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2017 was the year of numbers: AI, YCombinator and investment funds

AI/Vision recognition:

As we start 2018 lets review some stories that covered AI, an industry that has gained recognition as one of the leading subjects in tech.  Last year Intel acquired Mobileye, a vision-based driver-assistance systems that provides warnings for collision prevention and mitigation. Below is a recap on TechCrunch’s story.

 Intel buys Mobileye in $15.3B deal, moves its automotive unit to Israel

Intel has confirmed that it is acquiring Mobileye, a leader in computer vision for autonomous driving technology, for $15.3 billion — the biggest-ever acquisition of an Israeli tech company.

Mobileye today covers a range of technology and services, including sensor fusion, mapping, front- and rear-facing camera tech and, beginning in 2018, crowdsourcing data for high-definition maps, as well as driving policy intelligence underlying driving decisions.

Intel has been working officially with Mobileye since last year. Earlier this year, with BMW, the two started to test 40 self-driving cars equipped with the two companies’ technology. Mobileye was also an early partner of Tesla’s for its autonomous technology, although that relationship is ending amid some controversial undertones about safety measures at the carmaker. Other investments that Intel has made in the space of cars include taking a stake in Here (which will feed into the mapping initiatives at Mobileye); acquiring Itseez and Yogitech for safety and navigation functionalities in autonomous cars; making a commitment of at least $250 million to the space (which sounds so tiny considering today’s price tag).

 Catch the entire article at: https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/13/reports-intel-buying-mobileye-for-up-to-16b-to-expand-in-self-driving-tech/

 Intel Unveils Neural Compute Engine in Movidius Myriad X VPU to Unleash AI at the Edge

Intel introduced its new Movidius Myriad X vision processing unit (VPU), advancing Intel’s end-to-end portfolio of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to deliver more autonomous capabilities across a wide range of product categories including drones, robotics, smart cameras and virtual reality.

Myriad X is world’s first system-on-chip (SOC) shipping with a dedicated Neural Compute Engine for accelerating deep learning inferences at the edge.

 Read Intel’s full disclosure of Movidius at https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-unveils-neural-compute-engine-movidius-myriad-x-vpu-unleash-ai-edge/

  Investment funds:

There were a handful of announcements of big companies launching their investment funds to further develop technological gaps they might be experiencing.

 Samsung is launching a $150M fund to invest in emerging tech startups

The Samsung NEXT Fund is a $150 million venture fund targeted at early-stage startups working in emerging tech.

Specifically, they will be looking for companies focused on virtual reality, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and “other new frontier technologies.”

So far the fund has invested in 10 startups: Converge Industries, Dashbot, Entry Point VR, Filament, Intezer, LiquidSky, Otto Radio, 2Sens, SafeDK and Virtru. These companies range from a VR animation studio to water monitoring sensors for your appliances — signaling that NEXT will stay pretty broad with its investments.

Catch the entire story at: https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/04/samsung-is-launching-a-150m-fund-to-invest-in-emerging-tech-startups/

 Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi launches $1 billion corporate venture capital fund

Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi, has launched a $1 billion corporate venture capital fund to focus on investments in “new mobility” including electrification, autonomous systems, network connectivity and artificial intelligence.

Called Alliance Ventures, the fund has already made its first investment, taking an equity stake for an undisclosed amount in Ionic Materials — a Bill Joy-backed battery technology developer.

Catch the entire story at: https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/09/renault-nissan-mitsubishi-launches-1-billion-corporate-venture-capital-fund/

  The Startup world:

I was amazed by all the great ideas behind the selected 52 Y Combinator 2017 startups. Below are a few I found intriguing, the full list available at https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/20/yc-demo-day-winter-2017/

 52 startups that launched at Y Combinator W17 Demo Day 1

Cambridge Bio-Augmentation Systems – Plug-and-play standard for human bionics

CBAS wants to be the USB port for the human body. The startup has developed a low-cost implant that can connect any bionic device, like artificial limbs, to any part of the body, and give patients control of their prostheses. It also created the first live streaming nerve implant to gather data from a pig’s leg. CBAS wants to be the standard on which all bionic implants build. Just for amputees, this could be a $9 billion a year market, and now 10 companies have switched to the CBAS standard.

Cowlar – Fitbit for cows

It’s way smarter than it sounds. Cowlar makes a special collar for cows that tracks their temperature, activity and other data, and makes it available to farmers. It can recognize a cow with an infected hoof from the change in its gait, or identify that a cow is pregnant and will eventually produce milk. Cowlar costs $69 per cow with a $3 per month subscription, and provides a solar-powered “cow router” that collects data from the collars. It already has 600 cows on the platform, with 7,200 on the waitlist, and has alerted farmers about 103 sick cows. It already has the opportunity to build an $11 billion business on milk cows, and could enter the 3X-bigger beef cow market next. While the idea might seem ridiculous, cows are a huge part of the economy, and more data on them leads to more revenue from them.

Volans-i – B2B drone delivery

Amazon promised consumer drone delivery via Amazon PrimeAir but you likely don’t need a toothbrush in your backyard via drone. Businesses, however, do need deliveries fast, and volans-i aims to speedily deliver those shipments door-to-door via drone. For example, a company may need a certain part delivered to keep up with production. Volans-i steers its drones to this company with up to 50 lbs of payload going 1,000 miles — or 15,000 shipments per year per customer, according to the company. Volans-i’s team comes from strong industry backgrounds including Northrup Grumman, and the company believes it can save time and money for a number of business categories, including high-tech, aviation, medical, oil and gas, automotive and manufacturing.

Delee – A blood test for circulating tumor cells

Cancer is one of the biggest killers in the U.S. and Delee aims to take on the “emperor of all maladies” with a blood test device able to isolate tumor cells. The patent-pending device aims to personalize cancer treatments based on a new approach.The founding team comes from Stanford and the Rochester Institute of Technology and works in biomedical engineering; the startup has already run a successful clinical trial using 15 patients, isolating tumor cells for 13 of them. Delee aims to take on bigger companies working in the same space, like Grail, and take on a $2 billion market.

Indee – Hardware for gene delivery

Indee provides a new way to use CRISPR to edit the genome of cells. Current methods of editing genes include using viruses or electroporation, but Indee uses microturbulence to dissolve molecules within a cell. It currently is targeting a $1.5 billion addressable market for immunotherapy, but sees that market growing to $9 billion as the market improves.

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Hardware solutions for Eclipse IOT Challenge: Exploring LoRa/LoRaWAN

The Eclipse IOT challenge lead me to research more in depth different technologies both from the hardware and the software aspect. As part of product development and delivery one has to come up with the solution for a problem. In this case the problem is parking in urban areas, or the lack of smarter parking solutions. Such implementation would not only allow end users to have a better parking experience while saving time in finding an adequate spots but also provides the city with valuable data to be used for city planning and city improvement projects.

Once the issue is identified, it was important to find a technical solution that would align with our needs. For city implementations, given the broad area that needs to be covered, we would need a type of communication that is long range and low cost, both in cost of sending data and power consumption. I first tackled the hardware needs once the design was evaluated. The prototype for a smart city solution needs to also be scalable while adding the least overhead in cost and infrastructure needed.

In this article I will go more in depth on the research done to identify one of the key components of the project. I will share a summary of my findings in hopes of helping others that are also exploring similar solutions.

Evaluating communication solutions:

I evaluated BLE, bluetooth, cellular, satellite, Wi-Fi, SigFox, Zigbee and Lora. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, given its range limitation and cost were not considered for this prototype. Cellular communications have a higher cost as well, and at even steeper price comes satellite communication; both this options were also discarded. SigFox and LoRa/LoraWAN were the runner up candidates. I came across a comprehensive post on the comparison of SigFox and LoRa that is worth the read https://www.link-labs.com/blog/sigfox-vs-lora . The winner was LoRa.

Why Lora?

As explained by Libelium on http://www.libelium.com/development/waspmote/documentation/lora-vs-lorawan/ LoRa contains only the link layer protocol and is perfect to be used in P2P communications between nodes. LoRa modules are a little cheaper that the LoRaWAN ones.. LoRaWAN includes the network layer too so it is possible to send the information to any Base Station already connected to a Cloud platform. LoRaWAN modules may work in different frequencies by just connecting the right antenna to its socket..

LoRa which stands for long range wireless operates at a low bandwidth, meaning that its best application is for sending smaller pieces of data such as sensor data. LoRaWAN is known for its good penetration and long coverage which has been recorded to reach over 10 KM distance. LoRaWAN operates on unlicensed bands, so in most countries is legal to have you own LoRaWAN gateway cutting down the cost given that you will not have to pay a carrier or third party to supply you with the service.

Additionally a selling point for me personally was the wide accessibility to various developer platforms and hardware solutions such as DIY LoRa kits, libraries and Arduino compatible LoRa modules. The Things Network offers a strong platform with access to resources, documentation and a great community of IOT LoRa enthusiast.

Gateway

Lets take a look at one of the hardware pieces now. “Gateways form the bridge between devices and The Things Network. Devices use low power networks like LoRaWAN to connect to the Gateway, while the Gateway uses high bandwidth networks like WiFi, Ethernet or Cellular to connect to The Things Network. Gateways are routers equipped with a LoRa concentrator, allowing them to receive LoRa packets”(see more at https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/gateways/). Below is a list of some gateways that were evaluated for this project. I spent time looking at their platform flexibility, the documentation and support provided and what would be the most cost effective solution for a minimum viable product (MVP).

Lorixone

https://lorixone.io/

LORIX One is the first low cost gateway designed and assembled in Switzerland. Its technical specifications include Runx Linux Yocto 4.X SX1301 gateway chip SPI based 8 channels, 49 demodulators @ 868MHz

Lorixone counts with great documentation accessible at https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/labs/story/install-awesome-lorix-one-gateway

Kerlink

Details at https://www.kerlink.com/iot-solutions-services/IoT%20LoRaWan%20Solutions/

Wirnet iBTS is a range of modular and upgradeable gateways designed for IoT public operators. It can be upgraded up to 64 LoRa™ channels to offer an answer to massive messages supporting. I was unable to identify the price point for this gateway.

The Things Gateway

Details at https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/gateways/gateway/

Retails: € 300.00 € 280.00 (ex VAT)

Originally started as a Kikstarter campaign viewable at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/419277966/the-things-network it provides 10 km / 6 miles radius of network coverage, it can server thousands of nodes and its an straight forward to set up. It counts with ample documentation and a strong community.

Technical specifications:

Fastest way to get started with LoRaWAN (Long Range WAN)

Set up your own LoRaWAN network in as little as 5 minutes

Connects easily to your WiFi or Ethernet connection

Wireless range of up to 10 km (6 miles)

Engage with a global community of IoT developers

Easy cloud integration with popular IoT platforms

Based on open source hardware and software standards

Devices can freely communicate over all gateways connected to The Things Network

XBEE slot for future connectivity protocols or homebrew add-ons.

Security through the https connection and embedded in the LoRaWAN protocol

Can serve thousands of nodes (depending on traffic)

Laird — RG1xx

Details at: https://www.lairdtech.com/products/rg1xx-lora-gateway

Retail 400+ US dollars

This gateway counts with a dual-band Wi-Fi, BT v4.0 (BLE and Classic) and wired Ethernet; LoRa range up to 10 miles and pre-loaded LoRa Packet Forwarder software

Technical specifications:

Full Linux operating system — Kernel v4.x running on Atmel A5 Core @ 536 MHz

Multiple interfaces such as LoRaWAN, 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0, and Ethernet

8-Channel LoRaWAN support with up to +27dBM max transmit power

Comprehensive Certifications for FCC / IC (RG191) and CE (RG186) (all pending)

Industrial temperature range (-30º to 70º C)

Advanced deployment tools including intuitive web-based configuration, integrated LoRa packet forwarder, and default settings for multiple LoRaWAN Network Server vendors

Enterprise-grade security built on Laird’s years of experience in wireless

Industry-leading support works directly with Laird engineers to help deploy your design

LoRa Network Server pre-sets — The Things Network, Loriot, Stream and Senet

Multitech

Developer resource http://www.multitech.net/developer/products/multiconnect-conduit-platform/

Retail 675–685 US dollars

Breakdown: base gateway MTCDT-H5–210L-US-EU-GB https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/multi-tech-systems-inc/MTCDT-H5-210L-US-EU-GB/881-1236-ND/5246365() $490, antenna (https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/multi-tech-systems-inc/AN868-915A-10HRA/881-1242-ND/5246371) $13, LoRa module MTAC-LORA-915 (https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/multi-tech-systems-inc/MTAC-LORA-915/881-1239-ND/5246368) $180

The MultiConnect® Conduit™ is a configurable, scalable cellular communications gateway for industrial IoT applications. Conduit allows users to plug in two MultiConnect mCard™ accessory cards supporting wired or wireless interfaces. It counts with open source Linux development, wwo mcard slots, Lora 8 channel receiver, Spred spectrum frequency hopping that is ued to Up to 10 miles line of sight. MultiConnect has done a great job with its documentation and it counts with its own platform that can be used as well.

Lorrier LR2

Details at: https://lorrier.com/#introducing-lr2

Developer resource: https://github.com/lorriercom

Retail €615.00 €755.00

Based on LoRaWAN™ protocol. This is a fully outdoor device intended to establish a wide coverage network by telecommunications operators and local network by individuals or IoT connectivity service providers. The whole solution, including both HW and SW parts, follows the Lorrier culture, and it is shared as an Open Source.

The gateway is based on iC880a LoRaWAN™ concentrator by IMST which uses Semtech SX1301 base band processor designed for use with LoRa® networks. BeagleBone Green with 1GHz (2000 MIPS) processor and fully operational on fast SPI bus was chosen as a powerful control unit.

LoRa/LoRaWAN Gateway — 915MHz for Raspberry Pi 3

Details at https://www.seeedstudio.com/LoRa%2FLoRaWAN-Gateway-915MHz-for-Raspberry-Pi-3-p-2821.html

Retails 289.00 US dollars

If you want to build you own LoRa network, there are 3 things that you should prepare to get started: a Gateway, at least one Node and a local server where you can monitor all your devices. This kit provides a gateway & local server that allows you to collect and transfer data among all your LoRa nodes. By connecting the gateway with Seeeduino LoRaWAN and Grove modules, you can build your IOT prototype within minutes.

Regarding the gateway module RHF0M301, it is a 10 channel(8 x Multi-SF + 1 x Standard LoRa + 1 x FSK) LoRaWan gateway moduel with a 24pin DIP port on board, users can easily connect the RHF0M301 with PRI 2 bridge RHF4T002, adapter for Raspberry Pi 3 and RHF0M301.

RisingHF gateway

Details at http://www.risinghf.com/product/rhf0m301/?lang=en

I have seen this solution mentioned and used across the LoRaWAN community. Its technical specs are RHF0M301 is a 10 channels (8 x Multi-SF + 1 x Standard LoRa + 1 x FSK) LoRa/LoRaWAN gateway or concentrator module. The module is integrated one 24 pins DIP hearder, with this header user could connect RHF0M301 with his own embedded platform to build a customized gateway easily.

LG01 LoRa OpenWrt IoT Gateway by Dragino Tech

Details at https://www.tindie.com/products/edwin/lg01-lora-openwrt-iot-gateway/?pt=ac_prod_search

Retails 56.00 US dollars

This gateway is a long distance wireless 433/868/915Mhz, OpenWrt, LoRa IoT Gateway

The LG01 is an open source single channel LoRa Gateway. It lets you bridge LoRa wireless network to an IP network via WiFi, Ethernet, 3G or 4G cellular.

DYI options:

There are various posts on DYI options based both from Raspberry Pi and Arduino boards. Below are a few:

Build your own gateway

https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/gateways/start/build.html

Building a Raspberry Pi Powered LoRaWAN Gateway

https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/building-a-raspberry-pi-powered-lorawan-gateway

Hardware IMST iC880A LoRaWAN “concentrator” board and Raspberry Pi

The iC880A — LoRaWAN https://wireless-solutions.de/products/long-range-radio/ic880a iC880A is able to receive packets of different end devices send with different spreading factors on up to 8 channels in parallel. In combination with an embedded Linux board like Raspberry Pi, Beagle Bone, Banana Pi and the HAL software from https://github.com/Lora-net a complete LoRaWAN® gateway can be setup easily.

From zero to LoRaWAN in a weekend

https://github.com/ttn-zh/ic880a-gateway/wiki

Based iC880a concentrator board and a Raspberry Pi 2.

A DIY low-cost LoRa gateway

http://cpham.perso.univ-pau.fr/LORA/RPIgateway.html

The gateway is based on a Raspberry PI. RPI 1B+/2B/3B can be used. The LoRa modules comes from (a) Libelium LoRa radio module, (b) HopeRF RFM92W/HopeRF RFM95W (or RFM96W for 433MHz), © Modtronix inAir9/inAir9B (or inAir4 for 433MHz), (d) NiceRF LoRa1276. Libelium LoRa and RFM92W use the Semtech SX1272 chip while RFM95W, inAir9/9B and NiceRF LoRa1276 use the SX1276 which is actually more versatile.

Note: The LoRa module and the LoRaWAN module are not compatible because the protocols are different. The LoRa module implements a simple link protocol, created by Libelium. However, the LoRaWAN module runs the LoRaWAN protocol, a much richer and more advanced protocol, created by the LoRa Alliance.

Check out their Github page with detailed documentation https://github.com/CongducPham/LowCostLoRaGw

Conclusion on gateways:

The gateway is a key portion of this solution given that the sensors will need to send the information “somewhere” where it can either be analyzed on the edge or sent to the cloud. After considering price ranges on both the parts needed for a DIY solution or a full blown gateway I considered those solutions that would be cost effective and which I was most familiar with. The “LG01 LoRa OpenWrt IoT Gateway by Dragino Tech” seemed the best approach. The developer kit counts with an Arduino developer node and a Developer gateway. Note that this solution only counts with ONE channel, in comparison with other solutions that allow 8+ channels. This was a compromise that was evaluated and given that this will be a prototype the one channel option seemed sufficient.

In the following articles I will showcase both the remaining hardware parts and the software portion along with updates on how the project is coming along.

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AI, VR/AR and Blockchain: recap from 2017

Below are some articles you might have missed Wearable.com, Facebook.com and TechCrunch.com from 2017 which are worth a second read.

Merge thinks augmented reality is more fun when you can touch it

Working with a headset (or just a smartphone if you'd prefer), the Cube transforms before the eyes of the user, from what looks like an Indiana Jones prop into a bustling cityscape, a beating human heart, a tiny playable knock-off Minecraft – anything a developer can think to make, really. The cube is designed to be rotated freely on one axis without distorting the AR effect. The Cube doesn't require a Merge headset to use – any headset with support for an AR passthrough will work – and Merge has opened up the SDK to developers.

Catch the entire article at: https://www.wareable.com/ar/merge-vr-ar-cube-toy-559

 Judah Friedlander visits Kairos, a company that creates AI to recognize human emotional states

Judah challenges robotics and AI. Kairos is a company that recognizes faces and emotions. He met the founder of Kairos who explained Kairos AI works by  feeding millions of faces to an AI algorithm which is trained to identify and map 85 face points. The system then teaches the machine to know what those 85 points look like in a male or female and also compares it to known facial expressions mapped to emotional state. Kairos AI can identify 6 emotions: anger, fears, discuss, saddens, joy and the lack of emotion. During the visit Judah competes against the Karios AI when several people of different genders react to videos they are watching.

Catch the entire video at: https://www.facebook.com/techcrunch/videos/10155594601232952/

Toyota pushes into blockchain tech to enable the next generation of cars

Together with MIT’s Media Lab, Toyota has enlisted a series of partners that specialize in different aspects of blockchain technology (the distributed, encrypted ledger technology that powers the cryptocurrency bitcoin) to explore how the technology may be applied to the car industry.

Initially the research is focusing on sharing data on every trip that an autonomous vehicle takes; on developing tools that users can have to make ride-sharing easier; and to create new insurance products that are usage-based for customers who may prefer that coverage.

TRI isn’t just working with MIT on the initiative, but also with a few choice startups and smaller companies big in the blockchain space. Berlin-based BigchainDB, a startup which raised over $3 million to develop a flexible, scalable blockchain-based ledger; is helping develop the kind of architecture Toyota will need to roll out to have growth and scale it wants. Meanwhile Oaken Innovations and Commuterz, from Dallas and Tel Aviv, respectively, are working to develop blockchain apps for car sharing, vehicle access and payments and carpooling.

Finally, Toyota is tapping the Los Angeles-based blockchain application developer, Gem to port the applications it has been developing for the healthcare insurance industry to car insurance. The company provides a ledger for distributed inputs from a number of different sources that can then be used to automate much of the insurance claim process.

Catch the entire article at:  https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/22/toyota-pushes-into-blockchain-tech-to-enable-the-next-generation-of-cars/

Val.ai lets self-driving cars bid for parking spots

TechCrunch Disrupt NY hackathon team Val.ai built a way for autonomous vehicles to participate in auctions for nearby parking spaces.

When a self-driving car needs to park itself, it can submit real-time bids for local spots occupied by others. If a currently parked car knows it needs to pick someone up soon, and it will earn more from selling the parking spot now than the gas it might burn driving around until its pick-up time, it can accept a bid.

 Catch the entire article at: https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/14/self-parking-vehicle/

VR-AR: Eniac Ventures closes $100 million fund

Eniac Ventures is announcing the close of a $100 million venture fund, the fourth since the group formed in 2009. The seed-stage firm plans to use the money to invest in augmented reality, virtual reality, bots, robotics and other software-enabled technologies.

With the new fund, the team is introducing what they’re calling the Eniac Platform. They plan to help startups with publicity, hiring, operations and other business development services. Some of these offerings are available at Series A funds, but Eniac wants to send the message that they are more hands-on than the typical seed-stage venture firm.

Catch the entire article at: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/13/eniac-ventures-closes-100-million-fund/

Hologram Barbie by Mattel

Earlier last year TechCrunch posted their “Barbie becomes a hologram version of herself“ (https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/17/barbie-becomes-a-hologram-version-of-herself/) article where they had little to say about the Barbie prototype and described it as a laser-beamed character that combines motion-capture animation with peppy, Amazon Echo-like answers to your child’s questions.

In later news last year, Cnet posted their “Hologram Barbie delayed until 2018” (https://www.cnet.com/news/hologram-barbie-delayed-until-2018/) article with the below update:

Mattel delayed the release of its Barbie personal assistant: a voice-controlled animated Barbie projection that lives inside a glowing, pink box. The Hello Barbie Hologram was originally set to be released this year, but a Mattel spokeswoman told CNET the company is delaying the launch until 2018 "due to additional testing of the platform."

It being a hologram, this animated Barbie can also change form, varying her hair, body type and skin tone.

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When technology and education meet

By Tamara G

Tyler Bell, Head of Talent at GoGuardian, was one of the speakers at a recent technology learning event that took place last month in Los Angeles. Education by the hand of technology can lead to progress and education engagement from students.

 GoGuardian is a technology platform that connects students and teachers in a smart safe way. It offers web content filtering, activity oversight, advance Youtube filtering, flagged activity reporting and off campus monitoring. For guardian teachers it counts with screen viewing, usage history and activity timeline. GoGuardian help you keep students safe, focused and engaged while mazimizing their learning potential.

 With Chromebooks integration schools can obtain insightful date on their students performance while promoting education. Camino Union School District and Northwest public schools are using GoGuardian as part of their initiative to track student’s progress.

For more details visit https://www.goguardian.com/

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Tech companies shaping the future

Make in LA hosted a “Hardware Demo Day” that brought together companies working on innovative technology products. Among the speakers was Gabe Grifoni, CEO of Rufus, a startup focused on building wearable technology to enable a superhuman workforce. Based in Los Angeles, it focuses on enterprise tools that improve communication, increase productivity and keep workers safer on the job. The Rufus Cuff is a ruggedized wearable with a 3.2” screen, 12-hour (full shift) battery, and runs the complete Android OS. It provides hands-free tools and includes sensors that allow for team monitoring, location-based assignments, alerts and safety checks.

Karol Munoz, CEO of Luma Legacy was also among the attendees. Luma is a smart bracelet that connects charms to selected digital content. Technology-enabled jewelry for women that keeps them connected to their close friends and family. Luma Legacy’s mission is to offer women unique and relevant ways to express their individuality.

Matt Waters represented Canviz, a startup that brings your art to life. The team created a digital canvas for displaying art and photography, as well as a marketplace for collecting, discovering and sharing great content.

Emerge is a start up born from Singularity University, sponsored by Google and NASA, working to digitize touch. Style Lee, the company’s CEO, explained how they are creating a consumer product that re-creates touch in mid-air, that integrates with virtual and augmented reality devices, allowing people to truly connect, feel present, and interact with digital content naturally.

For more details about the event and products please visit https://hardwaredemoday.splashthat.com/

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Small Box: Using IOT for energy efficiency

Energy efficiency can be enhanced with the help of IoT devices and smart monitoring platforms that allows your business to automatically evolve and react to the changes needed.  Small Box energy aims to remove your concerns on efficiency, saving you money and in turn helping the environment. Chameleon™ is an energy management platform under the Small Box umbrella. It allows monitoring and control of critical systems, such as HVAC, lighting, and refrigeration equipment. For restaurant and food market owners this feature is not only an energy saver but it also ensures the food is refrigerated at the required temperature meeting sanitary requirements. The platform can be configured to alert when a value, for example temperature, goes above or below a set threshold; notifications include text message, e-mail and mobile app. Light control also comes intro play. With Small Box you can set different zones each controlled independently. Automation can be set depending on weather conditions and time of the day.

Monitoring your equipment for correct functioning can also be achieved, preventative maintenance can save you downtime and overall operational cost. Cloud-based EMS enables you to have access to your systems 24/7 at a low cost without having to worry about added hardware cost. With remote access you can adjust the settings on any of your systems in real time.

You can learn more about Small Box their product and services a http://www.smallboxenergy.com/products-services/

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My first 3D printing class

 author: Tamara G

3D printing has gained popularity in the last couple of years. Making it accessible for quick prototyping and even giving back mobility to amputees through 3d printed limbs.

 My first encounter with 3D printer was at a hackathon earlier last year. We were given the chance to enhance our hardware hack with the design of a 3D printed object. Ever since I’ve been curious about learning the different printing techniques and understanding the software needed to make designs. I finally jumped on the deep end and enrolled on a one day workshop provided by AutoDesk partnering with Maker Society. By the end of the class we were guaranteed to have a new “home made” Christmas ornament for our tree.

 A variety of attendees filled the classroom, all ages, backgrounds and gender sharing the same curiosity for 3D printing. The workshop started off with an introduction on AutoDesk, short history on 3D printing and the evolution from Inventor to Fusion 360. The instructor covered the basic tools offered by Fusion 360 and provided a step by step on how we could use a picture of a snowflake to create our 3D design. To ensure all attendees would keep the same pace the steps were divided into three sections. First we became familiar with the trace option and chose a picture to use as a model. We then learned how to use mirror to replicate part of the work that was first done, this is a great option to ensure objects remain symmetrical and in addition, it saves you time.  The last section consisted on adding depth to our design and also engraving wording such as “Merry Christmas”.  The documentation was both available on the cloud and as printed hand outs.

 There were three 3D printers ready to process the jobs which would be shared in the workshop group created in Fusion 360. This made it easy to see what other attendees were working on and also to queue the projects for printing.

 Takeaway

-       3D printing is a great skill to gain as a maker

-       Fusion 360 is a relatively easy to use tool, with just one day of a step by step tutorial you can become familiar with the basics

-       The cloud sharing and searching capabilities in Fusion 360 truly add value to the product

-       Make sure you are familiar with dimensions, there is a big difference between 1mm and 4mm

-       Take advantage of any introduction workshops in your area. Highschool, colleges and interest groups might have them available at no cost or a very low cost

-       Not having a 3D printer is not a blocker, chances are that somebody in your area might have one. Check 3Dhubs for people looking to process your printing job.

 Interested in Fusion 360? Check out the below resources

- Fusion 360 Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/AutodeskFusion360

- Getting started tutorial: http://enablingthefuture.org/resources/getting-started-in-fusion-360/

- Various 3D printing tutorials: https://www.3dhubs.com/talk/Fusion-360

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Hackaday brings SoCal electronic enthusiasts together

 author: Tamara G

Los Angeles tech scene has grown, giving space to gatherings where technology is the centerpiece. Hackaday.io hosts monthly meetups at a local brewery in Pasadena, California. Hobbyist are encouraged to bring their projects, the “show and tell” setting attacks a variety of curious minds. One gets to interact with people from all backgrounds that worked on interesting projects generating the right environment for great discussions and bouncing ideas. You can even find somebody that can help you overcome whatever roadblock you are facing in the electronic project you are working on.

 During the last event attendees got to see their image in an infrared camera and play with two different versions of Pac-Man games. Built by Mike Szczys, Hackady manager editor, the Pac-Man game came in a small portable version with an embedded controller and a larger scale game with an external joystick and a diffuser to add a visual effect. Mike mentioned that the smaller version might be challenging for colorblind people as its LED base colors are red and green with a tint of orange. Below is a detailed YouTube video by Mike:

Interesting in making your own? View Mike’s step by step tutorial https://hackaday.io/project/6036-1-pixel-pac-man

 SupplyFrame (Hackaday) will be opening a Design Lab equipped with top of the line machines, from laser cutters, soldering stations to 3D printers to name a few. The idea is to have a space that promotes innovation and allows makers to get their products to the next level. The specifics are still being finalized, membership might be by application only but some open classes and opportunities will be offered to the general public. If you are as curious as I am on what is behind the Hackaday lab doors in Pasadena don’t miss out on their upcoming sneak peak event.

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She.Codes: Include women in CS

Author: Tamara Gagliardi

She.Codes Club (formally known as SHE++) hosted the “#include Women in CS” event this past week at Pasadena City College (PCC). Throughout two hours panelists talked about inclusion of women in STEM. They shared stories about how they started in the field of Computer Science and what projects they’ve been working on.  The evening included a Q&A session where attendees were given the chance to ask questions to the guest speakers.

Dr. Sheila Tejada, a professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Southern California (USC), said she fell in love with R2-D2 when Star Wars first came out. She later got interested in Atari’s first personal computers as her family was an early technology adopter. Later, with the movie Tron in 1982, she got even more intrigued by the tech field. Looking back she realized she had been playing with the notion of coding through the books she red. “Choose your own adventure” are no other than “if this then that” statements, similar to how coding and a control structure works. Dr. Tejada took us through a historical timeline of how technology evolved and how women were involved in its development from early on, as she said “I learned that women were there all along”.  

YODA was an artificial intelligent project where she learned more about robotics and later resulted in multiple award winning competitions. By 1997 Dr. Tejada and her team competed in RoboCup, a robotic soccer championship. Their robot was built with items one can purchase at BestBuy: board from a PC, digital camera, toy truck, amongst others. Her passion for robotics lead her to teaching and performing research on artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics.  

 Jill Greczek, USC PHD Robotics student, shared her view on how robots can be used to improved human’s lives especially through their application in the health industry. She provided an overview of how large the field of robotics is, including manipulation, machine learning, computer vision, human-robot interaction, etc. Within the latter, robots have been developed and tested to assist humans further their social skills and help patients recovering from stokes. Other implementations include that of factory assistant robots used in the industrial markets. She described her work as converting cognitive models and social science literature into math that can be interpreted by a computer.  Jill is working on a robot that will act as a buddy to help diagnose children with chronic conditions and teach them emotional coping mechanisms while monitoring them. How many kids are scared of needles? Jill aims to shed some light on how to assist children in coping with such fear by having the robot automatically identify and display the best mechanism.

 Lydia Tapia, Assistant Professor in Computer Science at the University of New Mexico, is working on simulation and analysis of motion. Originally not interested in Computer Science she was encouraged to take more classes in the field and later  took a virtual reality internship. Her current research includes intelligent autonomous robots. In an effort to find a solution to rescuing trapped hikers, Lydia and her team started working with a quadro copter and instructing the drone to carry liquid. In an optimal situation where a stranded hiker is transported by a robot we would want to minimize the movement while the victim is being transported. They trained the robot by rewarding it when performing good actions and sanctioning it with reduction of points when committing an error such as a harsh landing. Through multiple iterations the robot learned what speed and route it should take to carry the coffee reducing the chances of movement. Another research also related with movement was that of the avoidance of obstacles. A simulator would plot hundreds of obstacles and the object would use the probability of where the obstacle would be to predict where it should move.  Tapia also discussed her team’s research on how to stop allergic reactions and other projects they’ve been working on.  

The evening concluded with dinner, refreshments and an opportunity to network with the guest speakers and other attendees.

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Wearhacks LA: Recap of the wearable and IOT hackathon

Makres, inventors, hackers and tech enthusiasts were given a weekend to prototype a wearable and IOT solution at the Wearhacks LA hackathon. There was plenty of hardware to choose from ranging from beacons, BLE enabled devices, photons, Oculous and Kinects.

Workshops:

Multiple workshops were offered throughout the weekend. Microsoft hosted an introduction to using the Particle Photon and Azures. By the end of the workshop most of us got temperature data captured from the SparkFun weather shield uploaded to the Azure cloud and graphed thanks to the help of the Photon which provided wifi capabilities. For those that were new to app making, a workshop for iOS development provided a complete overview of story telling, creating a couple of screens and even coding the basic layouts and functionalities. Not too many hackathons provide such an wide variety of workshops, even if you were not able to hack hardware  you gained valuable knowledge from the hands on tutorials.

 The final products:

On Sunday all groups had the chance to pitch their final product to the judges. Set up in “science fair” layout judges walked station by station interacting with the products themselves.

The winning team was a wearable solution for dogs. Using the Myo band they gathered the change in acceleration from the accelerometer and analyzed the data to monitor the activities of the dog. Runner up was a team that used the kinect to track the movement of your hand and fingers. They used the information gathered by the sensor to create a 3D representation and placed different object in the screen that the used was able to interact with. The idea was to then be able to perform actions in your screen such as copy, paste, even design new projects with the simple use of hand motions, basically bringing Minority Report to life.

Another winning team was the push up counter. Similar to the dog wearable they also used the Myo to track movement, in this case they analyzed how many pushups were completed. Their data gathering and algorithm used to analyze the data was impressive. The data was later entered into a database and uploaded to the cloud to then display the activity tracked on a website.

The hackathon was filled with great ideas and innovative use of technology. Star Trek Adventures brought social gathering to the next level by using the kinect to track your body motion along with voice recognition. Their demo included a Star Trek scene were you were able to dance with your friends, each person was represented by a Star Trek character and tracked individually. Another part of the demo displayed the use of voice recognition to direct a character through the scene. Two teams used a Pebble watch and voice recognition to direct the watch on what was being requested. In one instance the team turned on and off LEDs which simulated home lights by voicing their request to the Pebble watch. It would then communicate with the Photon which was connected to the LEDs.

 It was great to see the creative energy flowing, seeing the teams in action making decisions about prototyping and executing their ideas. Until next time Wearhacks!  

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LA’s wearable hackathon and IOT: Alert Buddy

Wearhacks brought to Los Angeles the wearable and IOT hackathon hosted in General Assembly in down town LA. Throughout two days programmers, UX and UI designers and other tech enthusiast got together to prototype solutions using various hardware.

Wearhacks offer a range of hardware to hackers: leap motion, ZX GestureSense, Pebble watches, Oculus Rift DK2, Internet Buttons, Photon Kits, Myo, Kinect, MetaWear, Estimote Beacons amongst others. The event kicked off with an overview of deadlines and expectations for the next day followed by a workshop provided by Microsoft on how to use the photon and Azure.

As a participant I decided to take full advantage of the workshops. The Microsoft team provided a step by step hand’s on tutorial of how the Sparkfun weather shield and Particle photon work. This was my first time using an online platform to write, debug and ship my code. Even though at times buggy the Particle’s platform is easy to use, stylish and has all the libraries needed to come up with some great products. The Azure overview was brief but enough to get us interested in using the cloud system a part of our hack. Microsoft offered a prize to hackers successfully implementing Azure as part of their solution.

 Our first try at hacking:

I teamed up with Alan, who I met during the Photon workshop. Since we didn’t have an idea right away I decided to sign up for a bunch of hardware including the MetaWear, Photon kit, Estimote beacons and steakers.  We thought that having the hardware would motivate us to come up with ideas. First we thought to use the accelerometer in MetaWear to track soccer plays by adding the device to clits. We then realized the project would need to have detailed acceleration data to differentiate an athlete running, kicking the ball, abruptly stopping, etc. We looked into setting up the MetaWear, a small yet powerful device that counts with an accelerometer, a temperature sensor and blue tooth low energy (BLI). MetaWear has its own app both for iOS and Android which allows you to connect to your device, test BLE and the correct functioning of the sensors. The app is simple and effective capturing the data in real-time and displaying it on a graph. It also provides you with useful information about your device such as the battery usage. The only disadvantage we saw with MetaWear is that we had to create an app to be able to interact with our prototype and display data.

 Then came Alert Buddy:

We opted for returning all the hardware and instead used the Particle’s Photon button. It’s a photon along with a ring board that counts with LEDs and an accelerometer. Alert Buddy is a wearable button that monitors if the person using it falls. It will then send an alert via text message to a relative, care taker or nurse at the front desk of a hospital. It gives the user enough time to cancel the alert in case it was mistakenly triggered. The wearable was designed thinking on elderly patients that might fall and injure themselves needing assistance right away. While alert buttons and apps are a good solution it requires the individual to report the fall which might not be possible in cases where the person is left unconscious or is unable to trigger the device. We later added two other possible modes in case the device wanted to be used on babies or individuals suffering of seizures such as epileptic patients. Alert Buddy welcomes the user by lighting up all LEDs and emitting a welcome setting sound. One can chose any of the three settings (elderly, baby or health condition) by clicking on one of the four button’s on the board. A light will illuminate to indicate which setting was picked and a text message will be sent notifying that the device is now set for such setting. When the individual falls the accelerometer data will trigger all LEDs to be turned on red in the wearable and send an alert to the specified device. Other methods of alerts can be set such as sending an e-mail, a pager, etc. We were then able to set up an Azure account, all servers which included the namespace servers, the storage and aggregators which would then capture and analyze the data.

 A quick demo:

As any other hackathon we were making last minute code changes trying to add more functionality to Alert Buddy.  We were happy to hear that our project got a special mention from the Microsoft team for the use of Azure in Alert Buddy.

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IOT LA: Intel IOT Roadshow 2015 recap

A couple of months have passed since the Intel IOT Roadshow took place in Los Angeles. This past week we gathered with other IOT enthusiast at the IOT LA event hosted at Kluge. Two of the Intel winners presented their projects.

 First up was Neeraja Ganesan and Colin McCabe with Sundi.al, a smart alarm clock powered by Intel Edison. The team integrated Google Calendar, Blumix, a button, a temperature sensor and a servo motor attached to a cowbell. The alarm clock used an RGB LDC display to show three statuses: red indicated you are less than hour away from your next meeting, yellow meant that you are within an hour and green is the state for relaxation as there are no upcoming meetings. The idea aims to provide a visual status on your schedule and alert you of any upcoming meeting without having to pull out your phone and check your calendar. With the use of Blumix the data from the temperature sensor was captured and sent to the cloud. The sensor is meant to be placed where the sun will reach it during the morning hours, if the sensor goes above a specific temperature its understood it is time to wake up and the cowbell will be triggered. In addition Blumix allows for SMS notifications; an alert will be sent to your phone.

 Tamara Gagliardi showcased the Smart Safety Holster, an Inel Edison IOT wearable. The Intel Edison board is connected to a hall sensor, two LEDs used for status reports, a button and a GPS sensor. With the recent police shootings and videos of police activity on social media the Smart Safety Holster idea was born. The device can provide insightful data to enhance trainings, also provide transparency on law enforcement activity and criminal data across the city. The holster will indicate the precise location of where a gun was removed from its holster. FireBase, a cloud solution, is used to store and analyze the data which can then be used to plot the locations on a dashboard in real time. Future integration includes linking the holster with body cams and dash cams providing not only an indicator of when the footage should be reviewed but also live stream it when a gun is pull from its holster.

  The evening concluded with Ajay Mungara from Intel providing more insight regarding Intel’s initiative in the IOT hackathons worldwide. He shared other projects that came out of similar events such as a smart health tracker that would use your plant’s health as the motivator to keep you in shape. Not meeting your health activity goals resulted in your plant not being watered. Another idea used a flow meter, usually implemented to track the flow of water, to teach students how to play the flute through the track of air being released.

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The mind and technology: Meditation and EEG

Author: Tamara Gagliardi

Consciousness hacking hosted their October meeting in Playa Vista, CA. Jeremy Graves and Tiff Thompson were the honor speakers. Jeremy is co-author of “The mind Illuminated: A complete Mediation Manual integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science”.  Tiff is a psychotherapist and neurotherapist, expert in EEG and QEEG. She has deep roots with biofeedback and neurodiagnistic.

 Understanding our mind through meditation:

Brain science can contribute to the human awakening enlightment. Jeremy explained that as humans we have two ways to experience the world: attention and awareness. Attention is singling one thing out and analyzing it. Because of all the attention and concentration it requires the process is slow and one becomes tense. On the contrary, awareness is a bottom up approach driven by stimulus. It’s a more holistic approach based on the relation of things with each other. Brain science and the philosophy behind  “The mind Illuminated” motivate us to think of ourselves as a society of different mind combined with the notion of a concrete being.  Consciousness is defined as the information exchange. When you are concentrated more of “minds” are paying attention.  

 The brain and technology:

The Zengar machine has been around for quite some time. Its comprised of a number of sensors which capture brain activity data. With a minimum half hour to an hour sessions for at least a week the technology uses music to train your brain to skip certain moments and face out.

 Tiff gave an in depth and detailed presentation on EEEG and research she has completed with astonishing findings.  Brain waves are broken in five groups:

Alpha (8-12 Hz): “Bridges the gap between our conscious thinking and subconscious mind”

Delta (1-4 Hz): “Associated with the deepest levels of relaxation and restorative, healing sleep”

Theta (4-8 HZ): Associated with your raw experiences and traumas.

Theta-alpha (7-9 Hz): Good hypnotherapy mode

Beta (13-30 Hz): The place for our ego. They are involved in conscious thought, logical thinking, and tend to have a stimulating affect

Gama (30+ HZ): Experienced in bursts. Are involved in learning new material and “aha” moments.

Tiff performed research studies with multiple individuals, both experts and new to meditation techniques. A cap equipped with sensors was used to capture the brain waves while at rest and during stimulation. 

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photo: DigitalLA

Tech, entrepreneur and women in LA

Author: Tamara Gagliardi

“Women who own LA Tech Media” took place earlier this week sponsored by the LA PHP.org group. Lead by Cameron Kashani, the panel included Ginger Zumaeta Cambron McKeever, Rebecca Avery, Sky Kelley and Emmanuelle Stahler. The afternoon event covered a variety of topics including entrepreneur tips, highs and lows of being a women in tech and industry related topics.

 Take away:

- Ginger mentioned she is a true believer of the PIE model where everything is needed in moderation. Being a high performer but not working on your personal image is not a recipe for success. You need to take the opportunities to expose yourself and your ideas.

The PIE model  

10 % Performance       30 % Image         60 % Exposure

- Nobody has all the answers, don’t let not knowing stop you from taking chances.  Sky encouraged attendees to have confidence that everybody can learn and overcome the obstacles presented.

- Learn your lesson and move on. Sky compared having your own company and being a co-founder as having a kid. You will need to nourish it, take care of it, help it grown and hopefully see it succeed. If it fails you can’t but take it personal.  Don’t let a past failure from getting you to the next level.

- Rebecca advised attendees to chose wisely. Don’t work with certain people just because it looks good on a resume.  Not because the job is appealing the people you are working with are too.

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Magic Leap releases new demo video and it’s AWESOME

Highly secretive mixed reality startup, Magic Leap, just dropped its latest demo video on YouTube this week giving outsiders a sneak peek of the experience they may expect from the company’s much anticipated smartglasses.

Keep reading

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Come support the tech and Latino community of entrepreneurs in Silicon Beach.

Venue: MidStage Ventures  (Los Angeles, CA)

Date: Thursday, November 19, 2015 from 6:00 PM to 9:30 PM (PST)

RSVP for Pitch Fight Session (http://bit.ly/pitchfight)

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Girl Develop It October mentor night

Author: Tamara Gagliardi

Los Angeles (CA) – Girl Develop It LA chapter hosted it’s October mentoring night this past week. Women of diverse backgrounds and ages gathered to discuss tech, coding, designing and address questions they had about the field.

 Girl Develop It is a non profit organization with chapters that extend across the US.  It promotes an inclusive judgement free environment to learn coding offering classes for all levels in a wide variety of languages. In addition there are study groups and meetings related to technology.

 Natalie, co-founder of the LA chapter, opened up the event providing an overview of Girl Develop It nation wide and locally. She stressed the fact that there is a lack of women in the field along with a lack of diversity. Developing is a skill-set that is in high demand, from knowing how to put together a web site to writing an automation script. Girl Develop It offers scholarships and can loan laptops to members that need a computer. It’s an inclusive community that creates an empowering environment and promotes learning and growth. There are also opportunities for those looking to teach and mentor. Most young women I talked to through the night were looking for a change, some had prior coding knowledge while others were looking for insight into what language to learn first and how to get started.  You don’t need to have prior coding experience, just the enthusiasm to learn and explore.

 The LA chapter will soon celebrate its second anniversary. Keep an eye for upcoming events and become a member!