#SurfaceWave

[nayanasri]

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture

As handset makers continue to work on ways of making smartphones more streamlined and sleek, while at the same time introducing new features that will get people buying more devices, a startup that is pioneering something called “software-defined” surfaces — essentially, using ultrasound and AI to turn any kind of material, and any kind of surface, into one that will respond to gestures, touch…

[stephanocardona]

Backjet by rolandkunz

[gagosiangallery]

"Walter De Maria: Surface Waves" at the SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, opens this Saturday, May 27. In "Walter De Maria: Surface Waves," the Bay Area native makes his SFMOMA debut with his first sculpture to enter the museum’s collection, an arresting floor piece known as "Large Rod Series: Circle/Rectangle, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13" (1986). Consisting of massive, precisely honed polygonal rods polished to a shine so lustrous that they appear liquid, the work can be shown in three distinct configurations, all of which will be presented during the course of the exhibition. Read more about this sculpture by clicking on the link below! http://fal.cn/uZRN

[dylanelick-blog]

Resources for Keeping Current on Emerging Technology

It is important to keep current with technology in order to stay in contact with progress. Many new forms of technology come out every day, so keeping up to date with these pieces of innovation is key to maintaining one’s own place in both the workforce and with peers. Here’s a list of some of these services that help with that idea:

 https://www.kickstarter.com/

Kickstarter is a great way to see what sorts of new technologies are coming out. By paying attention to the projects here that are being crowdfunded successfully, one can keep up with products that are soon to be released.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tiltfive/holographic-tabletop-gaming/description

Tilt Five, an AR helmet for board games, is one such piece of technology. It’s successfully funded and will likely sell many copies when it comes out!

 https://arstechnica.com/

Ars Technica is a new site that reports on tons of new types of technologies that have come out or are emerging. Their reach extends from IT and technical ideas all the way to physical technology and products.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/10/the-pixel-4s-face-unlock-works-on-sleeping-unconscious-people/

Here, Ars Technica tells on how newer phone face recognition can scan sleeping or unconscious people to unlock their phones, possibly to call for assistance.

 https://techcrunch.com/

TechCrunch is a site that talks about startup companies in the technologies field. It helps to keep on track with current businesses and how they’re growing and evolving over time. It also talks about current issues in tech-related fields.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/17/sentons-launches-surfacewave-a-processor-and-tech-to-create-software-defined-surfaces-that-supercharge-touch-and-gesture/

Sentons is creating an ultrasound-using piece of technology that will read gestures made and translate them to movements for a computer system. This could help to revolutionize the way touchscreens work, even!

 https://www.wired.com/

Wired talks about all sorts of technological news in general, from cars to video games and even spaceships.

https://www.wired.com/story/prepare-deepfake-era-web-video/?itm_campaign=BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2

Deepfakes are covered on Wired’s site. They’re very, very convincing edits made with technology and programs that can trick the eye into thinking they’re real.

 https://www.digitaltrends.com/

Digital Trends does just as the name describes: digital trends! They also perform regular technological trends, but they keep up to date on the ideas behind everything.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/phone-case-artificial-skin/

Well, I guess this is technically emerging technology! Digital Trends talks about how you can have a squishy, skin-like case for phones, just in case you wanted to squeeze your phone’s artificial skin.

[chrisklug]

Montauk fall surf session with my BFF @surfacewave @chrisklugfoundation #livelifegivelife (at Montauk, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4ShVk1lWiQ/?igshid=g4y9md4mpclw

[un-enfant-immature]

The Station: Volvo evolves, Skip trips and touchscreen tech

The Station is back for another week of news and analysis on all the ways people and goods move from Point A to Point B — today and in the future. As always, I’m your host Kirsten Korosec, senior reporter at TechCrunch.

Portions of the newsletter will be published as an article on the main site after it has been emailed to subscribers (that’s what you’re reading now). To get everything, you have to sign up. And it’s free. To subscribe, go to our newsletters page and click on The Station.

This week, we’re looking at factories in China, scooters in San Francisco and touchscreens in cars, among other things.

Please reach out anytime with tips and feedback. Tell us what you love and don’t love so much. Email me at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com to share thoughts, opinions or tips or send a direct message to @kirstenkorosec.

Micromobbin’

Welcome to micromobbin’ — a weekly dive into the tiny but mighty chaotic world of micromobility. This also happens to be a place where Megan Rose Dickey reigns. Follow her @meganrosedickey.

Uber, Lime and Spin each deployed 500 electric scooters in San Francisco as part of the city’s permitting program. This means residents in SF can now choose from Uber-owned JUMP, Lime, Spin or Scoot scooters. Unfortunately for Skip, the company did not receive a permit to continue operating in the city, which means layoffs at the local level are afoot, Skip CEO Sanjay Dastoor said earlier this week.

Meanwhile, former Uber executive Dmitry Shevelenko unveiled Tortoise, an autonomous repositioning software for micromobility operators. The idea is to help make it easier for these companies to more strategically deploy their respective vehicles and reposition them when needed.

Let’s close this section with the obligatory funding round. Wheels, a pedal-less electric bike-share startup, raised a $50 million round led by DBL Partners. That brought its total funding to $87 million.

Oh, but wait, TC reporter Romain Dillet reminded us that micromobbin’ happens outside of the U.S. too. Uber also announced this past week that it has integrated its app with French startup Cityscoot, which has a fleet of free-floating moped-style scooters.

This is the latest example of Uber’s plan to become a super mobility app that goes well beyond its own network of ride-hailing vehicles.

— Megan Rose Dickey

Snapshot: Touchscreen tech

We’ve seen a lot of different approaches when it comes to engaging with connected car services: head-up displays on the windshield, small screens perched on the dashboard, interactive voice and, of course, connections and mounts for smartphones.

But how about if your whole car becomes the touchscreen? A startup called Sentons is working on technology that could make that happen. The company uses a technique involving processors and AI that emit and read ultrasound to detect physical movement on a surface, such as touch, force or gestures, and users can create “virtual controls” on the fly that work on these surfaces.

This week, it released SurfaceWave, a software and hardware stack that works on glass, metal and plastic surfaces of smartphones.

CEO Jess Lee says the next iterations are going to be the kinds of materials that are used to make car dashboards and other interior surfaces you find inside the vehicle, including leather, thicker plastic and other materials. The company is already engaging with automotive companies, Lee told TechCrunch.

I can see a lot of possibilities for this in the human-driven vehicles of today. We’ve already seen how Tesla has changed how we think about infotainment systems in cars. And then there’s electric vehicle startup Byton, which plans to bring a vehicle to market with a touchscreen that extends along the entire dashboard.

The real opportunity for Sentons will be with autonomous vehicles, a product that will afford its passengers more leisure time.

— Ingrid Lunden

Made in China

Earlier this week, Tesla was given the OK to begin producing vehicles at its $2 billion factory in Shanghai. Tesla was added to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s list of approved automotive manufacturers.

Now we’ll watch and wait to see if production starts this month. Expect the topic of China and this factory to come up during Tesla’s earnings call with analysts October 23.

In other China factory news, we hear that electric vehicle startup Byton plans to host a splashy opening ceremony in early November for its new plant. The event will include lots of Chinese officials, company executives and maybe a preview of a near-final production version of its M-Byte vehicle.

Byton’s factory in Nanjing covers some 800,000 square meters (8.6 million square feet) funded with a total investment of more than $1.5 billion. Over the summer, the walls and roof went up, equipment was installed and commissioning began in five major workshops: stamping, welding, paint, battery and assembly.

The plant will begin trial production in late 2019.

This all sounds great, but there have been challenges, and the constant requirement for capital is one of them. Byton has delayed the launch of the production version of the M-Byte by two quarters. It’s now looking like commercial production will begin by the end of the second quarter of 2020.

Here are a couple of interesting tidbits for those manufacturing geeks out there:

The stamping shop completes one panel every 3 seconds on average. Byton claims it will be one of the fastest stamping production lines in China.

The welding shop incorporates 335 welding robots supplied by KUKA and boosts the automation rate to 99%, according to Byton.

The paint shop is equipped with a “3 Coating 2 Baking” system and thin film pre-treatment as well as the transverse “Eco-Incure” oven technology.

The battery shop will produce and assemble battery packs, designed independently by Byton. Battery maker CATL provides the battery cells and modules and aluminum maker Constellium supplies the aluminum battery tray.

A little bird

We hear a lot. But we’re not selfish. Let’s share. A little bird is where we pass along insider tips and what we’re hearing or finding from reliable, informed sources in the industry. This isn’t a place for unfounded gossip.

To get a “little bird” and the rest of the newsletter, please subscribe. Just go to our newsletters page and click on The Station.

What does systems engineering in AVs mean?

I recently spoke to Randol Aikin, the head of systems engineering at self-driving trucks startup Ike Robotics, about the company’s approach, which is based on a methodology developed at MIT called Systems Theoretic Process Analysis. STPA is the foundation for Ike’s product development.

The company also released a wickedly long safety report (it’s halfway down that landing page in the link provided).

The complete interview was included in the emailed newsletter. Yet another reason to subscribe to this free newsletter. Here’s one quote from the interview with Aikin:

We asked the question, what do we have to prove to ourselves and demonstrate in order to be on a public road safely? It’s the same question that we’re going to have to answer for the product as well, which is, what do we need to prove to assure that we’re safe to operate without a human in the cab?

It’s one of the huge unproven hypotheses. Anybody in this space that doesn’t consider that to be a huge technical challenges is ignoring a really thorny and important question.

Who will own the future of transportation?

Our mobility coverage extends to Extra Crunch. Check out my latest article on who will own the future of transportation based on insights from Zoox CEO Aicha Evans and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The idea here is to explore some of the nuances of this loaded question.

Extra Crunch requires a paid subscription and you can sign up here.

Who will own the future of transportation?

[thedailyfandomtv]

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture https://ift.tt/2pu1jOh

[startupmag]

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture https://ift.tt/32q6flB

[electrasea]

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture

[elemencherie]

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture

[kindlecomparedinfo]

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture

As handset makers continue to work on ways of making smartphones more streamlined and sleek, while at the same time introducing new features that will get people buying more devices, a startup that is pioneering something called “software-defined” surfaces — essentially, using ultrasound and AI to turn any kind of material, and any kind of surface, into one that will respond to gestures, touch…

[omegabloom]

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture https://ift.tt/32q6flB

[yourgamecheats]

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture

As handset makers continue to work on ways of making smartphones more streamlined and sleek, while at the same time introducing new features that will get people buying more devices, a startup that is pioneering something called “software-defined” surfaces — essentially, using ultrasound and AI to turn any kind of material, and any kind of surface, into one that will respond to gestures, touch…

[dizzedcom]

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture

As handset makers continue to work on ways of making smartphones more streamlined and sleek, while at the same time introducing new features that will get people buying more devices, a startup that is pioneering something called “software-defined” surfaces — essentially, using ultrasound and AI to turn any kind of material, and any kind of surface, into one that will respond to gestures, touch…

[greatmachinconglomerate-blog]

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture https://ift.tt/32q6flB

[un-enfant-immature]

Sentons launches SurfaceWave, a processor and tech to create software-defined surfaces that supercharge touch and gesture

As handset makers continue to work on ways of making smartphones more streamlined and sleek, while at the same time introducing new features that will get people buying more devices, a startup that is pioneering something called “software-defined” surfaces — essentially, using ultrasound and AI to turn any kind of material, and any kind of surface, into one that will respond to gestures, touch and other forces — is setting out its stall to help them and other hardware makers change up the game.

Sentons, the startup out of Silicon Valley that is building software-defined surface technology, is today announcing the launch of SurfaceWave, a processor and accompanying gesture engine that can be used in smartphones and other hardware to create virtual wheels and buttons to control and navigate apps and features on the devices themselves. The SurfaceWave processor and engine are available to “any mobile manufacturer.”

Before this, Sentons had actually already inked direct deals to test out market interest in its technology. There were actually already three smartphones released — two of which were only sold in Asia (models and customer names undisclosed by Sentons) and one of which is made by Asus in partnership with Tencent, the Republic of Gamers phone (the Air Triggers are powered by Sentons). Jess Lee, the company’s CEO, told me in an interview that there are another 10-12 devices “in process” right now due to be released in coming cycles. He would not comment on whether his former employer is one of them.

Sentons has actually been around since 2011 but very much under the radar until this year, when it announced that Lee — who had been at Apple, after his previous company, the cutting-edge imaging startup InVisage, was acquired by the iPhone maker — was coming on as CEO.

The company has quietly raised about $35 million from two investors, NEA and Lee confirmed to me that it’s currently raising another, probably larger, round. (Given the company’s partnership with Tencent and Asus, those are two companies I would think are candidates as strategic investors.)

The sound of silence

Sentons’ core idea is focused around sound — specifically ultra sound.

Its system is based around a processor that emits ultrasonic “pings” (similar to sonar array, the company says, which is used for example on submarines to navigate and communicate) to detect physical movement and force on the surface of an object. The company says that this technique is much more sophisticated than capacitive touch that has been used on smartphones up to now, since combined with Sentons’ algorithms it can measure force and intent as well as touch.

Combined with the processor that emits the pings and houses the gesture engine, Sentons also uses “sensor modules” around the perimeter of a device to detect when those pings are interrupted. The system trains itself and can adjust both to temporal “buttons” and also other unintended things like when a screen cracks and your gestures move over to a different area of the phone.

Gaming — the main use case for Asus’s ROG phone — is an obvious category ripe for software-defined surfaces. The medium always strives for more immersive experiences, and as more games are either natively made for phones, or ported there because of the popularity of mobile gaming, handset makers and publishers are always trying to come up with ways to enhance what is, ultimately, very limited real estate (even with larger screens). Using any and all parts of a device to experience motion and other physical responses, and to control the game, is a natural fit for what Sentons has built.

But the bigger picture and longer term goal is to apply Sentons’ technology for other uses on devices — photography and building enhanced camera tools is one obvious example — and on other “hardware,” like connected cars, clothes and even the human body, since Sentons’ technology can also work on and through human tissue.

“Every surface is an opportunity,” Lee said, noting that conversations around health and medical technology are still very early, while other areas like wearables and automotive are seeing “engagement” already. “In the cabin of a vehicle, you have a wealth of tactile materials, whether it’s leather dashboards or metal buttons, and all of those are extremely interesting to us,” he added.

At the same time, the more immediate opportunity for Sentons is the mobile industry.

Smartphone sales have slowed down, and for some vendors declined, in recent years; and while some of that might have to do with premium device prices continuing to climb, and much higher smartphone penetration globally, some have laid the blame in part on a lack of innovation. Specifically, newer phones are just not providing enough “must have” new features to merit making a purchase of a new device if you already have one.

You could argue that making a technology like this widely available and open to all comers might make those who are trying to make their devices stand out with special features less inclined to jump on the bandwagon.

“Yes, you could say there is more value in scarcity, an approach we took in the last company,” Lee said, referring to InVisage and how very under the radar it was before being snapped up by Apple.

However, he thinks a different approach is needed here. “Whether we launched this platform to everyone or not, the gates have opened, the piñata has broken, and we see a lot more opportunities and want to go for them,” he said.

“You can call it a multi-pronged approach,” he continued, “but ensuring the adoption of software-defined interactions [by trying to work with as many companies as possible] gets the technology or use out there quickly.” He noted that when a new gesture is introduced on devices, it can take time for the world to absorb it, “and we are positive there will be followers, perhaps with different technology, that will compete with us, so a broad launch is what we are going for.”