Quantum Signal |
 |
| Founded: |
2000 |
| Founders: |
Prof. William J. Williams, Mitchell M. Rohde (BSE EE '94; MSE EE:S '96; MS PhD Biomed Eng '97 '00) |
| Product/Service: |
Advanced image and signal processing |
| Location: |
Saline, MI |
| Website: |
quantumsignal.com |
Our mission is to provide timely and effective mathematics-based engineering solutions of the highest quality to our clients.
We provide product design, consulting, and advanced research and development services, assisting our clients in incorporating state-of-the-art technology to yield new functionalities. Our specialty lies in developing and applying cutting edge techniques for intelligent sensing, data analysis, and visualization. Our success is gauged by the success of our customers, and we will do everything in our power to ensure all projects and technologies meet the highest standard of quality and excellence. [Quantum Signal Website, About QS] |
|
| In the News |
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|  Apr 27, 2011
Game Theory: A Q&A with Matt Toschlog
Toschlog is a bit of an auteur in the computer gaming industry. He's the guy who helped create the wildly successful '90s video game Descent. An early first-person shooter, its graphics and 3D game play were widely praised as revolutionary, inspiring two sequels, a Best Game Of The Year Award, several expansion packs, a trio of novels and even, at one point, plans to develop a television series.
In some ways Toschlog was a poster child for the self-educated computer game whiz who made good. "I started programming computers in high school and ended up doing that more than high school and pretty much flunked out," says the Ann Arborite. "Luckily, I got a job doing flight simulation video games in Champaign-Urbana when I was 19."
A native of Delaware, he learned about the job via the Plato Network System. "It was the Internet before the Internet," he explains.
For a couple of years Toschlog worked on various game projects before he got an idea for his own game. Unable to convince his colleagues to back it, he decided to split off and form Parallax Software in 1995 with partner Mike Kulas. Good move for him, missed opportunity for Looking Glass Technologies. The game sold like gangbusters and cemented Toschlog's place in the computer game history books.
Eventually, he followed his wife to Ann Arbor (she was attending grad school), where he went on to found Outrage Entertainment. The company, which was located in downtown Ann Arbor, was acquired by THQ in 2002, worked on games like Alter Echo and Red Faction, then shut down in 2003.
Toschlog spent a few years with his family, then little-by-little started working with Quantum Signal, a company founded by Mitch Rohde, who was interested in bringing game technology to the biometric and simulation work he was doing for the defense industry.
"In the past this [simulation] was very math-based and scientific and tended to look like crap," Toschlog explains. "The upper management in many companies didn't like the idea of funding "games" and would often pull the plug on simulation programs."
With the successes and advances in game technology, however, this attitude eventually changed. "Now people really get it. Back when things were more primitive it wasn't as obvious. You see something on the Xbox and say, 'wow that really looks good.' And you look at what the sim guys are doing and it looks really clunky."
Quantum Signal, which recently bought Saline's Union School for its headquarters, created the Reactor Zero division, which Toschlog heads. With a focus on game and simulation technology, his department currently employs 17 people and is trying to find the right balance between defense industry simulation work and game contracts.
Matt sat down with Jeff Meyers to talk about the state of the computer game industry in Michigan, choosing Ann Arbor as a home, the state's film incentive, and the impact of having dreadlocks. The interview was edited and condensed for publication.
Reactor Zero is relatively small for a computer gaming company. Is there room for boutique companies to survive in an industry that's dominated by giant players like Valve and UbiSoft?
That's changed since I started in the industry. Twenty years ago there were a lot of small companies doing cool stuff. Now, the games have gotten bigger and publishers are not so likely to risk $20 million or $50 million on an external developer, so a lot of stuff has been brought in-house.
One of the challenges we're having now is finding just the right niche. There are smaller game developers on Xbox Live Arcade or PlayStation Network with downloadable titles. Those are games that can be done for $1 million with 10 people in a year, which is fun. It's definitely more fun than the three-year slog with 150 people and $100 million budget. So, we're looking at what's the right scope of games for us.
Have you considered jumping on the app bandwagon?
It's too saturated and, honestly, it's not easy to make money in that market. You can get lucky. If you can create Angry Birds, then you're very happy. But it's a real crap shoot. There's a lot of games out there that sell at 99 cents and they're not making any money.
There are only a handful of local game companies - Stardock, Image Space, Scientifically Proven. It seems like it'd be tough to attract young game talent given Michigan's small footprint in the industry.
It is. On the other hand it means there's not a lot of people jumping around. If you're in Seattle or San Francisco people are always jumping from one company to another. We have more stability. People here tend to be from Michigan, they have family connections. I like that. It's good for our long term stability and it's a healthy way of life.
You've said you're pretty picky when it comes to hiring. How do you get the talent you need?
For experienced people it's very hard to get people to come to Michigan. But take the guy who was doing simulation in the other room. He came here from EA (Electronic Arts) in Florida. The typical scenario of hiring someone like him is that they're from Michigan and have a family here and want to come back, buy a house, and settle in.
When we were doing Descent 3, it was a big enough profile of a project that we could hire people based on that. Our military projects don't have the high-profile draw but technically it's pretty cutting edge stuff and I think it's satisfying to work on. You just don't get the box in the store that you can show your friends. So, yeah, moving back to Michigan and affordability are part of our hiring strategy.
Are there things Ann Arbor could be doing to attract more of the talent your industry needs?
I think Ann Arbor, in terms of culture, is a pretty good place already. It's not San Francisco or Austin but for Michigan it's certainly the place to be. We get a decent number of people out of U-M and maybe even more out of Michigan State ...and some good artists from CCS in Detroit. I think more game companies would certainly help, just to get us on the map. That's why I'm happy to see Scientifically Proven and Pixofactor starting up, because it starts to create a culture.
For younger people I think Ypsi's probably the more hip place to be with regard to nightlife and arts culture.
You could probably find more opportunities for your ideas on either coast, or in a major gaming city like Austin. Why stay in Ann Arbor? What makes this the perfect place for you?
I think there's probably some advantage to being on the coasts, but what makes Ann Arbor work for me is that it's a good place to live and good place to raise my kids. It's big enough to be interesting but not so big.
With Michigan's mantra about plugging into the new economy, the state hasn't really attracted very many game companies. It's a $9 billion-a-year industry. What could we be doing to get a better foothold?
There are tax incentives. Canada's especially good at this and they've built up quite the industry in Montreal. It's a direct credit on salaries. I think the province of Quebec pays like 30% of salaries in the gaming industry and it's really grown things there. UbiSoft is there. THQ is building a studio there. EA's got a studio there. So, there are things like that that help.
Of course, Montreal's a cool city. It'd be harder to drag those same people to Detroit. Even with the cheap housing. ...Actually, if I didn't have kids I'd probably move to Detroit. It'd be pretty exciting, right? I mean, you'd be on the ground floor.
Do Michigan's universities get the economic and cultural importance of the video game industry?
They're doing okay. Michigan State has a game program and they sponsor a conference called Meaningful Play, which is focused on the serious side of games. U-M teaches a game development class, which is something. It'd probably help to have more. I think MSU tends to bring out more people.
It seems to me like the universities are a bit slow to adapt here. The film industry is comparable in size and U-M has an entire department dedicated to its study and practice.
And gaming is getting there. The film industry has been around for 100 years and games for only 30 or 40. But we're seeing a lot more game development programs coming out. There are actually a few specific trade schools for game development.
In Michigan?
No, not in Michigan. But CCS has many game classes. And the people who come out of there are pretty thoroughly prepared to work in the game industry. We don't really have anything like that in game programming, however.
Game design is such a new field that no one's quite sure how to actually teach it. The programs for that are still being figured out. It'll be a few years.
Your company applied for a tax credit with the Michigan Film Incentive program, which was supposed to also include video game companies. You were turned down. What happened?
When you have Drew Barrymore hanging around in town that's just a lot more glamorous than anything we do. But a big part of it was that the people who run the Film Office understand film, not gaming. If you look at the application it's all about using film technology and film structure. The typical structure is that someone who wants to make a film creates a production company that's just producing that film and then they get funding. That's the model the film office understands.
That's not our model. We're here for the long term. So, when we applied for the film incentive they turned us down because they said it shouldn't have been us applying, it should have been the company who hired us since they're the funders and own the IP (intellectual property). And even though that's not in the actual law it's the typical film model.
Did they understand their own incentive? It seems like they set it up to incentivize two industries but only knew how to accommodate--
--One. Yeah. And part of the problem is that there's a Film Office that you apply to but the deal you strike is with the [Michigan Dept. of] Treasury. So even though we had film incentive guys that were very supportive of what we were doing they had to take it to Treasury. And they understand even less than the film office guys.
So, do you think the incentives are a good idea?
I think so. It hasn't been that successful for us and even with the people we've pitched to we've found that it hasn't been the sole deciding factor. We did get contacted this year by Electronic Arts when they were looking for someone to do a project here because of the incentive. Unfortunately, it was right when Governor Snyder started talking about cutting the incentive so that didn't go anywhere when it might have otherwise.
It looked to me like there was a lot of indirect economic benefit but if you looked at it as direct tax dollars back to the state it wasn't a win. But I think there's a lot of ancillary stuff that might have come from it.
What was the last great game you played?
Left 4 Dead maybe? I don't get to play as much as I'd like. I always feel like I should be playing more. There probably aren't a lot of people who feel that for their job they should be playing more video games but that's how I always feel.
Does your success with Descent define your place in the industry?
Yeah, pretty much. People still define me as the Descent guy. Between Descent and the hair, people know me.
So, let's talk about your hair. What's an advantage to having dreadlocks that most people don't realize?
If I go into a place and then return several months later people remember me. It makes things easier that way. In the game industry, when I'm at game conferences, people know me. And even just around town. My wife once introduced me to someone who later told her, "I didn't know you were married to dreadlock man."
I started the dreads in 1990. There was pressure from mom to get it cut but eventually she got used to it. I keep trying to talk my kids into dreadlocks but they refuse. ...When the 20-year mark rolled around last fall I thought it would be a good time. But I don't know. It was a really big investment.
How do your military clients view your dreadlocks?
They don't seem to care. I think part of it is, "Oh, he's the gaming guy." So I guess I fit the part. I always tell people I don't have a personality, I just have the hair. |
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© Concentrate Media. Jeff Meyers |
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 Jul 2, 2010
Quantum Signal plans to add 47 jobs after acquisition of Saline's former Union School building
Quantum Signal, whose imaging design and robotic technology have proven attractive to the U.S. military and video game companies, plans to add 47 jobs over five years in an expansion project tied to its move from Pittsfield Township to Saline.
The firm’s robots will replace students and administrators in the halls of Saline’s historic Union School, which Quantum Signal is acquiring for $425,000 in a deal the Saline Board of Education agreed to accept July 1.
| “We’ll run robots up and down the halls,” cofounder and chief operating officer Mitch Rohde said, only half-jokingly.
Quantum Signal plans to move its operation from its 14,000-square-foot headquarters on Plaza Drive near the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport to the aged 43,000-square-foot school facility sometime this fall. The Michigan Economic Development Corp.’s Michigan Economic Growth Authority Board is expected to approve a $206,083 tax credit today to support Quantum Signal’s expansion.
The growth is attributable to momentum in the 10-year-old University of Michigan spinoff company’s various military technology projects.
“It’s a great example of how it just takes a while sometimes for companies to really develop,” said Ken Nisbet, executive director of U-M’s Technology Transfer Office. “They continue to grow.”
The company cannot reveal many details about its classified projects, but its top initiatives include a software system that allows vehicles to automatically read road signs, a system the firm will show off at the Society of Automotive Engineers Convergence Conference in October. The company also programs video games through its Reactor Zero division.
Rohde said the company plans to hire programmers, digital artists, image processors and other software specialists. The firm, which once had just 1,800 square feet at its Pittsfield office, now employs 35 workers, up from 20 three years ago.
Rohde declined to discuss revenue, but in 2009 the company was starting four Phase 2 government projects collectively worth $2.9 million.
“As the number of projects has grown, so too has our staffing,” Rohde said.
Quantum Signal gets deluged with job applicants but continues to experience trouble finding qualified workers, Rohde said. That led the company to consider other locations, including the Washington D.C. region, with its proximity to the federal government, and the West Coast, with its extensive software talent.
But Rohde said the company’s local heritage and the ability to find a unique space in a business friendly city played a key role in keeping the company in the Ann Arbor region.
The company’s decision to purchase the Union School building came after a wide-ranging search.
Rohde said he toured many buildings in the Ann Arbor area - including Saline’s former R&B building, which was sold to Sun Engineering, and the city’s former Kelly’s building, which was sold to an ownership group that plans to start a new restaurant there.
Quantum Signal’s acquisition of the Union School building marks another sign of momentum for Saline’s downtown. The company’s employees will be within a short walk of the downtown’s restaurants and shops.
The Union School facility, constructed in the 1930s but since renovated for various purposes, was a unique opportunity for Quantum Signal.
Rohde said his employees liked the quirky historic aspects of the old building, including:
- The nuclear bomb shelter.
- The ‘50’s era gymnasium with hardwood floor and old bleachers. Rohde said the gym could serve as a perfect venue for its robotic tests in addition to lunchtime volleyball games. But he’s adamant that the wooden floor be carefully preserved.
-The artistic graffiti that recent students sprayed to decorate some interior walls of the building.
-The lockers that still line the hallways.
-The chemistry room that can be converted into a vehicle testing laboratory.
Quantum Signal plans minimal changes to the building’s exterior, though the company will tighten security throughout the facility due to the classified nature of its business. The company, which also gets the adjacent parking lot, plans to use the office and classroom space for various purposes.
“We don’t really have a plan just yet for every room,” Rohde said. “It’s TBD.”
Rohde said the firm also plans to renovate the building’s HVAC system to save on energy costs, since the company won’t need to use the entire building right away. The school district said it spent $150,000 to $160,000 a year to operate the building.
School officials are relocating alternative education functions and administrative offices to Liberty School on Ann Arbor-Saline Road.
Rohde is adamant that the building’s historic character be maintained and seamlessly integrated into the new use. He dismissed the suggestion that the company should conduct significant renovations.
“We have no interest in that whatsoever. We like the historical” aspects of the building, he said. “My guys are unbelievably creative, and they want to be in a space that reflects that.” |
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© AnnArbor.com. Nathan Bomey: (734) 623-2587, nathanbomey@annarbor.com |
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 May 2, 2010
Quantum Signal grows from autos to robotics
The past decade saw Ann Arbor-based Quantum Signal L.L.C. grow from a former graduate student helping a professor to commercialize some patented algorithms developed during his University of Michigan tenure, to a robotics and simulation company with 30 employees.
The company, launched in January 2000, makes robotics navigation software and simulator systems for the U.S. Army, defense prime contractors, commercial gaming companies and some automotive customers.
Company COO Mitchell Rohde said Quantum Signal and its subsidiary gaming and simulator studio company Reactor Zero, are a long way from the early days of just himself and then-UM professor William Williams, its chief scientist. By early 2008 the company had reached 20 employees, and as of early April Rohde said the headcount was 30, including 28 in Ann Arbor.
“If I had stayed with the previous plan to develop applications just for automotive, we would have slowly starved to death,” Rohde said.
“Now we have a mix of customers, and a variety of engineers, software developers, coders, some artists that help create environments.”
Quantum Signal produces software systems to aid robots in direction and navigation, much of it as a supplier to McLean, Va.-based QinetiQ North America.
Since 2004 the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center in Warren has awarded several research and development contracts to Quantum, and the Reactor Zero studio is in development on the Gaming Technology Software Initiative for TARDEC to use gaming technology in testing ground vehicles and robots.
Rohde and Reactor Zero President Matthew Toschlog have said in the past that 60 percent or more of Quantum Signal revenue is in military contracts, and 80 percent of the studio subsidiary's work was in U.S. Department of Defense contracts for military simulations. About 5 percent is automotive.
The customer mix and needs continue to change, Rohde said, and little if any business is still connected to the patent algorithms Williams sought to market at the company's inception. More than a year ago the company completed and delivered a cosmetics facial recognition and analysis system for Access Business Group, a division of Ada-based Amway Global Inc.
Last September, Reactor Zero also launched the PC platform version of “Red Faction: Guerilla,” a futuristic combat game.
Since then the company has also continued to work on improvements or modifications to both.
The company is trying to hire up to 10 more employees in the coming year. |
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© Crain's Detroit Business. Chad Halcom: chalcom@crain.com |
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Sep 15, 2009
Ann Arbor-based Quantum Signal launches first consumer video game
The first commercial release developed by Ann Arbor-based video game studio Reactor Zero hits stores today, marking the consumer launch for the four-year-old division of Ann Arbor-based robotics and simulation company Quantum Signal L.L.C.
The game is the PC version of “Red Faction: Guerrilla,” a combat game set in the year 2125. It tells the story of a conflict over increasingly scarce resources between human residents of Earth and Mars.
Champaign, Ill.-based Volition Inc., creator of the Red Faction franchise, initially developed the game for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console and Sony's Play Station 3 game system. Released in May, it has sold more than 1 million copies on those two platforms.
Reactor Zero aims to move forward by developing commercial video games for handheld systems and online arcade sites, but the company does not currently have a contract to develop another commercial video game, said Matthew Toschlog, president of the video game division.
Over the past year, about 80 percent of the studio's work came from Department of Defense contracts for military simulations, which are primarily used for engineering and training, Toschlog said.
“That gives us a separate revenue stream,” he said. “The game industry is very fickle. It's really healthy for us to have a mix of customers.”
Toschlog said Reactor Zero became involved in the Red Faction project through his longstanding relationship with the leaders of Volition. He and Volition president Mike Kulas were partners at video game company Parallax Software Corp. from 1993 until 1997, at which point Kulas formed Volition and Toschlog formed Ann Arbor-based Outrage Entertainment Inc.
Both companies were bought by Agoura Hills, Calif.-based video game company THQ Inc. in 2000. Outrage Entertainment was shut down in 2004, leading Toschlog to start Reactor Zero as a division of Quantum Signal the following year.
Reactor Zero is the 15th largest digital media company in Southeast Michigan, according to an August ranking by Crain's. |
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© Crain's Detroit Business. Gabe Nelson |
|
 Tech Transfer Success Story
In the late 1980s, signal processing specialist and UM Engineering Professor William J. Williams received an unusual request from the Office of Naval Research.
Would he be willing to work with biologists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute to create a system for identifying the voice patterns of individual sperm whales? Intrigued, Dr. Williams accepted the challenge and created a successful software program. It was some time later that he learned of the real application for the technology: monitoring Soviet submarines.
| According to Williams' former student, Dr. Mitchell Rohde, that story reflects the core mission of Quantum Signal, a company founded by Williams and Rohde. "Our goal is to take technology out of the ivory tower and bring it into the mainstream," he says. "We do that through consulting and education as well as through the development of core tools and technologies. The beauty of signal processing is that the systems we develop are cross-functional and can be used to solve a huge array of problems." As for example, he notes that an algorithm developed by Quantum Signal for identifying particular words in multiple-format documents is being adapted for use in advanced security systems based on face recognition.
Williams and Rohde are the first to admit that, in the past, relatively few industries realized the potential of signal processing, or understood how the math-based analysis of signals and sensor data could solve their problems. But that's changing quickly. In the past three years, Quantum Signal has worked with clients in manufacturing, health care, power generation, automotive design, and national security. Currently, their superb track record in face recognition, speaker verification and similar biometrics technologies is generating favorable interest in industry and at the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST), which is reviewing one of their proposals.
"UM Tech Transfer has been a very good partner for us," says Williams. "They encouraged us to create a start-up company. They understand the needs of a small business. They're accommodating about technology licenses." He pauses for a second, then adds, "And they've always seemed genuinely interested in helping us succeed." |
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© UM Tech Transfer |
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Aug 18, 2008
Military robots bringing civilian jobs to region
In areas of combat, military officials said they have an easy mnemonic for the set of duties they generally assign to robots: “dull, dirty or dangerous.”
In Southeast Michigan, robots may soon serve a fourth function: development.
Robotic ground-vehicle projects will be responsible for at least 109 new local jobs in Southeast Michigan by next year and perhaps more than double that by the middle of the next decade, according to defense contractors and military officers at two robotics conferences held in Troy and Ann Arbor last week.
Col. James Braden, project manager of the Robotics Systems Joint Project Office at the U.S. Army Tacom Life Cycle Management Command in Warren, said his office has been hiring civilian employees such as engineers and designers since the Army relocated robotics from Alabama to Michigan last year.
The RSJPO had a staff of 36 people as of Friday and Braden said he hoped to reach the full staff of 66 by next year.
“We have one (civilian) employee who was convinced to transfer up here,” Braden said.
“For the rest, we've been doing a bit of hiring and transferring from within TARDEC (Tank-Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center, in Warren), but we're also managing to hire some good people who came over from the automotive industry.”
Formerly stationed in Huntsville, Ala., robotics transferred to Warren as part of a series of consolidations adopted by the federal Base Realignment and Closure commission in 2005-06.
The unit consists of Braden, a Marine, four Army officers and 61 civilian employees, many of whom will be new hires.
Also new to Southeast Michigan is the Joint Center for Robotics, established at TARDEC in October 2006 and overseeing research and development related to robotics projects. Jim Overholt, director of the JCR office, said the military's new focus on Michigan for robotics is prompting some defense contractor companies to follow suit.
Colleges and universities also are getting involved, Overholt said. TARDEC recently appropriated $3.9 million to assist research projects at seven Michigan colleges, and the University of Michigan announced last week it is using a portion of that funding to establish the Ground Robotics Research Center, to be housed in the Herbert H. Dow building on UM's campus.
The school also is establishing a new master's degree program in robotics as part of its College of Engineering, and expects to create three or four new faculty positions to staff the new robotics center, said engineering Dean David Munson, Jr.
“The region has lost a good deal of manufacturing and blue-collar jobs, but Southeast Michigan still remains the capital of innovation in the world's auto industry,” Munson said. “This is one of many ways to leverage that (talent).”
The U.S. Department of Defense has gone from using virtually no military ground robotics in the months immediately preceding the March 2003 deployment into Iraq to having 5,000 units deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, Braden and Overholt said.
It's possible that number could double by year's end, Overholt said.
About 1,700 robotic units thus far have been furnished by Bedford, Mass.-based iRobot Corp., which is looking to establish a local office somewhere near Tacom in Warren.
“Our customer is there,” said Nancy Smith, vice president of marketing for iRobot. “So it is important to be positioned to confer with and respond to them on a daily basis.”
Also contemplating a Michigan location is Waltham, Mass.-based Foster Miler Inc., a division of QinetiQ North America and makers of the Talon family of explosive-ordnance disposal robots, Braden and Overholt said.
In the past four years, TARDEC also has awarded several research and development contracts to Ann Arbor-based Quantum Signal L.L.C., which makes image processing systems such as facial recognition software and also produces software systems to aid robots in direction and navigation.
Mitchell Rohde, COO of Quantum Signal, said military contracts comprise about 60 percent of his company's workload and revenue, with the remaining 40 percent having private commercial application.
The company expects to grow from its current 20 or so employees to about 30 by next fall and 40 by the end of 2009, Rohde said, with military robotics driving most of that new growth.
Through its Maryland subsidiary, General Dynamics Robotic Systems, Sterling Heights-based General Dynamics Land Systems also makes some robotic navigation systems, but Rohde said GDRS could only be loosely defined as a competitor.
“To be honest, the field is too much in its infancy right now for any of us to see it that way,” he said.
Northrop Grumman Remotec, a robotics division of Northrop Grumman Corp. with offices in Troy, also has added a small local presence since the RSJPO relocated, Braden said. A separate division of Braden's office, the Joint Robotics Repair and Fielding office, is expected to add 20 employees soon to the Tacom complex in Warren. |
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© Crain's Detroit Business. Chad Halcom: chalcom@crain.com |
|
 Oct 11, 2007
Product innovator: Quantum Signal LLC
No, the robot didn't have a party. Neither did the employees.
At Quantum Signal LLC, confetti is serious business. In a small way, it's helping the Ann Arbor-based advanced engineering firm conduct its research for a project designed to develop robotic vision technology that could eventually be deployed in battleground scenarios.
| In an office tucked in a corner at Quantum Signal's cramped headquarters on Plaza Drive, confetti is strewn about on the floor and a robot is sitting quietly next to a computer desk.
The office serves as a training ground of sorts. Engineers test software by operating a robot in the office.
The problem is that in war, the ground isn't carpeted.
"The carpet is far too smooth and has no texture," said Mitchell Rohde, co-founder and CEO of Quantum Signal. "We want to temporarily emulate the outside by adding confetti to the floor."
At Quantum Signal, an innovative mix of advanced technology and creative ideas has driven growth. The company expects to move into a new office in Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti soon, doubling its space to about 8,000 square feet.
The company, which employs 20 full-time workers, has added about five in the past year. And Rohde is on a mission to hire another four to five within the next six months.
But given that developing vision technology for robots is one of the greatest challenges in the industry, it's difficult to find adequately trained employees easily.
"It takes core expertise in both math and engineering and software that is quite honestly very hard to find, which is why I spend a very long time recruiting," Rohde said. "We bring to the table some very highly skilled folks from the industry."
Quantum Signal's most high-profile program is its PointCom system, a robotic control system that has reached the Small Business Innovative Research grant Phase 3 stage.
The system would allow a soldier to control a robot through a PDA-like tablet. Ideally, the tablet would display what the robot sees and the soldier would be able to use a pen to click to the screen, representing where the robot should travel next.
"The profile of this project is growing within Army circles," Rohde said.
Developing the vision technology involves the successful integration of obstacle detection and avoidance, a significant challenge.
Nonetheless, Rohde said, the system could be ready to be rolled out in the field within a few years.
Quantum Signal is using its expertise in video game technology to advance its defense contracts and its industry-based research. The company has a video game technology division called Reactor Zero that has been developing a game expected to be released next year.
Rohde declined to provide specifics about the game but said it was for one of the major video game consoles.
Video game technology is changing the way the military approaches simulation exercises. The technology has become quite advanced and realistic, primarily because of market demands. Now the military sees it as a tool.
Quantum Signal melds its video game technology expertise with its robotics software knowledge in its development projects.
"When you're looking at simulation, video game technology is essential. And the requirements and the threshold for commercial video games are very high," Rohde said. "Kids have a very high threshold for what they accept and think is cool."
Developing a culture of innovation isn't a challenge at Quantum Signal. The company gives its employees the flexibility to develop new ideas, even when it doesn't fit with the general direction of the company - primarily because that's how some of its best technology is generated.
"People have the freedom to pursue ideas, and in the end we're going to benefit," Rohde said. |
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@ Mlive.com, Ann Arbor Business Review. mtkolar |
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