Friday, May 31, 2019

Verizon 5G, Hololens and Treating Cancer

Thanks Fuzzie

I think this illustrates what kind of resolution we might be dealing with -- and applications.

If you aren't REALLY excited about this tech you have no imagination.

This also adds another Tier 1 company to the radar... Interesting how much Hololens gets play with a 5G commercial from a mobile carrier..... there are a few dots that haven't been connected here.

The video is very oddly locked, and I haven't been able to find it to embed it from YouTube. (It might a kind of pre-release of the video, considering it's in Adweek - or that the NBA has something to do with it.)




Adweek

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

LiDAR to Monitor the Elderly

Thanks Mike

Autoblog

As you check this out, imagine if you will the market capitalization that this application ALONE could achieve for a company.

This article is making some assumptions of limitations of LiDAR that MicroVision has already dispelled.

This is an application that MicroVision has already highlighted.


***********

Jack Narcotta, a senior smart home analyst at Strategy Analytics, said lidar lasers were one of the more advanced solutions for elderly monitoring, but were still in the very early stages.

Even though lidar doesn't recognize faces, some consumers may be concerned about the amount of tracking and location data collected and the ability to see repeatable patterns, he said.    

***[Actually, yes it does. If you have seen the demo of MicroVision's LiDAR it not only recognizes faces, but expressions.]

In the pilot, IBM Research UK and Cera Care plan to install lidar sensors in around 10-15 volunteer households in Britain from June, and see whether they can build up a detailed picture of a care client's daily routine and home environment using IBM's machine learning software.  (This is data-gathering for Artifical intelligence.)

Their aim is to alert caregivers to any possible deterioration in a person's physical and psychological health, such as changes in gait, or emergency situations such as a fall.

Ben Maruthappu, co-founder and CEO of Cera Care, hopes the technology will help the care system become more personalized even as the demand for care outgrows the number of careworkers on the front line.

"Technology like this can help us solve that gap between demand and supply because it means we can pinpoint when a careworker needs to be in a person's home," Maruthappu told Reuters.

(Improvements in the bottom line... always good to participate in that.)

***********

Nicola Palmarini, IBM's top research scientist for aging and longevity, says lidar - which doesn't recognize personal characteristics such as faces, age and gender - provides precise data without people feeling like they are being watched.

He believes they will only need one lidar sensor per room, potentially making it more scalable and reducing overall care costs if people can stay at home for longer.

Still, the technology comes with a high price-tag, with 3D sensors currently costing between $800 and $1,000 each, according to Palmarini. He expects the cost to fall over time.

Aejaz Zahid, a director at assistroniX and expert on new technologies to help people age well, said one major benefit of lidar could be fall detection - a major pain point for health systems that researchers have struggled to crack with wearables.

Other firms looking at lidar's potential in the smart home include scanning technology maker Microvision that has launched a lidar sensor with a range of up to 10 metres with machine-learning capabilities.

Monday, May 27, 2019

A story that can now be told

I attended a presentation during the last half of 2018, which resulted in a very interesting exchange. I haven't shared the story of it with more than a few people and then over the phone or in person. 

At some point during the last half of 2018, I attended a presentation hosted by an employee of a Seattle Tier One company. 
The presentation was about creating applications for a family of devices, and given primarily to independent developers.
At the end of the presentation there was a call for questions: a number of interesting questions were asked, and several were asking for details about upcoming features. Each of the questions about new features received the same response: "I'm sorry, I can't comment on any upcoming features." 

The same answer, each time, even if the potential feature would be relatively mundane and not particularly exciting.

After the third such response, I kept my hand down, knowing that my question would NOT be answered.

When all of the official presentation was complete, I realized that I did have a question that could be answered.

I approached the presenter, listened to the other people with additional questions, and when I had my chance I said, "I had a question that I know you can't answer, so I won't ask, but I have another one." 

As I took a breath to ask the good question, I heard: "That's okay, try me." 

"Okay" I said, "So when is this device getting the interactive laser display?"

The physical response to this was significant: shock, perhaps a little fear -- a definite recognition.

"You're right, I can't confirm or deny any such thing."

It appeared I'd struck a nerve, and I gave some reassurance afterwards that I wouldn't try to lay any verbal traps or tricks, and I wouldn't push for an answer. 

I never told the story here because I thought it could possibly jeopardize this person's position and future.

Recently, I contacted this person and asked if it was okay if I told the story now. A memory refresher was required, but the event was definitely remembered. "Ah, but I never confirmed or denied anything." -- and... "as long as you don't mention my name!"

So, I interpreted a reaction, which I think often speak pretty loudly. 


This person was adamant -- nothing was confirmed or denied, and DON'T USE MY NAME.

Friday, May 24, 2019

ASM

Notes on the ASM. The opinions are my own, the recollections are my own and I'm not perfect, it's entirely possible that other people heard the same things in a different way.

LiDAR

The first thing I stopped at in the Demo room was the LiDAR. It's very much smaller than it used to be: the size of the candy-bars the cheap people give away on Halloween (fun sized). Tiny. Currently 17 million pps at 8 meters, working on 20. (something about software and processors.) 


  • Designed with direct input from OEMS / Customers who will be using it. (This is not a solution in search of a problem... it already has places to go.)
  • Gesture control will be big.
  • Built with Machine intelligence
  • Autonomous cars may be a ways out, but ADAS is being implemented, and there will probably be government requirements for it in a couple of years. 
  • Confirmed that this is considered a "solid-state" LiDAR.
TIER ONE OEMS
  • We have THREE (so far)
  • We are producing components of products that have other component suppliers
    • possible that one of the other component suppliers may have some kind of issue
  • TIER one OEMS are now calling Microvision
  • Sales funnel is excellent - they are very happy with it
  • They are talking to upper management on specific solutions
  • MVIS solutions can go from zero to very large numbers
  • "Now it's going to turn into money."
China
  • China trade tensions are big, and may change the environment we're working in. 
  • Some components are manufactured in China
  • Some manufacturing may move (Brazil, Mexico, Vietnam, Canada...)
  • Not sure of any possible impact, but of course watching the situation closely -- and the Tier one companies are watching it as well (we don't necessarily know what they're thinking or what they're going to do)
Q2 2017 Contract (Hololens?)
  • PO has no material hurdles, it's in a document finalization stage" 
  • The signing of the PO will be a material event
  • They WILL be shipping product in June (this wasn't qualified with uncertainty indicators --- no "if" or "likely" or "planned" modifier to the statement.
There was also some hearsay that this Tier one company would likely announce us-- we wouldn't need to wait for a teardown of the product to find Microvision within.





Spent the better part of the afternoon after the ASM with other investors  (Brian --not Turner -- Mike and Kristie -- who may share their online personas if they wish.) 

We headed over to Microsoft to their visitor center to experience Hololens and chat about where we are or where we're going. Well spent time.


Saturday, May 18, 2019

Visit to Taqtile -- Everyone is an Expert

I had an opportunity to meet Dirck Schou at Taqtile in Seattle this week.

Taqtile offers a suite of VR, mixed reality and mobile apps. The technology lets users view holographic maps and models of cities, build trade skills through VR learning and collaborate using 3D holographic visualization.
They are on the front lines of making 3D computing useful.  They are known for Holomaps. (Which have been demonstrated by Microsoft)

The enthusiasm for this tech is huge, and they are able to easily share one person's expertise with any number of other people. The results are extremely promising, with error reduction, time and cost savings.

I'll admit I was rather hung up on using it to train people, but there are often things that need to be done -- but only rarely.... with these tools, it's possible to simply record a procedure --- and the next person, using Hololens, could be walked through the entire procedure and do it exactly, without having to learn it.

In their meeting room I walked through a pre-flight of a Cessna 172 -- as though the airplane were in the room with us. It was fantastic.

---- the bottom line is that the benefits of this go straight to the bottom line. There is an immediate and measurable benefit to using this tech.

It's difficult to find investing opportunities where this is true and it's still unknown.  (people still think this is science fiction, but it's real.)




I see Manifest like the Adobe Creative Suite for Hololens. Their tagline is "Everyone is an expert." Their software can help people easily take an augmented reality device (they work with Magic Leap, Hololens & iPad... other devices were mentioned.)

AUTHOR
Subject matter experts (Authors) can intuitively create stored step-by-step procedures with minimal training. Manifest does not require specialized knowledge of 3D, CAD publishing tools, or coding to create guided content.


ANNOTATE
Overlay markers and position indicators to identify key components and locations upon real-world equipment. Text instructions, 3D ink annotations, and attached document bookmarks can be created with ease.


CAPTURE
In situ recording of multimedia content like videos, pictures, and audio using a HoloLens, Magic Leap, or iPad.


COMPOSE
Utilize the Manifest web portal to easily add content such as static or animated 3D models, existing videos & pictures, as well as document & diagram attachments.



" Anyone can create content on real world equipment. Use Manifest software on a device or the Manifest web portal to quickly author stored procedures."




"With Manifest, Flow can offer demos of their featured waterjet cutting equipment like never before. Manifest allows for marketing content to be displayed over real equipment in a trade show or showroom environment, or over a digital replica so potential customers can see how it will fit in their space. Embedded video content enables prospective clients to see how the real model functions."




Holomaps by Taqtile

Friday, May 17, 2019

Games and Fiction on Hololens

They aren't going to have played with all of this if their only intent is for enterprise.

But I suspect that the Hololens where this experience will be available will be from Dell or Lenovo, or some other computer maker.


Minecraft Earth

If you think they intend this to remain on the screens of smart phones...

Worn AR holographic displays are going to be plentiful.


This will be as big -- and longer lasting than Pokemon Go. (which is still a thing, even though not quite as big of a thing as it was.)

Wired - Kipman



Thursday, May 16, 2019

Automated Farm -- market for LiDAR & AI

Awesome market for highly accurate LiDAR...

driverless vehicles at work ----

A clear financial benefit

... an environmental benefit so significant that governments may require it.... 



Automated Farm

Sam Bradford, a farm manager at Arcturus Downs in Australia’s Queensland state, was an early adopter as part of a pilot program for SwarmFarm last year. He used four robots, each about the size of a truck, to kill weeds.
In years past, Bradford had used a 120-foot wide, 16-ton spraying machine that “looks like a massive praying mantis.” It would blanket the field in chemicals, he said.
But the robots were more precise. They distinguished the dull brown color of the farm’s paddock from green foliage, and targeted chemicals directly at the weeds. It’s a task the farm does two to three times a year over 20,000 acres. With the robots, Bradford said he can save 80% of his chemical costs.
“The savings on chemicals is huge, but there’s also savings for the environment from using less chemicals and you’re also getting a better result in the end,” said Bradford, who’s run the farm for about 10 years. Surrounding rivers run out to the Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s eastern cost, making the farm particularly sensitive over its use of chemicals, he said.

Swarm Farm






Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Lenovo ThinkReality

This is proof of concept & another market opportunity for Microvision's near eye display.

Lenovo rode the wave of PC development. They made PCs -- they used the Windows operating system -- didn't fight the trends.

They're going to go in the straightest line from where they are to where the most money can be made... whoever has the best software or the best display, they're going to use it if they can.


Kipman said that anyone can build their own hololens.

The development contract said that once the development was done, Microvision could sell the results to whoever they want. 

This is good.

Putting their own spin on form-factor -- moving the computing to a belt-worn box may have significant advantages. (Form factor is one of the biggest challenges.)


Infosurhoy

UploadVR


Yesterday the tech giant announced the ThinkReality A6, a new enterprise-focused AR headset. From the looks of it, it’s the company’s answer to both HoloLens and Magic Leap. Like those headsets, ThinkReality A6 consists of a pair of see-through lenses that can project virtual images into the real world. You interact with this content using a three degrees of freedom (3DOF) motion controller similar to Magic Leap One. HoloLens 2, meanwhile, uses hand-tracking.


************
Fudzilla


The new ThinkReality system is based around an AR headset and a software platform. Lenovo said that the ThinkReality A6 is a comfortable 380-gram headset with two fisheye cameras on the front and depth sensors and a 13-megapixel RGB sensor.

There are onboard microphones for voice control, and the headset can detect where you're gazing to optimise resolution or navigation.

Punters can interact with your virtual environments using an included 3DoF controller. Untethered, the A6 can last up to four hours with its 6,800mAh battery, and you can still use the device while it's plugged in and charging.

The headset connects to an SSD-sized compute box that contains a Snapdragon 845 CPU running Android. There's also an Intel Movidius chips powering waveguide optics. Each eye gets a 40-degree diagonal field of view and 1080p resolution.

Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 uses a Snapdragon 850 CPU and packs two 2K MEMS displays. Microsoft also squeeses all the computing components into the headset rather than in a separate box like Lenovo does.

History of Lenovo

Friday, May 10, 2019

Sharp

I wonder what they're up to?

It's not making LCD TVs...

And they're playing with lasers a lot... 



Reuters

Japan Today

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Sharp Corp, an Apple Inc supplier, said on Thursday it would not meet its mid-term profit target in the current fiscal year after a shift in focus, and that a U.S.-China trade war is impacting its relationship with clients.

The weak outlook comes as parent Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer, tries to cut dependence on smartphone maker Apple as handset sales plateau.

Sharp, which makes screens and camera modules for Apple’s iPhones, expects operating profit to rise 19 percent to 100 billion yen ($909.84 million) for the year through March 2020 versus a year earlier. That compared with a 92.5 billion yen average of 10 analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv.

Hololens 2 Bigger Picture

As you watch it, if your memory is good, you'll hear a lot of things you've heard from descriptions from Microvision...

When the pixel is blank, the laser switches off...

MSPowerUser






So this is a whole knew technology for the screen. You replaced the old technology This is a whole new way.
Why did you decide to go this direction with the display? Like why did you decide with lasers? I mean lasers are cool of course. Other than that.
SIZE, WEIGHT, AND POWER.
Right.
So, lasers are cool they are also the most efficient mechanism by which we can produce light. (Is this okay now Omer?) So, hence that was the right choice. It has its own set of challenges but it is the right call. Because of the MEMS approach, as we increase the field of the view the weight doesn’t change. So, it is also lighter than the original design point. And again the SRG’s, the waveguides, are, they are the best in class. So, we are able to maintain our size and power constraints and yet deliver a much larger field of view.

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Product Adoption...

Very few of even the Microvision investors I talk to have actually tried 3D computing.

If you read this and haven't tried it yet, go to your nearest Microsoft store and try something 3D.


Will it be successful? It has to be. It's just better in every way...

How successful will large screens (and large interactive screens) with a tiny form factor and extremely low power consumption be? (very popular)

How successful will a scanning LiDAR be, that can identify friendly people and unlock at your front door sometimes and lock it at others? It can help with security, and with all kinds of automation?


  • Large screens, tiny form factor
  • Large interactive screens, tiny form factor
  • Scanning LiDAR (for security, automation, mapping, self driving vehicles)
  • Near Eye displays for 3D computing.

Key components for multiple emerging technologies... How successful can that be?

Probably as successful as cameras have been... 


I'm going to hang on to my shares in this company for a long time... 

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Nothing to Save the Smart phone market?

Thanks Joe

Then again, some of us know better than that.


Business Insider -- more at the source.




Others, like Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola, are forging ahead in the smartphone market, with bets that new technologies like high-speed 5G wireless internet and foldable screens will entice people to upgrade. Samsung alone is expected to ship this year a 5G-compatible version of the Samsung Galaxy S10, as well as the delayed Galaxy Fold foldable smartphone.

***********************
Companies including Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung, Google-backed startup Magic Leap, and even "Fortnite" developer Epic Games all consider AR to be the next great computing interface. Microsoft and Magic Leap already have AR goggles on the market, with Apple said to be working on "smart glasses" that could be unveiled as soon as this year.
It's pretty clear that all of these companies are looking to AR as the next big gold rush in tech, following the slow stagnation of the smartphone industry.
They may be right — it's hard to imagine it not happening, given the sheer scale of the investment that every company is making in the market.

One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind

Learning history -- and anything else is going to be considerably more engaging....

3D Computing and Laser Mems Displays are going to be a significant positive change.

Apparently the live demo suffered a problem, but this is the intended demonstration.




Also revolutionary, that you can work with people who are far away just as though they're right next to you.

Tom's Hardware



Minecraft -- I'm pretty sure we know where this is going....

Remember that Apple has had developers developing AR content -- through flat screens.... which should be fairly easily transferred to glasses when the time comes.




And it will be an open platform...


Altchar
Epic Games and Microsoft haven't always seen eye to eye, and you probably heard that Epic's CEO Tim Sweeney mercilessly ripped into Windows RT for blocking competing stores. Microsoft changed their tune though, so Sweeney and Co followed.
Sweeney mentioned that Microsoft's insistence on a closed platform pretty much made them natural enemies, which is why they decided against Unreal Engine support in the original Holo Lens. 
Holo Lens 2, however, is an open platform so Epic are onboard. "Microsoft expressed genuine interest in approaching augmented reality as an open platform, rather than a walled garden like iOS where you can only install apps through their official store and they take out a large fraction of the money", Sweeney said.
Epic's CEO is delighted with the new wave of Microsoft's leadership, as they showed great interest in adopting open principles. In fact, if you factor in GitHub, Microsoft is among the top open source contributors in the world.
"There's a growing recognition throughout the whole industry now the open platforms are an important thing and that we have to continue to prioritize ensuring they remain open, and so Epic is incredibly happy", he said.
Sweeney said that there's been a time when everyone looked at Apple's monopoly and 30 per cent cut with envy, whereas today they're being criticised for it, as the trust in open platforms grew significantly.
Microsoft's Holo Lens 2 will be an open platform, leaving it to users to choose which store they want to use. Unreal Engine 4 support for native apps is coming with the 4.22 version, and Epic's dev team has been hard at work to make everything run great.
Looks like Epic is already developing for Hololens.

Friday, May 3, 2019

3D Computing -- the big picture

Big picture: 3D computing is going to improve productivity -- so it's going to take over computing. 

This is going to be bigger than the personal computer.

It's transforming shipbuilding --like a ship, such an industry isn't easy to turn. This isn't an improvement of a single aspect of the process, but a transformation of the process itself -- to "increase efficiency, safety and affordability."

Microvision is at the leading edge of laser scanning and AR displays.

When you're invested in something that improves efficiency, increases safety, and makes things more affordable, you shouldn't have too many worries.

SeaPowerMagazine


NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division has been named a recipient of a 2019 CIO 100 Award for adopting business-aligned IT strategies during its integration of modern technologies into shipbuilding. The ongoing initiative, known as Integrated Digital Shipbuilding (iDS), is transforming the way ships are being designed and built.
The annual awards program, sponsored by IDG’s CIO magazine and the CIO Executive Council, celebrates organizations that are using IT in innovative ways to deliver business value, optimize business processes, enable growth or improve relationships with customers.
Newport News is being recognized for its use of technology business management strategies to bolster IT cost transparency and build trust, which helped the company to embrace a digital-first mindset in adopting leading-edge technologies.
Since the company’s digital transformation began two years ago, Newport News has introduced laser scanning, augmented reality, modeling and simulation, and additive manufacturing into processes to increase efficiency, safety and affordability. The digital shipbuilding efforts also include transitioning from traditional two-dimensional paper-based instructions — the company’s primary method for conveying design data for more than a century — to digital formats. The company currently is developing digital work packages for the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN 80), which will be the first ship built completely paperless, and preparing to go digital with the new class of ballistic submarines, the Columbia class.
Digital shipbuilding is the largest transformative initiative, digital or otherwise, that Newport News has embarked upon since switching from diesel to nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the 1960s,” said Bharat Amin, Newport News’ vice president and chief information officer. “I feel proud of my team for helping to drive change and empowering shipbuilders with the tools to build today’s warships with tomorrow’s technology. It’s an exciting time to work in IT and at HII.”
The company will be recognized at the CIO 100 Symposium and Awards Ceremony on Aug. 21 in Colorado.