Curriculum Vitae

Personal

Born, February 12, 1948
Married to Sonya R. Kurzweil

Contact Information

Kurzweil Technologies, Inc.
PMB 193 733 Turnpike Street North Andover, MA 01845

781-263-0000

Fax: 781-263-9999

E-mail: [email protected]

Web:KurzweilTech.com and KurzweilAI.net

Education
1970 B.S., Computer Science and Literature, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Companies Founded
2003

Co-Founder, Chairman and co-CEO, Ray & Terry’s Longevity Products, Inc. RayandTerry.com

Ray & Terry’s Longevity Products develops and markets leading nutraceutical health products that combine excellent taste with outstanding nutritional qualities. The food products are not just fortified with nutritional supplements, they are comprised entirely of health-promoting nutritional supplements. The company also develops and markets nutritional supplements.
2001 Founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, KurzweilAI.net
KurzweilAI.net is the "home of the big thinkers" with over 700 articles by 100 authors on the future of technology and its impact on society. Features "Ramona," a lifelike avatar with conversational abilities based on natural language processing technology. KurzweilAI.net is a leading resource on the web for advanced technologies with over 500,000 readers, and a daily electronic newsletter.
2000 Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kurzweil Cyber Art Technologies, Inc. ("KCAT")
KCAT "creates software that creates art." KCAT products include "Ray Kurzweil's Cybernetic Poet" and "AARON the Cybernetic Artist" developed by Harold Cohen.

Developing Ray Kurzweil's Fractal Artist, an intelligent interactive art creation program.
1999 Founder, Chairman and CEO, FAT KAT, Inc.
FAT KAT – Financial Accelerating Transactions from Kurzweil Adaptive Technologies
FAT KAT is developing intelligent systems based on genetic (evolutionary) algorithms and neural nets to make stock market transaction decisions.

1997

Founder, President, and CEO, Medical Learning Company, Inc. ("MLC") and FamilyPractice.com
MLC is a joint venture between Kurzweil Technologies, Inc. and the American Board of Family Practice, a leading medical board which certifies 60,000 Family Practice Physicians. MLC has developed the VirtualPatient, a simulated patient and virtual doctor - patient encounter for medical education and reference.

1996

Founder and former CEO, Kurzweil Educational Systems, Inc. ("KESI")
Kurzweil Education develops and markets educational software products. KESI has developed a new generation of reading technology software for persons with reading disabilities, ADHD, low vision, and visual impairment. Its two product lines – the Kurzweil 3000 and Kurzweil 1000 – are the lead products in their product categories. The Kurzweil 3000 has been adopted by thousands of schools in the United States and other countries.
1995 Founder, Chairman and CEO of Kurzweil Technologies, Inc. ("KTI").
KTI is a software development firm, currently supporting KurzweilAI.net, KCAT, MLC and FAT KAT.

KTI is developing a hand held reading system for the blind in a joint effort with the National Federation of the Blind.

KTI has provided assistance to clients on the assessment, development and disposition of patents, technology assets and software technologies. KTI clients have included:
United Therapeutics, Inc.
The American Board of Family Practice
Wang Laboratories, Inc. Creditors Committee
Wang Laboratories, Inc.
Kendall Square Research, Inc. Creditors Committee
DSP Associates
Tech Online
1982 Founder (and former CEO), Kurzweil Applied Intelligence, Inc. ("KAI").
KAI developed the first commercially marketed large vocabulary speech Recognition technology. The company continues as part of ScanSoft (formerly Kurzweil Computer Products, Inc.).
1982 Founder and former CEO, Kurzweil Music Systems, Inc.
Sold to Young Chang Akki Co., Ltd. In 1990. (now Kurzweil Music Systems division of Young Chang Akki Co., Ltd.)
The Kurzweil Music products continue as a leading brand of musical instruments for both professional and amateur musicians, distributed in 45 countries worldwide.
1974 Founder and former CEO, Kurzweil Computer Products, Inc.
Sold to Xerox Corporation in 1980 (now Xerox Imaging Systems)
Company was the worldwide market leader in reading machines for the Blind through 1996 and continues as a leader in scanning and character recognition technology and products. The current market leader in reading machines for the blind and persons with learning disabilities is currently Kurzweil Educational Systems, Inc.
The Kurzweil OCR (optical character recognition) software is now called TextBridge, a worldwide market leader in OCR. This software has been in continuous development for 29 years.

Technology Firsts

2001 First “host / hostess” Avatar on the Web to combine a lifelike photo realistic, moving and speaking facial image with a conversational engine.
2001 First Virtual Performing and Recording Artist (Ramona) to perform in front of a live audience with a live band.
1997 First Print-to-Speech Reading System for Persons with Reading Disabilities that Reads from a Displayed Image of the Page (Kurzweil 3000)
1997 First Continuous Speech Natural Language Command and Control Software(Kurzweil VoiceCommands)
1994 First Speech Recognition Dictation System for Windows (Kurzweil Voice for Windows)
1987 First commercially marketed Large Vocabulary Speech Recognition (Kurzweil Voice Report)
1985 First Knowledge Base System for Creating Medical Reports (Kurzweil VoiceMED)
1984 First Computer Music Keyboard capable of accurately reproducing the sounds of the grand piano and other orchestral instruments (Kurzweil 250)
1976 First Omni-Font (i.e., any type font) Optical Character Recognition (now Xerox TextBridge)
1976 First Print-to-Speech Reading Machine for the Blind (Kurzweil Reading Machine) The Kurzweil Reading Machine is considered to be the world’s first consumer product to successfully incorporate Artificial Intelligence technology.
1975 First CCD Flatbed Scanner
1975 First Text-to-Speech speech synthesis
1967 First computer-based Expert System for College Selection (SELECT).  SELECT was sold to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (New York)
1964 Developed computer-based expert system for music composition; won seven national awards including first prize in the International Science Fair in Electronics & Communications. Honored at award ceremony with President Johnson recognizing achievements of young American scientists.
1964 First computerized Four-Way Analysis of Variance (statistical program)

Selected Current Products of Companies Founded by Ray Kurzweil

The companies founded by Ray Kurzweil all continue with major research and development programs and product lines. Three of these companies (the last three below) were sold to larger companies, but nonetheless maintain their identity as active subsidiaries. The products offered by these companies continue to be prominent in their markets, which are the same markets they were founded to pursue. Below are selected current products of these companies, many of which have won awards.

Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence Network, Inc.:
The KurzweilAI.net web site and newsletter
Kurzweil CyberArt, Inc.:
AARON, The cybernetic artist
Ray Kurzweil's Cybernetic Poet
Kurzweil Educational systems, Inc.:
Kurzweil 3000 Reading System for Persons with Reading Disabilities
Kurzweil 1000 Reading System for the Blind
Kurzweil Music Systems (division of Young Chang Akki Co., Ltd.):
Kurzweil Home Products: Mark 5, 10, 150, Micro Piano and others
Kurzweil Pro Products: K2000, K2500, PC88 and others
Xerox Imaging Systems (formerly Kurzweil Computer Products, Inc.):
TextBridge (shrink-wrapped OCR product)


Selected Accomplishments of Kurzweil Technologies, Inc.

Advisors/Mentors to:

United Therapeutics: (public) pharmaceutical company
Inforte: e-business consulting
Zyvex: nanotechnology
New Hope Pharmaceuticals: cancer and disease assays
SSB Technologies: enabling web technology for disabilities
Integrated Fuel Cell Technologies: microscopic fuel cells using MEMS
Biophan Technologies: pacemakers that allow MRI
TechOnline: online education and training for engineers

Software Development of Patient Simulation System for The American Board of Family Practice

Advisor to TechOnline, a leading online educational site for engineers

Arranged the sale of the assets of The International Conference on Signal Processing Applications and Technology and DSP World EXPO to Miller Freeman Co., Inc.

Arranged the sale of the patent assets (as court appointed exclusive agent) of Kendall Square Research, Inc. to Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Arranged the license of technology assets (as court appointed exclusive agent) of Kendall Square Research, Inc. to Dolphin Systems, Inc.

The principal technology advisor to Wang Laboratories, Inc. in the negotiation of its Strategic Alliance Agreement with Microsoft Corp.

The principal technology advisor to the Creditors Committee for Wang Laboratories, Inc. in the formulation of its plan of reorganization confirmed in September, 1993.

Public Company Board Positions

United Therapeutics (2002 - present)
Inforte (1999 - present)
Medical Manager Corporation (1997 - 2000)
Wang Laboratories, Inc. (October 1993-1999, when company was sold to Getronics)
Chairman, Strategy and Technology Committee, Board of Directors (October 1993 – 1998)
Kurzweil Applied Intelligence, Inc. (1982 until its sale to L&H in 1997)

Social and Professional Organizations

Chairman and founder, The Kurzweil Foundation

The Kurzweil Foundation supports the application of technology for the handicapped and projects to advance public understanding of the social impact of new technology. A current project is to provide scholarships to blind students (over 250 given out). Another current project is to develop online continuing medical education for physicians.

Trustee, Beth Israel Hospital

Director, Massachusetts Computer Software Council

Former Director, Boston Computer Society

Incorporator, Boston Museum of Science

Member, MIT Corporation Visiting Committee, MIT School of Humanities, MIT School of Music

Overseer, Board of Overseers, New England Conservatory of Music

Former Member, Technology Advisory Committee, National Center on Adult Literacy, University of Pennsylvania

Chairman, "Robots and Beyond: The Age of Intelligent Machines" (Exhibition on Artificial Intelligence presented at eight leading science museums), 1987-1990.

Books and Film

The Singularity is Near, When Humans Transcend Biology

Viking / Penguin Books, Upcoming book in Spring 2005

Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever, co-authored with Terry Grossman, M.D.

Rodale Books, October 2004

Are We Spiritual Machines, Ray Kurzweil versus the Critics of Strong AI
The Discovery Institute Press (2002)
The Age of Spiritual Machines, When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
Viking / Penguin Books, 1999
Orion Books, 1999 (British Edition)
Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1999 (German Edition)
Allen & Unwin, 1999 (Australian Edition)
Foreign editions in German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Hebrew
The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life,
Crown Publishers, 1993
Bookman Press (Australian Edition), 1993
Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1995
The Age of Intelligent Machines,
MIT Press, 1990
MIT Press Paperback Edition, 1992
Hanser Verlag (German Edition), 1993
Conacyt (Spanish Edition), 1994
The Age of Intelligent Machines (the film),
MIT Press, 1987

Journalism

"The Futurecast," A monthly column in Library Journal (1991 - 1993)

KurzweilAI.net: a leading web site for advanced technologies, providing over 500 articles and a daily electronic newsletter.

Honorary Degrees

2005 (scheduled) Honorary Doctorate of Science, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
2002 Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Landmark College
2000 Honorary Doctorate in Science and Humanities, Michigan State University
1993 Honorary Doctorate of Science, Dominican College
1991 Honorary Doctorate of Science, Queens College, City University of New York
1990 Honorary Doctorate of Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology
1989 Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Misericordia College
1989 Honorary Doctorate of Engineering, Merrimack College
1988 Honorary Doctorate of Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
1988 Honorary Doctorate of Science, Northeastern University
1987 Honorary Doctorate of Music, Berklee College of Music
1982 Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Hofstra University

Selected Awards and Honors

2002 Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, founded by the U.S. Patent Office
2001 Second Annual American Composers Orchestra Award for the Advancement of New Music in America.
2000 Lemelson-MIT Prize. This $500,000 award is the largest in the U.S. in invention and innovation
1999 National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest honor in technology, to be presented by President Clinton in a White House Ceremony on March 14, 2000
1998 Stevie Wonder / SAP "Vision Award" for Product of the Year (for the Kurzweil 1000), a $150,000 prize (being used by the Kurzweil Foundation to provide scholarships to blind students)
1997 President’s Award, AHEAD (Association on Higher Education and Disability)
1996 Software Industry Achievement Award, Massachusetts Software Council
1995 Access Prize, American Foundation for the Blind
1994 Dickson Prize, Carnegie Mellon University’s top science prize
1994 Gordon Winston Award, Canadian National Institute for the Blind
1993 ACM Fellow Award, Association for Computing Machinery
1992 Massachusetts Quincentennial Award for Innovation and Discovery
1991 Louis Braille Award, Associated Services for the Blind
1990 Engineer of the Year Award, awarded by Design News magazine
1989 Founders Award, awarded by MIT to leading alumni entrepreneurs
1988 Inventor of the Year Award, awarded by MIT, the Boston Museum of Science and Boston Patent Law Association
1986 Honorary Chairman for Innovation, White House Conference on Small Business
1986 The 1986 White House Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence, President Reagan
1986 Distinguished Inventor Award, Intellectual Property Owners
1984 Best of the New Generation Award, Esquire Magazine
1984 "An American Portrait," CBS News
1983 Francis Joseph Campbell Award, American Library Association
1982 Computer Science Award, President Reagan
1982 Admitted to the Computer Industry Hall of Fame
1981 National Award, Johns Hopkins University, Personal Computing to Aid the Handicapped
1978 Grace Murray Hopper Award, Association for Computing Machinery
1977 Governor's Award, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis
1965 First Prize, Electronics and Communications, International Science Fair

Selected Book Awards and Honors

1999 Literary Lights Prize, Boston Public Library: The Age of Spiritual Machines
1999, 2000 National and Regional BEST SELLER lists, The Age of Spiritual Machines
1993 Regional BEST SELLER Lists: The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life
1991 Most Outstanding Computer Science Book of 1990 Award, Association of American Publishers: The Age of Intelligent Machines
1991 The Silicon Valley BEST SELLER List: The Age of Intelligent Machines
1991 MIT Press Best Seller: The Age of Intelligent Machines

Selected Film Awards

1988 Prize of the President of the Festival, International Film Festival of Czechoslovakia
1988 Technology Culture Award, International Festival of Scientific Films, Belgrade
1987 CINE Golden Eagle Award
1987 Gold Medal - Science Education, International Film and TV Festival of New York
1987 Creative Excellence Award, U.S. Industrial Film and Video Festival
1987 The Chris Plaque, Columbus International Film Festival

Partial List of Patents

U.S. 6,754,823 Technique for distributing software
U.S. 6,747,672 Virtual patient hot spots
U.S. 6,692,258 Patient simulator
U.S. 6,647,395 Poet personalities
U.S. 6,587,583

Compression / decompression algorithm for image documents having text, graphical and color content

U.S. 6,320,982 Compression / decompression algorithm for image documents having text, graphical and color content
U.S. 6,246,791 Compression / decompression algorithm for image documents having text, graphical and color content
U.S. 6,199,042 Reading system
U.S. 6,173,264 Reading system displaying scanned images with dual highlighting
U.S. 6,125,347

System for controlling multiple user application programs by spoken input

U.S. 6,052,663 Reading system which reads aloud from an image representation of a document
U.S. 6,033,224

Reading machine system for the blind having a dictionary

U.S. 6,014,464 Compression / decompression algorithm for image documents having text, graphical and color content
U.S. 5,875,428

Reading system displaying scanned images with dual highlights

 

Selected Keynote Addresses and Principal Lectures

2000-2004 Keynote Addresses at many leading conferences, including the Microsoft CEO Summit, Pop!Tech, the World Economic Forum, PC Expo, SIGGRAPH, Business Week, the Council on Foreign Relations, The American Psychiatric Association, Cowen, TED, ACM, ICASSP, Agenda, NY Music & Internet Expo, a joint keynote address with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak for SCP Capital, and many others.
1999 Presentations at Smithsonian, Tech Museum of Innovation (San Jose), Philadelphia Library, Johns Hopkins University, Seybold Conference, CSPAN, and many others
1997 Keynote Address, AHEAD (Association on Higher Education and Disability) National Conference, "The Role of Technology in Overcoming Disabilities"
1997 Panel on HAL’s Birthday, University of Illinois at Urbana
1996 Keynote Address, National Federation of the Blind - Canadian National Institute for the Blind, International Conference on Technology for the Blind, "What Technology can Contribute"
1996 President’s Forum Address, Entrepreneurship Institute Conference
1996 Keynote Address, Association for Education and Rehabilitation, Annual International Conference, "The End of Handicaps"
1996 Keynote Address, Medical Group Management Association, "Computer Science and Medicine in the Twenty-First Century"
1996 Keynote Address, American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science
1996 Lecture, American Conference Institute, "Developing Intellectual Property"
1995 Joint Keynote Address with (former) Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Gartner Group, Annual International Conference on Personal Computing (MidEast), "Turing’s Prophecy"
1995 Keynote Address, Turnaround Management Association, "Creating and Preserving Wealth in the Age of Knowledge"
1995 Keynote Address, IBM Computing Conference, "The Future of Computing Technology"
1995 Dickson Prize Lecture, Carnegie Mellon University, "Machine Intelligence: The First 80 Years (1940 - 2020)"
1995 Friedberg Lecture, Johns Hopkins University, "The Future of Machine Intelligence"
1995 Keynote Address, Jo Taylor Leadership Institute National Conference, American Foundation for the Blind, "The End of Handicaps"
1994 Presentation on the Wang Reorganization to the MIT Enterprise Forum
1994 Keynote Address, Gartner Group, Annual International Conferences on Personal Computing (U.S. and Europe), "The Future of Computing"
1994 Keynote Address, Anderson Consulting, Annual National Partners Meeting, "The Sixty-Four Squares of the Chessboard"
1994 Winston Gordon Prize Lecture, Canadian National Institute for the Blind National Conference, "The Future of Disabilities Technology"
1994 Keynote Address, President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities National Conference, "The End of Handicaps"
1994 Keynote Address, PC Enterprise Conference, "The Future of Personal Computing"
1993 Keynote Address, National Conference on Technology for the Blind, National Federation of the Blind and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, "The Future of Technology for the Visually Impaired"
1993 Keynote Address, Technology and Learning Annual National Conference, National School Boards Association, "Learning and Technology"
1993 Keynote Address, Gartner Group, Annual National Conference on the Future of Information Technology, "The Computer in the Twenty-First Century"
1993 Keynote Address, Sematech National Conference, "The Future of Computer Technology"
1993 Keynote Address, U.S. Telephone, Annual National Meeting, "How to Save a Million American Lives a Year"
1993 Keynote Address, Dupont-Merck, Annual National Research and Development Conference, "The Future of Medicine"
1993 Keynote Address, Special Libraries Association, Annual National Meeting, "The Future of Books"
1993 Keynote Address, Intergraph Users Group Annual National Meeting, "Simulating Worlds Inside the Computer"
1993 Keynote Address, Oracle Users Group Annual National Meeting, "The Sixty-Four Squares of the Chessboard"
1993 Keynote Address, The 1993 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Computer Science National Conference, "The Emergence of True Machine Intelligence in the Twenty- First Century"
1992 Keynote Address, Association for Information and Image Management, "A Strategy for Competitiveness"
1992 Keynote Address, The Sixth Annual International Literacy and Technology Conference, "Education in the Age of Intelligent Machines"
1992 Presentation with Senator Edward Kennedy, High Tech Issues Seminar, Kennedy School of Government, "Economic Competitiveness and Software"
1991 Keynote Address, Speech Tech Annual Conference, "Automatic Speech Recognition: The First Hundred Years (1920-2020)"
1989 Keynote Address, SHARE (Association of users of IBM mainframe computers) Annual National Convention, "The History of the Computer"
1989 Keynote Address, Art and Science Summer Festival, California Museum of Science and Industry, "Creativity: Where Art and Science Meet"
1989 Keynote Address, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) National Conference on Artificial Intelligence Applications, "From the Mind's Eye to the Marketplace"
1987 Distinguished Lecturer, Harvard Business School, "Technology Innovation: From the Sandbox to the Showroom"
1987 Distinguished Lecturer, MIT, "Five Trends Shaping our Future World: Machine Intelligence, Parallel Processing, Silicon Compilation, Hardware to Software and Analog to Digital"
1987 Convocation Address, Berklee College of Music, "The Changing Face of Music Creation"
1986 Keynote Address on Innovation, White House Conference on Small Business, "Innovation and the Second Industrial Revolution"
1986 Principal presenter on "WorldNet," series of three satellite broadcasts on Artificial Intelligence to 15 Nations, United States Information Agency
1984 Keynote Address, IEEE National Conference on Computer Design, "The Coming Age of Intelligent Machines"
1982 Commencement Address, Hofstra University, "Visions of the Future"

Selected Papers, Articles and Chapters

Articles in a variety of magazines, including Scientific American, Psychology Today, Time Magazine, Business 2.0, Esquire, PC Magazine, Talk magazine, Forbes ASAP, CIO, and many others in the years 1999 - 2002

"Piece of Mind", Forbes ASAP, February 22, 1999

"The Big Crash of Convergence", Forbes ASAP, April 1997

"When Will HAL Understand What We Are Saying? Computer Speech Recognition and Understanding", Chapter in HAL’s Legacy, edited by David Stork (MIT Press 1996)

"Why I am Building Reading Machines Again", Braille Monitor, 1996

"The Sixty-Four Squares of the Chessboard", Braille Monitor, 1994

"The End of Handicaps", World Congress on Technology, December, 1991

"A Strategy for Innovation in the Second Industrial Revolution", The Hudson Institute, October, 1990

"Beyond Pattern Recognition", Byte, December, 1989

"The Application of Large Vocabulary Speech Recognition and Knowledge Engineering to the Creation of Written Documents", Speech Tech, April, 1988

"A Large Vocabulary Voice Activated Word Processor", Speech Tech, April, 1987

"The Second Industrial Revolution", The Boston Museum of Science, January, 1987

"The Technology of the Kurzweil Voice Writer", Byte, March, 1986

"The Commercialization of Artificial Intelligence", Boston Computer Society, February, 1986

"What is Artificial Intelligence Anyway?", American Scientist, May-June, 1985

Testimony - Subcommittee, House Committee on Science and Technology, Rep. James Scheuer, (D-NY), Chairman, October 18, 1977, Washington, D.C.

Testimony - House Subcommittee on Select Education, Rep. John Brademas (D-Ind.), Chairman, April 26, 1977, Washington, D.C.

Testimony - Senate Subcommittee on Handicapped, Sen. Jennings Randolph, (D-W. Va.), Chairman, February 8, 1977, Washington, D.C.

"A Technical Overview of Reading for the Blind", Proceedings, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, 1967

"International Analysis of Music", Tech Engineering News, February, 1967

"Automatic Perception of Speech", Tech Engineering News, October, 1966

Other Books
by Ray Kurzweil:


Fantastic Voyage:
Live Long Enough to Live Forever


The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence

Are We Spiritual Machines?: Ray Kurzweil vs. the Critics of Strong A.I.


The Ten Percent Solution For a Healthy Life


The Age of Intelligent Machines