With a background quite unlike almost another SBIR involved firm, Autometric Inc. spun out of Paramount Pictures to work on early satellite imagery. Early successes at Autometric included the invention of the Chromatron which was subsequently sold to Sony and used prior to developing the Trinitron. The company created image analysis products for representing imagery on the earth, cataloging, and image augmentation. After transitioning the product focus to the military and intelligence sectors, years of chronic mismanagement and several near bankruptcies led to Boeing Inc. purchasing the company at the end of 2000. Autometric's successful products included Wings Mission Rehearsal, Edge Whole Earth, Spatial Query System and DataMaster. Wings and Edge were direct predecessors to Google Earth. Bob Cowling, the Director of Product Engineering at Autometric, was the primary developer of Wings. Wings was a mission rehearsal product draping imagery over terrain. With advances learned from that experience, Bob built a globe which led to the formation of Edge Whole Earth. Edge was used to develop graphics for National Geographic, CBS Evening News, and the motion picture "Shadow Conspiracy." The success of Edge led to several smaller spin offs, including Edge Development Option. Many of the engineers working on Edge Development Option, went to work for Keyhole, Inc. helping to create what is now Google Earth.
