'Stars aligning' for rapid growth at Time Domain

Defense, health care deals show technology's range

Huntsville-based Time Domain's new technology is finding uses in areas as broad as a battleground, as contained as a hospital room.

The company's ultrawideband wireless technology has been tapped by Parco Merged Media Corp. of Portland, Maine, to develop real-time locating systems, or RTLS, for the health care industry.

Time Domain is also developing a wireless sensing system for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the Pentagon's central research and development organization.

Time Domain's ultrawideband technology uses the transmission of very short pulses of radio frequency over a wide spectrum of frequency bands. The technology enables users to see through walls and other solid surfaces.

William Webb, Time Domain's president and CEO, said the time appears to be right for the technology and the company's business plan to launch into a period of growth.

"The stars are aligning," Webb said. "We've cleared the path to success."

Under an exclusive license agreement with Parco, Time Domain will provide locating systems for hospitals, nursing homes and other medical facilities to monitor work flow, equipment and inventory. Time Domain's product includes motion detectors and tags that can be placed on equipment, infants or patients with dementia to ensure they don't stray from their designated zones.

Parco develops software allowing health care entities to integrate new tracking systems with existing software.

"Parco realized ultrawideband was the only way to track precisely," said Adrian Jennings, Time Domain's chief technology officer. He said RTLS can track items within a foot of their location.

"Other technology tells you which room something is in, but not where in the room," he said.

Jennings said ultrawideband technology can be particularly useful in keeping track of equipment such as intravenous infusion pumps, which many hospitals tend to overstock by 10 percent to 15 percent be-cause some machines go missing. Systems also can be set up to track if a pump has been cleaned before it's used again, helping prevent infections, Jennings said.

The Defense Department contract is an award of up to $5.1 million through BBN Technologies, the prime contractor, based in Cambridge, Mass. Time Domain will provide a wireless network of sensor devices, about the size of a deck of playing cards, that can be dropped from a plane to form a force field to detect intruders. Each device is capable of radar sensing and communication with other devices in the field.

The system can provide security in a battlefield overseas, around the perimeter of a U.S. airport or along a border between nations, Jennings said.

Webb said the system also can be used to track military supplies in the field, which often get lost or confused with other items.

"Tracking is a trillion-dollar problem," he said. "In Desert Storm, they left pallets in the desert, and no one knew what was there."

Rachel Reinhardt, Time Domain's vice president of technology development services, said the Parco products should begin shipping in September. The Defense Department project is expected to be ready late next year.

The company is poised to produce hundreds of thousands of units in 2007, possibly millions of units by 2008, Jennings said. That type of demand has Time Domain moving from low-volume, on-site production to working with a factory in Tampa, Fla., for the tracking devices.

"Industry increasingly understands the value of ultrawideband," Webb said. "There are major players coming to us, but it's still challenging."