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Programmer seems to have a technology that does everything
By Rachel Melcer
Of the Post-Dispatch
Monday, Jul. 05 2004

Steven Thaler, founder of Imagination Engines Inc. in Maryland Heights, says he
has a unique challenge: figuring out what to do with a technology that does
everything.

He and his supporters say his creation, a computer program called the
Creativity Machine, has huge economic potential. It could be the first
successful form of artificial intelligence, a machine that learns and thinks by
simulating the human brain's activity.

Thaler, 52, has used the program to compose music, to coin words, to invent a
new type of toothbrush and to detect patterns in seemingly random series of
events. It has enabled a cockroach-like robot to learn to walk, and it shows
potential for instantly spotting structural problems in items rapidly rolling
off a manufacturing line.

"This is vast technology," Thaler said. "With it, you can get into any
conceivable human enterprise. ... But how do you write a business plan for a
company that wants to do everything in the world?"

He has lots of ideas. And the pool grows on the fourth Friday of each month,
when he invites potential partners for a technology briefing. The sessions
typically end with a few new business concepts, but Imagination Engines lacks
the resources to pursue all of them.

The company, with about eight local employees, expects to bring in nearly $4
million this year. Ninety percent of the cash is coming through
technology-development contracts from government agencies, with the rest from
private-sector projects.

Imagination Engines also is experimenting with spinoff companies that license
the core technology and adapt it for specific uses. Thaler said these are
structured and managed by his "business architect," John Stann, president of
Stann Financial LLC in Sunset Hills.

The first spinoff, Synaptrix Financial Prediction LLC, was created last year as
a partner for Stann Financial. It aims to analyze a real-time flow of
information on trades in the financial markets to predict the best time to buy
or sell a particular stock.

The project showed early promise, reaching a 60 percent to 65 percent accuracy
rate, but it stalled over problems with the information feed and the need to
refine its programming, Stann said. If he can persuade Thaler to devote the
needed resources, Stann said, it still can be made to work.

"He's a smart guy, but he's not very business oriented," Stann said. "If we
could get him to focus for six months on something, I'm sure we could get him
to be successful."

Thaler admits that he's spread "molecule thin."

He wants to see his technology developed and used, but he doesn't want to spend
time running each venture. "This is the problem, writing business plans for all
these different companies and going out and getting investment."

Most investors don't understand the Creativity Machine, he said, and those who
do want to take it over. Each potential partner who comes along wants to be his
only priority.

"They don't want ideas; they want management," he said.

Thaler, more scientist and dreamer than entrepreneur, said he sees running a
business as a financial necessity. It is the means to his end: spreading a
revolutionary technology that he believes will change life for humankind.

"He's a science-fiction kind of guy," Stann said.

Still, Thaler is finding real-world applications.

Synaptrix Parts Inspection LLC, another of his spinoffs, combines an ordinary
video camera with the Creativity Machine's neural network and custom software
to perform quality-control checks in manufacturing. The system is "shown" a
variety of objects that it can learn to instantly identify for sorting or to
use as an ideal to spot defects and variations.

A manufacturer of fittings and parts for water and natural gas flow-control
systems is in talks with Synaptrix Parts Inspection, Thaler said. Though he
could not yet identify the company, he expects it to be Synaptrix Parts' first
customer.

A company in Troy, Mich., that makes advanced systems for the auto industry is
interested in developing a system that can detect and identify objects around a
vehicle, Thaler said. It could prevent accidents by "seeing" and warning of a
small child or animal in a car's blind spot as a driver backs up or of a hazard
in the road ahead.

A contract for the system has been drawn up and awaits signatures, Thaler said.

On the government side, Imagination Engines is part of a consortium developing
an airport-security system for the Department of Homeland Security. The group
recently got an 18-month, $800,000 grant to design and test a series of smart
sensors at an airport in Butte, Mont.

The system would be able to identify vehicles on airport property, monitor
them, spot and warn of suspicious activity, Thaler said.

Richard Donovan, an assistant professor of engineering at Montana Tech of the
University of Montana, is overseeing the business consortium through the Rocky
Mountain Agile Virtual Enterprises Technical Development Center. He saw Thaler
speak at an international conference on neural networks.

"I immediately saw the value of what Steve is doing," he said. "His approach
has a unique feature in that it can really analyze by itself and classify
things that you didn't even think were in the set" of items to watch for.

Existing sensor networks can detect specific items if a programmer has input
information on the item and classified it as a concern. But programmers cannot
anticipate every type of vehicle and variable at a busy airport, Donovan said.

Thaler's network has the potential, for example, to identify a truck as a
rental, notice that its tires are compressed and the engine is laboring -
indicating a heavy load - and see that the driver has left it idling for an
unusual amount of time.

"It's real fun stuff to do, but it's also really important work," Donovan said.

The Butte airport has nine flights a day. Yet under federal law, it must have
the same security features as a major hub, but with a much smaller budget.

"There are special challenges for these small airports. They don't have the
resources to throw people at it. So, what we're trying to do is throw
technology at it," Donovan said.

Imagination Engines' technology could fill in for people in a variety of
important ways, Thaler said.

The company recently got a Phase II grant of nearly $750,000 from the Defense
Department to continue developing bunker-buster robots. These robots, combined
with Thaler's neural network, eventually could replace soldiers in infiltrating
unfamiliar or hazardous areas, he said. They could map safe routes, identify
and count munitions and troop strength or find individuals of concern.

Thaler said these applications are just the tip of the iceberg. The true
potential of his technology will take decades to develop, and he doubts that he
will live to see it realized.

"I'll make a comfortable living, but I won't reach my goal," he said. "My
objective is to be the company that does everything in the world."

Reporter Rachel Melcer
E-mail: rmelcer@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8394