Category Archives: Technology

Palantir (NYSE: PLTR) has been a name both loved and hated, bought and shorted, talked about and forgotten. The real question for investors here is, what will my returns look like one, five, or 10 years from now?

For the past month, profit-taking and shorting were the right move. It would be easy to say, with the NASDAQ 100 8% off its highs and PLTR over 40%, that maybe this stock is broken.

In the short term, I would agree. An overflow of new money, Reddit hype, and Cathie Wood buys have resulted in a highflyer becoming a bag holders nightmare. Even at recent lows of $21, Palantir was still up over 100% from its direct listing at the end of September.

That being said, I still believe Palantir is a long-term buy-and-hold.

From controversy over how the company generates revenue to flat-out conspiracies, it is easy to get lost in the noise and forget what it is youre even investing in with this company.

See also:How to Buy Palantir Technologies (PLTR) Stock

With a mission to fight terrorism and protect our nation, Palantir has been adopted by the highest levels of our government and military. But the secret sauce with Palantir is not their government contracts, though they help. It is the time and energy put into creating this software on the governments dime, while the whole time intending to become something more.

This is where the technology that has the potential to turn Palantir into an extremely profitable tech company comes in. The platforms offered by Palantir are Gotham and Foundry, while Apollo continuously delivers the software that powers the two.

Simply put, Foundry can take traditional data management, integration, and mining and turn it into an internal simulation to create the best possible outcome for a companys success. Now, youre probably thinking this sounds like something you may have seen in a sci-fi show like Westworld. In a much more realistic way, that is exactly what it is.

The flaw in traditional data management tactics is they are targeted to individual departments of a business. When there is any single change in one department, it affects the outflows and inflows of other departments. What Foundry can do for businesses is integrate the data from all departments, as one entity, while still adjusting for any change in one single department and make the required changes to the affected departments.

This is how the data management of Foundry can change the course of any business and help set the best possible path to success. The what-ifs of every business can be simulated in a way like never before, with actual analytics and results of an expansion that might have cost millions. Palantir essentially creates a digital twin of a business model and grows it alongside the actual business while using everything it learns to improve both.

Theres also something worth noting from the companys last earnings report. Though Palantir was not profitable on an earnings basis, many missed that they offered $1.2 billion in stock compensation to their employees. Typically, this is something we would see with a startup. The fact that we are seeing actions like this from a company that has been around for almost 17 years is a strong indicator that they know what they have is impactful.

With Foundry, businesses will be able to protect, innovate, and change themselves in ways never imagined, capitalizing on a market that has never been explored, with an addressable market that cannot be measured.

Investing in Palantir is investing in the visions of Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, and many others involved in the journey to change the way we look at automation.

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Palantir's Technology Is More Disruptive Than Anybody Realizes - Benzinga

BOSTON, March 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Valo Health LLC (Valo), a technology company transforming the drug discovery and development process and seeking to accelerate the creation of life-changing drugs, today announced the final closing of its Series B at $300 million, including a $110 million investment from Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT). This brings the overall funding of Valo to over $450 million.

With this investment Valo will continue to scale its Opal Computational PlatformTM, the first-of-its-kind fully integrated end-to-end platform that combines machine learning-driven computational capabilities and patient data to develop first-in-class and best-in-class therapeutic programs across major disease areas.

"We see Valo's strategy and approach to transforming drug discovery and development as highly disruptive to the industry. Their machine learning and data-centric technology solutions will bring significant value to patients and healthcare practitioners looking for more efficient and enhanced treatment options," said Chase Koch, President of Koch Disruptive Technologies. "The medtech and healthcare markets are currently undergoing dramatic change and accelerated transformation, and our investment in Valo is a testament not only to our belief in their mission but to the importance of this industry in general."

"We are reimagining the process of discovering and developing life-changing drugs in potentially half the time, at half the cost, and with fewer failures, and we are proud that KDT recognizes our paradigm-changing work," said David Berry, Valo founder and CEO. "This investment and their partnership will help us further scale and accelerate our goals and the Opal platform."

The proceeds from the Series B will support the continued discovery and development of therapeutic programs, further build-out the Opal Computational PlatformTM, working capital, and other general purposes. Using Opal, Valo scientists have been able to identify previously unsuspected associations between genetic markers and disease, which identify the specific changes in gene activity with an initial focus on oncology, neurodegenerative, and cardiovascular diseases.

David Berry will discuss Valo's approach and provide insights into several preclinical programs and the Opal platform at the Barclays Global Healthcare Conference at 8 a.m. EST on March 9, 2021. Following the event, a replay of the Barclays webcast will be available on theValo LinkedIn page.

About ValoValo Health, LLC (Valo) is a technology company that is using human-centric data and machine learning computation to transform the drug discovery and development process. As a digitally native company, Valo is the first to fully integrate human-centric data across the entire drug development lifecycle into a single unified architecture, thereby accelerating the discovery and development of life-changing drugs while simultaneously reducing the cost, time, and failure rate. The company's Opal Computational PlatformTM, a fully integrated, computational, end-to-end drug development platform, offers a unique approach to therapeutic development that enables Valo to advance a robust pipeline of candidates across cardiovascular disease, oncology, and neurodegeneration. Founded byFlagship Pioneering and headquartered in Boston, MA, Valo has offices in Lexington, MA, San Francisco, CA, Princeton, NJ, and in Branford, CT. To learn more, visitwww.valohealth.com.

About Koch Disruptive TechnologiesKoch Disruptive Technologies (KDT) is a unique investment firm, focused on empowering founders to create a could-be world. KDT provides a flexible, multi-stage investment approach which includes both traditional venture and growth stages. We work with principled entrepreneurs who are building transformative companies, disrupting the status quo, and creating new platforms. KDT is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, one of the largest privately held companies in the world with $110 billion in revenue and operating in more than 70 countries. KDT helps its partners unlock their full potential by bringing Koch's capabilities and network to them, structuring unique capital solutions, and embracing a long-term, mutual benefit mindset. For more information, visitwww.kochdisrupt.com.

Contacts:

Media Contact:Jennifer Hanley[emailprotected]

Investors:Graeme Bell[emailprotected]

SOURCE Valo Health, LLC

https://www.valohealth.com/

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Valo Health Receives $110 Million In Funding From Koch Disruptive Technologies To Close Series B - PRNewswire

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Fall prevention and mitigation of patient injury if a fall does occur is a critical part of a hospitalized patients plan of care. Having a comprehensive strategy in place to prevent in-hospital falls has grown challenging in recent years. Patients are getting older and sicker, the nursing workforce is aging, and of course, hospitals and caregivers are wrestling with the enormous pressures and limitations created by the pandemic. To work around these obstacles, the healthcare industry must become more aggressive in its approach to fall prevention and improving patient outcomes.

Patient falls continue to be a common adverse event reported in hospitals. Every year, between 700,000 and 1 million people fall while being treated in the hospital. It is also estimated that up to 11,000 U.S. patients die annually due to injuries sustained from a fall during hospitalization.

Not only is the cost of these falls to the healthcare system enormous$20 billion annuallybut the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is no longer reimbursing providers for treating patient injuries resulting from falls in a hospital.

For patients, the long-term effects of falls can be debilitating. Caregivers are also equally impacted. From a personal perspective, during my time working at the bedside on a MedSurg unit, I have personally experienced two patients falling during my watch. It is something I will never forget from an emotional perspective, and how draining it was on both the individual and team morale on the unit. My current clinical work today is in the hope that no other nurses or patients have to endure another patient fall.

Today, the criticality of patients is increasing. Nurses are seeing sicker patients than ever before. Patients are also living longer, with those 65 years and older representing nearly 40 percent of hospitalized adults. Nurse-to-patient ratios have also gotten out of balance, which can lead to fatigue, burn-out, and mistakes. In my experience, on any given night, a Med/Surg nurse could have up to eight patients at one time in his or her care. When you couple this with the fact that the nursing workforce is aging, a potential shortage could also pose big problems. The onset of COVID-19 has also presented its set of challenges.

For nurses, the restrictions that caring for a patient in the COVID bubble has placed on themfrom donning and taking off PPE to the limited interaction they can have with patientsis something very new and hard to navigate. These protocols can leave patients susceptible to falls. Additionally, there are concerning reports that many COVID patients experience delirium, which also elevates the risk level for falls.

There are a number of ways hospitals can address these challenges to help improve patient outcomes.

One of the most important is improving bed technologyincluding standardization and interoperability. One study showed that 79% percent of falls were unassisted. In addition, 85% of falls occurred in the patients room. The problem is many hospitals today use multiple generations of beds, all with varying degrees of technology and options. This makes training on beds much more challenging. Hospitals should consider standardizing their beds to one specific kind, as this helps support a nurses interaction with the bed becoming a hardwired process and promotes easier decision-making. Thankfully, technology has arrived to help achieve these ends.

Stryker, for example, just came out with a new bed, the first of its kind, that can connect wirelessly to any nurse call system and can be used for all acuity levels. Called ProCuity, this intelligent hospital bed not only helps alert nurses if a patient is out of position or has left the bed, it also eliminates difficult tasks like ensuring a nurse call cable is properly plugged in. By streamlining usability, training, and maintenance, technological advancements like this help hospitals make their beds work better for patients and staff.

Another important fall prevention strategy is data analysis. Numbers dont lie and so one of the best ways to ensure a hospitals fall prevention strategy is on track is to routinely monitor and analyze data around fall rates. By determining the cause and type of falls that occur, hospital administrators have a 360-degree view of the issue and can take forward-thinking action to prevent reoccurrence.

Communication is also paramount. When a fall occurs, all appropriate stakeholders in charge of a patients care should conduct post-fall huddles to assess all the factors that contributed to the accident and plan an appropriate mitigation strategy. Effective after-action review may also improve team performance by 20-25%. Likewise, nurses should communicate with their patientswhat I call teach-back education. By asking open-ended questions about their well-being and state, nurses can help identify potential fall risk problems beyond just finding a shaky grab bar in the bathroom.

When it comes to fall prevention, there is no one size-fits-all-plan. But as the pandemic and other healthcare challenges have shown us, we can no longer be reactive in our planning. With better technology, more data, and increased education and communication, we can more quickly reach our desired outcomesimproving the safety of our patients and caregivers.

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Vigilance and Up-to-Date Bed Technology Can Help Reduce In-Hospital Patient Falls - DailyNurse

A Chinese government-linked hacking campaign revealed by Microsoft this week has ramped up rapidly. At least four other distinct hacking groups are now attacking critical flaws in Microsofts email software in a cyber campaign the US government describes as widespread domestic and international exploitation with potential impact on hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide.

Beginning in January 2021, Chinese hackers known as Hafnium began exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange servers. But since the company publicly revealed the campaign on Tuesday, four more groups have joined in, and the original Chinese hackers have dropped the pretense of stealth and increased the number of attacks theyre carrying out. The growing list of victims includes tens of thousands of US businesses and government offices targeted by the new groups.

There are at least five different clusters of activity that appear to be exploiting the vulnerabilities, says Katie Nickels, who leads an intelligence team at the cybersecurity firm Red Canary that is investigating the hacks. When tracking cyberthreats, intelligence analysts group clusters of hacking activity by the specific techniques, tactics, procedures, machines, people, and other characteristics they observe. Its a way to track the hacking threats they face.

Hafnium is a sophisticated Chinese hacking group that has long run cyber-espionage campaigns against the United States, according to Microsoft. They are an apex predatorexactly the sort that is always followed closely by opportunistic and smart scavengers.

Activity quickly kicked into higher gear once Microsoft made its announcement on Tuesday. But exactly who these hacking groups are, what they want, and how theyre accessing these servers remain unclear. Its possible that the original Hafnium group sold or shared their exploit code or that other hackers reverse-engineered the exploits based on the fixes that Microsoft released, Nickels explains.

The challenge is that this is all so murky and there is so much overlap, Nickels says. What weve seen is that from when Microsoft published about Hafnium, its expanded beyond just Hafnium. Weve seen activity that looks different from tactics, techniques, and procedures from what they reported on.

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Four new hacking groups have joined an ongoing offensive against Microsofts email servers - MIT Technology Review

UPDATED ON MAR 09, 2021 01:45 PM IST

A day before INS Karanj attack submarine is inducted into Indian Navy, the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) conducted the final development test of Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) in Mumbai on Monday night, a major step that will make Indian submarines more lethal. AIP allows a submarine to be submerged for longer periods under water and makes the sub-surface platform more deadly by making it quieter than a nuclear submarine.

The Indian Navy now plans to retrofit all its Kalvari class non-nuclear attack with AIP during their first upgrade, expected around 2023. The 1615 tonne Kalvari class submarine is being built by Mazagon Dockyards Limited in collaboration with French Naval Group and is based on Scorpene design. INS Karanj, third of the class, is expected to be commissioned tomorrow.

The development of AIP technology is a major boost for the Atma Nirbhar Bharat campaign since only the US, France, China, UK and Russia have this key technology. The DRDOs AIP technology is based on a Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell and the last two Kalvari class submarines will be powered by it. The AIP design was tested on land in Mumbai on Monday night, the last of a series of tests.

The AIP or marine propulsion technology allows non-nuclear submarines to operate without access to atmospheric oxygen (through snorkel or surfacing) and augments the diesel-electric propulsion system of attack submarines. This means that the AIP fitted submarine does not have to surface for charging its batteries and remains underwater for long periods. The AIP is retrofitted into existing submarine hulls by adding an additional hull section. The AIP equipped submarines are identified as SSP while classic diesel attack submarines carry the SSK classification.

While the nuclear submarine generates noise due to the ships reactor constantly pumping coolant to maintain temperatures of the engine, the AIP-equipped submarine maintains a lethal silence. The new technology will add to lethality of Indian submarines, which also take advantage of internal refraction in equatorial waters due to differences in temperatures on the surface and within the ocean.

The DRDOs AIP technology has also got a pat in the back from the French, who were in touch with the Indians in the context of Kalvari class manufacturing. Despite urgent requests, the French have decided not to upgrade the Pakistani Agosta 90 B submarines with AIP technology, forcing Islamabad to either go to China or Turkey.

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DRDO develops AIP technology, Indian subs to be more silent and lethal - Hindustan Times

Congress

The Technology Modernization is poised to receive one heck of a present for its three-year anniversary a $1 billion funding injection from Congress that would dramatically its capitalization.

The TMF was founded by the Modernizing Government Technology Act and launched with $100 million. The fund has received three $25 million appropriations but overall has remained small especially considering lawmakers initially sought to fund it with $3 billion.

The House of Representatives included $9 billion for TMF in its initial version of the bill, but that provision was scrubbed after objections from many in the Senate. However, TMF backers in the Senate managed to include $1 billion their version of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act. The bill also contains other tech funding, including $200 million for the U.S. Digital Service and $650 million for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency for risk mitigation on federal networks and systems.

The TMF money is good through the end of fiscal year 2025.

"I remain hopeful that it gets all the way through," former federal CIO Suzette Kent told FCW. "It would be anincredible accelerator for digital citizen services, cybersecurity tools, advancing the data agenda, cross agency shared capabilities and end-to-end hardening of some of the remote work and online services put in place rapidly as part of COVID response."

Former NASA CIO Renee Wynn is also a big supporter of the fund, and in an email she highlighted the connection between COVID relief and IT modernization.

"COVID provided a learning opportunity for understanding the importance of IT as well as the national security concerns associated with supply chain risk," she told FCW. "TMF is a way to mitigate these risks as long as the executive leadership of an agency understand this opportunity and can work within their agency to make an informed, risk-based decision."

Former deputy federal CIO Margie Graves said that some administrative changes could be needed as the fund grows. The current scheme is for agencies to present projects to a board, with two stages of approval required to obtain funds. That process has so far yielded 10 projects in various stages of completion, according to the TMF website.

"I think possibly.the structure of how it gets adjudicated probably needs to change because the way we had the board set up for $25 million to $100 million is not going to work for this," she said. The concern is that the current approach could slow down the process.

"Now that the number is bigger, the actual throughput would have to be expanded," Graves said. "We can't create our own bottleneck in terms of approval and oversight."

Graves also noted that agencies need to have a sense of their own needs the critical systems that are most in need of upgrades and plans to implement new technologies.

Wynn observed that "some agencies lack the plans to capitalize on this opportunity," and noted that among chief financial officers and mission leaders there is a focus on how to pay back the fund and that some outreach to agency leadership would help sell senior executives on the potential benefits of TMF.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote on Wednesday on the Senate-passed version of the American Rescue Act. President Joe Biden has said he will sign the bill.

About the Authors

Adam Mazmanian is executive editor of FCW.

Before joining the editing team, Mazmanian was an FCW staff writer covering Congress, government-wide technology policy and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Prior to joining FCW, Mazmanian was technology correspondent for National Journal and served in a variety of editorial roles at B2B news service SmartBrief. Mazmanian has contributed reviews and articles to the Washington Post, the Washington City Paper, Newsday, New York Press, Architect Magazine and other publications.

Click here for previous articles by Mazmanian. Connect with him on Twitter at @thisismaz.

Justin Katz covers cybersecurity for FCW. Previously he covered the Navy and Marine Corps for Inside Defense, focusing on weapons, vehicle acquisition and congressional oversight of the Pentagon. Prior to reporting for Inside Defense, Katz covered community news in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. areas. Connect with him on Twitter at @JustinSKatz.

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TMF set to receive $1B infusion in COVID relief bill - FCW.com

Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Food-delivery company Deliveroo kicked off an initial public offering in London that could raise billions of pounds and put the U.K. market on track for its best-ever first quarter.The startup plans to raise capital by selling new stock, while existing holders also will sell shares, according to a statement Monday that didnt provide details on the size of the planned offering. The Amazon.com Inc.-backed company was valued at more than $7 billion in its latest funding round.Deliveroo will list with a dual-class share structure, effective for three years, to provide Chief Executive Officer Will Shu with the stability to execute long-term plans, the company said last week. As such, the stock is ineligible for the London Stock Exchanges premium segment and cant be included in benchmark indexes such as the FTSE 100, despite its expected size.This year, 13 firms have raised 4.3 billion pounds ($5.9 billion) in London, data compiled by Bloomberg show. And Deliveroo is anticipated to add billions to this tally before the end of the month, meaning the U.K. IPO market could be on course to surpass its biggest first quarter on record in 2006, when proceeds reached 6.4 billion pounds.London-based Deliveroos planned offering follows the publication of a government-backed report last week that made a slew of recommendations to reform U.K. listing rules. The proposals include allowing dual-class share structures on the premium segment of the LSE, but it could be months before these are effective, confining the company to the standard listing segment for now.Deliveroos Class A shares, to be offered in the IPO, will have one vote each, while Shu will hold all of the Class B shares that carry 20 votes each. On the third anniversary of the IPO, the Class B stock will automatically convert into Class A.Such structures could be gaining traction among U.K.-based technology startup founders. E-commerce operator THG Plc set up a golden share, which allows its founder to fend off unwanted takeover bids for three years, in its 1.88 billion-pound offering in September, Londons biggest since mid-2017. The stock has risen more than 30% since then.Dual-class shares are more common in the U.S., used by the likes of Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc., where the weighted voting rights are kept in perpetuity. Some investors have balked at bringing the practice to the U.K., saying it dilutes corporate governance norms by allowing founders to retain control after taking their companies public. Both THG and Deliveroo put in a sunset clause, meaning a time limit, on this share structure, mitigating the risks for post-IPO shareholders.Lockdown WinnerAfter initially struggling at the start of lockdowns, Deliveroo got a boost as restaurants stopped providing service indoors, pushing more and more customers to order takeout meals and even groceries. Bloomberg News reported the startups plans to tap public markets in September.Covid has accelerated the transition of food online, Shu said in an interview, adding that the company is confident about the behavior of the new consumer base, even after coronavirus restrictions lift. We can be confident that the growth trajectory will continue, he said.The companys gross transaction value -- the total amount of transactions processed on its platform -- grew by 64.3% to 4.1 billion pounds in 2020, compared with the previous year, while underlying gross profit nearly doubled to 357.5 million pounds, according to the statement. Deliveroo reported reported a loss of 9.6 million pounds last year before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.Across Europe, beneficiaries of the pandemic-fueled migration to online services are cashing in via IPOs. Polands InPost SA, which operates automated parcel lockers for deliveries, surged in its Amsterdam debut in late January, while digital used-car dealer Auto1 Group SE raised 1.8 billion euros in Frankfurt last month.Why Dual-Class Shares Catch On, Over Investor Worries: QuickTakeLondon has been Europes busiest venue this year. Deals include British bootmaker Dr. Martens Plc, which soared in its debut last month, while virtual greeting-card and gifting firm Moonpig Group Plc floated in February. Foreign issuers are also lining up to list: Trustpilot, a Denmark-based online platform for consumer reviews, has laid out plans for a U.K. IPO, while Russias largest dollar-store chain Fix Price made its trading debut in the City on Friday after a $1.7 billion offering.Founded in 2013, Deliveroo has 115,000 food merchant partners and more than 100,000 delivery riders in the U.K. and overseas, according to Mondays statement. The company said it plans to create a fund to help restaurants and grocers in rebuilding their businesses after the pandemic, and also will give its longest-serving and hardest-working riders individual payments of as much as 10,000 pounds. Deliveroo will also make 50 million pounds of shares available to its customers as part of a community offer.Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are joint global coordinators on the offering, while Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Jefferies and Numis Securities Ltd. are joint bookrunners.(Adds CEO comments in the tenth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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Convergint Technologies Leads $3.3+ Million Dollar Donation to Boost Visitor Safety at the National Mall in Washington, DC - Yahoo Finance

Hearing aids are increasingly using advanced chipsets and Bluetooth technology to help people hear ... [+] more clearly.

March 3rd marked World Hearing Day. Because of this, I thought I would make the day by making todays post about the changes that are happening in the world of hearing loos and how advanced audio technology is helping millions of people to hear more clearly and easily.

Hearing aids are a bit like reading glasses. We dont want to think about them until we really need them. But while reading glasses havent changed much in many years, hearing aids have undergone a steady evolution with new technologies like miniaturization and advanced audio processing changing how hearing aids function. Advanced technology is bringing big changes for people who suffer from hearing loss.

Ive become increasingly interested in the recent convergence between the earphone and hearing-aids and how advanced technology is improving hearing devices and helping people with their hearing loss. I decided to find out a bit more about whats currently on offer in the world of hearing aids and what the latest technology can deliver for people whove reached the stage in life where they may need a little help to hear properly.

Denmark probably has more hearing aid manufacturers than any other country. Big names in the hearing aid industry, like Widex, Amplifon and GN Resound, are all headquartered there. The small Nordic nation has been specializing in audio electronics ever since Peter Bang and Sven Olufsen set up their electronics business back in 1925. Bang & Olufsen went on to create some of the most iconic and cool audio gear that the world has ever seen.

A classic scene from BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers where Mrs Richards (played by Joan Sanderson) has ... [+] trouble with her ancient hearing aid as Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) and waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs) try to make themselves understood.

Denmarks success in audio electronics is down to a ready supply of highly skilled labor and some incredibly inventive engineers. This has resulted in the Danish audio industry specializing in miniaturized electronics in much the same way that Switzerland is a center of excellence for watchmaking.

To find out what todays ultimate hearing aids have to offer, I approached Widex, one of the market leaders, to find out a bit more about current tech trends in the industry. The company launched the Widex Moment in 2020 and has leveraged miniaturization, processing power and Bluetooth technology to push the envelope of hearing aid design. The advanced technology has helped to make hearing aids smaller, more powerful and even more user-friendly.

As far as Im aware, I dont need a hearing aid just yet, but I guess I do experience some falling off of the upper-frequency range, as we all do over time. I also experience a certain amount of tinnitus and, like so many of us, I dont always find it easy to focus on conversations when Im in a crowded room and theres a lot of background noise.

My image of hearing aids hasnt changed much since my childhood when I vaguely recall a maiden aunt wearing a large radio device on a belt. The device had a long and twisted cable with something that looked a bit like an ear trumpet on the end of it. It would howl and squeak and was often kept turned off to conserve the batteries which were ridiculously expensive and hardly lasted for any time at all. Even though the aunt had her hearing aid, I can still remember relatives having to shout at her so she could hear them.

Denmark's Widex is just one of the hearing aid manufacturers that is using the latest technology to ... [+] make hearing aids smarter.

Back in the post-war years, hearing damage was very common. Whether the hearing impairment was caused to soldiers returning from the Second World War, having experienced pounding artillery for days on end, or from munitions workers who toiled away in noisy factories and foundries with no ear protection, it was common to see people sporting large hearing aids that often seemed to be pretty ineffective.

Youd be forgiven for thinking that hearing impairment would be less common these days but thats not the case. The widespread use of headphones following the launch of the first Sony Walkman, back in the late 1970s, may have been responsible for a new epidemic of hearing loss, some of it due to listening to music at raised volume levels for long periods.

According to theWorld Health Organisation, 468 million people have some form of hearing loss, which is about 6.1% of the global population. Some 432 million of those are adults who have developed hearing problems, often as a result of exposure to high sound levels. Furthermore, a third of all people over the age of 65 experience some level of hearing loss. Hearing is a big problem and its an even bigger market.

When the hearing aids aren't charging they are stored in a special carry case to protect the ... [+] delicate balanced armature drivers from damage.

To find out what the latest hearing aid technology has to offer, I arranged to borrow a pair of the very latest hearing aids from Widex. The Widex Moment is a new type of hearing aid thats small enough to sit discreetly behind the ear. It uses Bluetooth technology to enable users to stream music directly from their smartphones. Additionally, its fitted with super sensitive microphones that monitor and then relay the sounds into the users ear canal in as little as 0.5 milliseconds. Widex claims this is the lowest latency of any hearing aid on the market and its the companys secret weapon for making the Moment not sound like a traditional hearing aid.

The problem with traditional hearing aids is latency. The gap between picking up a sound and then processing it and amplifying it before relaying the signal into the ear canal has an enormous effect on how the user perceives sound. The Widex Moment can relay sound in near real-time thanks to an advanced chipset that processes the sound and amplifies it at lightning speed.

The sound is carried from each hearing aid down a thin tube which terminates in a balanced armature driver. The balanced armature is a tiny high-resolution speaker encircled by a small silicone comb fitting that enables some natural sound to reach the wearers eardrum so that natural sound can mix with the processed sound coming from the hearing aid.

The Widex Moment incorporates some incredible small components so the hearing aids don't look too ... [+] large.

The mix of natural sound and processed sound is only possible due to the super-low latency of the Widex Moment. This is now possible thanks to a combination of two chipsets. One chip is a flexible core processor while the other has an accelerated core for achieving low-latency processing. The two chips provide a balance between processing efficiency and flexibility.

To find out how the Widex Moment could be tuned for my hearing, I had to arrange an online demo with a Widex audiologist on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Widex carried out my remote demoby using a smartphone app and a Bluetooth device that bridges between the hearing aids and the smartphone. This is where the technology gets interesting and impressive. I slipped the hearing aids into my left and right ears and after pressing a few buttons and firing up the smartphone app, the audiologist, thousands of miles away, was able to communicate directly with my hearing aids.

The consultation process enables the patient and the audiologist to communicate with a two-way video chat much like Facetime or Zoom. This enables the audiologist to visually check the fit of the aids and to chat to the patient to find out a bit more about their lifestyle and the kind of hearing problems they experience. Using the software, the audiologist can conduct a full-spectrum hearing test remotely. The patient sits there while the hearing aids test the patients hearing before sending the results directly back to the audiologist.

The Widex Moment is the latest model from the Danish hearing aid company and it uses two processors ... [+] to cut latency down to a near real-time 0.5ms.

Within a few minutes, the audiologists software can create personalized hearing profiles for the patient and those profiles can be remotely programmed into the hearing aids. Theres no need to visit a hearing center as everything can be done remotely. I had three profiles downloaded to the hearing aids I was wearing. One of the profiles was the Widex PureSound with a ZeroDelay profile.

PureSound delivers an imperceptible 0.5ms delay, although that level of processing can drain the batteries a little more quickly than a less processor-intensive profile. Its possible to use the Widex smartphone app to switch over to a regular hearing profile that has slightly longer latency for situations where ZeroDelay isnt required. My third custom profile was tuned for music listening, enabling me to stream music from my smartphone directly to the hearing aids over Bluetooth. The music profile boosts the bass response of the driver and provides a more satisfying sound for listening to music, something that music lovers will appreciate as regular hearing aids dont usually make music sound so good.

Another piece of technology in the Widex Moment thats worth mentioning is WidexLink Binaural InterEar communication which ensures that the two hearing aids are in perfect synchronization. This is an essential feature because when hearing aids are out of sync with each other, they can make hearing particularly difficult. The technology involves each hearing aid communicating with the other at up to 21 times a second to accurately adjust the sound so that both devices are singing from the same hymn sheet.

Thanks to miniaturisation and efficient rechargeable batteries, hearing aids are now small and ... [+] discreet.

The Widex Moment has four A/D (analog to digital) converters which the company claims deliver the highest linear input range in the industry at 113dB SPL. These are paired with a linear input dynamic range of 108dB which preserves the integrity of the sound is amplified and provides a cleaner listening experience. The microphones used in each hearing aid are high-definition locator models. These multi-channel microphones use a fully adaptive directional system with low-frequency compensation. By focusing on speech in each channel and adapting to non-speech noise, the high-definition locator emphasizes speech coming from all directions, minimizing the risk of missing important speech cues. Its the perfect eavesdropping technology.

As youd expect with cutting-edge technology, theres an element of artificial intelligence involved. The Widex Moment uses a real-time, machine-learning algorithm called SoundSense Learn. This helps listeners hear by combining real-time machine learning and input from the listener to analyze over two million sound comparisons. The more the patient uses this feature, the more the hearing aid learns how they hear and want to hear. Data is stored and processed in the cloud, so even if a patient loses a hearing aid, the valuable profile that they have created through machine learning wont be lost.

Now we come to the most important matter of battery life. The days of replacing batteries with expensive button cells are now over. Thats good for running costs and its also good for the environment. Each Widex Moment has a rechargeable battery that can work for up to 16 hours on a single charge. The batteries are recharged at night using a supplied charging cradle. The batteries are good for around three years of average use and then they can be replaced by Widex at one of the companys service centers.

A silicone comb encircling the Widex Moments' balanced armature drivers allow a certain amount of ... [+] external sound to filter through for a more natural sound.

It was interesting to try out the Widex Moment for a few days. First off, the comfort levels are superb, I hardly knew they were there. Fitting the aids was very easy and secure when moving around. The big surprise is how clear the hearing aids sound. Theres an uncanny clarity. It freaked me out a little because, with the hearing aids in, I could hear upper registers more clearly and crisply.

My hearing can obviously register those upper frequencies but when I took the aids out, the sound of the radio I was listening to seemed more muffled and less distinct. That was a little worrying as I wondered if I was experiencing a hearing decline. Im approaching the age when people do suffer some hearing loss and I would need to conduct a full-spectrum hearing test to find out for certain but a part of me isnt too keen on that in case I dont like the result.

Theres no doubt that hearing-aid technology has come a very long way since the maiden aunt with the large hearing aid. The use of miniaturization and dual-core processing providing super-low latency means that wearing a hearing aid has never felt less like wearing a hearing aid. Im really glad I found out more about what is on offer as there are several companies making earphones that claim to be hybrid devices enabling them to be used as regular earphones as well as helping with hearing loss helpers. They are not licensed medical devices and there is a danger that using such a crude device to boost hearing loss could do more harm than good.

When fully charged, the Widex Moment can work for up to 16 hours thanks to tiny but powerful ... [+] rechargable batteries.

Theres no doubt that some very advanced technology is used in cutting-edge devices like the Widex Moment. Its also fair to say that these hearing aids dont come cheap. I dont have a specific price to quote for a pair of hearing aids like the Widex Moment as pricing depends on the amount of hearing loss. To give a rough idea, I think it would be sensible to budget up to $4,000 for two hearing aids, which includes the consultation to get everything set up. Theres also the cost of ongoing care and occasional servicing to budget for but its hard to put a price on good hearing in much the same way that its hard to put a price on good eyesight or health in general. Still, its good to know that advanced technology is being used to make hearing loss something more people can live with.

The main thing I can take away from my short experience with a pair of hearing aids is to say that if you think you have a hearing problem and its impacting your quality of life, it would be well worth seeking the help of a professional audiologist to see if a hearing aid could help with your hearing loss. None of us likes to admit that were getting older, but it is nice to see advanced technology being used to make devices that can improve peoples quality of life. Hearing aids have changed and those awful devices I saw elderly relatives wearing when I was a small child are, thankfully, a thing of the past.

Excerpt from:

Advanced Audio Technology Is Helping People Hear More Clearly - Forbes

Slow shipments. Not enough employees. Soaring costs. Depleted inventories.

The supply chain is full of knots and holes right now, spots for companies to stumble. And there are ways to mitigate these challenges, from increased automation to higher wages, but they all come with a cost.

To address supply chain and demand challenges, General Die Casters Inc. in Twinsburg has been running overtime and installing automated equipment, said CEO and president Brian Lennon. He has raised wages to attract employees and is starting to work with a temp agency in Puerto Rico to bring in more people.

And the company has been engaging in a lot of communication with its customers, trying to figure out what each actually needs in order to keep running while inventory slowly builds back up.

Communication has been critical at MVP Plastics Inc. in Middlefield and K-J Fasteners Inc. in Eastlake, too.

"The good thing about this is it's not isolated," said MVP Plastics president and CEO Darrell McNair. "It's all the way through."

MVP Plastics is part of the supply chain for its customers in markets like automotive, consumer and HVAC. McNair said it's been a matter of being "in sync" on delivery plans all the way through the chain.

At manufacturer and distributor K-J Fasteners, president Kirk Stonebrook has been reminding employees that they're the link between customers and the market, and they need to educate customers on the factors contributing to cost increases. It's a matter of building trust, he said.

In the fall, the company's customers increased inventory because of the ongoing uncertainty. More recently, K-J has been trying to stock up on products that are locked in on older pricing in the hopes of riding out the increases.

Stonebrook said K-J Fasteners also is setting long-term buying options with customers, looking at ways to amortize or absorb the current increases. Based on his research, he expects the supply chain problems and the subsequent prices to ease, though it could take months.

Mark Vickers, client executive at Sedlak Supply Chain Consultants in Highland Hills, said companies have been increasing the amount of inventory they keep on hand. Before COVID, Sedlak would have encouraged customers to reduce on-hand inventory to cut the costs associated with storing it, but in this time of disruption, having extra inventory is a must.

Another trend Vickers has seen is more investment in technology.

Companies were adopting technology to meet increased customer demands before the pandemic, Vickers said. But the pandemic encouraged companies to pick up the pace, as social distancing-driven e-commerce increased business at the same time as labor disruptions due to COVID-19 grew. More automation helps companies address both needs.

"If you're not automating some or most of your labor, you're getting crushed right now," Vickers said.

It's to the point where automated systems aren't seen as an investment, he said; they're just a cost of doing business.

Sedlak Supply Chain Consultants offers distribution center design and supply chain optimization services. Locally, one of the companies it has worked with recently is SupplySide Group in Beachwood, a maker of packaging and storage products.

Changes in delivery models and the growth of online ordering caused big changes for the company during the pandemic, said chairman Ansir Junaid.

Orders have increased, but become smaller. And to ship more efficiently, many customers started shipping directly from SupplySide's sites instead of their own stores, said senior vice president of Supply Side USA Ibrahim Shamsi. That meant SupplySide had to become more efficient, too.

SupplySide worked with Sedlak on automation, as well as ensuring the company had flex space for the future, so it could diversify or take on special projects where it saw fit, Shamsi said.

Bill Koehler, CEO of economic development organization Team NEO, said he has heard larger companies talk about plans to restructure or invest in technologies to tackle supply chain challenges this past year. On the technology side, companies have been seeking more visibility in their supply chains and finding ways to better manage data, he said.

Those trends were underway pre-COVID, but have been accelerated by the pandemic.

Another potential solution to some of the problems in the supply chain could be reshoring products from overseas.

A recent report from Heartland Forward, an Arkansas-based think tank, makes that case. Specifically, it calls for bringing more products back to the middle of the country, noting the "culture, skilled labor pool and training programs, as well as infrastructure to support production facilities" in the region because of its historical dependence on the sector. The report, which was funded in part by a grant from statewide economic development nonprofit JobsOhio, said that reshoring can protect intellectual property and shorten supply chains.

The COVID-19 pandemic created the need for shortened or redundant supply chains, as labor market shortages arose and cargo and travel embargoes were put in place, the report stated.

Reshoring some products from overseas could be an option, Koehler said, but determining what products would be a fit requires visibility of demand across companies.

To make it worthwhile, a product would have common features. Koehler said that has happened with products like personal protective equipment, where the desired features for masks and gowns were common. It's more difficult to find common components across industries like automotive, where automakers and product lines are more differentiated.

The problems filling today's supply chain have been building for years. And there are no easy answers. But Northeast Ohio's manufacturers are staying agile and looking for solutions for both the short term and the long.

This is the second part in a two-part series looking at the impact COVID-19 has had on the supply chain. Click here for a look at some of the challenges local manufacturers are facing.

See the article here:

Increased communication, technology and costs are necessary to tackle supply chain challenges - Crain's Cleveland Business

GUANGZHOU, China China is looking to boost research into what it calls "frontier technology" including quantum computing and semiconductors, as it competes with the U.S. for supremacy in the latest innovations.

In its five-year development plan, the 14th of its kind, Beijing said it would make "science and technology self-reliance and self-improvement a strategic pillar for national development," according to a CNBC translation.

Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday that China would increase research and development spending by more than 7% per year between 2021 and 2025, in pursuit of "major breakthroughs" in technology.

China's technology champions such as Huawei and SMIC have been targeted by U.S. sanctions as tensions between Beijing and Washington have ramped up in the past few years.

As such, China has concentrated on boosting its domestic expertise in areas it sees as strategically important, such as semiconductors. And now it has laid out seven "frontier technologies" that it will prioritize not just for the next five years, but beyond too.

China plans to focus on specialized chip development for AI applications and developing so-called open source algorithms. Open source technology is usually developed by one entity and licensed by other companies.

There will also be an emphasis on machine learning in areas such as decision making. Machine learning is the development of AI programs trained on vast amounts of data. The program "learns" as it is fed more data.

AI has been a key field for Chinese companies and the central government over the last few years. Major companies such as Alibaba and Baidu have been investing in the technology.

China and the U.S. are competing for AI dominance. A group of experts chaired by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said China could soon replace the U.S. as the world's "AI superpower."

Semiconductors are a critical area for China and one it has invested a lot in over the past few years but the country has struggled to catch up to the U.S., Taiwan and South Korea.

The problem is the complexity of the semiconductor supply chain. Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's Samsung are the two most advanced chip manufacturers but they rely on tools from the U.S. and Europe.

Washington has put SMIC, China's biggest chip manufacturer, on an export blacklist called the Entity List. SMIC cannot get its hands on American technology. And the U.S. has reportedly pushed to stop Dutch company ASML from shipping a key tool that could help SMIC catch up to rivals.

Since China doesn't have the companies that can design and make the tools that its chip manufacturers require, it relies on companies from other countries. This is something China wants to change.

In its five-year plan, China says it will focus on research and development in integrated circuit design tools, key equipment and key materials.

Chips are incredibly important because they go into many of the devices we use such as smartphones but are also important for other industries.

China plans to research areas such as how to stop diseases of the brain.

But it also says that it plans to look into "brain-inspired computing" as well as "brain-computer fusion technology," according to a CNBC translation. The five-year plan did not elaborate on what that could look like.

China laid out seven "frontier" technologies in its 14th Five Year Plan. These are areas that China will focus research on and include semiconductors and brain-computer fusion.

Yuichiro Chino | Moment | Getty Images

However, such work is already underway in the U.S. at Elon Musk's company Neuralink. Musk is working on implantable brain-chip interfaces to connect humans and computers.

With the outbreak of the coronavirus last year, biotechnology has grown in importance.

China says it will focus on "innovative vaccines" and "research on biological security."

China's research will concentrate on understanding the progression of cancer, cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic diseases.

The government also says that it will research some "cutting-edge" treatment technologies such as regenerative medicine. This involves medicine that can regrow or repair damaged cells, tissues and organs.

China says it will also be looking at key technologies in the prevention and treatment of major transmissible diseases.

Space exploration has been a top priority for China recently. Beijing said it will focus on research into the "origin and evolution of the universe," exploration of Mars as well as deep sea and polar research.

In December, a Chinese spacecraft returned to Earth carrying rocks from the moon. It was the first time China has launched a spacecraft from an extraterrestrial body and the first time it has collected moon samples.

And in July, China launched a mission to Mars called Tianwen -1.

CNBC's Iris Wang contributed to this report.

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In battle with U.S., China to focus on 7 'frontier' technologies from chips to brain-computer fusion - CNBC