The purpose of this book is to show examples of the successful commercialization
of devices and instruments arising from research in ultrasonics carried
out over previous years. Much of the research has been reported (in the
research stage and in the mode of research reports) in earlier volumes of this
series, Physical Acoustics: Principles and Methods. Basically, there is
progression from idea through research, development, technology transfer,
and commercialization to application or use by a set of customers. The
"Water Slide" diagram in Figure 1 illustrates this progression (Papadakis,
Figure 1 "Water Slide" diagram showing risk as a function of time as more value is added
step by step to an idea to bring it to the status of a product. Because an idea may be rejected at
any step of the process or may fail in the field with customers, the number of products is much
smaller than the number of ideas initially. (Materials Evaluation. Used by permission.)
1992). The purpose here is to demonstrate that research in physical acoustics
has led to successful commercialization of devices and systems useful to the
public in the broad sense. The basic idea is that research, development,
technology transfer, commercialization, and sales are part of a "food chain,"
so to speak, in which each step is necessary and all steps are interdependent.