Monday, April 30, 2018

New MVIS Presentation.

I've sought permission to cut and past from it (new sheriff in town.) They would prefer that I not select items out of context.

Link to new Presentation. (4/27/18) It will download a .pdf file.


Page 5-9: As I have asserted: Targeting LARGE EMERGING Technologies. (Notice Google HOME on p6)

P7 -- Consumer LiDAR -- specifically mentioning HOME SECURITY.
P8 -- Automotive LiDAR -- 

P9 -- AR, MR, VR (Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality) -- all of them. The amount of work going into building an ecosystem for this from FB, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Samsung, Meta, Magic Leap, SNAP, Sony, HTC & Others (Motley Fool)

P10 -- illustrates how small and useful the technology can be. (Interactive displays literally ANYWHERE. -- remember that focus and heat aren't really a problem. (and if you go to page 17, you will see that the touch interactive portion (the IR laser) will be integrated with the projector. Alignment of touch-sensitivity and the image will NOT be a problem.)

(A couple pages of how it works. I saw once a high-speed video of PicoP in action, showing a single laser dot zinging back and forth to make a picture. I wish I had that still.)

P18: By Name Mentions: Mentions personal assistants, their functions, their voice accuracy (not as accurate as users reading and touching) Highlighting service delivery improvements with visual and touch and mentioning four companies and their personal assistants by name


  • Google
  • Cortana (Microsoft)
  • Siri (Apple)
  • Amazon Alexa

P21 -- this is awesome. Last week they announced a new mems, with much higher resolution.


Here they're showing a LiDAR that's the volume of three bucks worth of quarters. (Home Security, Self Driving Cars & other applications look like they'll be fairly easy.)

P22-23 Benefits, including speed, improved recognition, small size & Low cost.

P25 The AR, VR, MR optical engine. (I've personally tried everything else I could lay my hands on out there, (missing Magic Leap) and find them all lacking next to MVIS's "NOMAD."




Thursday, April 26, 2018

Next Generation -- Shipping new samples.


MicroVision Ships Samples of Next Generation of High-Resolution MEMS Scanner


REDMOND, Wash., April 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MicroVision, Inc. (NASDAQ:MVIS), a leader in innovative ultra-miniature projection display and sensing technology, today announced that it has provided samples for customer evaluation of a next generation, high-resolution MEMS scanner. The new scanner doubles the resolution of the company’s current scanner and can be used in a variety of consumer and industrial applications.

“Our new MEMS scanner represents a major advancement for our scanner portfolio,” said Perry Mulligan, MicroVision’s Chief Executive Officer. “The new MEMS scanner utilizes two mirrors, an ultra-flat piezo-electric 2mm diameter mirror, combined with a magnetic 6x5mm mirror, to achieve industry leading resolution of 2560 x 1440 for laser beam scanned displays. Providing users with a flicker-free experience, the new scanner operates at 120Hz, while maintaining about the same power consumption as our current single mirror product,” Mulligan added.

While retaining a very small form factor, the new scanner can support customers that want to offer products with the equivalent of either 1080p or 1440p resolution displays.


“The new scanner will be a core component of our future high-resolution engines, and continues MicroVision’s leadership in laser beam scanning technology,” Mulligan added.


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

I'll go out on a limb here and say this will have some very nice benefits in the LiDAR world as well.

One of my favorite gaming devices.... 500% profit jump

The Verge



Nintendo sold just over 15 million Switch consoles in the last financial year, matching its own raised expectations after a hugely successful launch. The company initially planned to ship 10 million in the year from April 2017, then upped its forecast to 14 million last October, then again to 15 million in January. The total amount sold since its March 3rd, 2017 release is now 17.79 million, outstripping the 13.56 million the Wii U sold over its five years of production.
Overall, Nintendo made 178 billion yen ($1.62 billion) in operating profit for the year, a massive 505-percent increase on the previous 12 months. Revenue increased 116 percent to 1.06 trillion yen ($9.66 billion). Nintendo sold over 10 million copies of Super Mario Odyssey, 9 million copies of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and 6 million copies of Splatoon 2, alongside more than 5 million units of the SNES Classic Edition.

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

5G Ahead of Schedule



VentureBeat
With Verizon’s promised 5G launch date rapidly approaching, CFO Matthew Ellis confirmed this morning that the carrier is
“full steam ahead” on its 5G deployment plans for the second half of 2018, saying that the company’s network is being readied to launch as soon as 5G customer equipment is ready. On a quarterly conference call with investors, Ellis said Verizon already has the necessary assets in place for the launch and is largely focused on developing compelling services to win customers.
Despite jockeying by other carriers in China, South Korea, and the United States, it appears increasingly likely that Verizon will indeed be the world’s first carrier to launch commercial 5G services — albeit with several previously announced caveats. “The launch this year will be on our proprietary standard,” said Ellis, who reaffirmed that Verizon will start in three to five markets and will focus on in-home broadband rather than mobile devices. “Over time, we want to move to standards-based consumer premises equipment.”

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

New Fire TV Flagship

Well, this looks interesting. 

Thanks T.


Looks like a Square Echo Dot

AFTVnews

The new flagship Fire TV model is the unreleased “AFTA” device that surfaced for the first time last week. Without the luxury of a leaked benchmark, I don’t know anything about its technical specifications, but I have learned that it essentially combines the functionality of a Fire TV, an Echo Dot, and an IR emitter, like the Harmony Hub, into a single device.

Lots of sharing... What goes into AR and VR

A lot of sharing happens in software... This drone looks like one I've seen before (I think with META)

A couple of samples, you could explore in here for hours.

Sketch FAB

Facebook @sketchfab



Saturday, April 21, 2018

Anatomy of a Short Squeeze

If you have been paying attention, you know there's some good stuff coming.

It's been tough over the last years, which is a hallmark of being on the bleeding edge.


This company is in multiple places in multiple emerging technologies. They don't all have to hit home runs to make us rich.

Where else can you play Internet of Things, Mobile, Augmented Reality, Self Driving Vehicles, Robots, Personal Assistants, and LiDAR all at once? (-- and some other wild card.)


The notation about "low float" here is very significant. Right now there are 70.6 million shares of MVIS stock.

(If the request for an additional 50 million passes, then there's a *possible* 150 million.  -- if they have the ability to issue 50 million more, it doesn't mean they automatically will.)

So, compare this to the floats of our potential customers / partners: (Tier 1, probably not primarily a hardware manufacturer)


(sourced from Yahoo Finance, 4/21/18)

Stock# Sharestimes mvis float
MVIS70,600,0001
AAPL4,910,000,00069.5
MSFT7,590,000,000107.5
FB2,370,000,00033.6
AMZN404,820,0005.7
GOOG603,350,0008.5


So as a for instance, we get an announcement from Amazon(AMZN) that they are incorporating MVIS's technology into their products. Some of their investors are going to want to buy MVIS as well. If they sell a couple of shares of AMZN to buy MVIS, we're going to have a severe shortage of MVIS stock, and the price will rise dramatically.

[ Just as an aside there, let's say that some AMZN investors are intrigued:if 0.5% of AMZN shares are sold to invest it in Microvision. In round numbers that would be 2 million shares of AMZN....times the $1,500 price tag of AMZN -- resulting in demand for 3 billion dollars in MicroVision stock. Clearly at current prices there isn't enough supply to meet that much demand. Will they all try to buy it at good prices relative to today, or just get in? That's the big question.]***

Stocks are also subjected to the laws of supply and demand. -- and me, I'm not going to sell, and a lot of people I know aren't going to sell, so there's going to be a lot of investment interest chasing a very small number of available and being traded shares.

When that happens, the shorts will be forced to buy..... and there will be nothing for them to buy.





Short Pain Bot
"A Short Squeeze Often Has Forced Buying

Sometimes, prices go up so much that shorts have to buy back some stock to meet margin calls. Other times, shorts have to practice risk management and cut some losses when stocks go up by too much. Due to the fact that the shorts have to buy, prices sometimes go up, and that causes more buying and more short covering until the process ends. Some times there are no shares to borrow, and that could also cause a short squeeze.

Although short squeezes have occurred in large caps such as Volkswagen in October 2008, they typically happen more frequently in small cap stocks, particularly those with high short interest and low floats. If a float is low, any meaningful amount of buying could move the stock noticeably, and that buying could trigger more buying, prompting some risk management buying or margin call forced buying."





Event That Beats Those Low Expectations Occurs

Given the low expectations, an event that beats those expectations could prompt some shorts to cover, or for some longs to buy.

Those events include:

  • earnings report comes in way better than expectations
  • the company announced big contract win
  • the FDA approves a drug of the company’s
  • some external event happens that could lead investors to believe there could be more demand in the future
  • management announces a big buyback program that the market believes
  • management raises the dividend a lot
  • guidance blows out estimates
  • a bullish press release prompts pumpers to ignite a buying frenzy

****
Additional demand in $ if 0.5% of the company's stock is sold to buy MVIS.
It's hypothetical of course, but a potentially interesting way to look at the current situation, and a scenario terrifying to shorts. (their risk isn't measured in the Dollar value, but in the number of shares.)


How high could it go? Who knows. But I kind of feel like a redneck with home made fireworks.... there's a LOT of powder, an unpredictable fuse, and a lot of stuff thrown in there to make it look pretty. This is going to be great.


-->
Stock# Sharestimes mvis float1/2 of 1%Recent Share priceAdditional Demand
MVIS70,600,0001
AAPL4,910,000,00069.524,550,000165$4,050,750,000
MSFT7,590,000,000107.537,950,00095$3,605,250,000
FB2,370,000,00033.611,850,000166$1,967,100,000
AMZN404,820,0005.72,024,1001500$3,036,150,000
GOOG603,350,0008.53,016,7501072$3,233,956,000

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Amazon Bezos' Letter

And we know they're going to be WAY more useful with BIG & interactive screens.

They are inviting anyone to create devices with "Alexa" inside. (I had a very nice chat at CES with an Amazon representative who is part of that program.)

Things are going to get interesting.

Full Letter Text


CNBC

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has released his latest annual shareholder letter.
In the letter, Bezos stressed the importance of having high standards in running a business. By setting high standards, companies are able to live up to "ever-rising customer expectations," he said.
"How do you stay ahead of ever-rising customer expectations? There's no single way to do it – it's a combination of many things. But high standards (widely deployed and at all levels of detail) are certainly a big part of it," Bezos wrote in the letter.
Bezos also disclosed for the first time that Prime now exceeds 100 million members worldwide. In 2017 alone, Amazon added more Prime members than any prior year, and shipped over five billion items through the paid membership service worldwide, he said.
Amazon also sold the most number of devices last year, with customers buying "tens of millions" of Echo devices, Bezos wrote in the letter.
With regards to Whole Foods, Bezos said the "technical work" is currently under way to bring Prime member benefits to the grocery chain.



Alexa – Customer embrace of Alexa continues, with Alexa-enabled devices among the best-selling items across all of Amazon. We’re seeing extremely strong adoption by other companies and developers that want to create their own experiences with Alexa. There are now more than 30,000 skills for Alexa from outside developers, and customers can control more than 4,000 smart home devices from 1,200 unique brands with Alexa. The foundations of Alexa continue to get smarter every day too. We’ve developed and implemented an on-device fingerprinting technique, which keeps your device from waking up when it hears an Alexa commercial on TV. (This technology ensured that our Alexa Super Bowl commercial didn’t wake up millions of devices.) Far-field speech recognition (already very good) has improved by 15% over the last year; and in the U.S., U.K., and Germany, we’ve improved Alexa’s spoken language understanding by more than 25% over the last 12 months through enhancements in Alexa’s machine learning components and the use of semi-supervised learning techniques. (These semi-supervised learning techniques reduced the amount of labeled data needed to achieve the same accuracy improvement by 40 times!) Finally, we’ve dramatically reduced the amount of time required to teach Alexa new languages by using machine translation and transfer learning techniques, which allows us to serve customers in more countries (like India and Japan).

  Amazon devices – 2017 was our best year yet for hardware sales. Customers bought tens of millions of Echo devices, and Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick with Alexa were the best-selling products across all of Amazon – across all categories and all manufacturers. Customers bought twice as many Fire TV Sticks and Kids Edition Fire Tablets this holiday season versus last year. 2017 marked the release of our all-new Echo with an improved design, better sound, and a lower price; Echo Plus with a built-in smart home hub; and Echo Spot, which is compact and beautiful with a circular screen. We released our next generation Fire TV, featuring 4K Ultra HD and HDR; and the Fire HD 10 Tablet, with 1080p Full HD display. And we celebrated the 10th anniversary of Kindle by releasing the all-new Kindle Oasis, our most advanced reader ever. It’s waterproof – take it in the bathtub – with a bigger 7” high-resolution 300 ppi display and has built-in audio so you can also listen to your books with Audible.

Laser Scanning (SLAM) and AR making surgery safer

The uses for Microvision's technology will have enormous value, far beyond consumer electronics.


Machine Design

At the University of Twente in the Netherlands, a research team is developing an economical smartphone technology based on the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) technology, along with augmented reality (AR). The device allows doctors to reconstruct 3D body sections by directing the smartphone to the areas of interest. The smartphone will display AR layers of the 3D skin surface so that it can help visualize information that would otherwise be invisible to the doctors.



According to Søren Riisgaard and Morten Rufus Blas, researchers from MIT, “SLAM consists of multiple parts: Landmark extraction, data association, state estimation, state update and landmark update.” By using the data from the body scans, the computer outputs a continuous update mapping by constantly reorienting the scans and interpreting the new data into updated maps.
“We want our SLAM toolbox software solution to support different cameras like a plug-and-play system,” Srmacek added. “So, this allows users to use higher resolution cameras when needed. After medical approvals are obtained for our SLAM toolbox, we would like it to be commercialized as soon as possible.”

“SLAM is a core technology in robotics, but its universal usage will only be possible if we have methods to easily interface many sensors in a robotic system,” said Prof. Dr. Ir. Stefano Stramigioli, chairman of the Robotics and Mechatronics (RAM) Group, Robotics and Mechatronics. “At RAM, we intend to create a modular SLAM box, which will automatically reconfigure itself if extra sensors are attached in a ‘plug-and-play’ fashion. Then it would be possible to connect this ‘SLAM Box’ to a complete robotic system, giving it powerful perception capabilities.”

Friday, April 13, 2018

Apple, NDA's & Penalties

Those of you who are frustrated with NDA's I share the frustration.

But nothing is kept so close to the vest that isn't a big deal.

Apple doesn't take kindly to leaks.



Fast Company
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports on a memo recently sent to all Apple employees stating that 29 Apple people were caught leaking secrets about planned products last year, and 12 of them were arrested. The memo describes in stark terms the implications for employees who leak and get caught: “These people not only lose their jobs, they can face extreme difficulty finding employment elsewhere,” says product marketing executive Greg Joswiak in the memo.
The memo lays out examples of times when whole product announcements have been spoiled by leaks to the media. The main facts about the iPhone X and the Apple Watch 3 had been leaked to the media before the splashy launch event, leaving Apple executives to go through the motions of delivering big surprises from the stage. Apple says leaked information can depress sales of existing product models, and give competitors more time to respond to features coming in future models.  “We want the chance to tell our customers why the product is great, and not have that done poorly by someone else,” the memo says.

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Parkinson's help from AR

It will work better with Glasses.



HealthCare Analytics


The phenomenon known as “freezing” occurs for many Parkinson’s patients. It’s when their limbs temporarily won’t do what their brain is telling them to, causing them to “freeze” during activities like walking. Sometimes, a simple visual cue can help spur their motion.

That’s where augmented reality (AR) comes in. The students developed a smartphone app that allows a user to place one of those cues, like a circle or block (see image above), to target where on the ground their next step should land . According to a brief from Rice, the cue is often enough to spur patients back into their gait.

“This is for patients who, in their day-to-day lives, experience freezing episodes,” one team member, Gaby Perez, said. The app can also use tactile and audio cues, which Perez said other devices meant to assist with the problem typically don’t incorporate.

A smartphone app is also cheaper and more innocuous than those other solutions, like laser-guiding canes. One of Perez’s teammates, Dan Burke, said that the project “has the potential to work more effectively and at a fraction of the cost.” The app—which is more proof-of-concept than eventual product—was designed for iPhones, but the team said it should be adaptable to Android devices as well.

Watch this again, carefully....

Brought to you here first during this years CES

Facebook Portal (WATCH THIS VIDEO!)


EXCLUSIVE: Facebook Dives into Home Device Market with Video Chat Product Named "Portal"
January 9, 2018



Facebook is about to jump into the consumer hardware business in a big way with a video chat device named "Portal," which will put it in direct competition with Amazon’s hugely popular line of Echo voice-controlled devices, Cheddar has learned.
The device is designed to work in the home and represents Facebook’s first serious foray into selling consumer hardware, people familiar with the matter said. Rather than position the device as a smart assistant akin to Amazon’s Echo speakers, Facebook intends to pitch Portal as a way for families and friends to stay connected through video chatting and other social features.
Facebook plans a formal product introduction in early May at its annual developer conference and hopes to ship the device in the second half of 2018.
Like Amazon’s screen-equipped Echo Show, Facebook’s Portal is designed to work indoors and be controlled through voice commands. According to people familiar with Facebook’s plans, Portal will be equipped with a wide-angle lens that is capable of recognizing individual faces and associating them with their Facebook accounts.
The world’s largest social network has been using facial recognition for years and recently started notifying users if their faces appear in photos they aren’t tagged in.
Facebook also intends to let Portal access outside streaming services like Spotify and Netflix. The company recently signed sweeping music licensing deals with Sony/ATV and Universal Music Group.

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Accidents will happen

This is an important thing. Accidents WILL happen with new technology, that's no doubt. But it's important to note that this was a collision with a bicycle.

I have searched for the reference regarding the abilities of MicroVision's LiDAR -- but among them mentioned specifically is the ability to recognize things like bicycles & being able to distinguish the difference between objects of roughly the same size -- such as the difference between a brick and a cat.

Dense point cloud, and lasers on multiple wavelengths are feature that can benefit this ability.

They do not operate in isolation, however. There is a lot of software that has to be developed and tested and 


ABC 15 Arizona

TEMPE, Ariz. - Tempe, Arizona police are investigating a deadly crash involving a self-driving Uber vehicle early Monday morning.

The Uber vehicle was reportedly headed northbound when a woman walking outside of the crosswalk was struck.

Tempe Police says the vehicle was in autonomous mode at the time of the crash and a vehicle operator was also behind the wheel. No passengers were in the vehicle at the time.

An Uber spokesperson said they are aware of the incident and are cooperating with authorities.


Uber has paused self-driving operations in Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto, which is a standard move, the company says.

The investigation is still active.

Uber began testing self-driving cars in Tempe in February 2017. The fleet of self-driving Volvos arrived in Arizona after they were banned from California roads over safety concerns. Gov. Doug Ducey touted Arizona as a testing ground, saying at the time in a written statement, “Arizona welcomes Uber self-driving cars with open arms and wide open roads.”

One of the self-driving cars was involved in a crash a month later, after a car failed to yield to the Uber vehicle and hit it, authorities said. The self-driving SUV rolled onto its side as a result crash.

There were no serious injuries were reported in that crash.

Sotheby's Curate

Imagine shopping for a home with AR Glasses.

The furniture you own is stored inside / or as shown in the video you can shop for things that work with it on the fly.

You enter the prospective home, and can arrange your furniture in it, and see how it looks.

Sotheby's Curate | DigitalTrends



Thanks T!

Monday, April 9, 2018

The Google Smart Screens Walkthrough

I am nearly 100% certain that we will be included in Google "Smart Screens" and nearly 100% certain that this is NOT the "black Box project."

This is laying it out.


AT CES, Google had smart speakers. In fact, Google and Amazon were very heavily promoting their smart speakers to the conference. (If you were IN the conference, you thought Amazon was everywhere, if you were around Las Vegas at the time, you thought Google was everywhere.)

I put up all the puzzle pieces, (here)  but I received more than a few inquiries "What did that all mean?" So, here it is a bit more directly.


During CES Google Presented Smart Screens.

(The Verge, Google Smart Screens)

Here is a Google Smart Screen Video....

Keys to inclusion:

Developer's Blog (From the same day as the release.)
"New voice-activated speakers powered by Android Things are being announced at CES, including the LG ThinQ WK7 and iHome iGV1. Turnkey hardware solutions based on the Qualcomm SD212 Home Hub Platform, MediaTek MT8516 and Rockchip RK3229 SoM are certified for the Assistant and Cast, and NXP i.MX 8M is coming soon. Three of our Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) partners, Tymphany, Goertek, and Tonly, have created full speaker reference designs based on these SoMs to further reduce development cost and time-to-market."
Rockchip 3229

>>> This mentions Goertek, who is the manufacturing partner for MVIS Engines.
>>> Rockchip is also interesting, but for a different reason....
>>> Rockchip is here, at WPG holdings  (If you don't remember, WPG holdings is the Asian Distributor Microvision announced the connection with during the Fall of 2017)
The below, cart is distributed by WPG (Still #8 in the hottest of 612 items in the IOT area as of April 9, 2018) It shows a RockChip 3036 processor.


What is the Rockchip 3036? look for the frame below in the video...





Now, if you want to know why I don't think it's the "Black Box" Project, is because the PSE-0403-101 is the Interactive display engine. -- Which was ALREADY demonstrated and Announced by MicroVision.
Link to PR... (too lazy to search outside blog)

"PSE-0403sti-101 Short Throw Interactive Display Engine
MicroVision will also be featuring an interactive display prototype that combines display functionality with 3D sensing that enables a natural gesture recognition feature for consumer products. The interactive display engine enables user experiences where touching a projected image is processed by the system in the same way as interacting with a touchscreen on a smartphone or tablet. Samples of interactive display engines the company is developing, model PSE-0403sti-101, are expected to be available in the second quarter of this year with production units targeted for the third quarter.
The interactive display engine is built on the common LBS platform shared with the PSE-0403 display engines and will include the same display features combined with an integrated time-of-flight (ToF) sensing function. MicroVision’s ability to combine ToF sensing and pico projection into a single compact engine offers OEMs new possibilities for products by mimicking a Windows 10 or Android touch screen display or providing access to intermediate point cloud data all from an engine so small it can be embedded in mobile and smart IOT products."






2018 Anticipated Smart Speaker Sales

Goertek(MVIS Maker) Qualcomm AR



SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Goertek announces today its 3rd generation virtual reality (VR) reference platform in partnership with Qualcomm. This VR head mounted display (HMD) design, based on the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 845 mobile platform, enables a vivid and immersive VR experience in a standalone form factor. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will be able to leverage Goertek's vast product experience to quickly bring the highest performing VR products to market.

"This is a pivotal moment for our industry," said Dr. Pen C. Li, Vice President, Product Marketing, Goertek. "The launch of Snapdragon™ 845, together with Goertek's successful integration of cutting edge VR technologies, opens the opportunity to bring our users the most complete standalone VR experience ever seen. Goertek's extensive experience in design, engineering and manufacturing, in both components and systems, has propelled it to become a global ODM [original design manufacturer] leader."

In this latest generation of VR HMD, Goertek successfully integrated the various subsystems including display, advanced optics and lens, mechanical design, audio, chipset, and software. OEMs will benefit from the turn-key nature of this design to shorten time-to-market, decrease engineering investment, and increase focus on user experience and content implementation.

Customers of this reference design should feel confident in this Goertek-designed platform. Goertek has designed multiple successful VR products by especially focusing on ergonomics, thermal management, and system integration. After years of strategic investment in the VR ecosystem, Goertek has proven to be a trusted and capable partner for this market and have supported major ecosystem leaders like Google Daydream, Lenovo™ and others.


"With the Snapdragon 845 Mobile VR Platform, we are paving the way for customers and developers to create the immersive and life-like experiences that our users are asking for," said Hugo Swart, Head of Virtual and Augmented Reality Business Group, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "We are pushing forward and delivering leading technologies to support the growing product segment of standalone and smartphone VR products."


The Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 845 Mobile Platform features updated architectures and subsystems that aim to deliver an unprecedented VR experience. Using the the Qualcomm® Adreno™ 630 visual processing subsystem, this latest design includes 30 percent faster graphics performance and 2.5x increased display throughout while using 30 percent less power.

Previously unavailable to the standalone VR category, multiple technology innovations dramatically improve the user experience. Foveated rendering along with eye tracking allow for graphics processing to increase in the areas where the user is focused. This allows for power savings as well as the highest performing visual effects to date. 6DoF inside-out tracking frees the user to explore the full VR environment, free of wires that threaten to break the immersive quality of VR.




About Goertek


Goertek is a global leader in total system design and manufacturing and was the worldwide #1 ODM for virtual reality HMD in 2017. Goertek Inc. was established in June 2001, and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in May 2008. As a worldwide leading high-tech consumer electronics company, Goertek's main focuses consist of R&D, production and sales of electro-acoustic components, including MEMS mic, sensor, miniature speaker, linear motor, antenna, CNC metal parts, optical component, camera module, and system product, including VR/AR and VR accessories, wearable device, smart hearable device such as smart speaker and wired/wireless headphone/earphone, smart robots, and 360-degree camera, etc.

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Zuckerberg -- Front of Drudge

This picture from the front of Drudge Report 4/4/18

  • Ready Player One describes precisely what MVIS does ( Regarded as the must-read for people at FB working on VR & AR)
  • Microvision has the best AR display (I've tried everything available to try at CES, MVIS's offering beat everything else that was available.)
  • Oculus Haptic Glove
  • "Data Mining Scandal" had no meaningful impact on the company

  • Facebook stock rose nearly 4 percent in premarket trading Thursday after CEO Mark Zuckerberg told reporters he had not seen a noticeable change in user behavior in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

    "I don't think there has been any meaningful impact we've observed," Zuckerberg said, when asked if the tech giant has seen a change in the behavior of users or buying pattern of advertisers.



Zuckerberg Last spring (4/18/17)


“You want to play a board game? You snap your fingers, and here’s the board game,” he said, motioning to the coffee table. “You want to watch TV?” he gestured to the flat screen up on the wall. “You don’t need a physical hardware TV, you buy a one-dollar app ‘TV’ and put it on the wall.”
Zuckerberg hasn’t figured out a way to conjure physical objects out of thin air. Instead he has plans to produce digital objects using software-powered glasses, the kind of futuristic lenses that can overlay digital text and images onto the physical world around you.
The technology, referred to as augmented reality, is already around, though in a much simpler form. It’s the same technology that powers Facebook’s (and Snapchat’s) face-distorting camera lenses, and helped propel Pokémon Go into a cultural phenomenon.
Somewhere down the line, Zuckerberg said, augmented reality will be a big part of Facebook, too. That vision was laid out today at the company’s annual developer conference, F8, in San Jose, Calif., just 20 miles down the road from Facebook’s corporate headquarters.


Voga V Video



Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Spectrum & CC

Henry James Okay. Okay. And then one last question. I think -- or at least I've read or heard that you guys have at least a sort of display product for project and sense at the same time. I don't know if you can tell us anything about that.

Perry M. Mulligan - MicroVision, Inc. - CEO & Director

That is our interactive display, Henry.

So think of the scenario -- and when we talk about the I/O for AI, I'm not trying to be cute with acronyms. But if you think of being in the home environment and we talk about a suite of solutions,

think of our display engine embedded in your voice-only device. So that as you shave in the morning not only do you listen to the news, you see it displayed on the washroom wall, and that becomes a little bit more meaningful experience. 

As you walk down the hall towards the kitchen, our sensing device knows it's you that's walking down the hall. It adjusts the coffee and turns the lights on appropriately. 

And then an interactive display that's invisible, but when you call it up, it comes out as an Alexa-type device or something of that nature that allows you to interact with it because of the sensing capabilities, gesture recognition and then disappears when it's not required. 

So we really see this as sort of a suite of solution that helps AI platforms with their user interface.

Monday, April 2, 2018

Microvision.... Deep Tech.

Scraped to save, Thanks Tom


Source


The military black technology that has been quiet for 20 years has finally waited for an opportunity to turn over and turned strongly to the automotive and security markets.

DeepTech Deep Technology 2018-04-01 19:02 Read:2928
Abstract: Laser projection is a bit of a historical technique. As its name implies, it uses the laser as the light source and uses the MEMS glass structure to reflect the imaging technology on the surface of the object. Its advantage lies in its ability to make the projection structure very small and can even be placed on smartphones. Medium, and even non-flat surfaces, can focus on imaging
Laser projection is a bit of a historical technique. As its name suggests, laser light is used as a light source and MEMS glass structures are used to reflect the surface of an object. The advantage of this technology is that it can make the projection structure very small, even in smart phones. And even non-flat surfaces can focus on imaging, without additional focus mechanism on the lens. However, in the past, due to excessive application and cost restrictions, it was rarely seen in the market.
Because it was difficult to put it into the general consumer market in the early days, companies that had invested in laser projection technology in the early days, such as MicroVision, turned to military equipment as the touchstone for laser projection. They designed a head-mounted battlefield information display device for the U.S. military. Basic functions were Just like today's AR display devices, through Substrate Guided Relay (SGR) optics, that is, a transparent lens with special optical characteristics, Microvision applies its own PicoP technology to pump images and maps it. Photos, real-time videos, and other images are reflected in the eyes of the wearer as a useful tool for communicating battlefield situations and strategies.
Figure | Battlefield Information Visual Feedback Diagram
Figure | US Army Battlefield AR Vision Feedback System
In the Wave Gulf War that began in the 1990s, MicroVision received considerable income from the provision of a large number of US AR battlefield display devices. However, after the war ended, MicroVision also began to actively lay out the general consumer market and send it to the military due to a sharp drop in demand. The use of black technology for civilian use.
Figure | Laser projection machine structure for the three-color laser projected image through the MEMS light machine, with the advantages of sharp picture quality
For MicroVision, the actual application scope of the existing pico projector technology is still too narrow. If it can only be used for home or office briefing, the future development space is limited. Therefore, like MicroVision, it turns to the miniaturized projection module as its core and expects it to be embedded in various corners of life.
At present, the main application level of laser projection includes vehicle display, home intelligent terminal display, commercial display, and mobile display.
Chart | Future Prospects of Laser Projection and IR 3D Sensing Technology
In the car display technology, it will focus on the window projection, which includes two kinds of directions, one is the broadcast of advertising images, the audience is the passerby and other drivers outside the car, the other is the driving itself, that is, the traditional The replacement of the head-up display, with the help of a display module embedded in the car, places the car information in the window glass as a method for navigation or real-time monitoring of traffic information. In the automotive display, it may be more emphasis on the aftermarket. Because the laser module itself is still more difficult to introduce products that meet the stringent demand for vehicle regulations, it will take a while to improve into the pre-installation market, but the market has already Began to circulate applications, for example, many markets in China have begun to launch automotive window projections.
Figure | Window projection using laser projection technology
In terms of home smart terminal display, considering that smart speakers are generally only able to broadcast information through voice, if the information content is very long, then the voice time will be long, for example, to understand the structure of the weather in the coming days, Then products with display capabilities are more intuitive. In addition, if you shop through a smart speaker, you will not be able to see the actual appearance of the product, and it may happen that something you bought doesn't meet expectations.
Figure | Although a bit contrary to the original intention, but more and more smart speakers built-in screen, but the shape is also limited by the screen
In addition, there have been many smart speaker programs or have already made display screens into products, but such products are limited by the size of the display screen and the appearance cannot have a bolder design. If a laser miniature projection module is used, not only is it projected The screen can be resized as needed, or it can be placed on various flat or non-flat surfaces such as a home wall or a white cabinet, and it can have a pretty good projection quality without focusing.
In addition, in the area of ​​commercial embedded projection, such as store merchandise display, product interactive pages can be directly projected onto glass windows with polarized films, and even IR sensors can be used to interact in real time or directly to shop.
Figure | Interactive Projected Showcase Window
In terms of mobile display, MicroVision and Lenovo and Sony have cooperated and developed a lot of products in the past. Lenovo did not go public because of market strategy adjustments. However, Sony's laser micro projectors are not only cheaper and lighter in size, but also have better resolution and lower price than competitors in the market. Sony, however, purchases related technology patents from MicroVision using a structured authorization method. And use it to design your own products.
Figure | Lenovo had planned to launch a Smart Cast projection mobile phone based on laser projection and IR sensor technology, but unfortunately due to Lenovo's poor operating conditions
In the Gulf War, the U.S. military used a large number of personal display devices based on laser projection as the communication of battlefield information and the communication of commands. At that time, it was possible to achieve color display in limited hardware size limits. The military network can display virtual information images superimposed with real-world scenes. The commander can grasp the distribution of resources and combat power on the battlefield in real time, and translate the commands into visual concepts to be synchronized to the views of all soldiers who use the equipment. Perform battlefield management, and with GPS positioning and map display, even in the case of very poor visibility, it is possible to synchronize the position of the enemy and the Jun army in real time, and even mark the enemy's location.
The concept of overlaying virtual information with real-life scenes is quite consistent with the AR technology we use today. However, AR equipment will not be commercially available until 2018. Military AR equipment based on laser projection was back in the 90s. The US military is widely used.
Finally, in the ascendant AR and VR technologies, laser projection can also help the entire system become thinner and lighter, and bring better display effects. Of course, apart from traditional AR and VR mechanism design, Microvision will also develop direct in the future. The technique of projecting an image onto the retina. At this time, there may be people who think that AMOLED has a burning screen problem. Will the laser that directly projects on the retina burn the retina? But in fact, there is no need to worry too much. The intensity of light that is projected to the eyes will be adjusted to the range that the human body can bear. Otherwise, it is impossible to pass the examination and approval, but also to have a good display effect in view of safety. This is a dilemma for such technology, but This is not impossible. More stringent technological developments and verifications are still needed.
Invest in embedded projection and imaging technology for AR and VR equipment
The Microvision PicoP core combines laser projection and scanning technology. With the combination of a laser emitter and a MEMS light engine, coupled with IR emission and sensing capabilities, it can focus on any object surface and even achieve 3D Sensing at the same time. , Detection and real-time establishment of three-dimensional object surface.
Figure | Laser projector from Japan Explay Japan, also taking the miniaturization design direction
In addition to Microvision, Explay Japan also has a similar laser projector solution, which is also focused on miniaturization. However, Microvision has already pioneered laser projection in mobile phones and combines infrared scanning capabilities. Explay Japan does not have a similar product.
Laser projection is actually a laser as a light source, a display technology with the characteristics of MEMS opto-mechanical structure, and LCD, DLP parallel projection of the three major technologies, the latter two light sources using traditional light bulbs, the newer models also use LED light source, Because of the different structure of the light machine, the technical threshold of laser projection is obviously much higher, and because of the limitation of the laser power, the brightness is difficult to effectively improve. Therefore, the laser projection has gradually developed toward the miniaturized projection technology, while the LCD and DLP have become larger. screen display.
In terms of technical principles, highly focused laser projection technology using a laser characteristic, a light source and then with MEMS deflection scanning process to convert the point light sources to scan the laser line, while the advanced processing of the picture plane, the concept of a bit Like the cathode ray tube display (CRT display) in the early days, only the cathode ray tube projected an electron beam, and the laser projector was a laser.
Microvision uses laser sources for all three primary colors, but competitors also use semiconductor lasers as the light source only for red and green light. Blue-light semiconductor lasers use LED light sources instead of blue lasers to achieve size and cost due to high cost. Balanced, but this solution will still be larger than the pure laser solution.
Figure | MicroVision's PicoP micro-projection technology with permanent focus, wide viewing angle, and bright colors
However, because of the high complexity of the laser projection structure, the cost is difficult to reduce effectively. In addition, due to limitations of the micro-projection technology due to equipment battery, processing performance, etc., the market is very small, so the market size of laser projection cannot be compared with other projection technologies. Because DLP's opto-mechanical structure can also be miniaturized, miniaturized projectors in recent years have dominated the market with LED-based DLP technology.
Enters Vehicle and Security Lidar Technology with 3D Sensing Technology
As mentioned earlier, in addition to laser projection, its laser-based and infrared-based 3D Sensing technology is currently one of the core technologies of MicroVision. With its projection technology, remote object detection, motion detection, and even gestures can be performed. Interact with projected content and more. This 3D Sensing technology can also be used as an indispensable LiDAR product for autopilot. Because of MicroVision's technological advantages, its mechanism size can be much smaller than that of competitors on the market, facilitating the integration of more LiDAR products into the entire vehicle, or Without changing the size of LiDAR and changing the original body design, MicroVision's LiDAR technology can clearly identify the shape and stereoscopic features of the scanned object. Other similar products cannot achieve similar results.
Traditional LiDAR uses a laser as the source of emission, and then determines the actual distance of the target object based on the time interval of reception-reflection. Then, according to the distance and the angle of laser emission, the position information of the object can be derived through a simple geometrical change. Due to the small influence of laser propagation on the outside, LiDAR can detect distances up to 100m. Compared with traditional radars using radio waves, LiDAR uses laser radiation. The wavelength of laser rays used by commercial LiDAR is generally between 600 nm and 1000 nm, which is far below the wavelength used by traditional radars. Therefore, LiDAR can achieve higher accuracy in measuring object distance and surface shape, which can generally reach centimeters.
Figure | Traditional LiDAR technology, based on laser projection, sensing distance, but the size of the body needs to have a certain space to accommodate, it is difficult to further miniaturization
MicroVision's LiDAR products actually belong to mid-range products in terms of sensing distance, and they are still in the R&D phase. Although many customers are interested, it still takes some time to polish before entering the market. However, with the miniaturized structure and low-cost design, different thinking can be brought to the sense design of the automotive market.
Figure | Microvision's Lidar design is similar in size to its laser projector, currently limited to vehicle gauge laser modules are still in development, and it is not yet available in the market, and the sensing distance is short
Laser projection technology has high potential, embedded design can expand the breadth of applications
Although Lidar for cars is still in the design and verification stage, LiDAR products for security should soon be available in the market. Because the characteristics of MicroVision LiDAR are like the scanning lines of traditional cathode ray tubes, it can scan the surface of objects at high speed and return the three-dimensional features of objects. In other words, if it is within close enough distance, say a few meters, it can be done. To the effect similar to FaceID, to use the three-dimensional features of the facial features to identify who is coming, the accuracy can be better than the traditional camera-only technique.
Figure | Security LiDAR Technology Schematic
Because MicroVision's LiDAR is extremely small, it can easily be stuffed into small robots, including storage robots, sweeping robots, etc., and map generation technology of related systems can be complemented with LiDAR's own high-precision detection capabilities. Man-Machine products will also use LiDAR technology as a dodge barrier and achieve the ability to fly accurately in limited space.
MicroVision has been verified by many products for small-size image projection capabilities. It has also been confirmed by related customers. Although there is room for improvement in terms of related costs and reliability of some applications, it is driven by market demand. Related technologies are also evolving. It is believed that in the future, display devices based on laser projection will be more diversified and applications will become more popular.
Laser projection lost its advantage in the first wave of consumer projection market, and it relied on the advantages of technology to generate light and heat in the military market. However, after its miniaturization and cost improvement, it was immediately followed by more massive consumer projection and sensing. In the market ecosystem such as industry, laser projection technology should be able to get a place.