Saturday, December 30, 2017

Windows Mixed Reality

They told me at this booth -- somewhere near Seattle -- that demonstrations start on January 2.

I doubt MicroVision is included in this, but this will give us a read on how people greet the space.


Friday, December 29, 2017

Green Orange Blog

.... Green Orange in China. 

RAGENTEK... is behind Green Orange/VogaV, Movi Phone, Quantum V, Allview...

China Global Mall

11月23日 = November 23
12月4日   = December 4
12月12日 = December 12
(Detecting a pattern?)

Green Orange -- Bidding Farewell to low end mobile camp

Weibo - Green Orange





Thursday, December 28, 2017

This is a $500 upgrade

Call me crazy, but I'd prefer a six-foot screen as an upgrade to this. 

Seriously? That's all they have?



Tuesday, December 26, 2017

When you can't offer something better

....make the old ones stop working....

Or phone makers could come up with something new -- that will provide profits by significant improvements over time as well.




it's a "feature"

"
Apple has been slowing down some iPhone 6, 6S, and SE devices since iOS 10.1.2 came out late last year. The fact that Apple is throttling the processor on phones with bad batteries was only even discovered by Geekbench, a third-party benchmarking site that decided to investigate rumors from Reddit. Even with the best intentions, slowing down devices for over a year and not telling people about it was a mistake."

BGR





Fortune


Apple (AAPL, -2.59%) defrauded iPhone users by slowing devices without warning to compensate for poor battery performance, according to eight lawsuits filed in various federal courts in the week since the company opened up about the year-old software change.

The tweak may have led iPhone owners to misguided attempts to resolve issues over the last year, the lawsuits contend.

All the lawsuits—filed in U.S. District Courts in California, New York and Illinois—seek class-action to represent potentially millions of iPhone owners nationwide.

A similar case was lodged in an Israeli court on Monday, the newspaper Haaretzreported.

Apple did not respond to an email seeking comment on the filings.

Garmin Alexa Speak

If there were ever anything screaming for a little laser projector.

Kindle Fire Reminder...





New Video and Image compression format

Pretty nice setup for us. The Apple iPhone X has weak sales. (seriously, are emoji movements worth another $500?)

The market is desperate for something new, and even though there isn't much that's new, and the price differential is $500 -- they're still selling 30 Million units.

The market for consumer electronics is huge. Having the next new thing that provides a feature that people want (bigger screen) is a great place to be.



If you're checking Microvision out for the first time, check here.... 



CNBC

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a mostly lower open Tuesday as shares of Apple dropped in premarket trading.
The iPhone maker's stock fell more than 2.5 percent in premarket trading following a report from Taiwan's Economic Daily, citing unidentified sources, that Apple will slash its sales forecast for the iPhone X by 40 percent in the quarter to 30 million units.


Viaccess -Source

Back of an envelope calculations suggest that Apple’s move to HEVC alone might shave 1.87 exabytes off total monthly traffic. While that is under 4% of the monthly projected 49 exabyte mobile monthly total by 2021, if widened out beyond the Apple ecosystem, then the relief on the network becomes even greater.

Of course, there are potential barriers to that. Firstly there are other codecs available. Google has its own next generation codec in VP9, but VP8 never caught on in the market when measured against H.264. VP9 has issues, especially with regard to a still floating final specification. There’s also AV1 to consider, an open, royalty free codec currently in development and due to be completed by the end of this year. Secondly, all of the next gen codecs have a greater computational cost associated with them, though, at the operator end of the equation, that is precisely the sort of reason that cloud-based encoding has become so popular in recent years.

Consumers will be delighted to see the amount of storage they need for media on their devices halve almost overnight,
and there are even positive implications for people trying to creep under data caps. But for an industry trying to reconcile the demand for video streaming services with the strains on the infrastructure currently in place to deliver them, it is potentially even better news.

Friday, December 22, 2017

Magic Leap Releasing AR goggles "Early next year"

There are a lot of players in this space. -- multiple technologies WILL be used.

This is a "development edition." 


  • may or may not have whatever the final technology is included
  • probably not the final "look"
  • the concept and the tech are in early stages, so expect changes
There are going to be a lot of both triumphs and setbacks in AR.
AR has shown that it can make really fun games, and huge increases in productivity, so it WILL end up both on the market and successful (In my humble opinion.)





















One Creator EditionMagic Leap's aiming the One Creator Edition of its goggles at early adopters and creators. Unlike its competitors like Facebook's Oculus Rift or Samsung's Gear VR, Magic Leap will use a proprietary wearable technology that enables users to interact with digital devices in a completely visually cinematic way.

The headset tracks eye movements, voice and hand gestures to help a user place virtual objects in real-life settings.

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Who's the fairest of them all?

Value investing Lessons....



The price calculator I've had here for a while only really considers Pico projection.

Add a couple of other businesses to the mix and see what you get.

Unlike Bitcoin that is only valuable because people think it's valuable, this stuff is going to have a significant effect on a great many people. MicroVision doesn't have to be the only game in town on any of these technologies to make the stockholder's wealthy.


For my estimation the value floor of Microvision is what Facebook paid for Oculus Rift (2 Billion).

If there were no financial valuation attached and I could have all of Snapchat, or all of MicroVision -- I would choose MicroVision without hesitation.


What is the value of these businesses?
Pico Projection Price Calculator
Interactive Pico Projection?      
Near Eye Displays
LiDAR
"Black Box"
Total

What do you think it's worth (or how much more than it's trading for?)

Monday, December 18, 2017

NBC will Stream Sunday Night Football to your phone

Ecosystem keeps getting better. The screen and the content that wants to be shared.... 


Engadget

The end to Verizon's NFL streaming exclusive is already paying dividends. NBCUniversal has cut a deal with the NFL that gives it the rights to stream Sunday Night Footbal through TV Everywhere on smartphones, not just bigger-screened devices like PCs, tablets and TVs. The deal takes effect starting with the 2018 season, so you might not get to watch the Super Bowl on your handset in February. So long as you have TV service, though, you'll at least get to tune into regular season games throughout 2018.

Surface Phone

It's interesting when things most of us forgot about pop back up again.



Windows Latest

Surface phone previous Mentions



Alex Kipman, the inventor of Microsoft’s HoloLens, in an interview explained that the traditional concept of the smartphone has no future. In an interview with Bloomberg, he explained that “the phone is already dead.” But “people just haven’t realized,” he added. Microsoft’s focus seems to be entirely on building a phone that’s not a phone, that’s something similar to what they have done with the Surface lineup. The man behind Surface lineup, Panos Panay is apparently in charge of bringing the Andromeda to the market.
Ryan Gavin, Microsoft general manager for Surface, explained in a recent interview with Business Insider, that the company’s next phone “will not resemble what we know and think of as a phone today.” Back in 2016, Nadella also hinted at the possibilities of a ultimate mobile device from Microsoft. “We don’t want to be driven by just envy of what others have,” he said. “The question is, what can we bring? That’s where I look at any device form factor or any technology, even AI. We will continue to be in the phone market not as defined by today’s market leaders, but by what it is that we can uniquely do in what is the most ultimate mobile device,” Nadella explained.

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Substance & Bitcoin


This is a chart of Bitcoin. As an understatement, it's getting a bit ahead of itself. I do expect this to decline substantially.

This is what happens when a lot of people see the value of something that is in limited supply. 

There is ZERO intrinsic value in a bitcoin, except that some people have decided it's valuable.

Some people have started to talk it up -- told tales about where it's going that are fantastic. (It will be a million dollars in a few years!!)

MicroVision is a stock issue that has very limited supply. (really, it does.)

It actually HAS value --- It will be producing key components in multiple emerging and disruptive technologies:  (see disruption here)

  • ADAS / Self Driving Cars / 3D Scanning
  • The Internet of things
  • Augmented Reality (Auto HUD / AR Glasses)
  • Mobile Computing
Even if you're REALLY dubious of MicroVision. Buy 100 shares, forget about it. Look in a few years. This is something that will gain a lot in the market that has real, actual tangible value.


Friday, December 15, 2017

Soul Vision Review

Nice review in a Romanian Android magazine. 




Android.ru

The software is simple, clean and with all the shortcuts at your fingertips for a quicker projection. I used an air-mouse remote to navigate while I was designing, otherwise it's kind of hard. It also comes with a feature that can use the touch of another smartphone for control.
******
I wanted to get here. The projector is the one who conquered me on this device. It was the first time I used a smartphone with a projector and even liked it. I managed to impress with him, because, to be honest, what flagship of renown can play a Youtube video on a wall with a diagonal of 1.5 m? I tell you: none!




AEye

What was fascinating to me here is how similar the description of what was up with LiDAR during the CC seemed to what is being described here by AEye.

It's a multi-level problem -- software, logic and hardware, but there are a lot of people working on it all over the place.

Thx Ron & Tom


*********************

MIT Technology Review

What you see is being warped by the inner workings of your brain, prioritizing detail at the center of the scene while keeping attention on the peripheries to spot danger. Luis Dussan thinks that autonomous cars should have that ability, too.

*******************

Most autonomous cars use lidar sensors, which bounce laser beams off nearby objects, to create accurate 3-D maps of their surroundings. The best versions that are commercially available, made by market leader Velodyne, are mechanical, rapidly sweeping as many as 128 stacked laser beams in a full 360 degrees around a vehicle.

But even though they’re good, there are a couple of problems with those mechanical devices. First, they’re expensive (see “Lidar Just Got Way Better—But It’s Still Too Expensive for Your Car”). Second, they don’t offer much flexibility, because the lasers point out at predetermined angles. That means a car might capture a very detailed view of the sky as it crests a hill, say, or look too far off into the distance during low-speed city driving—and there’s no way to change it.

*************
The leading alternative, solid-state lidar, uses electronics to quickly steer a laser beam back and forth to achieve the same effect as mechanical devices. Many companies have seized on the technology because they can be made cheaply. But the resulting sensors, which are on offer for as little as $100, scan a regular, unvarying rectangular grid and don’t offer the standard of data required for driving at highway speeds (see “Low-Quality Lidar Will Keep Self-Driving Cars in the Slow Lane”).

AEye wants to use solid-state devices a little differently, programming them to spit out laser beams in focused areas instead of a regular grid. The firm isn’t revealing detailed specifications on how accurately it can steer the beam yet, but it does say it should be able to see as far as 300 meters with an angular resolution as small as 0.1 degrees. That’s as good as market-leading mechanical devices.

AEye’s setup doesn’t scan a whole scene in such high levels of detail all the time, though: it will scan certain areas at lower resolution, and other areas at higher resolution, depending on the priority of the car's control software.


From Microvision CC

And third the 3D LiDAR market, where our solid state 3D sensing LiDAR technology can target emerging applications in industrial, consumer and automotive segments. Finally, we’re developing revolutionary advances to our laser beam scanning or LBS platform initially applying them to the display solution for a major technology company that could later be extended to all of the markets and engine solutions that we’re targeting. We expect this new platform and the performance it will offer for both display and 3D sensing will further distinguish us from the competition.

********************

Moving onto 3D LiDAR engine status. Our team made stellar progress last quarter and shrunk the original demo from CS by 8 times, while doubling the 3D point cloud output to 5.5 million points per second, which is one of the largest in industry today, all will add an better software visualization tools to allow product developers to better access to better assess our 3D point cloud.

As a result of high customer interest to evaluate our 3D LiDAR scanning engine, we plan to accelerate availability of a development kit for this engine from an originally planned timeframe of second quarter of 2018 to December of this year. Almost six months ahead of the original schedule.

The solid state 3D LiDAR development kit will possess important attributes supported by our customers. It has very dense 3D point cloud as I just mentioned very well wait and see and dynamic scaling performance that allows to tradeoff between high-spatial resolution and high temporal performance. Why are these performance features considered to be important you ask? 3D sensing particularly for automotive and industrial applications typically involves detect and classifying various objects before decisions can be made.
If ADAS system has the ability to increase spatial resolution on the fly to better classify given object it’s a very desirable feature. On the other hand if ADAS system tries to simply detect a fast moving object before it’s been classified then improving temporal resolution could become important. Our 3D LiDAR sensor can deliver such capabilities, which we believe gives us a real comparative advantage over others. We plan to use the development kits of 3D LiDAR engine for exploring new products and application opportunities with OEMs in industrial consumer and automotive sectors.

****************
Let’s now switch to the other development programs that we’ve been executing on. Starting with ADAS, since last year we were under contract with another major tech company to develop prototypes for their ADAS solution. I’m pleased to tell you that we completed all the deliverables to this customer in Q3 recognized revenue and receive the final payments. We anticipate that after evaluating our solution they will inform us about the next steps. Regarding AR, in addition to ADAS remember we had augmented reality project. The deliverables for another major technology company were also completed and we received all payments. This customer is also evaluating the demonstrators we delivered.

AEye Funding

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Headed to CES

I'll be heading to CES in January. (Looking really good anyway.)

I'm hoping to visit every company that could possibly have MVIS inside.

I'll be making a list of targets. Sourcing them here: CES Exhibitors

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

New Quantum V Video

They're working hard to sell this thing, and this is good.

3D Sensing Market

LED Inside

LEDinside has researched on the supply chain of 3D sensing, and points out that algorithm, emission pattern and patent will be the three key elements for 3D sensing development in the future. VCSEL/EEL wafer and chip foundries (e.g. IQE, VPEC, Win Semi, II-VI, Epistar, HLJ, AWSC) have increased their production capacity. Major VCSEL/EEL packaging companies include Lumentum, Finisar, Princeton Optronics, NeoPhotonics, Philips Photonics, OSRAM OS. As for different algorithms, PrimeSense, Mantis Vision, Qualcomm/Himax, Intel, etc. now focus on structured light technology, and STMicroelectronics, Google/Infineon/pmd, MicroVision, Orbbec, etc. use ToF technology. Apart from Apple, Samsung and ASUS, Chinese smartphone brands like Xiaomi, Lenovo, Huawei and OPPO, etc all plan to release new phones with 3D sensing,
Smartphone brands are now deploying in the market and seeking for cooperation within the supply chain. But obstacles still remain for future development of 3D sensing market, including obtaining patents, developing third-party application, and increasing the performance-price ratio.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

The price of Pizza, May 22, 2010

This is a lesson in how a market can value something...

The market can under-value your something or over-value it. 

Right now a company that is licensing and transitioning from a bleeding-edge company to leading edge company in four key emerging technologies is trading at $1.50/share. (or is that 1000 pizzas in 2022.)

There was risk with bitcoin in 2010. There's some risk with MicroVision now. But I bet you wish you'd put a few hundred bucks into bitcoin in 2010, and just hung on to it.



as of December 6, 2017... 

On May 22, 2010, a developer bought two pizzas using 10,000 units of a then-little-known digital currency called bitcoin.


13450.00 * 10,000 = $134,500,000
That's $67,350,000 per pizza.

December 7, 2017

15969.00 * 10,000 = $159,690,000
That's $79,845,000 per pizza
I'm pretty sure this is going to be compared to the Tulip bubble of 1634 pretty soon.

Entertainment Industry -- Big Plans

So, what do you do in a self-driving car while you're getting somewhere?

Probably the same thing most people do for entertainment or to pass the time now. Use a screen.


Thanks Joe.

More at Source

Just think about how relaxing your commute would be in a world of self-driving cars. You hop into your vehicle, tell the computer your destination, and settle in for a peaceful ride to work. Perhaps you can even take a nap, right?

Not if the entertainment industry has anything to say about it. You’re a captive audience the whole journey, so what better time to bombard you with even more “immersive entertainment experiences”? Companies have seen the future, and they’re already making plans to monetize it.

*****

With the average American spending more than 300 hours per year behind the wheel, entertainment execs hope that time can now be spent consuming content rather than driving. The Hollywood Reporter notes that some analysts predict that in-car streaming entertainment could result in as much as $200 billion per year in extra revenue. “Can the windshield be the movie screen of tomorrow?” asked Ted Schilowitz of Paramount Pictures.

Some of the possibilities involve in-cabin virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) experiences. “For example, a fan of the superhero Batman could enjoy riding in the Batmobile through the streets of Gotham City, while AR capabilities render the car a literal lens to the outside world, enabling passengers to view advertising and other discovery experiences,” writes Krzanich.


******

Although this technology is still a few years away, advertisers are already ahead of the curve. “We could deliver interactive, geolocated advertising based on nearby shops, restaurants and businesses,” said a rep from the National Association of Broadcasters.


Monday, December 4, 2017

Autonomous cars faster than you expected

Quicker than they expect, combine this with the video about disruptive technology from yesterday, and check out this, and the stack of Patents from Magna that point to Microvision... and things are looking really nice and really interesting.


BMW 2025 AD

The countdown to the mass production of autonomous cars has begun – much sooner than most experts expected. Klaus Fröhlich, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Development, outlines his strategy.


.....In addition to Continental and Delphi, Fröhlich has now secured Magna as another Tier 1 supplier for the non-exclusive cooperation: "Three suppliers are sufficient for now, otherwise it will be too complex at some point. And we are assuming that the partnering with other car manufacturers has only just begun." Such a global network is important he says given that autonomous driving regulation will be in constant interplay with the progress of technical systems over the next 20 years. "At some point, all vehicles will use the same driverless technology. That's why we don’t think it makes sense to try to differentiate in the long term."...

Sunday, December 3, 2017

Happy 25th Text Messaging!!

Looking at disruptive technology, it's important to consider how quickly it can rise from nothing to seemingly being indispensable.

Enjoy the ride!!


The very first text message was sent 25 years ago, in 1992.


In 1993 the first phone that the first phone that supported sending text messages found its way into the market.

Mashable
"
Like any new technology, initial growth for SMS was slow. The average American user sent 0.4 texts per month in 1995. Gradually, phones and networks adapted to better accommodate SMS. In 1999, texts could finally be exchanged between different networks, which increased its usefulness. By 2000, the average number of text messages sent in the U.S. increased to 35 a month per person."

First SMS Message CBC


World's first SMS text message sent 25 Years Ago

The man who sent the first ever text message 25 years ago has told British broadcaster Sky News that he is proud of his achievement.
British engineer Neil Papworth sent the first SMS (Short Message Service) from a computer to a mobile phone belonging to the then-director of Vodafone Richard Jarvis, he told Sky News.
The message read simply: "Merry Christmas."
Papworth said that Jarvis was unable to reply, because at that time it was not possible to send text messages from mobile phones, only to receive them.
According to Sky, in 2007 the U.K. was sending 66 billion text messages per year and by 2012 that had increased to 151 billion for SMS and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service).
The U.K. currently sends 96 billion text messages every day, Sky reported.
"Texting isn't as popular as it once was," said CBC's Dominic Valitis, reporting from London. "The peak for messaging in the U.K. was 2012 ... but we've seen a steady decline since then."
Some experts believe, however, that although text messages are an extremely quick and popular form of communication, they are no match for speaking with someone in person.
"When you send someone a text message you often lose a lot of the context that you might get when you are speaking face to face," social media expert Toby Beresford told Sky News.
"And that's a real challenge for us in the new era."


Texting Statistics

Worldwide Texting Statistics (5/24/16)

1. The number of monthly texts sent increased more than 7,700% over the last decade. (Statistic Brain) (Tweet this!)
2. Over 560 billion texts are sent every month worldwide. (Statistic Brain) (Tweet this!)
3. 18.7 billion texts are sent worldwide every day, not including app-to-app messaging. (Statistic Brain) (Tweet this!)
4. (2017 Update) 15,220,700 texts are sent every minute of every day worldwide, not including app-to-app messaging. (Domo) (Tweet this!)
5. (2017 Update) 913,242,000 texts are sent every hour of every day worldwide, not including app-to-app messaging. (Domo) (Tweet this!)
6. (2017 Update) 22 billion texts are sent every day worldwide, not including app-to-app messaging. (Domo) (Tweet this!)
7. (2017 Update) 8 trillion texts are sent worldwide every year, not including app-to-app messaging. (Domo) (Tweet this!)
8. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger combine for more than 60 billion messages sent every day. (The Verge) (Tweet this!)
9. 4.2 billion+ people text worldwide. (MBA Online) (Tweet this!)
10. Text messaging is the most used data service in the world. (Nielsen) (Tweet this!)

Video about Disruption

You'll get a lot from the first ten minutes or so. I liked the whole thing.