Bill Anderson calls it his “a-ha” moment — a flash of insight from which he drew a career-altering connection between decades-old research and his job as a computer security expert.

At the time, nearly two years ago, Anderson had a comfortable job as vice president at an established computer security company. But while reading Consciousness Explained, a book by philosopher Daniel Dennett, Anderson learned about one scientist’s research into variations in the way the human eye reads and processes text and images.

“This obscure characteristic ... suddenly struck me as (a solution to) a security problem,” said Anderson, 42, who has a doctorate in cryptology. “I said, ‘Holy cow. No one has thought of using this to protect the contents of a screen.’ It was just some obscure research.”

Anderson quit his job at SafeNet Inc., raised $1.2 million in seed money from friends and family and plunged full time into developing his idea — a software program that allows only an authorised user to read text on the screen, while everyone else sees gibberish.

With the help of a couple of software developers, he tested and revamped the software over the course of several months. He immersed himself in the Baltimore area’s start-up scene, turning to chief executives, attorneys, serial entrepreneurs and other experts for guidance. Along the way, he won some early recognition, including a recent Innovator of the Year Award from the Maryland Technology Development Corporation and some funding from the state Department of Business and Economic Development.

Now, 18 months after he launched Oculis Labs Inc., Anderson has three pending patents and two products ready to be pushed into the market by his four-person company. Venture capital firms and angel investors are courting him — even in the toughest start-up investment climate in a decade.

He hopes he can land a defence-related government contract for his most powerful product, Chameleon, in the next few months. His first contract probably would make his company more appealing to venture capitalists, who “really want to wait until there’s some traction, and the traction is revenue,” said Mark Esposito, director of emerging company services for PriceWaterhouseCoopers. “Good companies get to be funded in bad times as well as good economic times. They may be hungrier and there’s a more robust set of entrepreneurs out there.”

Anderson was hungry but said he was also motivated by fear that another company would develop his idea first.

Chameleon uses gaze-tracking software and camera equipment to track an authorised reader’s eyes to show only that one person the correct text. After a 15-second calibration period in which the software essentially “learns” the viewer’s gaze patterns, anyone looking over that user’s shoulder sees dummy text that randomly and constantly changes.

To tap the broader consumer market, Anderson built a more consumer-friendly version called PrivateEye, which can work with a simple webcam. The software blurs a user’s monitor when he or she turns away. It also detects other faces in the background, and a small video screen pops up to alert the user that someone is looking at the screen.

“There’ve been inventions in the space of gaze-tracking. There’ve been inventions in the space of security. But nobody has put the two ideas together, as far as we know,” Anderson said.

He’s pitched Chameleon to federal government agencies, including the defence and intelligence communities. The high-end Chameleon product would cost more than $10,000, making it appeal mainly to large government agencies that have a need for a high degree of security.

The specialised equipment that tracks a viewer’s eyes already exists, and a number of manufacturers make such monitors. Anderson also found companies that make portable gaze-tracking equipment that are the size of a long, squat brick and which can be positioned on a laptop or under a desktop monitor to track a user’s eyes with his software.

Looking to go even smaller, he’s pursuing a partnership with a manufacturer of rugged, secure laptops to have Chameleon as a built-in feature for battlefield environments, where soldiers have to read classified orders without fear of someone spying over their shoulder. The technology would add roughly $1,000 to a secure, rugged laptop that sells for about $6,000, according to Anderson.

Anderson and his own advisers say the gaze-tracking camera technology needs to advance to a point that it's cheap and small enough to fit into laptops and even smart phones.

For PrivateEye, Anderson said a top computer maker has expressed interest in the software, which could be licensed, bundled and sold to consumers as part of a computer’s security offering. It is available for download from Oculis’ Web site, starting at $19.95.

Anderson turned to Karl Ginter, who runs a nearby company called Inspyris LLC, for start-up advice. Ginter, who said he might invest in Oculis, said Anderson has “come a real long distance without a lot of money.”

“He’s got two products with two distinct markets, and he basically now needs money to take them to market,” Ginter said. “I think his chances are pretty good.”

Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service