ATLANTA – NextInput, an Atlanta-based technology development company focused on creating new methods of human-machine interaction, received a $150,000 Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). NextInput may receive over $1,000,000 in grant funding by participating in the three phase SBIR program with the NSF.
SBIR grants fund high-tech research jobs
NextInput has developed force and pressure sensitive touch technologies based on MEMS sensors, an innovative new way of interacting with electronic devices. NextInput’s patent-pending technology, called ForceTouch® provides a tactile, force or pressure sensitive method of interfacing with virtually any electronic device. The NSF SBIR program is intended to provide commercialization funds to the top small businesses researching high-risk, high-reward emerging technologies.
“This SBIR grant from the NSF is important for a number of reasons,” says Don Metzger, NextInput CEO. “Aside from the additional resources that will go directly to research and development and job growth in the high-tech sector, this grant is a strong statement about the viability of NextInput’s technology and our commercialization plans.”
NextInput intends to use the Phase 1 SBIR grant funds to continue refinement of its MEMS-based sensor technology for touch interface applications. NextInput is working closely with the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), the Georgia Tech Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, and the Georgia Tech Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics to commercialize force-sensitive touch technology for smartphones, tablets, laptops, automotive interfaces, and a variety of other touch interface applications.
Links to Additional Information:
About Small Business Innovation and Research grants
About the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
About the Georgia Tech Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology