Thursday, August 31, 2017

Twice Awards Nominations -- Microvision Featured Twice


2017 TWICE VIP Award The Nominees


Accessories
APC by Schneider Electric: Electric Back-UPS BE850M2
APC by Schneider Electric: Universal Laptop Chargers
Bracketron: Roadtripper Headrest Magnet Mount
Bracketron: Roadtripper Airplane Tablet Mount
Catalyst: Case for Airpods
Celluon: PicoBit
Cobra Electronics: Cobra JumPack XL H2O Jump Pack / Power Pack
Gator Cases: Gator Cases iMac Carry Bag
iHome: Apple Watch Charging Bluetooth Clock Radio /Speakerphone
König & Meyer: Universal Tablet Holder
Lenovo: 500 Multi-Media Controller
MicroVision, Inc.: PSE-0403 Small Form Factor Display Engine
Mobile Edge: Core Gaming Backpack
Nyko Technologies: Portable Docking Kit for Switch
Renogy Solar: Lycan Powerbox
Renogy Solar: Phoenix Generator
Renogy Solar: E.FLEX10 Portable Solar Panel
Renogy Solar: E.TUNES Solar Speakers
Samsung Electronics America: DeX
Samsung Electronics America : 128GB EVO Plus
SANUS: SANUS Swiveling TV Base: Model WSTV1
SANUS: SANUS Premium Advanced Tilt TV Mount: Model VLT6
SANUS: SANUS Wireless Speaker Mounts: Model WSWM2
SANUS: SANUS Premium Full-motion TV Mount: Model VLF628
SCOSCHE: MagicMount PowerBank
SCOSCHE: MagicMount Home/Office
SCOSCHE: MagicMount Charge
SCOSCHE: StrikeLine Adapter
SCOSCHE: StrikeDrive Converter
Shure, Inc.: MV88 iOS Digital Stereo Condenser Microphone
Speck Products: Presidio CLEAR

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Quantum V Video Review

If anyone can translate Portuguese I'd like that translation.

He does appear enthusiastic, and the phone looks great!


Thanks JoeD

Voga V / Quantum & Brazil

We know Ragentek sells in China, India and Brazil.....

Add Brazil...


I don't know much about this site, if it is even selling phones actively at this time, but clearly it's either there, or the preparations are being made..

With China, India and Brazil, that's a huge portion of the world's smartphone market... That's 45% of the total smartphone market that PicoP will be involved with in those three countries.... statista.com

Good find Tom! 






Business Wire

Ragentek, a Chinese-based smartphone manufacturer and solution company with top selling phones in China, India, Brazil and other countries, placed a $6.7 million order with MicroVision in March 2017 for a customized display engine, PSE-0403-103, to be embedded in its VOGA V smartphone. Ragentek plans to begin pre-orders for the phone immediately with delivery starting in July. To support Ragentek’s schedule, MicroVision began shipping engines at the end of June and will begin volume shipments in July.


*****

Portugese is easier to translate into English than Chinese.

meuquantum.com

Quantum V: Free yourself from the screen!

Ever imagine putting a movie screen in your pocket? Enjoy your favorite photos, movies, and games on a 80 "screen in high definition, wherever you are? This is possible with Quantum V, the first smartphone on the market with an integrated Laser HD projector.

The unique PicoP Scanning Engine technology ensures crisp, vivid images on any flat surface with automatic focus adjustment and geometry: just point. And with the built-in 4,000 mAh battery, you can enjoy up to 4 hours of uninterrupted projection.

And all this integrated with the smartphone, without extra accessories to buy, connect or carry and without sacrificing elegance: with all-aluminum body in Blue and glass front with curved edges, the Quantum V weighs only 203 grams and has 10.3 Mm thick, lighter and much thinner than its competitors. And to keep looking new longer, the Quantum V comes with factory protection, with a clear cover included in the packaging.

The quality of the photos is guaranteed by a 13 MP rear camera and an 8 MP front camera, both accompanied by a flash, to produce good photos even at night. The 5.5 "IPS LCD screen has Full HD resolution, with clear images and vivid color from any viewing angle. On the back cover a fingerprint sensor offers more security and convenience in using your smartphone, allowing you to replace complex passwords with A simple touch of the fingers.

The 64-bit Octa-Core processor, accompanied by 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory, has the performance you need to run even the most demanding games, or all your favorite apps at the same time, with plenty of Space for your photos, videos, music and documents.

The Quantum V is a 4G Dual-SIM smartphone, has FM Radio, accepts micro SD cards up to 128GB and comes with the factory installed Android 7.0 "Nougat" operating system.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Stock Gumshoe

I'm very dubious of an Apple connection at this point.... (It could happen however, I haven't dismissed the idea.)

However, this is important to point out, because this is the kind of reporting that gets Microvision in the mainstream investor's attention.... That kind of attention and investor excitement can drive prices of stocks up very significantly.


Stock Gumshoe -- Much more at the source.


*******************************************

So what’s our solution? Thinkolator sez this is Microvision (MVIS).
Microvision makes a laser beam scanning/projection technology — and it has been around for years as a “tiny projector” company, the stock was there for the dot-com boom and peaked in 2000, but was also pitched pretty aggressively by newsletters starting a decade or so ago — I wrote about it here in 2007 when Christian DeHaemer teased it as a “tiny $5 microcap” that “dazzles cell phone titans” and would soon have its technology in the next hot phone (that was just a few months after the first iPhone was released), and it did sound awfully cool at the time.
And it still sounds cool now — you can see it described on their website here — but it has to be cool for the company to have survived at all, frankly. The stock has not been treated well in the ensuing decade — if you adjust for the reverse split they had to do about five years ago, it’s now down about 90% since 2007, and the annual revenue has gone from about $10 million in 2007 to $9 million over the last four quarters. The world of consumer electronics moves fast, and it doesn’t seem like Microvision has ever been able to jump on the right train at the right time.
Will MVIS get built into the next iPhone? That’s a leap and a half, in my book — if they knew they were on the verge of any kind of high-volume business, either as a component supplier or as a licensor of their patents and technology, I would assume that they would not have wanted to raise $10 million at a discounted share price… which is what they did just a couple weeks ago. It may be that Microvision’s technology will get built into the iPhone or some other smartphone in the next year or two, I have no idea, but I’m finding it hard to believe that it will be in this next iPhone that is released in a few weeks.
That doesn’t mean the company is junk, of course, just that I think you should go into your analysis with a somewhat more cynical expectation than might be conveyed by Brown’s language in the ad. They did get that one $6.7 million order from a Chinese smartphone maker back in March, as teased, and presumably that will up their revenue in the second half of the year by roughly that amount… though they’ll still be a long way from break-even, and in the world of smartphones $6.7 million could easily be a wild test, an R&D-type expense.

Sunday, August 20, 2017

September....

Joe sent me a couple of things in the last couple of days....

news.uc.china

Bigger than the big, let the display break the border

This story you must have heard, let the light filled the whole house. When the projection device is small enough to put the theater in the pocket is no longer a dream.
MEMS micro-laser projection As the core device is small, light weight, making in smart phones, wearable equipment and other consumer electronics products can be integrated projection display function; its high-definition resolution, based on, can also achieve higher Color reproduction and brightness (lumens), longer service life.
MEMS laser projection has a wider 120% color gamut space, rich colors, high color saturation, high contrast, known as the "history of human visual revolution." By changing the distance, a 5.5-inch phone can project a 100-inch screen.
The output power of the laser tube is only a few milliwatts, and the energy consumption is much lower than that of the LCD and LED. The luminous efficiency, service life and display information are superior to those of other light sources with a lifetime potential of 25,000 hours.
The era of laser projection is coming
Last year, the whole launch of MEMS laser projection phone, its RGB three-color laser light source, MEMS micromanipulator, 1920 * 720 physical resolution, caused a sensation in the industry, but also the appearance of the performance comparable to the mainstream mobile phone can cast 100 inches High-definition giant screen, mobile phone cinema in one of the mobile evolution of the body became possible.
Experienced a year of technical polished, with MEMS core technology will push the whole generation of second-generation projection phone and for the public. It is understood that 5.5-size laser projection phone can cast a 100-inch giant screen, so long as your home is wide enough, then there are enviable private cinema.
Although the full Qu QU2 has not yet officially released, but from the disclosure of a lot of information, including improved and improved MEMS micro-projection technology, still in the market is a difference with advanced features selling point of mobile phone equipment, the aircraft in the design Inheritance which also has details of the change, its screen border looks narrower, the bottom of the screen is expected to integrate pre-fingerprint identification program.
Now the smart phone homogenization of serious, projection phone can be described as a function of another way for the market to add some fresh blood. I believe in the design, hardware upgrades in the upgrade, the whole public QU2 will once again trigger the consumer attention to the mobile phone mobile phone. The machine is expected to market time in September, interested friends may wish to continue to pay attention.
.... AND in France

Labo.finac.com

Thomson Fusion: a promising smartphone with built-in laser projector

...It is based on a laser technology, which would be five times more powerful than LED lighting. The brightness would thus reach 40 lumens and the contrast ratio 80000: 1.

It would therefore be possible to project up to 3 meters of distance with a maximum diagonal of 3.80 meters and a definition of 1920 x 720 pixels. On the other hand, it is not specified whether this is an extrapolated or native resolution. But we are inclined to the first solution. It should be noted, however, that during our take-in, it is necessary to recognize that the image was of good quality despite the difficult light conditions.

The launch is scheduled for September, with an advertised price of 599 euros.


The way I understand this, it will be income from outside of any guidance provided by the company.

Friday, August 18, 2017

Soap Dispenser

oops.... using a visual detector didn't work so well. perhaps infrared laser scanning will work better.... 

.... answers to the simplest of problems....

"Racist Soap Dispenser"


Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Apple investing hugely in Hollywood programming

So, it doesn't mean anything directly, except there is a lot of positioning going on in the content realm. There's more and more content, more and more demand for content, and as illustrated here, they're paying a lot for it.

As the world also moves toward mobile, this is meaningful and something to keep tabs on.


Wall Street Journal


Apple Inc. AAPL -0.53% has set a budget of roughly $1 billion to procure and produce original content over the next year, according to people familiar with the matter—a sign of how serious the iPhone maker is about making a splash in Hollywood.

Combined with the company’s marketing clout and global reach, that immediately makes Apple a considerable competitor in a crowded market where new media players and traditional media companies are vying to acquire original shows. The figure is about half what Time Warner Inc.’s HBO spent on content last year and on par with estimates of what Amazon.com Inc. spent in 2013, the year after it announced its move into original programming.

Apple could acquire and produce as many as 10 television shows, according to the people familiar with the plan, helping fulfill Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue’s vision of offering high-quality video—similar to shows such as HBO’s “Game of Thrones”—on the company’s streaming-music service or a new, video-focused service.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Yes, you can play Doom on a thermostat, and it matters...

It's another display. 

It's another computer that needs a display -- and it's that capable. 

For the youngsters out there, in 1993, Doom required a good computer at the time to play it well. 

That amount of computing horsepower is now found in a thermostat.

To make all these items in the internet of things work -- they need displays. Bigger displays in smaller packages are preferable.

If a nerd with extra time on his hands can make Doom work on a thermostat....

MotherboardVice



How to buy a computer in 1993


Friday, August 11, 2017

Ultrafast WiFi

The better the fast mobile data, the better the ecosystem for PicoP.

Telegraph

The researchers sent video signals using terahertz, rather than traditional microwaves, at speeds of 50 gigabytes per second. Most wireless networks only operate at top speeds of 500 megabytes a second.

The breakthrough could lead to high-speed streaming on the go.

****

Experiments showed that transmissions were error-free up to 10 gigabits per second, which is much faster than today's standard Wi-Fi speeds.

Error rates increased slightly when the speed was boosted to 50 gigabits per second but were still well within the range that can be fixed using error correction systems which are commonly used in today's communications networks.

Back to the slide...

During the most recent stockholder meeting, we got to see and hear a lot of interesting things.

The slide below has been posted here before.

Among the things said when this slide was up (or around that time, recording isn't allowed...) was that doing embedded heads up display for a major automaker has a LONG lead time -- 5 years, and that it will require a significant investment on the part of MicroVision to capitalize on the sales that will result five years from now.

Note that heads up display, embedded, shows up at the year 2021+

...unfortunately, someone does seem to get news before the rest of us... 



Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Seriously folks, Chill about North Korea.

To be a genuine threat you need reliability.

That's something they don't have. 

This one was aimed at the ocean. They missed...


Samples to order....




78 Days last time.... I expect a larger order more quickly on this one. (October 19) Guidance weighted income to second half of the year....






MicroVision Begins Shipping Samples to Customers of Its Small Form Factor Display Engine


REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 27, 2016-- MicroVision, Inc. (NASDAQ: MVIS), a leader in innovative ultra-miniature projection display and sensing technology, today announced that it has begun on-schedule customer shipments of samples of its new, small form factor display engine.

* * * * * * *

MicroVision Receives First Order for Small Form Factor Display Engine for $6.7 Million

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar. 15, 2017-- MicroVision, Inc. (NASDAQ: MVIS), a leader in innovative ultra-miniature projection display and sensing technology, today announced that it has received a $6.7 million order for its small form factor display engine (model PSE-0403-103) from an Asian electronics device manufacturer. The customer plans to embed the MicroVision display engines in smartphones.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

The Lost City of the Monkey God & The Most important Sensor

The book club I'm a member of is thick with physicians. They were really enamored with the medical implications of the trip to the jungle highlighted in the book. You don't want  Leishmaniasis -- really you don't.

But this book had a very interesting description of LiDAR and why it was important for exploration. The importance and value of a point cloud. 

Microvision will make it inexpensive and everywhere.... "mid-range LiDar."


CBS This morning -- Lost City


Microvision Twitter

SemiEngineering.com

Reality check
Put in perspective, LiDAR is an well-known technology that has finally found a lucrative market application.
“The principle of LiDAR – the light sent through the pulse and echo of time-of-flight – has not really changed,” said one industry source. “The physics have not changed ever since its invention, for the past 40 years or so. The evolving changes are more in the components and system integration. There’s no fundamental principle change.”
Flash LiDAR has been in development for the past five years, the source noted, likening it to a CMOS image sensor. “This is an area to watch for—the flash LiDAR technology. It promises a very low cost of solution, not necessarily high performance.”
Kevin Watson, senior director of product engineering at Redmond, Wash.-based MicroVision, a publicly held company, disagrees. “I don’t think that’s going to go anywhere,” he said of flash LiDAR. “For many years, the Holy Grail of LiDAR sensors we thought to be a MEMS mirror-based laser scanner, because they’re super-small, relatively inexpensive to manufacture in great quantity, and very reliable. They’re small enough to hide several around an automobile.”
Watson calls LiDAR “the most important sensor” in automotive electronics. “Vision systems are great, but they’re a totally passive system. LiDAR is active.”
But LiDAR also has its limitations. Radar can recognize a wall and has a longer range and it also works in fog, while LiDAR and vision can be confounded. Achieving Level 4 autonomy, the next-to-highest level, is “a ways off,” said Watson, adding that may not be realized for a decade. “It’s a very, very tough problem. It’s just a lot of work.”


Sense: PSE-0403Li-101 3D Sensing Mid-Range LiDAR Engine

To showcase how our PicoP® scanning technology can be applied as a 3D sensor, we’ll be running a demo of our mid-range LiDAR prototype. The demonstration is a development system with some of the capabilities we plan for our commercial engine, of which we expect to ship samples in the second half of this year. Benefits of this cost effective sensing engine include small size, high resolution, low power, dynamic programming of resolution and frame rate to suit applications needs, and low persistence.

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Virtual Retinal Display



Business Wire, Virtual Retinal Display

Americas: largest VRD market
The Americas accounted for almost 92% of the global VRD market in 2016, followed by EMEA. The US is the leading country in the region, followed by Canada. The US is expected to continue to be a leading technology provider due to the presence of companies such as Avegant, Magic Leap, and MicroVision. As the technology is new, these companies will try to capture the American market first, then later try to penetrate the other regions. So, for the next five years, the Americas will be the dominant region for VRD devices. There are several projects related to smart glasses and HMDs lined up, and there is a huge demand for AR technology in the US.
Sunil Kumar Singh, a lead analyst at Technavio for displays research asserts, “The Americas is also one of the earliest adopters of AR, and there are a number of apps being developed for iOS and Android. This gives good potential for VRD technology providers such as MicroVision to penetrate the Americas.”

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Application of 3D Deep sensing laser Scanning...

This one is a gem, so it's been scraped, to retain.

There are a couple of applications that haven't been discussed before shown here, and it's interesting in the technical diagram that there are four specific locations of Microvision mentioned. 

Thank you Tom.

Source

Application of MicroVision 3D Deep Sensing Laser Scanning Technology in Intelligent Home

 2017-07-26
[Program introduction] Product Introduction )
wisdom generally based on residential home-based platform, integrated construction and decoration, network communications, information appliances, equipment, automation technology, systems, structures, services, management integration as one of the efficient, safe, Convenient, environmentally friendly living environment for the wisdom of home appliances, including the wisdom of the door locks, wisdom bulbs, wisdom appliances, smart speakers, smart mirror, smart desk and other equipment. With the acceleration of social information, work, life and communication, the relationship between information is becoming increasingly close. People are more concerned about is to provide a comfortable and safe, energy efficient, with a high degree of human life space. MicroVision 3D Deep Sensing Laser Scanning technology provides an efficient and energy-efficient solution for these intelligent home furnishings.












[Program Features] Product the Feature )
MicroVision 3D depth perception sensing laser scanning technology for the next generation laser scanning system utilizing a laser scanning MicroVision patented projection technology, coupled with an infrared laser diode light, the use of time of flight technique (Time of Flight ), With self-developed ToF chip and algorithm, can provide customers a new real-time video interactive products. The product can make the general projection image, immediately become a touch screen, and even can do gesture control, and also has a small size, low power consumption, no focus, high contrast, high color characteristics, To a new user experience.

MicroVision is the founder of PicoP® scanning technology, an ultra-miniature laser projection and sensing solution based on a laser beam scanning method. MicroVision's platform approach to this advanced display and sensing solution means that it can accommodate a wide range of applications and formal factors. It is an advanced solution for the rapid development of the world forever. Extensive research has made MicroVision an independent recognized leader in the development of intellectual property rights. MicroVision's intellectual property portfolio has been recognized by the Patent Committee as the top 50 intellectual property portfolio in the global industrial company and has been incorporated into the Ocean Tomo 300 patent index. The company is headquartered in Redmond, Wash.

MicroVision Ships First Development Kits of Its Interactive Display Engine

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 2, 2017-- MicroVision, Inc. (NASDAQ: MVIS), a leader in innovative ultra-miniature projection display and sensing technology, today announced that it shipped development kits of its new interactive display engine on-schedule to select customers. The development kit includes a sample of the interactive display engine and a software development kit.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170802005386/en/




MicroVision's PSE-0403sti Interactive Display Engine has a short throw ratio producing images with nearly 2 times the diagonal width of the height of the device. (Photo: Business Wire)

The interactive display engine, model PSE-0403sti, is one of three engines MicroVision has announced it is developing based on the company’s proprietary PicoP® scanning technology, a laser beam scanning (LBS) approach for pico projection and 3D sensing. The PSE-0403sti merges projected display and time-of-flight (TOF) sensing into a single, integrated scanning engine that produces high definition projected images that enable an interactive user experience that mimics the familiar touch interface of a smartphone or tablet. In addition to projecting onto a tabletop surface, the PSE-0403sti also has the capability to project larger images onto a wall or even a ceiling while continuing operating as a 3D TOF scanner.

The PSE-0403sti interactive display engine is an all-in-one unit combining an integrated photonics module (IPM) containing MEMS and lasers, a short throw optic , two photodiodes, and an electronics platform module (EPM) containing MicroVision’s proprietary ASICS and system control software. The short throw optic enables creation of an image that has a diagonal width that is nearly two times the height of the device that houses PSE-0403sti. The engine truly operates in three dimensions with the infinite focus of the projected display and the 3D depth sensing of the TOF sensor. When a user is interacting with the projected image, it will function on non-flat surfaces, and it will operate without interruption when objects or obstructions are introduced into the sensing plane.

The key interactive display engine differentiation points include:

  • Multi-function in one package: 3D TOF sensing and projection functions combined in a single, integrated engine.
  • Multiple 3D sensing modes: 3D point cloud generation that can be converted to touch events and/or gestures to suit the application.
  • Multi-surface operation: both projected display and 3D TOF sensor can operate directed at a tabletop, wall, or ceiling without additional calibration or focus adjustment.
  • Ease of Use: works on any surface: flat, curved, wet, dry, and more; foreign objects entering the field of view won’t interrupt the operation of the system.

To enable touch and gesture applications, MicroVision’s PSE-0403sti interactive display engine collects and outputs 3D point cloud data. Conversion of the 3D point cloud data into specific touch events and/or gesture recognition would be programmed by OEMs and ODMs for their specific products. The development kits MicroVision has shipped will allow the select customers to begin exploring the touch and gesture programming and the industrial design of their potential products.

In addition to the PSE-0403sti interactive display engine, MicroVision plans to offer two other scanning engines: a small form factor display engine and a sensing engine for mid-range LiDAR. The small form factor display engine is available now, and the company is currently shipping units to a customer in China for its smartphone product. The company expects to begin shipping samples of the mid-range LiDAR engine in the first half of 2018 with production readiness planned for later in 2018. MicroVision expects to be ready for customer shipment of production units of the PSE-0403sti interactive display engine by the end of 2017.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

MVIS and STM

Two of more than two.... all I have time for at the moment.

Thanks for the reminder Joe.


Source