Consumer Products

Our team helps clients in the complete cycle of innovation – from identification of a market to product design and production prototype. SRI helps clients resolve pressing engineering and technology roadblocks to develop innovative consumer products by exploiting our core competencies in electromechanical engineering, printing technologies, design for manufacturability, and intelligent embedded system and signal processing technologies. Our work helps companies change the rules of competition, recast leadership lines, and realize top-line growth.

Coffee Maker

SRI worked with an entrepreneur to break new ground in the home-appliance coffee-making industry. The objective was to give the owner full control over the flavor of the coffee by allowing the brewing time to be adjusted independently of the volume of coffee to be brewed. The client and SRI consulted industry experts to define optimal parameters for brewing the most flavorful cup of coffee. These findings guided the design and development of the prototype brewer. SRI created a full demonstration prototype for evaluation by potential licensers and manufacturers.

Home Bill-paying System

VISA turned to SRI's expertise in product development and printing and optical/magnetic encoder technologies to perform a technical and cost evaluation of a bar code bill-paying system concept. The system would allow consumers to pay their bills from home. SRI structured a team, including management consultants with expertise in the financial and information technology areas, to understand the overall system concept and study how bar code technology, print quality, and card reader designs could be used in a cost-effective product that would improve customer service.

Smart Cards

SRI has worked with Drexler Technology since the early 1980s to develop memory systems using a patented optical recording material, Drexon®, for commercial applications in the smart card industry. The close strategic collaboration with SRI resulted in four different card drivers for various applications,based on innovative "laserbit" optical card memory technology.