Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Sony Portable Gaming & Microvision's PicoP


  • Will Sony sell more gaming systems, if the system can include its own big screen display?
  • Would Sony be able to sell accessory components that allowed 360 degree interaction?
  • Would Sony's PSVita be more popular with a huge screen?
  • How much would this additional value be worth to Sony in selling their systems?
  • How big a chunk of Sony's $75 Billion in annual revenue might flow to Microvision who can provide a significant improvement to many of Sony's products?
  • If a portable gaming device could also double as a computer monitor, or portable movie projector, will it be a more attractive purchase?

PlayStation is the top-selling video game system in the USA. link The last official worldwide numbers put total sales for the system at 7 million units. Link Combined PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita sales are 18.7 million units link

Cumulative PlayStation 3 Sales: 80 Million units. link  [ (November 2006 - November 2013) -- about 11 million units/year)

Cumulative PlayStation Vita Sales: Four Million since 2011

Vita --Final Handheld? Not likely, especially with built in PicoP turning a handheld into a portable big screen gaming device -- with added motion qualities that add significantly to game play.

Some Samples from Microvision(and elsewhere?): handheld portable game prototypes. These are old, and done with the less bright, lower resolution -- significantly inferior to what they have now -- ShowWX.


Sample 1: Chopper game: This is from 2010, by Miquel Khoury, who was working for Microvision when he made this video

 .


Sample 2
This video shows how he can spin, and interact with the game on the wall by turning the rig he has created.

 

Sample #3
More with the motion around the room, and good look at the infinite focus at work.



This video is of the "gun" that interacts. You can twist and turn and shoot all around yourself with this. This could come with an upcoming Sony PlayStation gaming system, and it wouldn't even be a stretch.


This is a link to Khoury's old blog. Nothing has been done on it since 2010, but there are other interesting videos in here. PicoProject@wordpress.com


PlayStation Blog

Monday, June 16, 2014

More Buzz about Amazon and other news.

Amazon Smartphone about more than Hardware

It's interesting the strategy they mention in here. Selling a LOT of streaming video is a strategy that fits PicoP perfectly.

I also find, in the above article a target number of 10 million units.

More buzz -- Sure of standout, not so sure of 3D

Another Article from the Verge with Videos

Apple and Samsung drop Patent Dispute

Very interesting. I like the idea of companies finding other ways for everyone to make money instead of bickering about patents.



Thursday, June 12, 2014

Amazon Hardware moves bode well for PicoP

A company willing to try a new device with a 3D screen will be willing to try PicoP. The Amazon Kindle Fire prototype with the embedded PicoP was conspicuously absent from the recent Microvision stockholders' meeting.

Which letter of the alphabet is a question we're eager to have answered.

"Amazon.com Inc. is expanding beyond its range of Kindle devices as it aims to compete more directly with Google Inc. and Apple Inc.
The Seattle e-commerce giant has recently been developing a wide-ranging lineup of gadgets—including two smartphones and an audio-only streaming device—to expand its reach beyond its Kindle Fire line of tablet computers, said people familiar with the company's plans."
"One of the devices is a high-end smartphone featuring a screen that allows for three-dimensional images without glasses, these people said. Using retina-tracking technology, images on the smartphone would seem to float above the screen like a hologram and appear three-dimensional at all angles, they said. Users may be able to navigate through content using just their eyes, two of the people said."
"Some elements of Amazon's hardware push have previously become public. Last year, news surfaced about Amazon developing one smartphone. And last month, The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets reported that Amazon also was developing a set-top boxfor streaming movies and TV shows.
But the people familiar with the plans said the smartphone and set-top box are just two elements of a broader foray into hardware that also includes the audiostreaming device and the high-end smartphone with the 3-D screen. Inside Amazon's Lab126 facility in Cupertino, Calif., where each of the devices have been under development, the efforts are known as Project A, B, C and D, or collectively the Alphabet Projects, said the people familiar with the plans.
Though Amazon has goals of releasing some of these devices in the coming months, these people cautioned that some or all of the devices could be shelved because of performance, financial or other concerns."
.... much more in the full article.


Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Sony Products Compatible with PicoP

An exercise to see

VAIO  Laptops  @Sony Store

VAIO Tablets  @ Sony Store

Sony Entertainment Network
-- A significant amount of content to be discounted or otherwise available for PicoP users helps sell Sony products. It includes games and video content. Many of the movies are available here before they are released on DVD or other streaming services.

This service has an unlimited viewing service

Sony Entertainment Movie Library
Sony Entertainment TV library
Sony Entertainment Game Library

Digital Cameras @ Sony Store
-- the users of all of them would benefit greatly and enjoy being able to see the pictures they have just taken in large format.

Video Cameras @ Sony Store
-- This is a place that Sony already uses a pico projector. It's 25 lumens with a different technology. PicoP will be an enormous improvement over what they are currently using. They sell four models of this camera. The lowest priced version at $399. (out of stock on the Sony store website) highest priced at $1,099.


Mobile Phones @ Sony Store

We all know this is an optimal place for PicoP.

PlayStation Vita @ Sony Store

Sony's portable gaming system. Being included here is a no-brainer. Games are popular. Portable games are popular. Portable games with big screens?! holy cow.
 
Playstation Accessories @ Sony Store

The stand-alone accessory PicoP is going to end up here.

PlayStation TV Article About  --- newly announced at E3

"PS Vita TV is coming to the West, Sony announced at E3 2014. The device that allows you to play Vita games on your TV will cost $99 standalone, or $139 for a bundle including a DualShock 3, an 8GB memory card, an HDMI cable and a digital voucher for a copy of The Lego Movie Video Game.

Users will have access to 1,000 games at launch, which will be ... actually, we don't know, sadly. We do know, however, that it will connect to the PlayStation Now service, which enters public beta on July 31."


Endoscopes @ Sony Corporate Information
"In establishing this joint venture with Sony, a world leader in imaging technology, we have taken a step toward the future of medical treatment. The medical business is a driver for profit and growth at Olympus, and we have targeted the “drastic growth of our surgical business” as a key strategy. By combining the two companies' technologies and taking maximum advantage of the resulting synergies, I believe we will be able to make a contribution to world medical progress through innovative new medical devices developments that Olympus could not achieve on its own."

Type of Business:
(1) Develop, design, manufacture and sell high resolution technologies of 4K and above, new Surgical endoscopes with 3D capabilities, and related systems.
(2) Provide comprehensive medical and imaging device solutions for operating rooms and other medical arenas.

So, what are unit sales of devices from Sony?

It's difficult to piece together everything that could be sold with projectors. Some of the items likely to have projectors:

PSVita

2014 Forecast Sales: 5 Million units.  From VG


Still looking for other figures on #'s of items sold by various Sony divisions. If you have a good source, please comment.





Monday, June 9, 2014

Game Controller for Iphone


Returning to this interesting concept advertisement. Asking the question "could this be real." Well, with the new post on SlashGear, yes, it COULD be real. Is it? Have no idea. But we can now be very confident that some hardware makers are moving in that direction.




Apparently a version is already for sale at Logitech

LOGITECH GAME CONTROLLER.
This is a very detailed and interesting web page for a product!





SlashGear article below at source


Here’s how iOS 8 turns your iPhone into an iPad gamepad

 Jun 6, 2014













Apple has detailed how its iOS 8 Controller Forwarding will work, turning an iPhone with a gamepad accessory into a wireless remote for iPad and Mac games. The new feature, which builds on iOS' existing support for third-party gaming controllers, is one of a number of tweaks and improvements to the Game Controller framework, revealed at WWDC 2014 this week.
As it stands, Apple supports three types of gamepad with iOS. The standard has the usual D-pad, four button cluster, and two shoulder buttons; an extended version adds analog sticks and extra buttons. Finally, there's a standalone controller, which has the same control features but which connects wirelessly rather than seeing the iPhone dock into it.
With iOS 8, however, the iPhone will be able to connect over Bluetooth or WiFi to a nearby iPad or Mac and act as a controller for a game running on them.
The two devices need to be signed into the same iCloud account for the system to work; assuming that's the case, a D-pad symbol will appear on the iPhone's lockscreen when it's fitted into a gamepad accessory, and swiping it up will automatically start the connection.
For developers, Apple said, there's no extra work to be done in adding the support to their games. As long as they've added the correct controller support code, the iPhone will simply be recognized as a standard wireless controller.
In addition to button-presses, the connection also passes on movement data. The iPhone's accelerometer and gyroscope feed gravity (in Gs), user acceleration, attitude, and rotation rate to the iPad and Mac game, as part of a new "Motion" profile developers can access.
logitech_powershell_hands-on_sg_10
There's more on iOS 8 and everything announced at WWDC 2014 in the SlashGear Apple Hub.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Amazon’s New Smartphone Could Beat Apple and Samsung

@ MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — If Amazon.com introduces a smartphone with 3D technology, it could send shudders through the industry’s biggest players — Apple and Samsung.
On Wednesday, Amazon AMZN +1.89%   notified reporters and customers on its website and via a YouTube video about an event during which it will launch of a “new device” at its Seattle headquarters on June 18. Quickly, speculation began that the company will launch its long-awaited smartphone.
But this is no ordinary device. In the last two months, reports have surfaced that Amazon is adding 3-D elements to its smartphone. The YouTube video Amazon posted may hint in that direction.
Amazon investors have reason for concern. Amazon is known, or perhaps infamous, on Wall Street for launching hardware products such as the Kindle electronic book reader at cost. So a launch in the cutthroat smartphone market could be a major annoyance for Amazon investors who have tired of the company’s lackadaisical stance toward profits, even if the hardware fuels more purchases on its ever-sprawling empire of goods.....
* Full article available above *
....Bezos must be betting that all devices lead to his massive store, even if he has to give them away. That is probably the business model the company will pursue with smartphones too. Amazon shareholders will have to see whether they have the patience for more losses. 

Therese Poletti is a senior columnist for MarketWatch in San Francisco. Follow her on Twitter @tpoletti.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Notes from 2014 Annual Stockholder Meeting

The whole Annual Stockholder's meeting was very upbeat. The demos were fantastic. 

A comment was made to illustrate the significance of the Non-disclosure agreements. The non-disclosures are significant.


Results of survey on mobile usage with PicoP

From November 2013 to January 2014, Microvision surveyed consumers. They were shown the PicoP and asked how they would use it.

91% Movies
82% Video
79% Photos
76% YouTube
73% TV
61% Instagram
58% Web
58% PowerPoint
48% Facebook
39% Gaming
33% Sports
21% Pinterest

They were asked which things they would do more of with PicoP

67% More sports
90% More Movies
85% Stream more content
86% More TV




















The increased usage is reason for MicroVision to communicate with retail channels directly: showing them what is available will get them to ask OEMS to produce the products. Retail channels may include retailers that sell physical products AND those who sell subscriptions and content that can be viewed with PicoP. When businesses on each level realize they can make margin on their step of the sales process, and the customers know they will be happy with the product, things will move forward. "ALL OF THE PIECES ARE NOW IN PLACE."











Thursday, June 5, 2014

Microvision to be in Smartphone


MicroVision and Major Global Electronics Brand to Collaborate on Display Engine for a Smartphone

Development Activities in 2014 to Support Possible Product Introduction in 2015


Business Wire
     REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
MicroVision, Inc. (MVIS), a leader in innovative ultra-miniature projection display technology, today announced that it is collaborating with a major global consumer electronics brand to develop a display engine for use in an innovative smartphone product.
This new customer, listed on the Fortune Global 500, is a leading name in consumer electronics. The companies plan to collaborate on this development activity targeting a possible second half 2015 product introduction.
“We are extremely pleased to be working with this industry-leading electronics brand on a display engine for a truly innovative product incorporating our revolutionary PicoP display technology,” said Alexander Tokman, president and CEO of MicroVision.
This design win, which is the culmination of months of design work and technical discussions, is the second for MicroVision with a major electronics brand on the Fortune Global 500. Previously the company announced a development agreement with another global electronics brand for a custom display module incorporating PicoP® display technology. MicroVision has announced that it is ramping up for volume production of key components with the goal to be ready in the second half of 2014.
MicroVision’s PicoPdisplay technology provides a powerful display solution that projects high-definition, focus-free content from a tiny, low-power display engine. MicroVision’s technology enables OEMs to deliver a high-quality consumer viewing experience to their customers by offering enhanced ways to view and share information. Whether for personal entertainment, social engagement, business collaboration, driver safety or in whatever way OEMs’ imaginations take them, PicoP display technology could be the exciting new element that consumers are searching for to elevate their mobile experience.
About MicroVision
MicroVision is the creator of PicoP® display technology, an ultra-miniature laser projection solution for mobile consumer electronics, automotive head-up displays and other applications. MicroVision’s patented display technology helps OEMs break down display boundaries and offer enhanced visibility to mobile experiences. Nearly two decades of research has led MicroVision to become an independently recognized leader in the development of intellectual property. MicroVision’s IP portfolio has been recognized by the Patent Board as a top 50 IP portfolio among global industrial companies and is also included in the Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index. The company is based in Redmond, Wash.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.microvision.com, on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/MicroVisionInc or follow MicroVision on Twitter at @MicroVision.
MicroVision and PicoP are trademarks of MicroVision, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this release, including those relating to future product and technology development, introductions and sales, as well as consumer demand, and those containing words such as “plan,” “goal,” “targeting,” “possible,” and “could,” are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the company's forward-looking statements include the following: our ability to raise additional capital when needed; products incorporating our PicoP display engine may not achieve market acceptance, commercial partners may not perform under agreements as anticipated, we may be unsuccessful in identifying parties interested in paying any amounts or amounts we deem desirable for the purchase or license of IP assets, our or our customers failure to perform under open purchase orders; our financial and technical resources relative to those of our competitors; our ability to keep up with rapid technological change; government regulation of our technologies; our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights and protect our proprietary technologies; the ability to obtain additional contract awards; the timing of commercial product launches and delays in product development; the ability to achieve key technical milestones in key products; dependence on third parties to develop, manufacture, sell and market our products; potential product liability claims; and other risk factors identified from time to time in the company's SEC reports, including the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC. Except as expressly required by federal securities laws, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in circumstances or any other reason.

Contact:

MicroVision, Inc.
Investors:
Dawn Goetter, 425-882-6629
ir@microvision.com
or
Media/PR:
Robert Brown, 424-248-0512
robert@bohle.com

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

AMAZON EVENT -- SMARTPHONE? Kindle with PicoP?

There is a lot of language here, that says they don't know anything except they're launching something.



Full article at source







Amazon is holding an event on June 18 where it expected to show off a new device, possibly with a 3D interface.
 
Amazon.com
Amazon.com is holding an event in Seattle later this month where it could reveal its long-awaited smartphone, possibly with a 3D interface.
The e-commerce giant is inviting press and customers to an event June 18 in its hometown of Seattle for a “new device unveiling.” In a video on its site (watch below), actors are seen surprisingly react to something held off-screen in their hands.
The video seems to suggest it is the new smartphone, which The Wall Street Journal reported in April will feature a screen that can track a user’s eye movements and display images that are seemingly 3D. It’s part of a broader hardware push from Amazon that recently has included the Fire TV set-top box.
In the video, the actors say the device is “very real life” and that “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
People familiar with Amazon’s plans said in April that the smartphone was being prepared for a release in the second half of this year.
A spokeswoman for Amazon declined to provide further details.

Sony Games Event -- Sony is Ready.

Sony is Ready.