Augmented Reality (Mixed Reality) Will be bigger than LiDAR

....as is really popular to say lately, "Do your own Due Diligence... this is only my own opinion. -- which is true."

Mixed reality is going to replace the screen on your smartphone... and your PC screen.

Pay Close attention to this. Microsoft also going consumer.

And... like LiDAR, EVERY MAJOR Tech company is ALSO going full steam ahead into Augmented reality, and MicroVisions NEAR EYE DISPLAY is the best.

Here is the proof that MicroVision is IN Hololens.

It's also here, I started near the spot in the video. If you search that weird abomination prototype, you will see Microvision's logo (3 times?)



How popular will this be as a consumer product? As popular as Pokemon Go in Taiwan (The first mainstream augmented reality game.) 

IF you're on the fence as to when to buy.... the way I see it... now.

Easter Egg Patents

Thanks s2upid! & Mark

Retrieved from Reddit -- there are enough smart and dedicated people posting information there that I can't keep up. (and I have other things to do.) Occasionally there's a serious GEM posted there. This is one.

The "EasterEgg" refers to one of the patents listed in the most recent MicroVision videos (last post) mentioned by CEO Sumit Sharma during the last "Fireside Chat" (recounted here)

So the first MVIS easter egg patent "Phased locked resonant scanning display projection" has the following companies citing it (other than the Facebook patent above).

• Microsoft: https://patents.google.com/patent/US10484656B1/en?oq=10484656

• STMicroelectronics: https://patents.google.com/patent/US10602029B2/en?oq=10602029

• Samsung: https://patents.google.com/patent/US10338370B2/en?oq=10338370

• Hitachi: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9972278B2/en?oq=9972278

• Lite-On Technology: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9398276B2/en?oq=9398276   

• Qualcomm: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20180217237A1/en?oq=10690923

•  Magic Leap: https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2020082002A1/en?oq=10690923
  

AND FACEBOOK

Race to Replace Smart Phones

Got the heads up on this from a couple of different sources last night and this morning.

This is where we are.

Given that Microsoft is shipping... it will be happening sooner than CNBC thinks.

CNBC

Fox News

The video is from Fox news.... I've had trouble getting it to play.

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Most of the biggest names in Big Tech are racing to create smart glasses that we wear everywhere and that may replace our phones.

Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Snap, Facebook Apple, Magic Leap and others are all working on some form of smart glasses or headset that will change how we view the world around us. Instead of pulling a phone out of our pockets to talk to people or interact with apps, we may do these things simply by speaking to, and looking through, a set of glasses.

There’s a race to be the first to make a set of glasses that everyone will wear, which means they have to be fashionable and sleek enough to wear all day and everywhere you go. Advocates of the technology hope that you’ll one day be able to replace every screen in your life with just one pair of smart glasses.

Facebook Adding Features to Portal

By itself maybe not so interesting, but it is interesting what features the public are demanding for these devices. Chat alone (awesome video chat even) isn't enough. Need to be able to browse, get information and play music and games.

Gadgetwire

Facebook has also added a new feature of AR Story Time tales, seasonal AR masks, in-call musicsharing through iHeartRadio beyond Spotify and Pandora.

This vital update by Facebook can play a key role in repositioning Portal as not only a video chat device but more in the line with Amazon Echo Show and Google Home Hub.

When Facebook Portal was first launched in October, the device didn’t have much of a reason to exist beyond giving Facebook a way to try its hand at hardware.

But a lot of people who are feeling okay with bringing a Facebook camera and microphone into their homes seemed slim, especially after a lot of people complained about its lack of features.

Conference Presentation....

MicroVision is Naming Names.  

MVIS Presentation

This is nearly as good in my mind as an out and out announcement.(IMHO)

• Amazon
• Google
• Facebook

Did NOT mention who is the BB partner (or what it is.... or did they?)

Did NOT mention who is the display only partner (or did they?)

Love this slide:

Links to two specific videos...  Check out the listing at WPG Holdings.... (BELOW)






Facebook F8 Announcement

"Facebook Announces Spaces, VR Hangout App, For Oculus Rift F8 Conference"

I think very interesting the missing "Portal Speaker."


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WPG Holdings Projection Smart Speaker Solution. (WPG Holdings is a distributor if you haven't already been following along. MicroVision is in very good company there.)

This engine, (the PSE-0403st) is a version of the INTERACTIVE engine -- not the Display only version. (See MicroVision Displayground for write up.)

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.

Facebook Seattle Article

Seattle Times

A growing cluster of Facebook specialists in the Seattle area are working at the cutting edge of virtual and augmented reality. The company’s investments are helping to turn the area into a hub for research and development in the new technologies.

Advertisers tuning out TV

Streaming and web-based as an advertiser advantage.

Large format will have an advantage. 

I'll go out on a limb and predict that Netflix will soon have a "with ads' package. (or they will start streaming ads for heavy users.)

Bloomberg

The decline in TV viewership is accelerating as online rivals Google and Facebook have increased their investments in video, capturing almost every new advertising dollar entering the marketplace.

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“Facebook and Google are cleaning our clocks because they have targeting,’’ said Peter Rice, head of Fox’s TV networks group. “I don’t think the advertising product is as good,’’ adding that TV will take a bigger slice of ad sales as it implements better targeting.

Media companies have tried to use Facebook’s admission of poor audience accounting and the proliferation of inappropriate content on both Facebook and YouTube to persuade advertisers to slow spending online. A few diverted spending to TV from digital in recent years, but no scandal has slowed the growth in advertising sales at Facebook or Alphabet.

“TV doesn’t have fraud or viewability problems, but the prices are just so high now,’’ Leszega said. “We’re at a tipping point.’’


Producer leaves TV for Netflix


Saw this coming... 

Oculus Rooms and Parties

I don't know if this is what was intended when Oculus was purchased by Facebook, but it does look interesting, and will probably have some popularity.

Augmented is going to be more popular, because it won't replace your surroundings and isolate you from the people you're with.

UploadVR -- More at the source

Rooms and Parties are significant steps for the Oculus ecosystem for a few key reasons. The first is that they finally put your friends list to better use. Since launch, the Oculus Home friends list has been evolving toward usefulness. Oculus Rift owners have been giving their buddy list a workout with the addition of more and more multiplayer games, but these two new social experiences are some of the biggest use cases yet for your friends on Gear VR.

It also seems that Oculus and Facebook are in an active state of iteration with their social platforms. Oculus Social released with a few things to do (trivia, social theaters, etc.) but that platform has largely stagnated since release. The feature overlap with Oculus Social and Oculus Rooms leads one to believe that Rooms is the new poster child for pure social interaction on the Oculus platform.

Parties is also the first time Oculus and Facebook are allowing their customers to user a VR platform as a general communications tool. Third party creators like AltspaceVR have been doing this for a while now, but this is the first time that the folks in Menlo Park are taking a similar approach.

Facebook Building a phone?

So, project Ara was one of those programs that it seemed PicoP would be an excellent addition to. 

Google recently shelved Ara. Apparently it's popping up over at Facebook.

Given Facebook's past of gobbling things up, and throwing a lot of resources in directions, this could get interesting.



C|Net  -- More at the Source

Ara, a Lego-like phone with modular parts, would let buyers snap on a better camera, additional batteries or any other creative hardware a developer might dream up. It was set to be the first phone entirely designed by Google, the three men claimed.

Then the Ara project was abruptly shelved.

But now, all three of those men work for Building 8 -- a secretive new division of Facebook. There, they've been joined by an impressive list of heavy hitters that reads like a who's who of the tech world: Motorola, Tesla, Apple and Amazon, in addition to that contingent of Google ex-pats.


What's Building 8?

Originally, it sounded like Building 8 was a skunkworks where Facebook could prototype a whole bunch of new technologies -- like 360-degree video cameras -- and figure out the fastest way to get them into consumers' hands, usually through partnerships.

MicroVision Will make Big Bucks for Big Tech

MicroVision will make Big Bucks for Big Tech. The writing is on the wall. I've connected the big dots below. The stand-alone devices are getting their attention. The real fun will begin with attached and embedded devices. When a mobile device user can instantly (and without fiddling with focus) create a large image on any nearby surface, it will improve big tech's ability to advertise. 

To be able to do local advertising and know that they're getting more than one set of eyes on a local ad will be great for advertisers and the companies that provide it - mainly Facebook and Google. MicroVision will do very well, as they provide the medium for that service. 

Advertising is important -- why else would the mobile companies be offering streaming video free? Binge-on.

Largest companies by market Cap (Google #2, Facebook #12)

Facebook and Google get the majority of their revenue from advertising

They serve their customers -those who pay to advertise- very well. That's why they're so successful. They do this by targeting the advertising to what the people they are serving want.

They know your behavior

Facebook knows what you're doing on your computer, and they know what you're doing with your device. When they deliver advertising, they know what you've looked at, what kind of device they're delivering to, and what it's operating system is. (The majority of the mobile viewers of this blog use Apple iPad, followed by the  Xiaomi HM Note G4. I can know this because Google tracks it.)

They are dependent on the ecosystem 
They are also dependent on bandwidth, and content that draws eyes, and the medium that delivers the content - the screen. That's where MicroVision comes in. The more eyes on their content, the more they can charge for it - the better for their advertisers and for them.

Mobile as a new market greatly increased their earnings

When mobile (very recently) became a new market for them it increased their earnings power significantly

Screen Size is KEY to comfort to mobile video

Larger screen size greatly increases the appeal of mobile video -- small screen size is a barrier! -- Note that Screen resolution is the LEAST concerning factor.

: The image below is from Yahoo Advertising.

Weird Economics

There are some weird economics that occur with mobile devices too, weird may be the wrong term -- but counter-intuitive, and indirect. Many devices are sold at a severe discount, because money can be made from the content, the subscriptions and other add-ons that go with the device. We've all seen a $650 cell phone sell  for $20 or $50 with a contract. 

In 2013,  the cost to make a PS4 was $381. It was sold for $399. So, after packaging & shipping, and allowing retailers to make money, Sony made zero selling the PS4. Yet gaming is one of their most profitable endeavors.

The profit for the company (SONY does make a lot of money on gaming) comes from the secondary market, selling the games, the subscriptions and content through the device.

Free Streaming Video fits this perfectly.

Some background information below that I looked through to compose this:

Facebook Revenues (3Qtr 2015)

From Investopedia

AdWords and Search Advertising (GOOGLE)

The bulk of Google’s $66 billion revenue in 2014 came from its proprietary advertising service, Google AdWords. Of that revenue, 68 percent – or just over $45 billion – came from Google’s own websites.

Googles Investor page Financial Tables

How does Facebook Make its money? (Nice presentation, a little dated.)

Investor.Google

Q3 2015 Financial Summary

Revenues and Monetization

Revenues by source (in millions; unaudited):

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2015
Google websites	$	13,087
Google Network Members' websites		3,694
Total advertising revenues*		16,781
Other revenues		1,894
Revenues	$	18,675

How does Facebook make money?

How does Facebook make money?

From Yahoo Finance

Advertising Numbers

To say that advertising revenue is critical for Facebook is an understatement. About $11.5 billion (92 percent) of the company's $12.6 billion in 2014 revenue came from ads. Facebook increased its total revenue in 2014 by $4.59 billion, and more than 98.2 percent of that growth came from increases in advertising revenue.

Facebook points to increases in News Feed advertisements as the "most important factor" driving ad revenue growth. Average price per ad for Facebook ads also climbed by 173 percent in 2014.Rise Of Mobile

One key area of advertisement growth for Facebook is mobile ads. In December 2014, Facebook had more than 745 million average mobile daily active users. In 2014, 65 percent of Facebook's total advertising revenue came from mobile ads, up from 45 percent in 2013.

AOL ONE

AOL was purchased by Verizon

NYT - AOL ONE

AOL introduced an advertising platform Tuesday that it says will help brands more effectively spend their money to maximize the impact of ad campaigns. The platform, called ONE by AOL, is the company’s latest push into ad tech as it seeks to compete with Facebook and Google.


Advertising Test

If you'd like to figure this out, go and shop online for something that you are normally not concerned with. For example, look for an unusual hardware item. Just pretend you really need to find an unusual part for something around the house. Spend 20 minutes looking for it online, then sign back on to Facebook. You will find advertisements you see on Facebook now feature these items.

Search for an item that you would normally NEVER look for, search on Google, and Amazon. I have a couple of oddball items listed below for you to experiment with.

Search for the item and "click through" on at least two. (Click the listing.)

* digital microscope
* sushi mold
* bagpipe reeds
* chicken plucker