Jeff Hawkins, the inventor of the Palm Pilot and the Handspring Treo smartphone, has turned his hobby, which is study of the brain, into a business with his partners Donna Dubinsky and Dileep George. The three formed the company Numenta, which will create software tools to be licensed to others and will create brain-like computer applications for such functions as pattern recognition and machine learning. Mr. Hawkins also formed the Redwood Neuroscience Institute and co-wrote the book called On Intelligence with science writer Sandra Blakeslee to promote his theory of how the mind works. Mr Hawkins says Numenta has broken through a technological barrier based in part by work done by Dileep George, co-founder of Numenta. Mr. George used Mr. Hawkins theory on the brain and found a way to express it mathematically so that Numenta can simulate brain-like computers. Numenta's proof-of-concept simulation has similarity to the memory system of the brain and can recognize simple objects comparatively quickly. The latter ability is something that robots have not done particularly well, says Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Hawkins theory is that the brain, particularly the neocortex, is not a processor, but instead a hierarchical memory system that stores memories in sequence and retrieves them quickly. Ehud Ahissar, an Israeli neuroscientist and visiting professional at the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience at the University of California at San Francisco, says Mr. Hawkins focus on the cortex is inspired because it allowed the explanation of the cortex in terms of a single evolutionary trick. Many experts comment on the work, and Mr. Hawkins background and achievements in technology are described.