Is it a fad or is here to stay? That is one of the top questions for a mainstream adopter when considering a new technology. Two recent articles pointed out the challenge of technologies face as they move from early adoption to the mainstream. In one, columnist Troy Wolverton, explained that, after wearing his smart watch for two months, he put it down and found he didn’t miss it. Similarly, a Wall Street Journal article looked at early adopters who found smart home technology complicating, instead of simplifying, their daily routines.
Flash: Driving New Applications & Performance – Highlights of the 2015 Flash Memory Summit
A technology that is not a “flash in the pan” is flash memory. And flash memory is showing up everywhere. At the 2015 Flash Memory Summit, Toyota’s GM of Advanced Research Hideo Inoue discussed one of the more interesting applications of flash memory, which is its use in autonomous vehicles. ViodiTV caught up with conference Chairperson Tom Coughlin and Technical Chairperson, Brian Berg, who discussed some of the significant announcements from this year’s event.
Click here to read more and view the video.
Wire as a Complement to Wireless in the Home Network
As last mile bandwidth continues to increase, it will be increasingly important for operators to ensure that the home network isn’t a bottleneck. When and where bottlenecks occur will depend on the home network and the types and numbers of applications and devices consumers use. Rob Gelphman, Vice President of Marketing and Member Relations of MoCA, argues that a wired backbone is critical to supporting the bandwidths that consumers are already beginning to demand.
Click here to view the video.
Liberating Music and Video
“We want to liberate people’s music,” said Keith Valory, CEO of Plex. Keith was referring to the relatively new music features Plex introduced to their popular personal media server software. Like the video and photo aspects of their product, consumers are able to consume music on virtually any device, wherever they are, and they are not tied to a proprietary media store or platform.
Click here to read more and view.
Detecting Break-Ins Before They Happen
It’s a given that a connected alarm system can be set up to notify a homeowner when an intruder has broken a window or pried open a door. That’s great, but the window is still broken. Myfox, a European company, which made its U.S. debut at CES 2015 has a better idea; sound an alarm before the window can be broken. Myfox’s sensor, the first version which was released in Europe in 2005, detects vibrations and, based on the signature of the vibration (e.g. it won’t alarm if say an errant baseball from a neighbor’s kids hits the front door), signals a 110 dB alarm in their WiFi hub.
Click here to read more and view.
The Autonomous Lawn Mower
The #autonomous #lawnmower – thanks to an FCC waiver, looks like iRobot will be able to market robotic lawn mowers that use short (< 24″) stakes as mini-radio towers using the 6240-6740 MHz frequency range. The stakes first talk to each other to establish the lawn mowing area and then communicate to the RLM (Robotic Lawn Mower). This is limited to residential application, however, so commercial applications will still require human-directed lawnmowers. Pictured is the old-fashioned version of an autonomous and green lawn mowing solution.
Click here to read the FCC waiver (PDF).
Some Tweets and Short Thoughts:
- Condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Scott DeGarmo, publisher of Broadband Communities Magazine who passed away this past Saturday. I had the pleasure of working with Scott at several of their events. He had a rich and varied career in the publishing industry and through his magazine was a tireless advocate for broadband via fiber.
- Police Bikes That Have no Rider – A little creepy, but a way for
#lawenforcement to leverage thin staffs via technology; think surveillance camera on wheels. - Economics could drive autonomous vehicle demand, as some are estimating approximately $1,000 per year insurance savings. This could easily pay for the additional projected 2018 costs associated with LIDAR.
- A simple way to test how people will react to autonomous vehicles.
Living in the Real & Virtual Worlds at the Same Time
The company Meta does exactly what its name implies, as its Meta 1 glasses are able to overlay metadata on to a person’s field of view. So, while looking at the real-world, the meta glasses add vital information that could potentially help a worker learn a task, enrich a travel adventure or improve a gaming experience. What sets Meta apart is its Natural User Interface that is enabled thanks to the 3D time-of-flight depth camera (think technology used in popular gaming systems) and 360 degree head tracking that allows one to literally reach out and touch virtual objects in space.
In the above video, filmed on the exhibit floor of the 2015 Augmented World Expo, I had a chance to try the Meta 1. It is clear that, at least today, it takes some practice for certain people (this author) to efficiently interact with virtual objects (watch me flail). Still, as pointed out in today’s Wall Street Journal, virtual reality is the wave of the future; a future which isn’t 20 years away, but could be less than five years. And the so-called, killer apps, may not be associated only with fun and games, but could be much more mundane like the aforementioned work-related tasks (more on that in a future post).
Click here to read more and to view.
Leave a Reply