The Maryland Technology Development Corporation has launched an intellectual property database. It covers technologies available for commercialization from academic institutions, private companies, and federal research facilities. The institutions are from Maryland, DC, and Virginia (thus the “Maryland area” in the headline.)

The database is called InvenioIP and it’s available for free at http://www.invenioip.org. There are currently 1923 “innovation summaries” available; the front page allows you to search by keyword but there’s an institution search as well.

I did a search for “database” and got 48 results including things like “A Method and Apparatus for Illumination-Insensitive Face Recognition” and “Physics-based Modeling of Acoustic Reverberation.” Each listing has a Web and PDF link.

Hmm… “Search Engine Technology Description” looks interesting. This page provides information on an addon search technology (a “sounds-alike” search capacity.) Information on this particular page is rather images. On the other hand, the page on VROOM provides an extensive overview of a fleet management and maintenance software package.

The institutions page has only ten listings, but they also include the date each of the institution’s research was last updated. Plenty to see here but you may have to do some experimenting with search keywords.