About Sciovid, Inc.

Mr. Vennel has 24 years experience developing hardware and software solutions.  He is currently the President and Chief Software Architect at Sciovid Inc.

Mr. Vennel is currently a member of the Transportation Sensor Systems (TSS) working group of the National Transportation Communications for ITS Protocol (NTCIP) standards development.

From 1993 to 2007 Mr. Vennel worked for Image Sensing Systems, Inc. There he co-developed the hardware for the Autoscope Model 2004. He developed a specialized FPGA that would capture and process the video from four asynchronous cameras simultaneously.  He was the primary software architect behind the popular Autoscope Solo & Autoscope Solo Pro product line. Mr. Vennel was the Director of Software Engineering when he left ISS.

From 1992 to 1993 Mr. Vennel designed radar timing and control units for Metratek, Inc. He participated in air to air imaging of aircraft including the B2 Stealth Bomber.

From 1986 to 1992 Mr. Vennel was the VP of Engineering and part owner of Micro Concepts Corp.  He engineered the hardware and software for the Boardwalker 101 & Boardwalker 102 in-circuit IC testers.

From 1983 to 1986 Mr. Vennel was a member of the technical staff at Rockwell International where he worked on guidance computers for the Peacekeeper and Small Missile program. He assisted the memory design and was responsible for the design of several chips.

Mr. Vennel has earned his BSEE from Clarkson University and an MSEE from the University of Southern California.

Mr. Jacobson has over 32 years of industry experience in the fields of simulation & modeling of physical processes, machine vision & industrial inspection for robotics and intelligent IP cameras for outdoor video surveillance and detection. He is currently a Director of Sciovid, Inc. and the Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

From 1991 to 2007, Mr. Jacobson worked for Image Sensing Systems, Inc. where he served in a number of technology leadership roles. He was solely responsible for the detailed algorithmic design, implementation and overall system performance of the Autoscope products and the selection and configuration of off the shelf cameras to use with the systems. The range of detection capabilities he has developed for Freeways, Intersections and Tunnels include: counting, presence, speed, shockwave incident detection, wrong way vehicle, stopped vehicle, vehicle & pedestrian tracking, debris in a traveled lane or shoulder and a number of traffic parameters derived from this list. The last 6 years Mr. Jacobson was the V.P. of Engineering where he made significant contributions to evolve the Autoscope product line from a multi-camera processing box that sits on a shelf to a card-based processor that plugs into traffic industry cabinets / controllers and the fully integrated intelligent camera product called Solo Pro. He was also the primary technical liaison with strategic partners in the technical design and manufacture of the ISS products.

From 1988 to 1991, Mr. Jacobson directed three (multi-million dollar) traffic sensor research projects with the FHWA and MNDOT at the University of Minnesota as an employee of Farradyne Systems, Inc. which eventually led to the commercialization of the first Autoscope video detection system.

From 1975 to 1988, Mr. Jacobson was employed at Honeywell working on a variety of sensory and control applications. The first 6 years involved detailed steady state simulation & modeling of furnaces and heat pumps to assess the benefits of a number of systems design and control strategies for a line of products Honeywell sold into the residential heating industry. The remaining 7 years Mr. Jacobson worked on a major DAPRA funded robotics project. The project was part of a national strategic directive to enhance the state of the art in manufacturing capabilities. Two robots operated in an overlapping workspace to assemble a military avionics switch (as a proof of concept). Mr. Jacobson was responsible for the development and algorithmic implementation of 3 video sensors: 1) a structured light sensor, 2) a globally positioned video camera and 3) a flying spot 3-D sensor. The sensors were used to: 1) identify parts placed in a tray, 2) define an unobstructed location on the part to pick it up for assembly or staging, 3) verify parts are held correctly by a robot for an assembly operation to occur, 4) verify an assembly operation completed correctly and 5) gauge / measure the correct tolerance of mated parts. By the end of the project, Mr. Jacobson was in charge of the entire technical project & management.

Over the years, Mr. Jacobson is the author of over 20 publications and has presented many of the papers at trade conferences.

He has a BA in Chemistry from Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota and is a longstanding member of IEEE and SPIE.