Edge computing, Sensors AI

So, we've heard about AI and edge computing.

Some really cool stuff can happen when devices "talk" to each other directly.

...suddenly the importance of AI and computing at the source becomes obvious.

AndroidHeadlines

Driverless

There are a lot of people who don't want to trust themselves in driverless cars, but they will trust their groceries.

One of the things that is a big problem with driverless vehicles is that scenarios have to be programmed into it where it "chooses" what to do when it has no good options. (Like the Trolly problem, where you can kill four by doing one thing, or one if you choose to intervene.)

A driverless vehicle on the road will be more tolerable if it's programmed to sacrifice itself no matter what, defer to other traffic, no matter what, etc.

Saw these bots in a smaller version at CES. Very good idea -- could significantly increase the productivity 

Such devices are going to need sensors, and probably video in and out as well.


CNBC

Kroger announced plans Thursday to partner with driverless car company Nuro to deliver groceries using its autonomous vehicles.

The partnership comes as the U.S.'s largest grocery players continue to tackle the expensive challenge of "last mile delivery" — the final step in getting a product to a shopper's home. It is a feat that is particularly perilous when dealing with fragile products like fresh food. It is further complicated by populations that vary wildly across the U.S, with some far less dense that others.

Entertainment Industry -- Big Plans

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

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

Thanks Joe.

More at Source

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

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

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

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

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

Advertising Through HUD

Ford in China

Autonomous cars faster than you expected

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


BMW 2025 AD

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

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

Lots of Automotive Patents

Transitioning from the Bleeding Edge to the Leading Edge

I am "Pinning" this post to the top for a while.

If you can find a good up and coming technology to invest in, you can end up holding stock in a company that will pay you enormous returns. Think Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and Google --companies that went from the bleeding edge of technology to the leading edge.

Notable investor Ronald Wayne, is an excellent example of a "smart investor" who missed the gains possible in holding a "bleeding edge company." In 1976 he was one of the first investors in Apple computer company. He was a 10% stakeholder and sold his stake for $800. He did double his money in 12 days, but had he held onto his investment it would be worth 90 Billion today.  Ronald Wayne

Now, not all bleeding edge companies make it to the leading edge. However, if you can find a company that is transitioning from the bleeding edge to the leading edge, you can avoid a lot of the risk the early investors took, and get most of the gains. The sweet spot to find one of these companies is when it's making the transition.

Of course to find the right company now, you'd look to something that was going to be a key component of an up and coming new technology. 

• Mobile technology is still in its infancy -- find the next must-have feature, and you're golden. 
• Personal assistants, like the Amazon Echo or the Google Home are gaining popularity, and will likely become more and more common, and more widely available everywhere -- especially if video features can be conveniently added to them. 
• The Internet of Things is talked about everywhere, more and more powerful computers are being put in everyday items. If you're old enough to remember the 1990's a powerful personal computer of the 1990's was required to play the game "DOOM" -- but that computing horsepower is now available in a thermostat. [Doom on a Thermostat] The thing about that computing horsepower is that people need a good way to interact with it, that will be a key component.
• Augmented Reality, the ability to enhance the world you see with computer generated information, is so new most people have seen little of it except perhaps an experience with Pokemon Go. They're getting great results with this technology in industry, greatly increasing productivity -- and it's a wild fantasy of gamers. It will be bigger than Virtual Reality -- it brings people together, or it can. Virtual reality isolates them. 
• Self Driving Cars and Automation: I know self-driving cars are controversial -- they're not going to happen all at once though. They're going to happen a little at a time. More and more sensors will appear, the ability to automate some functions of the car, and the ability of the car to process the sensors' information and intervene when necessary is going to increase. No one is complaining about cars automatically NOT hitting pedestrians, or parking themselves, or alerting us when there's another car in our blind spot. This happens through primarily sensors that can detect and identify other objects.

If you want to do a good job investing in future technology, you could find a good company in each space -- but finding a good company that is publicly traded in each specific space could be tedious. You could invest in ST Microelectronics, absolutely nothing wrong with them, or Intel, or Google. However I think there's a way to invest in a company that has much greater growth potential, and it's poised to provide key components in ALL of those areas. 

• Mobile Technology
• The Internet of Things - Personal Assistants
• Augmented Reality
• Self Driving Cars & Automation

The Ticker symbol is MVIS

I'll keep this as brief and complete as possible, you can explore the rest of the blog....


Pico Projection -- Mobile Phone Technology

Why? Because of the picture below. Want to share your pictures? Would you rather share it with the picture on the phone below (at the bottom, slightly to the right of the center of the picture is my phone.) It's showing the same image as the PicoP powered projected large image, everyone can see it at once. (yes the crab were delicious.)

When I ask people "so, of the smart phones made in the world, how many of them do you think will eventually get a projector like this?"

The most common answer is "all of them." I have a link to a price calculator below, and you can see the difference between 10% and "all of them."

Would you like a six foot screen in your Phone? This phone is now available in China, and Romania, and soon will be in Brazil, and India. (45%+ of the worldwide smartphone market.) 




Personal Assistants & Internet of things: Put a sensor in that projector and turn it into a touch screen. This projector product should be available for purchase in the second half of 2018. It can be included in personal assistants, appliances, and anywhere else a touch screen would be desirable.

Below is another prototype that uses MicroVision's technology. How would you like it if your Amazon Echo or your Google Home speaker could do this? 




Augmented Reality: This is an area that is just getting started. Most people are unaware this is possible, but it's probably going to be huge.

Pokemon' Go was an early augmented reality game, and Microsoft is having a lot of early success with its Hololens

MicroVision is working on Augmented Reality, displays; I do not know with who, and haven't seen a recent example. I have seen an old augmented reality display from MicroVision however, and it was much more impressive to me than other displays that were being shown at the time.

 In 2015 I attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. I tried every "augmented reality" item I could find, and none of them got even close to the contrast, and field of view that MicroVision's NOMAD system. (listen to what they say about the NOMAD display's business model below. That business model is becoming a reality.  [Augmented Reality Increasing Productivity]




 At that time I was told that what they have now is much better. I wish I could say I have seen it in person, but I haven't.

Are lasers (MicroVision's realm) going to be used? Nvidia thinks so, and they think that EVERYONE will be using augmented reality. (NVidia at SIGGRAF 2017) All good, but for our purposes, be sure to observe from 4:25-5:45! 

Below is a video of how Microsoft Imagines Augmented Reality. 



And Augmented Reality Games, below. I know these samples are from Microsoft, but that doesn't mean that they will be the only player, but for displays, I believe MicroVision will be key.



Scanning LiDAR

A huge problem with most automated things that move is that you don't want them to crash into things. If it's a moving arm, a robot, a truck, car, forklift, or gigantic digging machine. Scanning LiDAR is where it's at for those sensors. MicroVision's product is much smaller than competition, (and shrunk again by a factor of eight!) and they are in the mid-range sweet-spot of importance. Knowing where things are at a distance and close up is good, but most of the important decisions are made in the mid range. 
From Semiengineering.com
"Kevin Watson, senior director of product engineering at Redmond, Wash.-based MicroVision, a publicly held company, disagrees. “I don’t think that’s going to go anywhere,” he said of flash LiDAR. “For many years, the Holy Grail of LiDAR sensors we thought to be a MEMS mirror-based laser scanner, because they’re super-small, relatively inexpensive to manufacture in great quantity, and very reliable. They’re small enough to hide several around an automobile.”

Watson calls LiDAR “the most important sensor” in automotive electronics. “Vision systems are great, but they’re a totally passive system. LiDAR is active.” 

Mr Watson left Velodyne to work on the Holy Grail of LiDAR sensors at MicroVision.



It can also do 3D mapping for things like autonomous cars, robots, making movies, or creating content for Augmented reality. (And I'm sure more.

MicroVision Partners

ST Microelectronics 

• STM Significant Events 2016

Goertek  

Customers: Samsung, Sony and Lenovo

WPG Holdings The largest distributor of semiconductor components in Asia

Sharp / Foxconn Robohon is a sharp product, and Foxconn now owns a controlling interest in Sharp. (Robohon Video)

SONY   Sony has several products with MicroVision's PicoP inside, The relationship with Sony seems to have been problematic, but Sony is still in a position to produce products with MicroVision's technology inside. Products included: celluon PicoPro, and the Sony MPCL1 Laser Pico Projector, A cellphone with an embedded laser projector the Qualper phone has been shown but apparently not released: Qualper Phone. 

So how good is MicroVision's Intellectual Property? [ PatentVue ]

"Microvision Inc. made our list as the largest US patent holder in this space, owning 289 US patents primarily related to hardware components for augmented reality systems, with a focus on miniaturized MEMS and PICO level systems. Another smaller company is this space with significant patent protection is Kopin Corporation, with 206 relevant patents."

Microvision has been a company for the last 20 years that has been on the "bleeding edge" of technology. They have had to wait for some technologies (lasers) to catch up with them, and even had the lasers existed to do what they wanted to do ten years ago, the content landscape wasn't quite ready.

• 5G mobile technology --  (20Gbps download, 1ms latency, 1M devices per square km) -- Imagine downloading a HD movie in a couple of seconds. -- it's here. (Verizon 1st to Test 5G Network)
• Laser technology improvements have reached a point where direct laser diodes are readily available an inexpensive enough for mass adoption. They even get REALLY small. (yes, below that's a three-color laser module next to the dime.)

Where could this go? Well, if I'm conservative and say the company profits $5 per projector unit, and it goes into 10% of the world's smartphones and everything else fails? Then this thing will be trading about 200 times what it is now. If it does better? Sky is the limit. Check the price target calculator below, and put in your own numbers.

The sweet spot is to catch a company when it transitions from the bleeding edge of technology to the leading edge -- and I am long this company. I have endured the bleeding edge pain -- but things are going to get interesting as products are going into production now.

There's more, check out these past posts, and dig around a lot. There's way more out there than is on this blog.

Surface Phone
Price Target Calculator

The TICKER is MVIS

Renault to Acquire Software R&D from Intel

There is a LOT of interest in this area, and a lot of moving parts.  

What the exact results of this deal will be we don't know. It's possible that Renault wants to sell technology as much as automobiles. 

In the realm of hardware for self driving cars, Microvision has a very nice place at the table. A great mid-range laser scanning technology.

Don't forget the recent highlighting of cooperation between Microvision and Intel. (This is no accident.)

AutomotiveIT


The R&D unit specializes in embedded software, which is important for the development of connected and autonomous cars. Renault said the acquisition, set to be finalized this year, will bring more than 400 software experts to the company.

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The transaction doesn’t mean Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, is losing interest in the car industry. The California-based company has recently stepped up its automotive activities, focusing on autonomous-driving technologies.

Earlier this month, Intel opened a Silicon Valley innovation center for autonomous driving. And in March, it signed a definitive agreement to acquire sensor specialist Mobileye. Sensors are an important source of data future cars will need to drive autonomously.

Business World

To address the major technological challenges of the future and pursue profitable growth, Renault has four primary focuses: international development; complementary coverage across its three brands (Renault, Dacia and Renault Samsung Motors); electric vehicles; and its alliance with Nissan.

Just-Auto

"They'll be bringing Renault expertise, advanced methods and tools, plus access to a sound network of suppliers, laboratories and partner companies. Some teams already have automotive-specific skills in multimedia and connectivity."



The acquisition will proceed through Groupe Renault purchasing a company formed by Intel to take in the embedded software R&D activity at the Toulouse and Sophia Antipolis sites. The new company will be attached to the Groupe Renault Alliance Systems Engineering Department.

Economic Shockwaves?

Google made e-mail free.

No small feat -- and we don't even think about it anymore. Could they pull the same thing off for transportation?

Is there some kind of economic side-effect of really inexpensive portable interactive screens that we haven't thought of? I'm thinking yes. I don't know what it will be, but there will be side effects.

Autonomous transportation could create some efficiencies in transport that are staggering. Right now to try and carpool for a day to a different town with multiple stops would be extremely difficult - but if we get our transportation by uploading our desired schedule -- we could easily be matched with people going the same way we are at approximately the same time.

Would save time, energy and probably improve the social lives of those traveling.

Of course the demand for Lidar would explode...


Barrons

In the near term, all those miles mean more data to capture, which feeds back into autonomous-driving programs to help make them better. In the medium-to-long term, though, once the kinks have been worked out, tech companies could choose to drive you around as a way to capture data on you and then try to sell you stuff. And that’s the part that Jonas thinks should scare Tesla investors.

“One of the biggest concerns we have about the ‘end-state’ of shared mobility from a Tesla perspective is the risk that other firms could enter the market as a competitor, offering the mobility service from, say, New York to Boston or from Santa Monica to LAX at a loss… just to get access to your time and data,” he wrote. That model could allow Google to one day drive you around practically for free. Think what Google did for email.

Ford ahead of Waymo and Uber

Be a critical part of solving big problems.

They all need good LiDAR components.


Ford Ahead of Waymo and Uber in self Driving cars

Michigan-based Ford is leading the pack, closely followed by GM and the Renault-Nissan Alliance, according to a report released Monday by clean tech market research firm Navigant Research. Google’s Waymo ranks seventh out of the 18 companies examined, and Tesla and Uber don’t even crack the top 10 — coming in at 12th and 16th, respectively.

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“Automated driving is increasingly being considered the key technology to address societal problems caused by the proliferation of automobiles around the world,” wrote the researchers, who graded companies on factors including their vision, go-to market strategy, technology and staying power. “It has accelerated in the last decade, enabled by advancements in computational architectures and sensing technology, along with dramatic cost reductions.”

USA Today

Ford Motor is in pole position when it comes to benefiting from the coming age of autonomous vehicles.

That's the conclusion of a study released Monday by Navigant Research, which sells its in-depth surveys of energy and transportation markets to suppliers, policymakers and other industry stakeholders.

The Dearborn-based automaker took the top spot by demonstrating that it has the strategic vision and execution capabilities to both develop automated driving systems as well as deploy them across a range of mobility platforms.


Drive.com

The following group included the Volkswagen Group , BMW, Waymo - owned by Google's parent Alphabet - and Volvo.

Ford was ranked the highest due to its advanced on-road testing programs in Michigan, California and Arizona. Ford has also announced plans to expand its testing to Europe in 2017.

This emerging technology has infiltrated safety technology systems such as Ford's new Evasive Steering Assist, which is capable of helping drivers steer around slow or stopped vehicles through the use of radar and camera detection.

The American car maker has set itself a target of 2021 for when it wants a fully autonomous vehicle on the road, with ride-sharing its initial focus.

General Motor is employing the same strategy, and has teamed up with ride-sharing company Lyft to test thousands of driverless Chevrolet Bolts around the US in 2018, however, initially GM is testing a fleet of 40 cars in California and Arizona with a plan to extend to Michigan.