A CEO of a German company, a CEO of a Dubai-founded company, and a CEO of a Ukrainian-founded company walk into the IDTechEx Show! and what do they have in common? They all ventured to Silicon Valley to network and discuss their respective cutting-edge technology products that are moving from concept to production.
The developments they are championing are, as IDTechEx Chairman Dr. Peter Harrop reminded attendees, the types of things that some say can’t be done. Harrop predicts that clean transportation will be the next disruption and to the doubters, he suggests looking back at the cell phone and how improvements in battery technology were a key to its success.
Stay tuned for future ViodiTV interviews with the aforementioned CEOs that will reveal some of the components that will help fuel the next wave of disruption.
Disruption by Being a More Efficient Operator
Netflix has it documented – although it isn’t obvious on their website – that four of the top five U.S. ISPs in its leaderboard are American Cable Association members. In this exclusive interview and with his comments on stage at the 2018 Calix ConneXions, Matt Polka lauded his members for their work in serving their communities; communities that are often ignored by larger providers as they tend to be in rural locales. Another takeaway from the conference was Calix CEO Carl Russo’s comment that “OpEx is how you become a disruptor.”
A Forum for Broadband and More
Lincoln Lavoie, Senior Engineer for the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab, provides an overview of the Broadband Forum’s October 27th, 2018 BASe event. The event covered all types of next generation access, whether wired (e.g. NGPON2) or wireless (e.g. 5G), as well as access within the home. Lavoie, who is also Technical Committee Chair of the Broadband Forum, touches upon a couple of the BBF’s new in-home networking standards, including the Users Service Platform (USP) and OB-MAP (Open Broadband Multi-Access Point).
Curiosity Led to Discovery and More #TIS18
“Why can’t this be on television,” asked a University of Alabama student in the 1970s? The young John Hendricks was referring to the documentaries he was cataloging for his professor. That question led to his founding of the Discovery Networks in the 1980s and many other innovative ideas, such as Your Choice TV, an early experiment in an on-demand television. His latest venture, CuriosityStream is a culmination of his earlier discovery and is what Hendricks calls the third revolution of television.
The Story in Our Eyes
If the eyes are the portal to the soul, then the Swedish company, Tobii may be the electronic way to enter that portal. At CES2018, Tobii demonstrated their eye-tracking technology integrated into gaming laptops, as well as a virtual reality headset. And the results are amazing, as demonstrated in their virtual reality headset. Their virtual reality demonstration made it clear that when the computer knows where the participant is looking, it can provide much more realistic feedback.
Read and View Here (ViodiTV YouTube channel)
The Eyes as a Window Into Health and Well-Being
Low-cost identification of health issues, whether concussions, developmental issues or debilitating diseases is a huge challenge, particularly in rural areas where specialists are often not available. Enter Righteye with its solution that includes eye-tracking technology powered by Tobii (see above). With an approximate $5,000 upfront cost and an annual maintenance fee of half that, this seems like a useful tool to help non-clinicians gather data in locations that would otherwise be too remote to justify a more highly trained professional.
Read and View Here (ViodiTV YouTube Channel)
Some Tweets and Short Thoughts
- @MattatACA “#LocalChoice! Time to require #broadcasters to publicly disclose their #retransmissionconsent price and then let #consumers decide if they want to pay for it. And it’s time for #broadcasters to be accountable for what they are charging!” @Viodi That’s a good idea. The other angle is that airwaves they are using for transport are public assets, so the public should know how much value is being generated through the use of that valuable spectrum.
- Interesting implications particularly around privacy with a smartphone app. @Viodi Could police get a warrant from said e-scooter company to match GPS/Time coordinates with security camera footage? @Autonomous Law “Wouldn’t even need a warrant.”
- “We need to work together as one family.” A timely message from astronaut, materials scientist & educator Leland Melvin #Calix2018. He has a very interesting backstory.
- This autonomous approach to farming in the Fargo area seems like a natural fit for 702 Communications.
#
The Korner – Collision Avoidance With Off-the-Shelf Components #CES2018 (ViodiTV YouTube)
One of the easily overlooked impacts of the smart phone era is how volume production has driven cost-reduction on what had been previously exotic and expensive components. These components are then available for other applications and can fuel disruptions in other fields. An example of such a component, which was in the news this week because of disappointing sales by that fruitful company in Cupertino, is the laser.
Well, if we are indeed at peak smart phone as some say, perhaps lasers will find a home in low-cost drones or other devices that need low-cost collision-avoidance technology. Check out how the French research firm CEA-Leti combined their compact algorithms with low-cost lasers and microcontroller to an inexpensive, toy-grade drone into one that avoids objects.
Subscribe to the ViodiTV YouTube channel to make sure you don’t miss any of the 20+ videos, like the one above, that will be released between now and the New Year. If you are interested in licensing any of this content, reply to this email.