Kia Silverbrook

Kia Silverbrook (born 1958) is an Australian inventor, scientist, and serial entrepreneur. He is the most prolific inventor in the world,^[1] and has been granted 4,665^[2] US utility patents as of 26 March 2014. Internationally, he has 9,874^[3] patents or patent applications registered at the international patent document database (INPADOC).^{[lower-alpha 1]} Silverbrook has founded companies and developed products in a wide range of disciplines, including computer graphics, video and audio production, scientific computing, factory automation, digital printing, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), molecular electronics, internet software, content management, genetic analysis, MEMS devices, security inks, photovoltaic solar cells, and interactive paper.^[4]

Silverbrook has made numerous inventions in the fields of digital music synthesis, digital video, digital printing, digital paper, internet commerce, computer graphics, liquid crystal displays, robotics, 3D printing, organic chemistry, DNA analysis, lab-on-a-chip, solar photovoltaics, software, image processing, microelectromechanical systems, mechanical engineering, cryptography, sensors, nanotechnology, microfluidics, polymers, fault tolerance, parallel processing, semiconductor fabrication, and integrated circuit (chip) architecture.^[2][3][5]

Prolific inventor

Silverbrook became the world's most prolific inventor on 26 February 2008, when he passed Japanese inventor Shunpei Yamazaki.^[6] Yamazaki had previously passed Thomas Edison, who had widely been known as the world's most prolific inventor.^[7] The top five inventors, ranked by number of worldwide utility patent families, are shown in the following table:

Inventor	# of Patent Families	Country	Ref
Kia Silverbrook	4711	Australia	[1][2][8]
Shunpei Yamazaki	4063	Japan	[8][9]
Paul Lapstun	1276	Australia	[8][10]
Gurtej Sandhu	1170	India	[11][12]
Lowell Wood	1094	United States	[8]

This table was last updated on 7 July 2015.

Early life

Silverbrook was born in 1958 in Australia. In 1977 he started at Fairlight Instruments, the developers of the first polyphonic digital sampling synthesizer, the Fairlight CMI. While at Fairlight, he invented and developed the Fairlight CVI, a real-time video effects computer released in 1984.^[13] He remained employed by Fairlight Instruments until 1985.

In 1985, Silverbrook founded Integrated Arts, a parallel processing and computer graphics company using the Inmos transputer. Silverbrook was Managing Director (Australian equivalent of US CEO) of Integrated Arts until 1990.

In 1990 an Australian research subsidiary of the Japanese electronics company Canon was formed, named Canon Information Systems Research Australia (CiSRA).^[14] Silverbrook was Executive Director of CiSRA from its inception until 1994.

Netpage

Silverbrook is Founder and CEO of Netpage, a company based on technology originally patented by Silverbrook Research in 1999.^[15] Netpage is a software system and infrastructure which makes printed paper interactive. It has multiple manifestations, including digital pens, digital paper, and augmented reality interfaces, such as the Netpage mobile app. The app uses image recognition technology to recognise content on Netpage-enabled printed pages, and then serves up a "digital twin" of the recognized page.^[16] The digital twin contains enhanced functionality such as the ability to share the page via social media sites (e.g. Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter), the ability to purchase products, watch embedded videos, follow hyperlinks, translate text, download and attach files, and other functionality.^[17]

Any iOS or Android smartphone acts as the mouse, and the printed surface acts as the screen. When in use, the Netpage universal print browser app looks like the smartphone is displaying a camera view of the printed page, but is actually displaying a digital web page (the digital twin) styled to mimic the printed page and rendered in real time. The digital twin can have as many web links and features as required, allowing the printed surface to have identical functionality to that possible on a web page displayed on a touch screen device.

The technology launched in Esquire magazine, which is published by Hearst, in the December 2012 edition as reported by the Wall Street Journal^[18] and Mashable.^[19] The research project is conducted in Australia by Australian researchers and with Australian funding.

Geneasys

Silverbrook is Founder and Chairman of Australian company Geneasys^[20] (Genetic Analysis Systems), which is developing "KeyLab" a new class of medical diagnostic device which analyses multiple diseases from DNA using a standard smartphone. The stated goal of Geneasys is "to equip medical professionals, primary care workers, aid workers, veterinarians, military personnel and private citizens with a simple to use, low cost, and highly accurate diagnostic devices".^[21] Geneasys hopes that "through the proliferation of the KeyLab device, the spread of infectious diseases and deaths caused by preventable diseases will be reduced as the scope and reach of healthcare is universally increased". KeyLab is a low cost disposable device that plugs directly into the USB port of a smartphone or personal computer, and simultaneously detects up to 48 infectious or hereditary diseases from the genetic material in a sample. It has 12 channels of independent RNA or DNA amplification, each capable of amplifying 4 DNA or RNA sequences, and has 1080 DNA hybridization probes, sensed by a disposable CMOS image sensor included in the KeyLab. It uses ECL (Electrochemiluminescence) detection to eliminate the need for a laser or other light source, and has SNP (Single-nucleotide polymorphism) level discrimination between DNA sequences, which would allow it to, for example, determine which strain of influenza was present. It is fully self-contained, and requires no sample preparation or reading machine (other than a standard smartphone). It is intended to be sufficiently cheap, reliable and easy to use that it can transform medicine in developing, as well as developed, nations. The research project is conducted in Australia by Australian researchers and with Australian funding.

Silverbrook Research

In 1994 Silverbrook co-founded Silverbrook Research,^[22] an Australian research and development and invention licensing company. He is chairman and CEO of Silverbrook Research, which is the developer of the Memjet^[23] printer technology, the Hyperlabel^[24] alternative to RFID, and the Netpage^[25] viewer and digital pen technologies, among others. Since 2001, Silverbrook Research has appeared in the annual listings of the top 200 global companies, as ranked by US patents, climbing as high as the 28th rank in 2008.

On 16 April 2014 a liquidator was appointed to wind up Worldwide Specialty Property Services Pty Ltd (formerly trading as Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd).

In 2011 Silverbrook Research was assigned 812 US utility patents, more than half of the total of 1,533^[37] US utility patents assigned to Australian entities in that year.

Superlattice Solar

In 2011 Silverbrook founded Superlattice Solar,^[20] a thin-film solar photovoltaic company targeting an installed cost-per-watt, including balance of systems, sufficiently low for new solar photovoltaic installations to undercut the cost of keeping existing fossil fuel or nuclear power plants operating.

Memjet

In 2002 Silverbrook co-founded Memjet,^[23] a printer technology company. Prototype printers were demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2011),^[38] and announced by such major companies as LG, Fuji Xerox, Canon, Toshiba, Lenovo, Océ and Medion. The Memjet technology has won various awards, including Popular Science's "Best of what's new - 2011" and the Edison Awards 2012 Gold Medal.^[39][40]

In March 2012, the George Kaiser Family Foundation (principal investor in Memjet) filed a lawsuit against Silverbrook and Silverbrook Research, alleging fraud and seeking to gain control of the Memjet patent portfolio, numbering over 4,000 patents.^[41] Silverbrook's response to the lawsuit characterized it as "part of a hardball commercial negotiation".^[42] In May 2012, a settlement was announced under which Memjet acquired control of the technology and Silverbrook remained a special advisor to Memjet. All legal claims were withdrawn.^[43]

International patents

A search of the international patent document database (INPADOC) reveals 9,874^[3] patent documents. The INPADOC database includes patent applications that have not yet been granted, as well as some duplication of patents for different countries, so it gives an overestimate of the number of separate inventions.

Scientific publications

Silverbrook is co-author of a number of papers in the Journal of Chemical Physics, Chemical Physics Letters, and the Journal of Physical Chemistry B. These papers are in the area of carbon nanotubes and the electronic properties of molecular systems.

Media coverage

• On 13 December 2005 USA Today published a list of "the top 10 living U.S. patent holders".^[44] At the time, Silverbrook was ranked third, with 801 U.S. patents.
• On 15 October 2007 Condé Nast Portfolio Magazine published an article about "the world's most prolific inventors alive".^[45] At the time, Silverbrook was ranked second, with 1646 U.S. patents.
• On 7 January 2011 The Washington Times published an article titled: "Inkjet, laser, Memjet? Fast color printers on tap".^[46] This article discusses the announcement of Memjet printers for the office market at CES 2011.
• On 10 January 2011 IFI Claims published an article: "Top Global Companies Ranked By 2010 U.S. Patents".^[47] This article ranked Silverbrook Research at number 34 in U.S. patents for 2010, amongst all global companies.
• On 6 May 2011, Business Insider published an article titled: "The Ten Greatest Inventors In The Modern Era".^[8] At the time, Silverbrook was ranked first, with 3847 U.S. utility patents.
• On 9 June 2011 PC Magazine published an article titled: "The Best Inventions of 2011 ... So Far".^[48] One of Silverbrook's inventions ("Point and Print", US 7878646 ) is one of ten listed inventions.
• Strutpatent.com has published a list of the top ten inventors for every week, month, and year since 2007. Silverbrook is listed first for each year.^{[49][50][51][52][53][54]}
• Silverbrook was invited by Singapore's A*Star to speak as the 5th Distinguished Technopreneur Speaker (DTS) on September 2012 ^[4][55]

Notes

See also

• List of prolific inventors

References

External links

• Silverbrook Research
• Netpage
• Geneasys