SANTA FE, N.M. (Sept. 15, 2004) – Native New Mexican Loretta Martinez wants to bring the ancient practice of branding cattle into the 21st century with help from the NASA-funded Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL).

A 20-year veteran of the animal services industry, Martinez founded Nickel Brand Software, Inc., to pursue development of a livestock brand image recognition tool. She first conceived the idea while working for the New Mexico Livestock Board, where she was asked to hand draw the state’s brand book.

“This was in 1997, so I was surprised that brand books in New Mexico and other states were still being drawn by hand,” Martinez said. “I started thinking about a way to transfer livestock brand information into a database that could be accessed and searched on a palm-sized computer.”

The ability to identify and search for brands is crucial in the event of a cattle-borne disease, such as anthrax or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease. “Because the window in which to identify and contain a contagious disease is 48 hours, it’s very important to quickly identify an animal, its origins and its travels,” Martinez said.

She envisioned a system that would give inspectors the ability to immediately access key information based on the animal’s brand, which they would draw on a hand-held computer. Martinez realized, however, that she needed help to determine the feasibility of her concept. The Women's Economic Self-Sufficiency Team referred Martinez to SATOP in Santa Fe for assistance.

SATOP provides free engineering assistance to small businesses with technical challenges through donations of time and expertise from 49 Space Alliance Partners throughout the country.

Martinez’ Request for Technical Assistance (RTA) was paired with SATOP Alliance Partner Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). John Browning, a senior member of the technical staff at SNL, volunteered to address the RTA.

“The challenge was to develop a practical recognition system for a very large and complex character set – greater than 250,000 – while remaining within the computational capabilities of the current technology of palm-sized computers,” Browning explained.

He resolved two principle issues of Nickel Brand Software being utilized on a hand-held computer: reliability and human factors. His solution proved that image interpretation software could produce reliable and user-friendly brand recognition results, which enables Martinez to proceed with the development of automated brand recognition systems. With Browning’s solution in hand, Martinez is seeking to secure a contract with either a state or Native American tribe to do a populated database beta test.

“Branding is and has been a proven and effective means of animal identification for thousands of years,” she said. “Branding just needs to be modernized, and with this help from SATOP and Sandia National Labs, that goal is closer to becoming a reality.”