Bangor Daily News - Saturday, April 01, 2006

Imagine pointing your cell phone at a house for sale, reading some information about the property on your phone display screen, and later having more information about the house automatically e-mailed to you at home. Or say you're a police officer working after dark and looking for a particular house. You could use your cell phone to identify the address of a property, who lives there and whether or not any of its residents are licensed to carry firearms. Or maybe you're a traveler on the road and are looking for a motel with a swimming pool. Just point your cell phone at the building and find out if it has one.

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These are the type of scenarios that Orono-based Intelligent Spatial Technologies hopes to demonstrate it can handle effectively when it goes to a geospatial technology competition next week in Las Vegas, according to IST chief executive officer Chris Frank. Navteq, a digital mapping firm from Chicago that provides the information databases used in most car navigation systems, is sponsoring the event.

Should IST do the best job at demonstrating these capabilities, Frank said earlier this week, it could come back with $50,000 cash, $75,000 worth of Navteq data to use in its software applications, and perhaps a shot at landing a contract with a major cell phone service provider.

Needless to say, if something good happens to IST in Vegas, Frank, 29, hopes it doesn't stay there. The Orono resident said he would like to see the technology that IST has been working on for the past three years end up everywhere cell phones or similar hand-held digital devices are used.

"We're trying to get as much out of there as we can," he said. "If things go well, I foresee the rockets about to take off."

IST was one of more than 100 firms that applied to take part in the competition and about a dozen made the cut, Frank said. In Las Vegas, the company hopes to impress a panel of judges made up of cell phone company executives and geospatial technology experts.

"It's great, whether or not we win, just to be talking to these people," Frank said.

Frank, a University of Maine graduate who last month was named the U.S. Small Business Administration's Maine Young Entrepreneur of the Year, said the same technology can be used in other types of scenarios. Theme park patrons could use it to find out about nearby attractions. Students and visitors at universities could use it to learn more about the local campuses. Sightseers could use the technology to glean information about historical sites and neighborhoods.

"Even Vegas itself," Frank said, could be a place where the technology would be put to good use by tourists trying to learn more about the city's hotels, restaurants and casinos.

Businesses or organizations that provide information posted on such a network will be able to address the ever-changing needs of their customers by tracking the interests of the network's users, he said.

According to Frank, the idea behind IST's iPointer software is to combine global positioning satellite technology, digital Compass technology, and its own database into a wireless system that gives mobile users access to multimedia information about nearby landmarks. Frank said Internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo! feel that they have done as much with the desktop computer format as they can and are looking to expand to mobile wireless technology.

IST likely will contract first with content providers such as real estate listings or map companies when it introduces its product to the market, according to Frank. As the service becomes more commonplace, he said, it could end up being sold directly to consumers for a few extra dollars on their monthly cell phone bills.

The company has built hardware prototypes with parts purchased at Radio Shack to show how the technology works, he said, but has always intended to specialize in software.

"We never really planned to be a hardware company," Frank said. "Our focus will be on the data service."

If cell phone companies can be sold on the technology, he said, it is hoped that phone manufacturers eventually would include all the necessary hardware in their products.

The company has trademarked the iPointer name for its software and applied for two patents, according to Frank. A third patent application is close to being sent off to federal regulators, he said, but likely will not be approved for some time.

"It takes three to five years, they tell me," Frank said.

The company is looking for capital investment to help it through the next stage of development, he said. IST has hired a consultant to help it establish relationships with cell phone service providers and has just brought in a fifth employee and partner.

Jerry King, formerly of Progress Software in Bedford, Mass., has been named IST's president and chief operating officer and will head up the firm's sales, marketing and business operations, Frank said.