| Date |
Headline |
| July 14, 2009 |
WCJB Television 20- Gainesville: Interview with Audigence President/CEO Lee Krause |
| June 5, 2009 |
New Sound of Hearing Aids: Audigence's Technology Could Change How Hearing is Tested and Corrected |
| June 2, 2009 |
Ivanhoe Broadcast News Script - Medical Breakthroughs "Fine Tuning for Hearing Impaired" |
| February 24, 2009 |
Tilling the Economic Garden |
| February 13, 2009 |
Start-up Tunes In On Hearing Devices |
| February 3, 2009 |
Central
Florida Companies, University of Florida Team Up To Improve
Hearing Aid Performance |
| January 21, 2009 |
Investors
Pump $2 Million Into Biomedical Start-Up |
| December 2008 |
University of Florida - The
Post - "A Sound Idea": Page 15 |
| October 2008 |
University of Florida - The
Post - "New Software Finetunes Cochlear Implants": Page 11 |
| June 2, 2008 |
TRDA’s unique 31,000–square–foot
Business Innovation Center in Melbourne marks one year of
success fostering small–company growth; ‘Roadmap
to Success’ workshop series a popular program |
| March 31, 2008 |
Business Innovation Center
Helps Audigence to Succeed |
| March 11, 2008 |
Florida Today - Startup
targets hearing loss - Software helps to improve cochlear
implants |
| February 21, 2008 |
Audigence Technology Offers
Breakthrough in Hearing Device Tuning |
WCJB TV20- Video 7/14/09
WCJB TV20 - VIDEO 7/14/09 Interview with Audigence President/CEO Lee Krause
WCJB TV20 - SCRIPT 7/14/09
Forbes Breakout! - VIDEO 6/5/09
Forbes Breakout! - SCRIPT 6/5/09
Ivanhoe Broadcast News- 6/2/09
Florida Today - 2/24/2009
MELBOURNE, Fla., Feb. 24 - By Chester Straub JR., Guest Columnist
Part of the solution to the economic crisis that has overtaken Florida’s and the nation’s economy is for promising new businesses to be recognized and given the help they need to grow and create much-needed new jobs.
Assisting such entrepreneurial endeavors is a key mission for the Technological Research and Development Authority (TRDA), which is based in Brevard County but reaches across the state of Florida.
The Florida Legislature created the TRDA two decades ago to facilitate the introduction of emerging technology to the business world with the goal of strengthening the economy throughout the Space Coast and Florida.
Since its inception, the TRDA has leveraged tens of millions of dollars in funding to support its technology-based economic development, education and alternative energy programs. In the process, thousands of businesses and individuals have benefited.
This experience makes the TRDA the perfect candidate to manage a portion of a $10 million economic stimulus package recently approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Charlie Crist.
The two-pronged approach to this package provides $8.5 million for small- and medium-sized businesses to receive loans up to $250,000, while devoting $1.5 million to fund technical assistance that will enable companies to grow their business.
It’s the technical assistance part of this “economic gardening” bill that the TRDA is best suited to work with the Governor’s Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development in administering.
Chiefly through its business incubation and technology commercialization programs, TRDA already has helped dozens of small companies take their new and innovative technologies and transform them into a profitable business venture.
Through its innovation center in Melbourne, the TRDA provides start-up companies with a quality environment and the hands-on assistance they need to prosper, including access to shared office resources, business services, professional mentoring, investment capital and more.
Audigence, Inc., is just one of the recent success stories for the TRDA and an example of the type of business Gov. Crist is hoping to help through the economic gardening package.
The company has developed an improved cochlear implant system for the hearing impaired, which, among many other miracles, allows its deaf owner, Lee Krause, to talk on the phone and hear with crystal clarity.
The genius is in the software developed by Krause and his team at the TRDA center.
Audigence is doing so well that in late January, it received another venture capital infusion — this time $2 million — which will allow it to move past the technology-development stage and bring the product to its initial market.
The TRDA is ready to see that story repeated with other firms that may benefit from the governor’s economic gardening program.
Straub is the executive director of Florida’s Technological Research and Development Authority, which is based in Titusville.
Press
Release—2/13/2009
Press
Release—2/3/2009
MELBOURNE,
Fla., Feb. 3 – Audigence, Inc., today announced an agreement
with Audina® Hearing Instruments, Inc. to integrate technology
developed by Audigence, in partnership with the University of
Florida, into Audina’s INTUITION® 8 family of custom
digital hearing aids. The CLARUJUST™ technology is employed
in tuning digital hearing devices to individual user’s needs
and significantly improves speech clarity, particularly in noisy
environments.
Audina is the first hearing instrument manufacturer to include
the CLARUJUST™ technology in a product line. Frank Robilotta,
executive vice president of Audina, said: “We are excited
to be working with Audigence and the University of Florida on
this new venture. Our team feels this innovative fitting protocol
integrating optimization algorithms will increase patient involvement
and result in greater patient satisfaction.”
Audigence was founded by Lee Krause, a computer engineer who is
hearing impaired. Krause began working on the new tuning technology
in response to his own experiences having a digital hearing device
tuned to meet his needs. He partnered with University of Florida
researchers in refining and testing the technology. Their work
was funded in part by grants from the Florida State University
Research Commercialization Assistance Grant (SURECAG) program
and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council.
Patient and clinical studies of Audina products incorporating
the CLARUJUST™ technology will be conducted at the University
of Florida during the first quarter of 2009. The companies expect
to release products incorporating the technology to select audiologists
in the second quarter.
“CLARUJUST™ will improve the quality of life for millions
of people who suffer from severe hearing loss,” said Krause.
“Today’s announcement is evidence of the benefits
of small companies working with the University to develop new
technologies that improve lives in many ways, including creating
greater economic opportunities for people in Florida.”
Audina® Hearing Instruments, Inc., headquartered in Longwood,
Fla., is a leading manufacturer of a complete line of custom,
over-the-ear (OTE), receiver-in-the-canal (RIC), and behind-the-ear
(BTE) hearing instruments that incorporate the latest in technologies.
The INTUITION 8 custom digital instrument line incorporates nano
chip technology with 24-bit precision to ensure accurate audio
signal processing with lower internal noise and distortion. Its
unique and patented system architecture optimally balances workload
power consumption and processing efficiency, resulting in extended
battery life.
Press Release—1/21/2009
MELBOURNE, Fla., Jan. 21 – Audigence, Inc., a biomedical software company developing technology to improve the performance of digital hearing devices, today announced it has raised an additional $2 million from investors. The new funding will be used to complete product development, introduce the product to the marketplace and support initial deployment to customers.
Lead investors in the latest funding round were Paul Suchoski, chairman of Audigence and former CEO of Optium Corp., and Harry Deffebach and William Troner, principals of Andre-Troner Limited Co., a patent licensing firm.
“Clinical tests have proven the effectiveness of the Audigence technology,” said Suchoski. “The company has now moved past the technology development stage and is ready to go to market.”
Said Deffebach: “In our business we see many exciting new technologies. We’re very enthusiastic about Audigence’s potential.”
Audigence’s initial target customers are manufacturers of hearing aids and cochlear implants, surgically implanted devices that provide a sense of sound for persons who are hearing impaired. The company’s patented Clarujust™ technology enables the devices to be fine-tuned to provide substantial improvement in speech clarity.
With the latest investment, Audigence has received a total of $2.75 million in funding to date. The company intends to seek additional capital from professional investors in the next 12 months to support widespread product deployment throughout the hearing device marketplace, said Audigence CEO Lee Krause.
12/2008
10/2008
6/22/2008 Brevard Business News
(PDF)
The Technological Research and Development
Authority’s “Business Innovation Center”
in Melbourne has made big strides in its first
year of operation under Chester Straub Jr., the
organization’s executive director and a former
U.S. Department of Commerce economic
development executive.
Read More
3/31/2008 Brevard Business News
Audigence Inc., a software-engineering firm
dedicated to improving the quality of life for the
hearing impaired, is among the first success stories
coming from the TRDA's Melbourne-based Business
Innovation Center, which opened in May.
Read More
3/11/2008
Press Release—2/2008
Lee Krause is totally and profoundly deaf. Yet he can hear every word you say.
Lee’s hearing ability is partly the result of a Cochlear implant that was surgically attached to his skull six years ago. And it’s partly the result of innovative computer technology he pioneered, to improve and customize the way hearing devices – such as Cochlear implants and digital hearing aids – are tuned.
“When the Cochlear implant was first turned on, I could hear my nails click and I couldn’t believe your nails could be that loud when you clicked them. And you could hear paper crumble real well,” Krause said.
“But human speech wasn’t quite as clear. And talking on the telephone still was problematic.”
Read More
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