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SRI - Banking Automation: Erma
SRI revolutionized banking with the inventions of ERMA (Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting) and magnetic ink character recognition (MICR). Together they replaced laborious manual recordkeeping with automatic processing of bank and traveler’s checks. -
SRI - Develops Shakey the robot
"Shakey" was the first mobile robot with the ability to perceive and reason about its surroundings. Shakey could perform tasks that required planning, route-finding, and the rearranging of simple objects. The robot greatly influenced modern robotics. -
Computer Mouse and Interactive Computing
Development of the mouse began in the early 1960s by SRI's Douglas Engelbart, while he was exploring the interactions between humans and computers. A single wheel or a pair of wheels was used to translate the motion of the mouse into cursor movement on the screen. Engelbart was the inventor on the basic patent for what was then called the "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System. -
Digital Fax Machine
Fax machines of the late 1960s were expensive, slow, and much larger than the desktop sizes common today. In 1970, SRI contracted with Savin, CBS Television Services, and Dacom to develop a faster, more economical solution. The prototype, called the Z-60, resulted in a digital facsimile machine that, though initially bulky, could scan, compress, and transmit data at 4,800 bits per second—fast enough to give it a clear market advanced over existing fax machines. -
Ultrasound for Medical Diagnostics
With its ability to safely image soft tissue, ultrasound has become a mainstay in medical diagnostics. The use of sound for medical imaging began in the late 1940s, largely stimulated by the development of sonar by the military following World War II. The first ultrasonic instrument built at SRI was a two-dimensional scanner that permitted imaging in three modes: reflective, transmissive, and holographic. This system produced images of a wide variety of objects with unprecedented detail. -
CCD Broadcast Camera
The first commercially available all-solid-state broadcast camera was introduced at the National Association of Broadcasters' annual show in 1984. Performance improved dramatically—images were clearer, sharper, and more detailed then ever before. Plus, backside illumination increased imager sensitivity, enabling the camera to perform well in near-dark and brig -
High-Definition Television
The Federal Communications Commission created the Digital HDTV Grand Alliance in 1993 to develop the U.S. digital television and HDTV specification. This technology was the predecessor to the ATSC digital TV standard, which became the U.S. HDTV -
Telerobotic Surgery
SRI pioneered minimally invasive telepresence surgery during the 1980s under contract to the U.S. Army. Our novel approach led to the first U.S. FDA-approved telerobotic surgical system. licensed SRI's technology, and its da Vinci system (pictured left) is the market leader in surgical robotics. -
Siri
Siri, the first virtual personal assistant, arose from decades of SRI research in artificial intelligence (AI). The technology was developed through the SRI-led Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes (CALO) project within DARPA's Personalized Assistant that Learns (PAL) program, the largest-known AI project in U.S. History, and joint work with EPFL, the Swiss institute of technology. -
National Education Technology Plan Development
The U.S. Department of Education chose SRI to lead development of an action plan to transform American education by leveraging technology's ability to support learning from any location and throughout a person's lifespan.
