SIX D TO MARKET NASA TECHNOLOGY.

Six D, Inc., has announced that it has obtained the license to market a unique image compression technology developed at NASA. Six D becomes the first company in the United States to acquire a Patent License Agreement from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to commercialize NASA's DCTune technology.

DCTune is a technology for optimizing still image compression; the result is a greatly reduced file size with no perceptible loss of image quality. DCTune calculates the best quantization matrices to achieve the maximum possible compression for a specified perceptual error, given a particular image and a particular set of viewing conditions. In DCTune, a target perceptual error of 1.0 means that for the specified viewing conditions the compressed image is perceptually lossless, that is, it will appear exactly the same as the original uncompressed image.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for Six D to expand its marketing operations internationally and flex our development muscle in the software arena," said Kelly O'Connor, chief operating officer of Six D. "Hawaii is an excellent location to operate from, and we hope to become a big part of expanding the State's role as a marketing center for Dual Use technologies."

Dual Use generally refers to technologies developed under federal government programs that have been released to private sector partners for commercial applications. According to O'Connor, "Technology evolves so quickly, and the need for cost savings in government is so pressing, that exciting new innovations are constantly being moved into the private sector through licensing for commercial use."

Six D is best known for its support of Global 2000 company's marketing efforts involving the use of advanced communications and multimedia products. It develops propriety Internet and computer enhanced sales and marketing solutions for its clients and also as stand-alone software products. "NASA has offered us a way to add substantial technologies to our inventory at a fraction of what it would cost to develop them," noted O'Connor. "This gives us a significant offering for those looking to reduce bandwidth and storage requirements worldwide."

Six D is an award-winning digital media development firm headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii, developing a wide range of custom marketing, training and web solutions for select Global 2000 and emerging growth companies. They specialize in high-impact new media deliverables (including CD-Rom DVD, eCommerce, video and web) that enhance their clients' ability to communicate, interact, work and grow. Their custom software solutions help market clients' products more efficiently and cost-effectively.