The Shape Of Things To Come

Necessity, that great mother of invention, played her role in the creation of DeepStream Technologies. Chief executive Mark Crosier and his core team found it necessary to get work in 2003 after losing their jobs. They became surplus to needs when Eaton Corp., an electrical company based in Cleveland, Ohio, bought the part of Delta Corp. where they worked. "Our whole team was severed in a redundancy, and we decided to design and build a business rather than all pursue our separate ways," recalls Crosier.

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That business is pliable, flexible sensors. (Think Silly Putty with a circuit.) DeepStream, in Bangor, Wales, has invented a way to fit sensors into any nook or cranny in order to do everything from reducing commercial energy consumption to monitoring sugar levels in the bloodstream.

Sensors — devices that detect environmental changes — have been around forever in analog form. Traditional thermometers, for instance, use mercury that rises and falls as it responds to temperature changes. More recently, in the information-technology age, network-linked digital sensors are starting to take note of everything from soil conditions to water pollutants to electricity usage. Measurement equals management. The idea is to get optimal use of such resources as fertilizers and energy. But one restriction on modern sensors is that they are built with rigid materials like hard plastic and metal, which give them shape and volume, restricting where they fit.

DeepStream's pliable digital sensors overcome that limitation. "Instead of being flat and planar, we can mold them into any imaginable shape or topology, so now you can get into very awkward and difficult spaces," says Crosier. Another advantage: the materials are resistant to hazards like high temperatures and toxins.

The company typically uses moldable plastic over several layers of metal, but the details depend on the application. Creating the sensors hasn't been easy. Vice president of engineering Jonathan Luke says that rather than any one eureka moment, there has been "a lot of trial and error" — right out of the Thomas Edison playbook.

About 90 venture capitalists turned down the opportunity to fund DeepStream before London-based Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures led a $19 million round. Crosier says the company is in preproduction mode with some electrical-equipment vendors (he declines to identify them) that could become full-blown production deals by early next year.

The potential uses of DeepStream's technology are endless. The company envisions sensors that detect wasted motor motion, power surges, electrical loss, overheating and unnecessary lighting — leading to vast improvements in efficiency, perhaps saving half a billion tons of carbon emissions in Britain alone each year. "Energy sensors are going to be a massive part of our future," says Crosier. Perhaps Eaton would like to buy some?