investors include Walden Venture Capital and Javelin Venture Partners, as well as Qualcomm Ventures, which led the most recent financing round.

related:

• PARC...Demonstrates Commitment to Accelerating Time to Market for Startups [news release]
• PowerCloud Systems Secures $6 Million in Series B Funding Led by Qualcomm [client news release] 

 

 

Power Assure
data center energy management

Power Assure, Inc., a developer of power management solutions for data centers and PARC are working together to make a transformative change in the management of servers in data centers, with the ultimate goal of significantly reducing overall power consumption. The companies were awarded a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for joint product development and Power Assure's commercialization of the resulting integrated energy-efficiency solutions for large data centers.

related: 

• Collaborating to reduce each other's risk and complement expertise [case study]
• Power Assure and PARC to Virtualize Power Consumption in Data Centers [news release] 
• PARC...Demonstrates Commitment to Accelerating Time to Market for Startups [news release]

 

 

Motorola
conversation analysis study

PARC is working with Motorola Solutions on contextual intelligence technologies. PARC also helped Motorola, Inc. with an ethnography-style study to investigate sharing practices among family and friends. 

related:

• PARC Power of 10: open innovation - client stories [video]
• PARC showcases business models, not products, at 10 year anniversary [in the news]
• Using conversational insights to guide new products [case study]

 

 

Meshin
information in context

A Xerox-funded company incubated at PARC, Meshin found its original roots inside PARC research focused on engineering semantic software applications to increase the productivity of today's information workers. Using natural language processing, context-aware computing, and image recognition technologies, a team of seasoned business professionals -- supported by PARC scientists -- have created a "context-aware information services" platform to harvest a semantic "mesh" of information relationships that contextually connects disparate information across a user's information systems.

related:

• Context: the challenge... and the opportunities [video] 
• Connecting information using context [post] 

 

 

Dowa
UVLEDs

Dowa Electronics Materials Co., Ltd. acquired patents and capabilities to manufacture and develop a new category of UV-LED based products.

related:

• Entering an emerging product market through IP and new technology capability transfer [case study]

 

 

NEC
human interfaces

NEC Corporation and PARC, along with Carnegie Mellon University, collaborated to support easy-to-use human interfaces for NEC design/evaluation processes, tools, and products. In a separate engagement, PARC also worked with NEC Display Solutions, Ltd.

related:

• NEC Reinforces Human Interface Research and Development [client news release]
• Going beyond usability and incremental innovation to target new markets [case study]

 

 

Sun Microsystems / acquired by Oracle
interconnects for high-speed servers

To maintain a competitive advantage in their high-speed, high-end server market, Sun Microsystems, Inc. engaged PARC in co-development and ongoing collaboration around PARC's ClawConnect technology. 

related:

• New Innovation Models Spur Collaboration and Growth (by Frost & Sullivan) [whitepaper]

 

 

Powerset / acquired by Microsoft
natural language search

Powerset, Inc. and PARC signed an exclusive deal in 2007 to develop and commercialize breakthrough search engine technology in consumer search -- leveraging more than three decades of PARC's research and technology refinement in natural language understanding. Microsoft acquired Powerset in 2008.

related:

• Powerset (now part of Microsoft): Pioneering and deploying a breakthrough consumer product [case study] 
• Powerset and PARC Sign Exclusive Deal to Commercialize Breakthrough Search Engine Technology in Consumer Search [news release]
• PARC Natural Language Processing [media backgrounder]

 

 

Samsung
future networking technology

Building on their relationship from other joint hardware and software projects over the past 5 years, Samsung & PARC recently entered into a new engagement targeted at advancing the state of the art in future communications and networking technologies. PARC is one of the partners of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, focused on helping the company achieve its mission of leading the digital convergence movement.

related:

• Emerging Network Consortium Brings Industries Together to Innovate with Content-Centric Networking (CCN) [news release]
• CCN now supports Android

 

 

Microglyph
embedding digital data

Microglyph Technology GmbH, a provider of customized auto-ID solutions headquartered in Germany, licensed basic PARC DataGlyphs® patents to form the foundation of their proprietary Microglyph® code. PARC DataGlyphs® are an unobtrusive method of embedding computer-readable data on a variety of surfaces. Unlike most barcodes, PARC DataGlyphs® are flexible in shape and size making them suitable for curved surfaces.

 

 

SolFocus
low-cost solar CPV design

PARC announced a partnership with SolFocus, Inc. in 2006 to develop low-cost, reliable solar energy through concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) technology systems. SolFocus was incubated at PARC where it expanded its operations and funding before moving to new headquarters in 2007.

related:

• Incubating solar cleantech venture on site accelerates its time to market [case study]
• PARC Teams with SolFocus to Deliver Affordable Solar Energy [news release] 

 

 

DNP
rich media technology & more

Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd. worked with PARC to develop and deploy a context- and activity-aware system that recommends information about local area activities by matching the consumer's location, time of day, personal tastes, and more.

related:

• Creating a new media business opportunity and technology platform [case study]

• The Magitti Activity-Aware Leisure Guide: Opportunity Discovery, Innovation and New Technology Platform Development at PARC [video] 

 

 

Fujitsu
ubiquitous computing

Fujitsu Limited and PARC engaged in a multi-year joint research and co-development agreement for ubiquitous computing, as well as for other technology expertise and services. PARC also helped Fujitsu establish a Social Science Center inside Fujitsu's system development organization, helping them apply and especially adapt ethnography methods for their organizational operations and culture. Fujitsu offers ethnographic fieldwork as a service to its customers, with the goal of making visible its customers' business processes, as well as to train its own technology-oriented engineers in social science methods.

related: 

• Pioneering Ubiquitous Information Services (Fujitsu Journal) [article reprint]

 

 

Xerox
laser printing & more

Over the years, PARC has delivered lasting value to Xerox -- for example, laser printing became a multibillion-dollar business for Xerox. PARC is also the birthplace of Xerox's DocuPrint network printing software, the dual-beam lasers used in many Xerox products, and the scheduling software for the Xerox iGen3 Digital Production Press. Xerox continues to embed relevant PARC technology into its product and espectially its service offerings via its acquired company ACS, now known as Xerox Services.

related:

• From creation myth to the reality of innovation today [post]
• Being Open Powers a New Business Model [external post] 

 

 

Kirtas
book scanning technology

Kirtas Technologies, Inc. holds an exclusive license for page-turning technology developed by PARC and the Xerox Wilson Center for Research & Technology. Kirtas, a pioneer in high-quality digitization, is known for its patented automatic book scanners, software, and services which reduce the cost and overhead of mass digitization.

 

 

Gyricon
electronic reusable paper (e-paper)

Gyricon Media, Inc. was spun out in 2000 to commercialize PARC's electronic reusable paper, a document display technology that is thin, flexible, and portable like paper -- but that can be connected to a network and be reused thousands of times. Gyricon LLC closed in 2005; Xerox continues to license the e-paper display technology.

 

 

ContentGuard / acquired by Microsoft, Time Warner, Thomson/ acquired by Pendrell
digital rights management (DRM)

ContentGuard was spun-out in 2000 to develop and license software for digital rights management (DRM). Its eXtensible rights Markup Language (XrML) DRM software, developed at PARC, authorizes access to content or a network service in a language that multiple systems can read. In 2005, Microsoft, Time Warner and Thomson acquired ContentGuard. In 2011, Pendrell Technologies announced they would work with Time Warner to accelerate ContentGuard -- "a leading inventor, developer and licensor of DRM and related content distribution patents and technologies" -- to provide flexible DRM solutions for the growing digital content distribution market.

 

 

GroupFire / Outride / acquired by Google
personalized search technology

GroupFire, Inc. was spun off in 2000 to commercialize ~70 PARC IP claims covering information retrieval, personalization, contextualization, data mining, natural language semantic analysis, and artificial intelligence. GroupFire enabled personalized and simplified Internet searches by managing bookmarks and allowing access to them from any computer connected to the Internet. GroupFire later became Outride, Inc., whose intellectual property and technology was acquired by Google in 2001.

 

 

Uppercase / acquired by Microsoft
portable document reader

Uppercase, Inc. was spun out in 1998 to commercialize one of PARC's ubiquitous computing research results: a thin, lightweight, pen-based, page-oriented, network-accessible portable document-reading device (PDR) for mobile professionals. The technology was acquired by Microsoft in 2000.

 

 

dpiX
displays & sensing for digital medical imaging

Based on PARC's foundational research in amorphous silicon (a-Si), dpiX was spun out in 1996. The company became the world's leading source for high-resolution a-Si sensor arrays, and was acquired by Trixell (a Siemens Medical/ Phillips Medical/ Thomson-CSF joint venture), Planar Systems, and Varian Medical in 1999. dpiX a-Si technology provides the foundation for medical, industrial, military, and security X-ray imaging and is used by medical equipment companies worldwide.

related:

• Building an "ecosystem" to fulfill a novel technology's promise [post] 

 

 

Inxight Software / acquired by Business Objects / acquired by SAP
information visualization & knowledge extraction

Inxight Software, Inc. was spun out by PARC in 1996 to provide information visualization and knowledge extraction software. The software commercialized PARC's unique approach to information visualization by using a hyperbolic browser and other "focus+context" visualization techniques to give the user 3D views of text databases. Business Objects acquired Inxight in 2007, and was in turn acquired by SAP in 2008.

 

 

Placeware / acquired by Microsoft
web-based meeting & presentation solution

PARC's research on how a sense of place can create more meaningful interaction on the Internet resulted in the spin-out Placeware in 1996. The company provided users with a live, web-based presentation solution for field and customer communication, becoming the largest Internet meeting solutions provider. Placeware was acquired by Microsoft in 2003 to become Microsoft Office LiveMeeting.