Category Archives: Technology

Mickey Drexler wasnt just any retail executive. He was a merchant prince, a man whose fashion instincts helped rescue Gap Inc. in the 1990s when the San Francisco apparel chain was struggling to find relevance.

But Drexlers recent decision to resign as J. Crew CEO is perhaps the most stark reminder that fashion and marketing expertise alone cant rescue an industry besot by rapid demographic and technological change. Other big names in fashion, including Ron Johnson (J.C. Penney), Terry Lundgren (Macys), and Sharen Jester Turney (Victorias Secret), have vacated their posts in recent years. Kathryn Bufano (Bon-Ton Stores) and Linda Heasley (Lane Bryant) also resigned this year.

It might be tempting to say that Drexler lost his fashion touch and that people just dont want to buy J. Crew clothing. But the industry has been rapidly transforming.

Model Connor Keith (left) works with photographer Mark Fore and stylist Ronald Gravesande during a fashion shoot at the offices of Touch of Modern in San Francisco. The company offers men well-fitting, limited assortment clothes in the most convenient way possible.

Model Connor Keith (left) works with photographer Mark Fore and...

The populism we have witnessed in politics seems to be sweeping through the fashion industry as well. Whereas merchant princes and princesses once told us what to wear a year from now, Millennial shoppers look to the more fickle and unpredictable trendsetters on social media.

Drexler was the guy that everyone thought had the magic touch, said Chicago retail consultant Brian Kelly. But retailers today should be using data ... rather than attending last years fashion show.

The next generation of retail apparel leaders will not be experts in fashion. They will focus more on data and supply chains.

Walmart, which is known more for logistics prowess than for fashion, said Friday that it will buy online mens retailer Bonobos for $310 million.

Theres more to retail right now than just making nice clothes, said Mark Lovas, a former top executive at Bonobos who is now CEO of Trumaker in San Francisco, another online mens clothing shop. Apparel retailers must craft business models that deliver merchandise to customers and remove unsold clothing from inventory in the quickest, most cost-efficient way possible, he said.

Those skills seem at odds with the merchandisers and marketers who have traditionally run apparel chains.

In the first half of the 20th century, big family-owned department stores dominated the U.S. fashion industry. Customers would trek to a downtown Bloomingdales, Marshall Fields or Daytons to find the latest look.

A CEO typically would have started at the company as a buyer, traveling across the country and eventually around the world to meet designers and attend fashion shows. Drexler came from a fashion background: He was merchandising vice president at Abraham & Straus in New York and later worked at Ann Taylor, Bloomingdales and Macys. After his stint at Gap, he led J. Crew as CEO for 14 years.

But the world of merchant princes has been upended. The Internet has allowed shoppers to quickly find a wide range of information prices, styles, opinions beyond catalogs, magazines or Sunday newspaper circulars.

Most retailers enjoyed opportunistic time periods, said Alicia Hare, a former strategy executive at Target Corp. who is now a regional president for SYPartners, a consulting firm in San Francisco. But they had no sense of purpose. Why do they exist? During challenging times, if you cant fall back on some kind of North Star, its difficult to find a path through.

Some emerging e-commerce companies like Bonobos and Touch of Modern in San Francisco, by contrast, have a laser focus. Both offer limited assortments of well-fitting mens clothing in the most convenient way possible.

Jerry Hum, co-founder and CEO of Touch of Modern, said he and his friends created the startup partly because they hated shopping at malls. Whereas women will try out several outfits at a physical store, men will buy several colors of the same shirt they like, he said.

And though Hum and his employees had no previous experience in design or merchandising, they now feel confident enough to create their own brand of clothing lines.

These e-commerce startups enjoy a distinct advantage over chains like Gap and J. Crew: The chains must spend a lot of money operating physical stores. Thats why retail leaders must mind every penny and root out waste, especially in stores and the supply chain.

Retail chains require a lot of labor, said Ash Fontana, a managing director with Zetta Venture Partners in San Francisco. Reducing labor costs requires using artificial intelligence systems and data analysis, he said.

For all of his talent on the runway, Drexler isnt particularly known for his expertise in technology and logistics.

Its an uncomfortable truth about apparel retailers: Clothes may make the man, but they no longer make the CEO.

Thomas Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. He is author of Rebuilding Empires (St. Martins Press) on how big-box retailers will adapt to the digital age. Email: tlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByTomLee

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Technology and logistics, not fashion, makes today's apparel CEOs - San Francisco Chronicle

NEW DELHI: Mid-summer, a group of IIT- graduates and their seniors were sweating it out in the outskirts of Gurugram, fiddling with their laptops to calibrate sensors as they prepare for yet another round of testing a fully driverless shuttle.

The campus of Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz Ltd offers very limited space for such testing but that has not stopped the company from developing Novus Drive autonomous shuttle that can ferry over six persons, which was showcased at the Auto Expo last year.

Gaurav Singh, alumni of Carnegie Mellon University has spent close to three years on the project and for him seeing the shuttle drive on its own is a feeling that words cannot easily describe.

"This is about passion. To come up with such a product out here in India and not America, also shows what we can achieve with dedication and hard work," he said.

The company, founded in 2004 by Anuj Kapuria, who dropped out of his PhD programme at Carnegie Mellon University, has been working silently over the last decade to master driverless vehicles technology -- a domain where Google and Tesla are the front runners.

However, being an Indian company in an area where not many have ventured into, it has not been an easy journey for Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz to come up with a driverless shuttle and such technology for other vehicles.

"One of the most challenging parts is the awareness and trust among global customers about the technology coming from India for self-driving vehicles," Kapuria told PTI.

Yet, he said the company has been able to overcome the hurdle through the intellectual property which it has generated over years both in the US, Europe along with India and other emerging countries.

When asked how confident is the company of competing with the likes of Google, Tesla and other global firms in the area of autonomous driving, he said: "We are competitive to the enabling tech if not better."

Elaborating further, he said: "When we compare with Google or Tesla, we still need to clock more self-driving miles to make our autopilot and fully autonomous algorithms more robust, which we are doing by collecting lot of data with our driver assistive systems."

Need for regulatory support Kapuria said while companies in India like Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz can play their part in the global pursuit for perfection of autonomous driving technology, the government also needs to play its role to support the industry.

"We still do not have the regulatory framework to enable testing of autonomous vehicles," he said.

Expressing similar views, Ritukar Vijay, head of Robotics - Tech and Strategy at the company said: "We have the technology ready but we need more trials on real-time traffic, which at the moment we are unable to do."

So it has been an uphill task to collate data from other driver assistive systems that the company has developed and integrate to pure autonomous driving technology, he added.

Kapuria is banking on "the current forward-looking government" so that India can be "very soon among very few countries in the world with regulatory frameworks and vision for the adoption of autonomous vehicles, specifically in smart cities".

Also, driver assistive systems are something which can be mandated or users can be incentivised for reducing the number of accidents in the country, he added.

Commercialisation of Technology With the presence in both mobile robots and drive assistive systems, the company has revenue of around $10 million at present. It has set an ambitious target of touching $350- 400 in the next five years.

"Our core tech is globally competitive and we already are in talks with few of the North American OEMs for enabling autonomous navigation for their vehicles," Kapuria said.

Reiterating that arrival of autonomous vehicles is inevitable in the coming times, he said "all the global players realise this multi-billion dollar opportunity, which will take the complete auto industry for an overhaul".

The company is preparing itself to cash in on the opportunities. It has already increased R&D headcount to 120 from around 50 three years back.

"We are living in exciting times. Being the early movers in developing the technology and intellectual property around underlying tech for autonomous and driver assistive systems, we are in a position to offer full spectrum of products ranging from Autonomy Level 0 till Level 5," Kapuria said.

The Gurugram-based firm is already working at various stages with all the major OEMs in India.

"Now we are looking outwards and going global with our proven track record and long-term contracts with blue chip OEMs for driver assistive systems, AEB, autopilots and fully autonomous vehicle technology (software + hardware)," he said.

Kapuria, however, said the road towards autonomous driving would be incremental in nature.

It will start from driver assistive systems such as forward collision and lane departure warnings, autonomous emergency braking, traffic assist to autonomous vehicles that ranges from highway autopilots, constraint environment autonomy till fully autonomous vehicles. Patience is the key here.

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Indian company eyes driver's seat in driverless vehicle technology - Economic Times

By Larry Williams II Times Record lwilliams@swtimes.com

Robots. Artificial hearts. 3D printing of human tissue.

It may sound like science fiction, but as Dr. J.D. Polk, chief medical officer at NASA, pointed out at his keynote lecture, Journey of Exploration, during the 32nd Annual Arkansas Osteopathic Medical Association convention Saturday, these are all science fact thanks to space exploration.

Youd be surprised how much exploration has to do with medicine, said Polk to a packed lecture hall at the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (ARCOM), 7000 Chad Colley Blvd. Right now, NASA is the busiest its ever been.

Polk was referring to the planning and preparation occurring at NASA for the first manned mission to Mars. He said the United States space agency is busier now than they were during the Apollo missions of the 1960s.

The amount of technology invented (for the Apollo program) is huge, said Polk. Right now, we all think that hydrogen fuel cells for cars is a new invention. Hydrogen fuels cells are how the lunar module landed on the moon. The biggest hassle was power, at that time. We didnt have solar panels.

Along with power, the space program also needed to reduce a computer the size of a room to fit on the lunar module, which was 23 feet tall by 31 feet wide and deep. The circuit board was born, which is now present in everything from a cell phone to childs toy.

An iPhone has more computing power than the lunar module, added Polk.

He noted that the amount of technology needed to be invented for the Mars mission will far outstrip the lunar missions. On the moon, astronauts stayed for a handful of days.

A one-way trip to Mars will take approximately six months.

Mars and Earth dont stay lined up constantly, said Polk. You have to wait until the two of them are lined up before you launch. And then, because they dont stay together, youre staying on the surface of Mars for 18 months, and then its another six months back.

Polk, as chief health and medical officer, is responsible for writing up the human factors for all of the vehicles being developed for the Mars mission. Such considerations as time spent in a zero-gravity atmosphere, both on the vehicles and on the planet, and how that affects human health come into play.

Outside of the future Mars mission, Dr. Polk showed the trickle-down effect of space exploration technology into medicine. The same impeller design used by the space shuttles fuel pumps was used by a cardiothoracic surgeon in Texas on a miniature scale to keep end-stage heart failure patients alive.

A lot of things came from the space shuttle, said Polk. The space shuttle windows, because they get hit with micro-meteoroids, they get scratched constantly by small bits. If you can imagine something the size of a grain of sand hitting that glass at 17,500 miles per hour, its going to leave a mark.

Because of that, we now have scratch guard lenses for eyeglasses.

NASA has two robots who have inspired prosthetics for the physically disabled: Robonaut and Valkyrie. Because of them, Polk showed slides of current hardware for amputees that perfectly mimics human movement.

But perhaps the most astonishing technology previewed was 3D printers that produce skin grafts for burn victims. Polk said that a sample of a patients cells would be taken as the raw material for the printer, thus eliminating the chances of rejection of the new graft by the patients body.

This isnt just something thats five, ten years down the road, said Polk. This is happening now.

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Space-driven technology aids medicine at convention's keynote lecture - Times Record

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is taking an indefinite leave of absence from the company, which has promised to reform its corporate culture. Photograph: VCG/VCG via Getty Images

Uber has been rocked by a steady stream of scandals and negative publicity in recent years, including revelations of questionable spy programs, a high-stakes technology lawsuit, claims of sexual harassment and discrimination and embarrassing leaks about executive conduct.

The PR disasters culminated in CEO Travis Kalanick taking an indefinite leave of absence this week and promises of bold reform that largely ignored the ride-hailing companys strained relationship with drivers.

Here is a timeline of some of the most consequential controversies.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick faced backlash for a sexist joke about his increasing desirability, telling an Esquire reporter: We call that Boob-er.

Uber faced accusations that it booked thousands of fake rides from its competitor Lyft in an effort to cut into its profits and services. Uber recruiters also allegedly spammed Lyft drivers in an effort to recruit them away from the rival.

Uber executive Emil Michael suggested digging up dirt on journalists and spreading personal information of a female reporter who was critical of the company. He later apologized. It was also revealed that Uber has a so-called God View technology that allows the company to track users locations, raising privacy concerns. One manager had accessed the profile of a reporter without her permission.

A former forensic investigator for Uber testified that employees regularly spied on politicians, exes and celebrities, including Beyonc.

Regulators in California ordered Uber to remove self-driving vehicles from the road after the company launched a pilot without permits. On the first day of the program, the vehicles were caught running red lights, and cycling advocates in San Francisco also raised concerns about the cars creating hazards in bike lanes. The company blamed red-light issues on human error, but the New York Times later claimed that the companys statements were false and that the autonomous technology failed.

Uber was forced to pay $20m to settle allegations that the company duped people into driving with false promises about earnings. The Federal Trade Commission claimed that most Uber drivers earned far less than the rates Uber published online in 18 major cities in the US.

A #DeleteUber campaign went viral after the company lifted surge pricing during a taxi protest at a New York airport against Donald Trumps travel ban. A total of roughly 500,000 users reportedly deleted accounts after the scandal erupted.

CEO Travis Kalanick resigned from Trumps advisory council after users threatened a boycott. Kalanick said: Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda but unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that.

Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler went public with allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination, prompting the company to hire former US attorney general Eric Holder to investigate her claims. The story sparked widespread debate about sexism and misconduct across Silicon Valley startups.

Waymo, the self-driving car company owned by Googles parent corporation Alphabet, filed a lawsuit against Uber, accusing the startup of calculated theft of its technology. The suit, which could be a fatal setback for Ubers autonomous vehicle ambitions, alleged that a former Waymo employee, Anthony Levandowski, stole trade secrets for Uber. Uber later fired the engineer.

The New York Times reported that Uber for years used a tool called Greyball to systematically deceive law enforcement in cities where the company violated local laws. The company used Greyball to identify people believed to be working for city agencies and carrying out sting operations, the Times reported. The revelations led to the launch of a federal investigation.

Kalanick was caught on camera arguing with his own Uber driver, who complained about the difficulty making a living with the companys declining rates. The embattled CEO yelled at the driver: Some people dont like to take responsibility for their own shit. ... They blame everything in their life on somebody else. Good luck! He later issued an apology and said he intended to get leadership help.

Tech news site the Information reported that a group of senior employees, including Kalanick, visited an escort and karaoke bar in Seoul in 2014, leading to an HR complaint from a female marketing manager. Patrons at the bar typically select women to sing karaoke with before taking them home.

News leaked of a secret program that Uber internally called Hell that allowed the company to spy on its rival Lyft to uncover drivers working for both companies and to help steer them away from the competitor.

Uber agreed to pay drivers in New York City tens of millions of dollars after admitting it underpaid them for more than two years by taking a larger cut of fares than it was entitled. The average payout per driver is expected to be about $900.

Uber revealed that it had fired more than 20 employees following an investigation into the sexual harassment claims and workplace culture.

Reports revealed that a top Uber executive had obtained the medical records of a woman who was raped by an Uber driver, allegedly to cast doubt upon the victims account. The executive, Eric Alexander, was fired after journalists learned of the incident, according to tech website Recode and the New York Times. The woman later sued the company for violating her privacy rights and defaming her.

Kalanick announced that he would take an indefinite leave of absence as the company released a damning report on workplace culture that recommended Uber review and reallocate the CEOs responsibilities.

David Bonderman resigned from Ubers board after he made a sexist joke during an all-staff meeting about reforming the company and combatting sexual harassment. The venture capitalist had joked that there was likely to be more talking with another woman on the board. He apologized and stepped down hours later.

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Uber's scandals, blunders and PR disasters: the full list - The Guardian

The Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport now has new mobile radar equipment to research unmanned aircraft as part of $5 million state and federal grants.

The equipment and grant will be used to test beyond line of sight operation, said Art Huber, deputy director of operations with the Air Force Research Laboratory. Currently drones can only be flown in the line of sight of the pilot but the research will test flying them further and using radar and other technology to avoid crashes.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires that you be able to avoid airborne collisions with other traffic in the airspace, Huber said.

RELATED :State approves $1.5M for drone system at Springfield airport

Thats called see and avoid. Every pilot has that responsibility, Huber said, but pilots cant do that with a drone they cant see.

We are looking for means to enable that operator, who is on the ground, who is separated from his aircraft, to be able to do the see-and-avoid function, Huber said.

That could be accomplished in a variety of ways, he said, like with multiple observers. Someone else could see the drone and radio back to the pilot in charge to tell him which way to turn to avoid traffic.

READ MORE:Lawmakers push for greater role for Springfield in drone research

Another way is a chase airplane. Someone could follow the drone and look out for other traffic and command the drone to change its course.

A third way would be to put sensors on board the drone and have it look for other traffic, Huber said. That test is very expensive and the technology is not quite there yet to do that reliably.

But Huber and his partners believe they have found a way to perform the see-and-avoid function successfully.

It enables the pilot to see the wide area thats out there that even aircraft goes beyond his visual line of sight, he could still have situational awareness about where that aircraft is and other traffic is to avoid it, Huber said.

DETAILS:$5M investment in Springfield to research unmanned aircraft

That is beyond line of sight operation and it could make a big difference for many industries,

The project would use airspace from Dayton, Columbus and London, Ohio. It would monitor those fields in order to fly a drone.

The new technology could help the military, commercial and civil industries.

You can imagine you are an Amazon or Google or some other company that wants to deliver a product using a drone, Huber said. They have to solve this problem being able to deliver from many miles from some central distribution point to the customer and do that without seeing everywhere that drone is traveling.

David Gallagher, chief of staff at Ohio/Indiana UAS Center and Test Complex, which is headquartered in Springfield, said it could help those industries located in the Miami Valley.

They bring in people from other parts of the country to test their systems so this will allow an environment for people to test their aircraft, he said. We believe that will attract more business and bring jobs to Ohio.

The best way to test beyond line of sight, they believe, is at the Springfield airport using the new mobile radar unit in a trailer to track the unmanned aircraft.

A study called Oasis was done a few years ago, Huber said, and it found there was a common interest between the state of Ohio and Air Force Research Lab.

The two entities came together and found Springfield was the best area to accomplish its goals.

Springfield is a relatively rural setting, small towns, lots of farm land we have minimized the risk by being here, Huber said.

The program has been going on for about a year and a half and after more research is done, it will be presented to the Federal Aviation Administration.

After we conduct our experiments and gather data, we need to make our application to the FAA. I imagine it will take another six to nine months for that to be granted, Huber said.

If it is granted, then Huber and his partners will be able to operate and conduct more research and later bring in universities and firms to help.

It will be the first of its kind to operate in unrestricted airspace, Huber said, which is uncommon but would allow many people and companies to flock to the area to test operations.

Testing will begin in about a month at the Springfield airport and it will later be presented to the FAA once completed.

By the numbers:

$5 million Total investment

$2.5 million Amount each contributed by Ohio and the Air Force Research Laboratories

Six to nine Months it could take the FAA to review the research

In-depth coverage

The Springfield News-Sun provides unmatched coverage of the impact of the drone industry in Clark and Champaign counties, including stories digging into the privacy issues and possible job growth.

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Springfield Airport tapped to test new drone technology - Springfield News Sun

The Sentinel-Record/Mara Kuhn LASSO: Andruw Briggs, 6, cranks a wheel to spin a rope as Ernest Briggs, 7, jumps through it during Tinkerfest at Mid-America Science Museum on Saturday.

Throughout the day Saturday, children and adults alike flocked to Mid-America Science Museum to fiddle with a host of contraptions.

The fifth annual Tinkerfest drew visitors from both inside Arkansas and out of state to tinker with the contraptions on display. The event featured 50 "tinkering stations" from area organizations set up throughout the museum.

Doug Herbert, the museum's education director, said that the festival was initially inspired by the Makers Movement, which encourages individuals to use technology to create items for their own use. He said that, more and more, people are beginning to use technology to build their own products as opposed to buying one from a store.

"The idea behind it is that people are now starting to actually do things that, before, accounted on a manufacturer to do," he said. "It goes from everything from extremely traditional type things like textiles and clothing, et cetera, all the way up to building your own computer or your own drones."

Jim Miller, the museum's marketing director, said that Tinkerfest is not the only one in the state of Arkansas, and the stations change each year. He said that the concept of Tinkerfest is "continuing to grow" throughout the state and at home each year.

The Sentinel-Record/Mara Kuhn BUBBLES: Evan Hunt, 3, of Little Rock, makes a bubble as Grayson Purdy, 4, of Benton, looks on during Tinkerfest at Mid-...

Miller said he was pleased with the festival's attendance at noon. He said that by its end, the festival had yielded a total of 1,000 visitors, tinkerers and volunteers.

Tinkerfest's stations encompassed a wide variety of concepts within the field of "tinkering." Everything from interlocking wooden blocks to circuit boards were set up throughout the museum for public use.

"Our engineering, technology, mathematics, all of those things kind of come into play when you think about tinkering, whether it's taking a computer apart, or whether it's building something with at 3D printer," Miller said. "So really, tinkering can encapsulate a lot of things that are science-related."

James Hopper, development coordinator of the EAST Initiative, set up an Oculus Rift in the museum for the festival. He said that this is EAST's second year at the festival. The first year, they came after hearing about it at North Little Rock's Maker Fair.

Hopper called Tinkerfest "one of the best events in Arkansas."

"Everybody's demonstrating different hands-on technology and different crafts and arts," he said. "Just very interesting and engaging items for youth and family."

Tinkerfest also offered attendees the opportunity to potentially use technology they had never been exposed to. Julian Post, program coordinator for National Park College's Innovative Technology Center, had what he called a "3-D Print Farm" set up in the museum. The "farm" contained about half a dozen printers from the center, which allowed children to create three-dimensional designs and print them.

"This is the first time many of these people have seen it," Post said, referring to the printers.

"Hot Springs, of course, is not necessarily an area where people get to play around with emerging technologies," Herbert said. "What Tinkerfest does is they get to experiment with the hands-on science that they may not get to in their day-to-day lives."

Miller said that he was pleased to see adults -- as well as children -- taking part in the festival's tinkering. He said that the festival's involvement spanned all ages.

"We've had elderly people, we've had middle-aged people, we've had adults of all ages just kind of really getting into it," Miller said. "It's kind of a collaborative concept, taking things apart or building things or creating things."

Herbert said that those who attended Saturday's festival take the concept of tinkering beyond the museum.

"We want them to know that this is something within their reach, within their grasp. We hope that they come away inspired to actually start making for themselves."

Local on 06/18/2017

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Museum festival promotes technology, creativity - Hot Springs Sentinel

The Hindu

Technology stocks shaken, but US market not stirred The Hindu The five largest U.S. technology companies may have lost enough market capitalisation over the past week to buy plane maker Boeing, but the benchmark S&P 500 stock index has managed to remain within a stone's throw of its record high. Apple, Alphabet ... and more »

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Technology stocks shaken, but US market not stirred - The Hindu

CROWN POINT The Crown Point Fire & Rescue Department's new ambulance is equipped with the latest in patient care technology.

The ambulance is equipped with an electronic arm that will lift a cot holding a patient into the ambulance.

The power load system eliminates back issues with firefighters from lifting the cot and also eliminates potential drops off the ambulance. The system will unload a patient as well.

"It is cool," Fire Chief Dave Crane said. "It also secures the cot in the truck a lot better than our standard mounting brackets. The cot stays intact during an accident."

Crane said the system will soon be a required safety standard.

"We wanted to get ahead of it," he said. "I hope to take our other ambulances and upgrade them."

The ambulance itself is custom-made for the department, with cabinets arranged how the department wanted them.

"It makes it a little more user-friendly," Crane said.

The department also recently received new cardiac monitors and CPR machines called the LUCAS 3 Chest Compression System. According to the LUCAS 3 website, experimental studies show that the mechanically controlled LUCAS compressions are able to sustain a higher blood flow to the brain and heart compared to manual compressions.

Although the department has not had them long enough to gather good data Crane said other departments nationwide said seen an increase of about 38 percent of return of spontaneous circulation where the heart "actually starts back again and gives you pulses back."

Crane said in order to get return of spontaneous circulation there has to be good quality CPR with few interruptions. One example is issues with performing good quality CPR when off-loading patients from a multiple story structure.

"This machine allows that to continue even while going downstairs," he said.

The department has five of the machines on four ambulances and one fire engine that is also a life support engine.

"We have paramedics on everything," Crane said. "So if all of our ambulances are busy or whatever happens we have all the advanced life support equipment on the fire truck. There is no delay in starting patient care."

Crane said the only reason the department is able to acquire new technology is "the city takes good care of us and supports us."

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Crown Point's new ambulance provides latest technology - nwitimes.com

A small Rochester technology team thinks the hot gee-whiz technology of augmented and virtual reality has the potential for lot more than just fun and games.

Virtual reality refers to an immersive technology that usually uses a headset to create the illusion that a person is inside a software-created scene.

Augment reality is used to describe the newer process of using software to combine projected images with real physical spaces. The most common example is the Pokemon Go game, where players would find cartoon "creatures" on city streets by looking through the camera on their phones. Facebook and Snapchat have also rolled out AR filters that automatically add cat ears, halos or whatever to people in photos and videos.

Rochester couple, Hunter and Traci Downs, hope to use this new, rapidly improving technology to do much more than just create the next Pokemon Go or a new first-person shooter video game.

They have filled their Area 10 Labs office with the latest AR and VR devices and software from Google, Apple, Microsoft, Oculus, HTC and others.

"Everybody's struggling to find the killer app for these things," said Hunter Downs said gesturing at the cameras and headsets scattered around Area 10's office on the second floor of the Conley Maas building in downtown Rochester.

Apple just released a new collection of software development tools last week called ARKit that uses "world tracking" which can use the iPhone or iPad's camera and motion sensors to "pin" virtual objects to specific point.

Downs, who has worked to combine technology with humans for many years, sees a lot of potential for uses in training of all kinds for the technology that Apple, Google and others are spending "billions and billions" of dollars to develop.

While engineer Adam Salmi's image was displayed in a virtual operating room as he stood in front of green screen, AJ Montpetit talked about the vast possibilities of the technology.

"Through a worldwide network, you can bring people together and create a virtual classroom. Two students from different sides of the planet could stand next to a doctor, who is somewhere else, and help him do a surgery," he said as Salmi's image moved on the computer screen.

'You have to experience it'

So how does it feel to have your eyes and ears covered to create an artificial "reality"?

"There's almost no way to explain it. You have to experience it," Salmi said.

That description fits for a lot of the projects that the Downses and Area 10 have been involved with over the years,

They have a lot of experience working with highly technical and novel projects to solve specific problems, usually linked to the health care field. In 2013, Area 10 started working with Mayo Clinic and currently have seven projects in the works with them.

They have worked with the Department of Defense, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Defense Advance Research Projects Administration, the University of Virginia and many other clients. They have helped create technology to allow completely paralyzed people communicate via only brain waves, devices to detect fatigue in soldiers, flight helmets to track consciousness and many other projects.

They have 14 active companies with five that have completely spun off from Area 10. Plus the Downses have non-tech businesses, like the Cafe Steam coffee shop and the Collider co-working center.

While they lived in Hawaii, their company grew to having more that 30 employees. However, that changed when they moved to Rochester in 2013 and opened a new office here in 2014.

"I didn't like it as much as when we had small team," said Hunter Downs.

The current version of Area 10 has six staffers with experts in hardware, design and software, including the owners.

"The best thing for us with a small group with this breadth of talent is that we can move faster than the giants like Google and Apple," he said. "We can crank things out rapidly. We can usually go from concept to prototype as quickly as 12 weeks."

Area 10 has a number of projects in the works including medical monitoring sensors powered by a patient's breathing, wheelchair sensors to help prevent pressure sores in paralyzed patients and designing a new, inexpensive microscope for cash-strapped schools to use in classrooms.

A reverse development process

So why is the team playing with AR and VR technology?

Downs admits that Area 10 usually starts with a problem and then finds a technological solution, so this is kind of the reverse of their typical process.

However, the major investments by Apple, Microsoft and Google attracted their attention and the technology has the potential to open the door to new markets. Pokemon Go generated $600 million in revenue in three months during its heyday. By 2021, the AR/VR market is estimated to grow to be worth $108 billion.

Area 10 recently contracted with the Destination Medical Center initiative's Economic Development Agency to create an interactive map of downtown Rochester to show where new development is slated to be built. In the short time since they created the map, the technology has improved to allow for more detailed maps with more features.

Beyond mapping and virtual training, Area 10 is also looking at using AR and VR to improve patient experience in hospitals. Studies have shown that patients in rooms with windows show more improvement and quicker healing than ones not near a window.

"Of course, not everyone can have a window in their room. So we're looking at VR to see if it can be used to replicate those results without an actual window," Downs said.

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Rochester technology team looks for the next killer app - Post-Bulletin

Earlier this month the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Microsoft that revealed a new hover sensing system for mobile devices such a Surface tablet, future smartphone and HoloLens. Hover touch sensing involves sensing a non-touch or pre-touch interaction of a finger or stylus with a surface, such as a display. A finger or stylus need not physically contact the surface. Our cover graphic above is from Microsoft's first granted patent for a hover touch system that we covered back in April. Hover touch technology is also being explored by Apple who was granted their first patent for this technology last April. They originally filed that patent back in 2009. Microsoft's technology could extend to Virtual and Augmented Reality applications. Whether Apple's application could extend to future AR applications is unknown at this time.

Microsoft's Patent Summary

Microsoft notes in their opening summary of the invention that "A front-facing camera of a display device (e.g., handheld smartphone or tablet) may, in some techniques, be fitted with a tilted mirror to sense and locate hover of an object, such as a finger or a stylus of a user relative to a display of the device.

In some examples, a tilted mirror may redirect the view of the front facing camera toward a region just above the display of the device. The mirror could be flat, curved, and the like. Using image processing techniques, images of a hovering object, a finger or stylus, captured by the camera may then be used to sense right-left and/or up-down positions of the hovering finger or stylus.

To measure distance to the hovering finger or stylus from the camera, a pattern, which may be a pattern of colors, is displayed by the display so that the hovering finger or stylus is illuminated by a particular portion or color of the pattern over which the finger or stylus hovers. The image processing techniques may be used to determine, from the captured image, which particular portion or color of the pattern illuminates the finger or stylus. This determination, in conjunction with the known displayed pattern, may provide the distance to the hovering finger or stylus from the camera.

In some examples, this determination, in conjunction with other known displayed patterns, may provide the three-dimensional (3D) location of the hovering finger or stylus."

Microsoft later notes that "In some examples, the term 'hover,' (sometimes called '3D touch') is used to describe a condition where an object is positioned in front of, but not in contact with, the front surface of the display, and is within a predetermined 3D space or volume in front of the display.

Accordingly, a hovering object may be defined as an object positioned in front of the display of the computing device within the predetermined 3D space without actually contacting the front surface of the display. The dimensions of the 3D space where hover interactions are constrained, and particularly a dimension that is perpendicular to the front surface of the display, may depend on the size of the display and/or the context in which the display used."

In some examples, Microsoft further notes that a display comprises a screen that illuminates light, which need not be in the visible spectrum. For instance, near-IR may be used to sense hover of a finger above a touch surface, without any visual display.

Microsoft's hover technology will extend to augmented reality / mixed reality systems like their HoloLens. Microsoft notes that a user with a headset with the display in clear mode could view another display like a Surface device and point their finger at the display to cause an action. That could be to scroll a page or click on a link in a report and the headset display will understand or interpret the appropriate hover command.

In another example, Microsoft notes that "Hover sensing may be useful for systems involved with a virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) headset. For example, a user of a VR headset may not be able to see their fingers above a display. Though a system may render an image on a virtual display in a virtual world, sensing a real hover object (e.g., an object that has not physically contacted a surface such as a touchscreen) may require additional processes. Such processes may involve sensing an object (e.g., a finger or stylus) while the object hovers above the surface, prior to an actual touch."

Microsoft's patent was filed in December 2015 and published by U.S. Patent Office earlier this month. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.

For interest sake, one of the inventors noted on the patent is a senior researcher at Microsoft whose work is focused on "applying vision techniques to enable new styles of human-computer interaction and Augmented Reality."

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Patently Apple / Patently Mobile presents a detailed summary of patent applications with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent application should be read in its entirety for full and accurate details. About Posting Comments: Patently Apple / Patently Mobile reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.

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Microsoft Advances Hover Touch ('3D Touch') Technology for Future Smartphone, Tablet & HoloLens Devices - Patently Apple