originally appeared in The New York Times:
Silicon Valley lobbied hard in Washington in 2012, and despite some friction with regulators, fared fairly well. In 2013, though, government scrutiny is likely to grow. And with this scrutiny will come even greater efforts by the tech industry to press its case in the nation’s capital and overseas.
In 2012, among other victories, the industry staved off calls for federal consumer privacy legislation and successfully pushed for a revamp of an obscure law that had placed strict privacy protections on Americans’ video rental records. It also helped achieve a stalemate on a proposed global effort to let Web users limit behavioral tracking online, using Do Not Track browser settings.
But this year is likely to put that issue in the spotlight again, and bring intense negotiations between industry and consumer rights groups over whether and how to allow consumers to limit tracking.
Congress is likely to revisit online security legislation — meant to safeguard critical infrastructure from attack — that failed last year. And a looming question for Web giants will be who takes the reins of the Federal Trade Commission, the industry’s main regulator, this year. The director of the commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, has resigned, and there have been suggestions that its chairman would step down.
The agency is investigating Google over possible antitrust violations and will subject Facebook to audits of its privacy policy for the next 20 years. Its next steps could serve as a bellwether of how aggressively the commission will take on Web companies in the second Obama administration.
Now that the election is over, Silicon Valley companies each are thinking through their strategy for the second Obama administration, according to a law professor at Ohio State University and a former White House privacy official. The F.T.C. will have a new Democratic chairman. A priority for tech companies will be to discern the new chair’s own priorities.
In early 2012, an unusual burst of lobbying by tech companies helped defeat antipiracy bills, which had been backed by the entertainment industry. Silicon Valley giants like Facebook and Google feared that the bills would force them to police the Internet.
At the end of the year, Silicon Valley also got its way when the Obama administration stood up against a proposed global treaty that would have given government authorities greater control over the Web.
The key to the industry’s successes in 2012 was simple: it expanded its footprint in Washington just as Washington began to pay closer attention to how technology companies affect consumers. Privacy and security became top-tier important policy issues in Washington in 2012, accordion to the director of security policy and global privacy officer at Intel.
Industry has realized it is important to be engaged, he continued, to make sure government stakeholders are fully informed and educated about the role that new technology plays and to make sure any action taken doesn’t unnecessarily burden the innovation economy while still protecting individual trust in new technology.
At the end of 2012, tech companies were on track to have spent record amounts on lobbying for the year. In the first three quarters, they spent close to $100 million, which meant that they were likely to surpass the $127 million they spent on lobbying in 2011, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based nonpartisan group that tracks corporate spending. Even the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz hired a lobbyist in Washington who was a former mayor of the city.
Technology executives and investors also made generous contributions in the 2012 presidential race, luring both President Obama and Mitt Romney to Northern California for fund-raisers and nudging them to speak out on issues like immigration overhaul and lower tax rates.
In a blog post in November, the center said Silicon Valley’s lobbying expenditures have ballooned in recent years, even as spending by other industries has fallen.
Facebook more than doubled its lobbying outlay in the year, reporting close to $2.6 million through the third quarter of 2012. Google spent more than any other company in the industry, doling out more than $13 million in the same period and more than double its nearest competitor, Microsoft, which spent just over $5.6 million in the same period.
Among Google’s advocates on Capitol Hill is a former Republican congresswoman, Susan Molinari, who heads Google’s office in Washington.
Google has particular reason to be engaged. It faces a wide-reaching antitrust investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, just as Microsoft did a decade ago. At issue is whether Google’s search engine results favor Google products over its rivals’.
Although the agency was ready to settle that case before the holidays, without harsh remedies, late last month it shelved the inquiry and put stronger penalties back in play. A resolution is expected in January.
The commission has already fined Google on a separate matter. In 2012, the company paid $22.5 million to settle charges that it had bypassed privacy settings in Apple’s Safari browser to track users and serve them targeted advertisements.
Facebook has vastly expanded its Washington presence in recent years. It has set up a political action committee, hired a stable of seasoned, well-connected insiders from both parties and offered tips to lawmakers in an effort to make its site indispensable to politicians seeking re-election.
Facebook scored a win on Capitol Hill in late 2012 when it nudged Congress to amend a 1988 law, the Video Privacy Protection Act, that had protected the privacy of Americans’ video rental records. Facebook and its partner, Netflix, the video streaming service, advocated for changes in the law so that movies watched on Netflix could be shared on Facebook. That kind of data can be valuable for behavioral advertising, a principal source of revenue for Web services like Facebook.
The company also attracted increased scrutiny from the F.T.C. The agency negotiated a consent order with Facebook to settle charges that it had engaged in unfair and deceptive practices when changes in its settings revealed personal information that Facebook users had regarded to be private. As part of the settlement, Facebook agreed to audits of its privacy policies for 20 years.
Facebook faced renewed public outcry last month when its subsidiary, Instagram, proposed to deploy users’ pictures to serve targeted advertisements. The company has backtracked on that proposal, but the outcry, say consumer privacy advocates, is an indication of public sentiment.
Yes, the industry managed to hold off privacy legislation this year, according to the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. But if the end-of-year protests over the Facebook and Instagram changes are any indication, users will be pressing for better privacy protections in the next Congress.
Silicon Valley’s lobbying efforts are also likely to expand across the Atlantic in 2013. Both Facebook and Google have faced off with European regulators over privacy issues. Now, the European Parliament is weighing an overhaul of data protection laws that apply across the Continent.
One of the proposed changes requires Web companies to ask European Union citizens for their explicit consent before collecting personal data for targeted Web advertising. Web companies vigorously oppose that and other proposals.
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Education Use of Apple iPad Growing
Story first appeared on Bloomberg News
Julie Garcia handed Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPads to students in her seventh-grade pre-algebra class on a recent morning before showing the pupils how to use the tablet to graph data, hunt for correlations and record how-to videos.
A math instructor at Innovation Middle School, Garcia is one of the first to use some of the more than 25,000 iPads the San Diego Unified School District bought from Apple this year.
Garcia said it is the "cool factor" as she looks over the room of students tapping energetically on tablets.
For districts around the country, though, it’s the price as much as the cool quotient that could draw them to a new, smaller version of the iPad that Apple will unveil tomorrow at an event in San Jose, California. Apple has long been a leader in education, and schools began embracing the iPad soon after its 2010 debut. Yet as fiscal budget shortfalls crimp spending all the more, schools in growing numbers are warming to the handheld devices as an alternative to more expensive laptops.
Now schools, as well as consumers, are about to get another big price break: The smaller iPad may cost as little as $249, according to Barclays Plc. That compares with $499 to $829 for the current iPad.
Beyond the school market of course, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook will use the device to try to widen Apple’s lead over Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. and fend off a more recent threat from Microsoft Corp. in the market for tablets, which NPD DisplaySearch predicts will more than double to $162 billion by 2017. Cook will unveil an iPad with a 7.85-inch screen diagonally, people familiar with its development said in August. The current iPad has a 9.7-inch screen.
iPad Shift
Yet Apple executives plan to make a point of highlighting the iPad’s educational capabilities at tomorrow’s event, according to a person with knowledge of the planning. Little wonder. Education spending on information technology, including hardware, was about $19.7 billion in the 2010-2011 period, according to the Center for Digital Education.
Educators’ bet on tablets mirrors a trend in the broader consumer-electronics market, where consumers are buying iPads instead of traditional personal computers. PC sales in K-12 fell 8 percent in the U.S. last quarter, the third straight decline, Gartner said.
James Ponce, the superintendent of the McAllen Independent School District in Texas said they are moving away from desktops and laptops to tablet devices.
School Sales
The education push is part of a strategy put in place under co-Founder Steve Jobs, before the iPad was introduced in 2010. While Apple has a history of selling Mac computers to schools, the company realigned its education sales force to emphasize iPads, a person familiar with the changes said.
Innovation Middle School has traditionally used Lenovo Group Ltd. (992) computers because Macs are too expensive, said Harlan Klein, the school’s principal.
The new iPad comes at a critical time for Apple. Its shares have dropped 13 percent since reaching a record on Sept. 19, two days before the company released the iPhone 5. Sales of the smartphone have been constrained by supply constraints. Apple is also facing fresh competition in tablets from Microsoft (MSFT), which on Oct. 26 will release the Surface, its first foray into hardware. Apple had about 70 percent of the market in the second quarter, compared with Samsung Electronics Co., which had 9.2 percent, and Amazon’s 4.2 percent, according to IHS ISuppli.
Courting Educators
To woo educators, Apple’s sales staff meets regularly with school administrators and procurement officers across the U.S. The company has sales staff assigned to work with schools in particular regions of the U.S., and pays for district officials to visit Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, to learn about new products.
The company will need to set the new iPad’s price right to woo cash-strapped districts.
Vineet Madan, a senior vice president at McGraw-Hill Cos. (MHP) education unit said there would be a real aggressive uptake in the K-12 market when tablets get into the $200-$300 range.
To save money, San Diego’s school district bought iPad 2s after Apple dropped the price of that model when the newest version was introduced earlier this year.
Training Teachers
Drawing on funds raised through a voter-approved bond measure, the district spent about $370 on each iPad, which comes pre-loaded with various educational applications, Browne said.
Besides budgetary constraints, a major challenge for schools is training teachers and managing all the new equipment and software. If a teacher wants to use an iPad math application, synchronizing a classroom of devices and monitoring all the students’ work can be time consuming. In San Diego, a team of eight employees helps train teachers and manage new technology.
Touch Screens
In southern Texas, Ponce of the McAllen Independent School District reached out to Apple soon after the district decided to get away from buying laptops and desktops, which he said were expensive to maintain and unappealing for many students. Apple was at the table helping craft the district’s strategy for integrating technology in classrooms, he said.
The work resulted in McAllen buying about 25,000 iPads, paying Apple about $3.5 million a year as part of a financing deal the district worked out with Apple. About half the district’s technology budget is now going to Apple, Ponce said. Students are using iPad applications to test for vocabulary, make presentations and compile class notes.
While some teachers have resisted the new technology, many are adapting because they see students are increasingly fluent with touch-screen-based technology, said Courtney Browne, a technology resource teacher at San Diego Unified School District.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Government Calls for Help from Local Tech Companies
Story first appeared in The Detroit News.
Warning that the U.S. is threatened by potentially devastating cyberattacks, the nation's national security community is recruiting the San Francisco Bay Area's private sector to counter the assaults.
On Monday, in a sign these concerns are shared at the highest levels of the Presidential administration, the Homeland Security Secretary will make a personal pitch for help to tech companies in San Jose. And Congress is considering several bills to encourage government and business to share intelligence about the computerized threats.
Also sounding alarms is the director of the National Security Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command, which guards military networks. At an October conference he appealed for the private and public sectors to work together because this is something that we cannot do by ourselves.
Such partnerships are widely considered essential, given how dangerously vulnerable the country is to computer incursions. Some experts say the U.S. could be crippled by adversaries in future cyberwars. Others say the technology that's already been pilfered amounts to a lost national treasure, and extreme security solutions should be put in place to help avoid such losses.
Experts say cyberthieves cost U.S. corporations billions of dollars annually _ with some of the worst attacks linked to China _ and federal agencies are being looted, too. In July, the Deputy Defense Secretary revealed that foreign intruders have taken terabytes of data from defense companies, ranging from specifications for parts of tanks, airplanes and submarines to our most sensitive systems.
Companies often aren't paid for the help they provide to government sleuths and much of their work, understandably, is classified, some experts said. But it's clear that a wide range of Silicon Valley companies are participating with the national security community on this effort.
Several Bay Area corporations including Adobe Systems, eBay, Intel, Cisco Systems, McAfee and PayPal have joined with Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to counter cybervillains through the lab's Network Security Innovation Center, which opened in July. They exchange threat information as well as best practices to counterattackers, and their insights are relayed to other federal agencies.
Some of the same companies along with Hewlett-Packard, NetApp, Symantec, VMware and Juniper Networks are providing similar help to military and intelligence agencies through a Lockheed Martin center in Maryland.
In addition, the Department of Homeland Security has set up a Cyber Security Research and Development Center at the nonprofit Menlo Park think tank SRI International; dozens of local companies share information through the FBI's InfraGard program; and other Bay Area companies work individually with federal agencies to combat cyberthreats.
At FireEye of Milpitas, whose equipment helps block cyberattacks, systems have been deployed in over 60 federal customers and agencies, including the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. FireEye has worked with the FBI to help bring down botnets, groups of computers controlled by cybercrooks.
Mocana of San Francisco helps federal agencies prevent unauthorized devices from using their networks and encrypts the government's data in case its devices are stolen. And McAfee, which sells security software and monitors cyberintrusions globally, alerts the government about attacks. In August, it told authorities about a scheme that had compromised numerous agencies, prompting an investigation by Homeland Security.
Several congressional bills would further information sharing between the public and private sectors, in part by clarifying procedures for how the information is exchanged. But an analysis by the nonprofit public Electronic Frontier Foundation said the bills could endanger civil liberties by allowing a whole host of monitoring activities by government and non-government officials.
Some businesses may not be keen about the partnerships, either, the Congressional Research Service noted in a March report. It said firms might balk at sharing their proprietary information, fearing that it could be leaked to competitors, and that they might be sued if they failed to adequately address threats they learned about from the government.
Businesses also find it time consuming to partner with the government on these projects. At least 55 public-private alliances that already have been formed against cybercrimes and believes tax breaks may be needed to coax more company cooperation.
Nonetheless, unless federal bureaucrats and businesses redouble their efforts, the country could be in trouble, according to a former U.S. Secret Service agent who chairs the Security Innovation Network, a public-private group that sponsored a conference last month at Stanford that included participants from the National Security Agency to the Defense Department to the Central Intelligence Agency. He said it's especially crucial for that help to come from the Bay Area.
For technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
Warning that the U.S. is threatened by potentially devastating cyberattacks, the nation's national security community is recruiting the San Francisco Bay Area's private sector to counter the assaults.
On Monday, in a sign these concerns are shared at the highest levels of the Presidential administration, the Homeland Security Secretary will make a personal pitch for help to tech companies in San Jose. And Congress is considering several bills to encourage government and business to share intelligence about the computerized threats.
Also sounding alarms is the director of the National Security Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command, which guards military networks. At an October conference he appealed for the private and public sectors to work together because this is something that we cannot do by ourselves.
Such partnerships are widely considered essential, given how dangerously vulnerable the country is to computer incursions. Some experts say the U.S. could be crippled by adversaries in future cyberwars. Others say the technology that's already been pilfered amounts to a lost national treasure, and extreme security solutions should be put in place to help avoid such losses.
Experts say cyberthieves cost U.S. corporations billions of dollars annually _ with some of the worst attacks linked to China _ and federal agencies are being looted, too. In July, the Deputy Defense Secretary revealed that foreign intruders have taken terabytes of data from defense companies, ranging from specifications for parts of tanks, airplanes and submarines to our most sensitive systems.
Companies often aren't paid for the help they provide to government sleuths and much of their work, understandably, is classified, some experts said. But it's clear that a wide range of Silicon Valley companies are participating with the national security community on this effort.
Several Bay Area corporations including Adobe Systems, eBay, Intel, Cisco Systems, McAfee and PayPal have joined with Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to counter cybervillains through the lab's Network Security Innovation Center, which opened in July. They exchange threat information as well as best practices to counterattackers, and their insights are relayed to other federal agencies.
Some of the same companies along with Hewlett-Packard, NetApp, Symantec, VMware and Juniper Networks are providing similar help to military and intelligence agencies through a Lockheed Martin center in Maryland.
In addition, the Department of Homeland Security has set up a Cyber Security Research and Development Center at the nonprofit Menlo Park think tank SRI International; dozens of local companies share information through the FBI's InfraGard program; and other Bay Area companies work individually with federal agencies to combat cyberthreats.
At FireEye of Milpitas, whose equipment helps block cyberattacks, systems have been deployed in over 60 federal customers and agencies, including the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. FireEye has worked with the FBI to help bring down botnets, groups of computers controlled by cybercrooks.
Mocana of San Francisco helps federal agencies prevent unauthorized devices from using their networks and encrypts the government's data in case its devices are stolen. And McAfee, which sells security software and monitors cyberintrusions globally, alerts the government about attacks. In August, it told authorities about a scheme that had compromised numerous agencies, prompting an investigation by Homeland Security.
Several congressional bills would further information sharing between the public and private sectors, in part by clarifying procedures for how the information is exchanged. But an analysis by the nonprofit public Electronic Frontier Foundation said the bills could endanger civil liberties by allowing a whole host of monitoring activities by government and non-government officials.
Some businesses may not be keen about the partnerships, either, the Congressional Research Service noted in a March report. It said firms might balk at sharing their proprietary information, fearing that it could be leaked to competitors, and that they might be sued if they failed to adequately address threats they learned about from the government.
Businesses also find it time consuming to partner with the government on these projects. At least 55 public-private alliances that already have been formed against cybercrimes and believes tax breaks may be needed to coax more company cooperation.
Nonetheless, unless federal bureaucrats and businesses redouble their efforts, the country could be in trouble, according to a former U.S. Secret Service agent who chairs the Security Innovation Network, a public-private group that sponsored a conference last month at Stanford that included participants from the National Security Agency to the Defense Department to the Central Intelligence Agency. He said it's especially crucial for that help to come from the Bay Area.
For technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
Google Has Competition for Internet Eyeglasses
Story first appeared in The Wall Street Journal.
Google Inc. generated a heavy dose of nerdy buzz for its “Project Glass” eyeglasses earlier this month, but the Web search giant may find an unlikely Japanese competitor eyeing the same prize.
Japan’s telecommunications monolith Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. developed a prototype pair of glasses running its “SightFinder” technology earlier this year. It taps into the power of cloud computing, or computers running over the Internet, to help blind people walk the streets safely or prevent the elderly from getting into accidents that they don’t see coming.
While a staid, former government-owned monopoly like NTT can’t match the Silicon Valley cache of Google, both pairs of glasses try to integrate the Internet with glasses. Google’s “Project Glass” eyewear allows the bespectacled to receive messages from friends, check online schedules, and map out directions through the glasses.
By contrast, NTT’s SightFinder sends streaming images from a camera to one of NTT’s data centers to recognize and identify street signs or potential obstacles. In real time, NTT’s computers analyze the images and provide warnings – street construction causing a detour or a cone in front of a pothole – via an Internet-connected device like a smartphone to help the visually impaired to move freely.
While NTT says the technology is not limited to glasses, it may make the most sense there to track what people are looking at. Other possibilities under consideration include putting the SightFinder in wearable objects such as neck straps. NTT’s glasses, like Google’s, will also be able to provide directions, a feature that the company thinks foreign travelers will find useful.
In a Japanese video NTT posted on Facebook, it showed other potential scenarios for the technology including warning the elderly about oncoming cars.
NTT said it hopes to launch SightFinder this year, but price and timing is still undetermined. The company is in talks with potential commercial partners including local governments, but nothing has been finalized yet.
For more technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
Google Inc. generated a heavy dose of nerdy buzz for its “Project Glass” eyeglasses earlier this month, but the Web search giant may find an unlikely Japanese competitor eyeing the same prize.
Japan’s telecommunications monolith Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. developed a prototype pair of glasses running its “SightFinder” technology earlier this year. It taps into the power of cloud computing, or computers running over the Internet, to help blind people walk the streets safely or prevent the elderly from getting into accidents that they don’t see coming.
While a staid, former government-owned monopoly like NTT can’t match the Silicon Valley cache of Google, both pairs of glasses try to integrate the Internet with glasses. Google’s “Project Glass” eyewear allows the bespectacled to receive messages from friends, check online schedules, and map out directions through the glasses.
By contrast, NTT’s SightFinder sends streaming images from a camera to one of NTT’s data centers to recognize and identify street signs or potential obstacles. In real time, NTT’s computers analyze the images and provide warnings – street construction causing a detour or a cone in front of a pothole – via an Internet-connected device like a smartphone to help the visually impaired to move freely.
While NTT says the technology is not limited to glasses, it may make the most sense there to track what people are looking at. Other possibilities under consideration include putting the SightFinder in wearable objects such as neck straps. NTT’s glasses, like Google’s, will also be able to provide directions, a feature that the company thinks foreign travelers will find useful.
In a Japanese video NTT posted on Facebook, it showed other potential scenarios for the technology including warning the elderly about oncoming cars.
NTT said it hopes to launch SightFinder this year, but price and timing is still undetermined. The company is in talks with potential commercial partners including local governments, but nothing has been finalized yet.
For more technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Bendable Displays In The Near Future?
Story first appeared in USA Today.
In the film The Graduate, cynical young protagonist Benjamin Braddock is pulled aside by an elder with sage advice: "Just one word. … Plastics," he whispers. "There's a great future in plastics."
The line became part of Hollywood lore, underpinning the yawning gulf between the counterculture and the status quo.
But 45 years after it entered the American zeitgeist, the punch line is serious stuff for tech companies such as Samsung and Hewlett-Packard. Flexible-display technology, the pliable plastic casings that many predict will be the next iteration of laptops and tablets, is morphing into all sorts of cool gadgets of the near future.
In a few years, bendable displays will be everywhere, adorning coffee mugs, newspapers, car dashboards and sunroofs, white boards, backpacks, refrigerators — you name it. Within five years, every surface becomes a display.
The question, though, is when? And to what extent?
Flexible displays — computing screens that can be rolled, folded or flexed — can take the form of personal devices, such as an eReader, or larger surface displays, such as furniture or wallpaper.
Yet the flexible narrative has experienced fits and starts for years, and it still isn't likely to take hold until 2015.
The field is littered with noble failures and unfulfilled promises.
Philips Electronics spinoff Polymer Vision promoted its flexible eReader for years but declared bankruptcy before bringing the device to market. Hewlett-Packard has been developing printable Mylar displays that it imagines could be used for candy wrappers, armband computers for the military or living-room wallpaper, but the displays are still several years from commercialization.
The most likely scenario is that wildly popular tablets will be the first iteration of flexible technology.
Other emerging technology, such as wearables, embedded devices and mini-projectors, might catch on sooner when new manufacturing processes ramp up. Consumers would love to bend or fold devices. Rather than carry a phone and a tablet, you could unfold a large screen from your phone.
Any surface will do …
The promise of unbreakable, lightweight, non-glass displays has researchers and engineers at HP, Samsung and elsewhere toiling away in hopes of tapping into a potential gold mine.
Despite ups and downs, sales for flexible displays are expected to zoom to $8.2 billion in 2018 from $85 million in 2008.
Foldable technology is expected to take form in:
•Wristbands. HP is developing prototypes with the U.S. Army of a wristband for foot soldiers that is something out of the old Dick Tracy comic strip. HP also is huddling with the NFL about the possibility of an electronic wristband for quarterbacks to view and call plays.
Soldiers would be fitted with a bendable wristband that could also be sewn into their uniform's cuff. The small display could function as a combination Global Positioning System, shortwave radio and field manual for vehicle repairs. Such a device would significantly reduce the estimated 70 pounds of equipment typically lugged by soldiers, without sacrificing ruggedness.
A solar-powered wrist unit is set to undergo field testing by the military later this year.
The NFL could replace the balky helmet microphone now used with a plastic band for quarterbacks and defensive players to relay and view formations. The NFL had no comment.
Another possible use is digital bracelets for hospital patients, says Carl Taussig, director of HP Labs' Advanced Display Research.
•Kitchen counters. Microsoft's home of the future — think Ozzie and Harriet meets Futurama— is chock-full of digital displays, none more eye-catching than its kitchen counter.
The marble surface doubles as a display capable of input for ingredients and recipes. The graphics are beamed from an overhead projector, which could become a staple of homes within five years.
•Cars. Toyota showed a model at the Tokyo auto show late last year and the Detroit auto show this year that it described as a "smartphone on four wheels." In Tokyo, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda unfurled the Fun-Vii (vehicle interactive Internet), which lets drivers change the car's color — both exterior and interior. Flexible screens embedded in the car's body allow the Fun-Vii to display multiple colors.
•Buildings. Remember the dystopian city in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner with screens that show advertisements built into buildings?
NanoLumens designs and engineers large, energy-efficient LED displays for commercial use. Its flagship product is the world's first flexible LED screen that is 112 inches diagonal, an inch thick and only 80 pounds.
The NanoFlex product is used to show video on a curved wall at the NASCAR Museum in Charlotte. A NanoSlim product is installed at the Mac Cosmetics store in New York's SoHo neighborhood
The thin but durable screens are being tested for advertising use at trade shows and in subways and airports. You can pressure wash it and bounce a beer bottle off of it.
China, home to some of the world's largest buildings, is a prime candidate for even larger displays.
What are consequences, if any?
So what's wrong with this picture of a seemingly boundless market for flexible displays?
The immense promise is undercut by nagging issues, such as the difficulty in properly bending silicon-containing electronic components.
Costly, time-consuming manufacturing processes also remain a steep hurdle. There are plenty of obstacles, none more so than glass-based displays.
The ticklish task of laying electronic components on glass, stainless steel or plastic is a tricky, multiple-step process that can be pricey.
The industry will only achieve mass production at affordable prices when it makes the inevitable, and necessary, shift to roll-to-roll manufacturing — as is customary in the newspaper industry. And that's a few years away.
Germany-based PolyIC is making flexible touch-screens. Corning has shown flexible glass that can be used in roll-to-roll manufacturing, and a low-end display from Samsung is a prime candidate for such a process. E Ink, Plastic Logic, Infinite Power Solutions and Universal Display all are doing interesting things in the field, but it is a work in progress.
Bendable displays can be made, but mass manufacturing is the obstacle.
There have been advances — LG just announced it started mass production of its electronic paper display product, with a planned launch in Europe next month — but few.
Until then, flexible displays will be visible in smaller, more modest designs such as smart security tags, shelf and food labels and loyalty cards with memory.
PARC, the storied research center that inspired many of the features in the original Macintosh computer, is tinkering with plastic memory, chips on consumer goods packaging, sensors on helmets, and more.
One project is a wearable patch with sensors to monitor a patient's heart rate, temperature and blood pressure. PARC is also looking at the concept of a flexible battery to save energy and space.
It all makes for an intriguing game of promise vs. patience.
Not every surface will be a display, but it could be. There are no barriers.
For more national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
In the film The Graduate, cynical young protagonist Benjamin Braddock is pulled aside by an elder with sage advice: "Just one word. … Plastics," he whispers. "There's a great future in plastics."
The line became part of Hollywood lore, underpinning the yawning gulf between the counterculture and the status quo.
But 45 years after it entered the American zeitgeist, the punch line is serious stuff for tech companies such as Samsung and Hewlett-Packard. Flexible-display technology, the pliable plastic casings that many predict will be the next iteration of laptops and tablets, is morphing into all sorts of cool gadgets of the near future.
In a few years, bendable displays will be everywhere, adorning coffee mugs, newspapers, car dashboards and sunroofs, white boards, backpacks, refrigerators — you name it. Within five years, every surface becomes a display.
The question, though, is when? And to what extent?
Flexible displays — computing screens that can be rolled, folded or flexed — can take the form of personal devices, such as an eReader, or larger surface displays, such as furniture or wallpaper.
Yet the flexible narrative has experienced fits and starts for years, and it still isn't likely to take hold until 2015.
The field is littered with noble failures and unfulfilled promises.
Philips Electronics spinoff Polymer Vision promoted its flexible eReader for years but declared bankruptcy before bringing the device to market. Hewlett-Packard has been developing printable Mylar displays that it imagines could be used for candy wrappers, armband computers for the military or living-room wallpaper, but the displays are still several years from commercialization.
The most likely scenario is that wildly popular tablets will be the first iteration of flexible technology.
Other emerging technology, such as wearables, embedded devices and mini-projectors, might catch on sooner when new manufacturing processes ramp up. Consumers would love to bend or fold devices. Rather than carry a phone and a tablet, you could unfold a large screen from your phone.
Any surface will do …
The promise of unbreakable, lightweight, non-glass displays has researchers and engineers at HP, Samsung and elsewhere toiling away in hopes of tapping into a potential gold mine.
Despite ups and downs, sales for flexible displays are expected to zoom to $8.2 billion in 2018 from $85 million in 2008.
Foldable technology is expected to take form in:
•Wristbands. HP is developing prototypes with the U.S. Army of a wristband for foot soldiers that is something out of the old Dick Tracy comic strip. HP also is huddling with the NFL about the possibility of an electronic wristband for quarterbacks to view and call plays.
Soldiers would be fitted with a bendable wristband that could also be sewn into their uniform's cuff. The small display could function as a combination Global Positioning System, shortwave radio and field manual for vehicle repairs. Such a device would significantly reduce the estimated 70 pounds of equipment typically lugged by soldiers, without sacrificing ruggedness.
A solar-powered wrist unit is set to undergo field testing by the military later this year.
The NFL could replace the balky helmet microphone now used with a plastic band for quarterbacks and defensive players to relay and view formations. The NFL had no comment.
Another possible use is digital bracelets for hospital patients, says Carl Taussig, director of HP Labs' Advanced Display Research.
•Kitchen counters. Microsoft's home of the future — think Ozzie and Harriet meets Futurama— is chock-full of digital displays, none more eye-catching than its kitchen counter.
The marble surface doubles as a display capable of input for ingredients and recipes. The graphics are beamed from an overhead projector, which could become a staple of homes within five years.
•Cars. Toyota showed a model at the Tokyo auto show late last year and the Detroit auto show this year that it described as a "smartphone on four wheels." In Tokyo, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda unfurled the Fun-Vii (vehicle interactive Internet), which lets drivers change the car's color — both exterior and interior. Flexible screens embedded in the car's body allow the Fun-Vii to display multiple colors.
•Buildings. Remember the dystopian city in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner with screens that show advertisements built into buildings?
NanoLumens designs and engineers large, energy-efficient LED displays for commercial use. Its flagship product is the world's first flexible LED screen that is 112 inches diagonal, an inch thick and only 80 pounds.
The NanoFlex product is used to show video on a curved wall at the NASCAR Museum in Charlotte. A NanoSlim product is installed at the Mac Cosmetics store in New York's SoHo neighborhood
The thin but durable screens are being tested for advertising use at trade shows and in subways and airports. You can pressure wash it and bounce a beer bottle off of it.
China, home to some of the world's largest buildings, is a prime candidate for even larger displays.
What are consequences, if any?
So what's wrong with this picture of a seemingly boundless market for flexible displays?
The immense promise is undercut by nagging issues, such as the difficulty in properly bending silicon-containing electronic components.
Costly, time-consuming manufacturing processes also remain a steep hurdle. There are plenty of obstacles, none more so than glass-based displays.
The ticklish task of laying electronic components on glass, stainless steel or plastic is a tricky, multiple-step process that can be pricey.
The industry will only achieve mass production at affordable prices when it makes the inevitable, and necessary, shift to roll-to-roll manufacturing — as is customary in the newspaper industry. And that's a few years away.
Germany-based PolyIC is making flexible touch-screens. Corning has shown flexible glass that can be used in roll-to-roll manufacturing, and a low-end display from Samsung is a prime candidate for such a process. E Ink, Plastic Logic, Infinite Power Solutions and Universal Display all are doing interesting things in the field, but it is a work in progress.
Bendable displays can be made, but mass manufacturing is the obstacle.
There have been advances — LG just announced it started mass production of its electronic paper display product, with a planned launch in Europe next month — but few.
Until then, flexible displays will be visible in smaller, more modest designs such as smart security tags, shelf and food labels and loyalty cards with memory.
PARC, the storied research center that inspired many of the features in the original Macintosh computer, is tinkering with plastic memory, chips on consumer goods packaging, sensors on helmets, and more.
One project is a wearable patch with sensors to monitor a patient's heart rate, temperature and blood pressure. PARC is also looking at the concept of a flexible battery to save energy and space.
It all makes for an intriguing game of promise vs. patience.
Not every surface will be a display, but it could be. There are no barriers.
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Oakley Developing Tech Glasses Too
Story first appeared in the Bloomberg Business Week
Oakley Inc. is developing technology that can project information directly onto lenses, putting the sunglass maker into potential competition with Google Inc.
The technology would let Oakley, a division of Italy’s Luxottica Group, make hardware that’s comparable with Google’s Project Glass, an experimental effort to build smartphone features into eyewear.
Companies are stepping up efforts to build a wider range of electronics -- including articles of clothing -- that can connect wirelessly to the Internet. The market for so-called connected devices, a broad category that includes smartphones, tablets and PCs, may surge to 1.84 billion units in 2016, more than double the figure for last year, according to research firm IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Oakley has been working on such technology since 1997. Ultimately, everything happens through your eyes, and the closer it can be brought to your eyes, the quicker the consumer is going to adopt the platform.
Oakley would initially target athletes with products based on the so-called heads-up technology. Oakley could develop a similar product for the U.S. military through Eye Safety Systems, a subsidiary that specializes in eyewear for military and government agencies.
Obviously, you can think of many applications in the competitive field of sports. That’s the halo point of where we would begin, but certainly you can transcend that into a variety of other applications.
‘Barrier to Success’
Early versions of the product would not be cheap. The product should be able to function on its own, while also working with a smartphone wirelessly using Bluetooth. The device might be controlled with voice commands, similar to Apple Inc.’s Siri software.
There’s a lot of interesting optical issues that come up when you’re trying to create a positive experience when interacting with these devices. So the technology barrier to success is significant.
Oakley released sunglasses in 2004 that featured an MP3 music player built in. While the Thump product line was not a big hit, it is profitable. The latest version, the Thump Pro, costs $129 for a half-gigabyte of storage. That means it holds one-fourth the songs as the smallest iPod, yet costs more than twice as much.
Oakley has been working on technology related to heads-up displays for about 15 years, and has 600 patents, many of which apply to optical specifications. The company would consider licensing the patents.
The CEO declined to comment on whether Oakley would release its own so-called smart glasses, but he said the market for such a device is ripe. He said Oakley would have an edge over more tech-savvy competitors because the company is able to create stylish accessories.
For more technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
Oakley Inc. is developing technology that can project information directly onto lenses, putting the sunglass maker into potential competition with Google Inc.
The technology would let Oakley, a division of Italy’s Luxottica Group, make hardware that’s comparable with Google’s Project Glass, an experimental effort to build smartphone features into eyewear.
Companies are stepping up efforts to build a wider range of electronics -- including articles of clothing -- that can connect wirelessly to the Internet. The market for so-called connected devices, a broad category that includes smartphones, tablets and PCs, may surge to 1.84 billion units in 2016, more than double the figure for last year, according to research firm IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Oakley has been working on such technology since 1997. Ultimately, everything happens through your eyes, and the closer it can be brought to your eyes, the quicker the consumer is going to adopt the platform.
Oakley would initially target athletes with products based on the so-called heads-up technology. Oakley could develop a similar product for the U.S. military through Eye Safety Systems, a subsidiary that specializes in eyewear for military and government agencies.
Obviously, you can think of many applications in the competitive field of sports. That’s the halo point of where we would begin, but certainly you can transcend that into a variety of other applications.
‘Barrier to Success’
Early versions of the product would not be cheap. The product should be able to function on its own, while also working with a smartphone wirelessly using Bluetooth. The device might be controlled with voice commands, similar to Apple Inc.’s Siri software.
There’s a lot of interesting optical issues that come up when you’re trying to create a positive experience when interacting with these devices. So the technology barrier to success is significant.
Oakley released sunglasses in 2004 that featured an MP3 music player built in. While the Thump product line was not a big hit, it is profitable. The latest version, the Thump Pro, costs $129 for a half-gigabyte of storage. That means it holds one-fourth the songs as the smallest iPod, yet costs more than twice as much.
Oakley has been working on technology related to heads-up displays for about 15 years, and has 600 patents, many of which apply to optical specifications. The company would consider licensing the patents.
The CEO declined to comment on whether Oakley would release its own so-called smart glasses, but he said the market for such a device is ripe. He said Oakley would have an edge over more tech-savvy competitors because the company is able to create stylish accessories.
For more technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
"Lane-Keeping Technology"
First appeared in NY Times
A DRIVERLESS car is not yet ready for the market. But in the meantime, automakers are continuing to market some components of one. The Ford Motor Company announced last month that it would offer “lane-keeping technology” as an option for its 2013 Ford Fusion and Ford Explorer. The price has not yet been set.
When lane-keeping technology works, it can save lives. But it is suited only for certain road conditions, and there are reasons to doubt that it will activate as consistently as it should.
Ford’s technology relies on a camera mounted to the rear-view mirror. When the system is switched on and the vehicle is traveling more than 40 miles per hour, it will use the road’s lane markings to sense veering near one edge of the lane or the other. If the turn signal is off, the system will assume that the drift is unintentional and will send a vibration to the steering wheel as a warning.
If the driver doesn’t correct the drift, the software is then supposed to engage the power steering and turn the car back toward the center of the lane.
When all goes well, this will be flat-out wonderful. But the camera may have difficulty detecting the lane markings — when the sun is at a low angle, for example, or during heavy rainfall or on curves. If it fails to see the markings, it simply remains dormant.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has declined to give lane-keeping technology its blessing. Ronald Medford, deputy administrator of the agency, says, “We believe additional evaluation and research about lane-keeping systems is needed before we can decide whether we should recommend it to the public.”
Earlier research by the highway agency found performance problems in other systems then available. When asked about that, Michael Kane, a development engineer at Ford, acknowledges that certain conditions, such as when driving into direct sunlight, confound the system. “It’s not perfect,” he says.
But, he continues, “we’ve worked to enable the system to detect lane markings on a much higher percentage of situations, such as tree-lined curves with lots of shadows.”
When Toyota introduced similar technology in its 2010 Prius, it chose to call it “Lane Keep Assist.” Lexus and Mercedes also use similar language for their systems. That “assist” keeps expectations from getting out of hand. Ford is going instead with “Lane Keeping System,” without any namby-pamby qualifier.
Advanced automotive safety technologies, like lane-keeping systems, are most prevalent in Europe, says Eddy Llaneras, a staff member of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
“In Europe, the driving population understands that ultimate responsibility remains with the driver,” he says. “Here in the U.S., we are inclined to believe the technology will do all the work for us. And if it doesn’t, we’ll sue.”
Mr. Llaneras expects that within five to 10 years we will see “lane centering,” in which the vehicle steers itself. “The technology exists today — it’s been tested on research vehicles,” he says. “But manufacturers hesitate to introduce it because the systems can never be 100 percent reliable and they introduce liability exposure.”
Mercedes makes its lane-keeping system active by default, but Ford, like Toyota and Lexus, insists that its system be turned on manually, every time; the driver doesn’t have the option to designate that it be activated by default, or when cruise control is used — a seemingly natural combination.
Ford’s new technology package also includes what it calls a “Driver Alert System,” which will provide warnings when the software detects a pattern of driving associated with drowsiness, such as weaving within the lane boundaries. For the first warning, Ford’s designers have chosen to sound a soft chime and to display this message on the dashboard: “Rest suggested.” If the problem persists, a louder chime and a new message — “Rest now” — follow.
Mr. Kane could not point to any test data, however, that suggests that a driver who is sleepy to the point of being dangerous is likely to find and heed display warnings. Notwithstanding the chimes, delivering the message with an insistent recorded voice would seem a better choice.
J. Christian Gerdes, director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford and an associate professor of mechanical engineering, has been testing driverless cars since the early 1990s. One such vehicle successfully climbed the twisty road to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado — and did so multiple times. Its technology, however, isn’t coming soon to an auto showroom near you: its navigation relies on a base station in the area to transmit a Differential Global Positioning System signal.
Even if camera-based lane-keeping systems were to work well, we might not end up safer. Mr. Gerdes calls attention to the “risk accommodation” problem. “As vehicles are made safer, drivers may compensate by engaging in riskier behavior,” he explains.
As humans, we have one thing that works in our favor while driving: we are more likely to handle unexpected events successfully than the software in an autonomous car.
“Humans understand context,” Mr. Gerdes says. “If I’m driving along a row of parked cars and a ball rolls out into the street, I know to look for a child.”
Then again, we humans aren’t always exemplary in paying attention to the road. Ford’s system may lack perfect vision, but it will never be distracted because it’s checking its e-mail.
A DRIVERLESS car is not yet ready for the market. But in the meantime, automakers are continuing to market some components of one. The Ford Motor Company announced last month that it would offer “lane-keeping technology” as an option for its 2013 Ford Fusion and Ford Explorer. The price has not yet been set.
When lane-keeping technology works, it can save lives. But it is suited only for certain road conditions, and there are reasons to doubt that it will activate as consistently as it should.
Ford’s technology relies on a camera mounted to the rear-view mirror. When the system is switched on and the vehicle is traveling more than 40 miles per hour, it will use the road’s lane markings to sense veering near one edge of the lane or the other. If the turn signal is off, the system will assume that the drift is unintentional and will send a vibration to the steering wheel as a warning.
If the driver doesn’t correct the drift, the software is then supposed to engage the power steering and turn the car back toward the center of the lane.
When all goes well, this will be flat-out wonderful. But the camera may have difficulty detecting the lane markings — when the sun is at a low angle, for example, or during heavy rainfall or on curves. If it fails to see the markings, it simply remains dormant.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has declined to give lane-keeping technology its blessing. Ronald Medford, deputy administrator of the agency, says, “We believe additional evaluation and research about lane-keeping systems is needed before we can decide whether we should recommend it to the public.”
Earlier research by the highway agency found performance problems in other systems then available. When asked about that, Michael Kane, a development engineer at Ford, acknowledges that certain conditions, such as when driving into direct sunlight, confound the system. “It’s not perfect,” he says.
But, he continues, “we’ve worked to enable the system to detect lane markings on a much higher percentage of situations, such as tree-lined curves with lots of shadows.”
When Toyota introduced similar technology in its 2010 Prius, it chose to call it “Lane Keep Assist.” Lexus and Mercedes also use similar language for their systems. That “assist” keeps expectations from getting out of hand. Ford is going instead with “Lane Keeping System,” without any namby-pamby qualifier.
Advanced automotive safety technologies, like lane-keeping systems, are most prevalent in Europe, says Eddy Llaneras, a staff member of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
“In Europe, the driving population understands that ultimate responsibility remains with the driver,” he says. “Here in the U.S., we are inclined to believe the technology will do all the work for us. And if it doesn’t, we’ll sue.”
Mr. Llaneras expects that within five to 10 years we will see “lane centering,” in which the vehicle steers itself. “The technology exists today — it’s been tested on research vehicles,” he says. “But manufacturers hesitate to introduce it because the systems can never be 100 percent reliable and they introduce liability exposure.”
Mercedes makes its lane-keeping system active by default, but Ford, like Toyota and Lexus, insists that its system be turned on manually, every time; the driver doesn’t have the option to designate that it be activated by default, or when cruise control is used — a seemingly natural combination.
Ford’s new technology package also includes what it calls a “Driver Alert System,” which will provide warnings when the software detects a pattern of driving associated with drowsiness, such as weaving within the lane boundaries. For the first warning, Ford’s designers have chosen to sound a soft chime and to display this message on the dashboard: “Rest suggested.” If the problem persists, a louder chime and a new message — “Rest now” — follow.
Mr. Kane could not point to any test data, however, that suggests that a driver who is sleepy to the point of being dangerous is likely to find and heed display warnings. Notwithstanding the chimes, delivering the message with an insistent recorded voice would seem a better choice.
J. Christian Gerdes, director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford and an associate professor of mechanical engineering, has been testing driverless cars since the early 1990s. One such vehicle successfully climbed the twisty road to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado — and did so multiple times. Its technology, however, isn’t coming soon to an auto showroom near you: its navigation relies on a base station in the area to transmit a Differential Global Positioning System signal.
Even if camera-based lane-keeping systems were to work well, we might not end up safer. Mr. Gerdes calls attention to the “risk accommodation” problem. “As vehicles are made safer, drivers may compensate by engaging in riskier behavior,” he explains.
As humans, we have one thing that works in our favor while driving: we are more likely to handle unexpected events successfully than the software in an autonomous car.
“Humans understand context,” Mr. Gerdes says. “If I’m driving along a row of parked cars and a ball rolls out into the street, I know to look for a child.”
Then again, we humans aren’t always exemplary in paying attention to the road. Ford’s system may lack perfect vision, but it will never be distracted because it’s checking its e-mail.
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