Companies now pay to use those labs and fund individual projects.

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The fax machine was invented in 1843, and both Xerox and Bell Labs had ongoing projects to fine-tune the concept.

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In the years that followed, the government pumped billions of dollars into labs and universities and enterprises, on projects ranging from cloning to underwater robots.

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Execution challenges aside, Riggs views bold projects like Immersive Communications as a boon for both Bell Labs and Alcatel-Lucent.

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He recently sold the company to IBM and, quickly thereafter, setup an incubator, called Simula Labs , for open source projects.

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He recently sold the company to IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) and, quickly thereafter, setup an incubator, called Simula Labs , for open source projects.

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"Federal labs such as Argonne and Los Alamos do great science but have been less successful at developing commercial projects, "says Paul Horn, IBM's research chief.

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This approach is interesting in its own right and at the same time synergetic with several other projects we are funding through the Intel Labs Academic Research Office.

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