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CES 2012: a recap and analysis

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:40:31 +0000

This year’s CES was the biggest in the show’s 44-year history, boasting 15 miles of exhibit hall aisles, 3,100 booths and 153,000 attendees. The Kerton Group sent three delegates to CES to scout out new products, listen to keynotes, watch announcements and get tips from insiders. This report, which bundles those findings together, serves as an outline of the major launches and overarching trends at CES (think smartphones for $0, Androidification and connectivity) as well as an analysis of what those developments mean for the larger consumer electronics picture. Companies mentioned in this report include Apple, Tesla and T-Mobile. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial.

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NewNet Q4: Platform mania and social commerce shakeout

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:39:31 +0000

The fourth quarter may have lacked a dominating big-event product announcement like Q3’s Facebook platform extension or Q2’s unveiling of Google+, but the NewNet world continued to buzz along. In the battle for mind share, everyone wanted to be a platform. Meanwhile, consumer and social technologies continued to gain momentum, and new vehicles for content and service discovery presented both challenges and opportunities for NewNet companies. And it is hard to ignore the overcrowded but growing world of daily deals. This quarterly report analyzes these trends and others, and it also provides a near-term outlook of trends, technologies and companies to watch in 2012. Companies mentioned in the report include Amazon, Facebook and Socialcast. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial.

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Comcast bringing Skype video chat into the living room

Ryan Lawler — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 22:00:26 +0000

Comcast has partnered with Skype to bring its video chat service to subscriber living rooms. The partnership, which is being announced at the Cable Show on Monday, will make it easy for consumers to take advantage of high-quality video conferencing with friends and family through their HDTV sets and Comcast broadband connection.

Comcast subscribers will be able to video chat with any other Skype user, whether those Skype friends are connected through PCs, mobile phones or tablets or connected TVs. To do so, Comcast will provide users with an adapter box, a video camera that sits atop their TV or home entertainment center, and a specialized remote control that will let users text on Skype while also controlling their TV.

Subscribers with the Skype equipment installed can then make and receive video and audio calls from the comfort of their living rooms, or send instant messages to other Skype users while also watching TV. When users call them, the system will display a caller ID message through the TV. Comcast subscribers will also be able to interact with the home video conferencing system through compatible mobile phone and tablet apps.

The Comcast deal could give Skype a boost in growing the home video chat market. While it has been trying to expand the number of connected devices through which consumers can access its video chat service, Skype has largely been held back by additional hardware that is needed to make those services possible. Skype users can now video chat from some Panasonic and Samsung connected TVs, but they need compatible video cameras to do so — and those cameras can cost $130 to $170 each.

Comcast could make the Skype video chat equipment available for a small monthly fee, effectively subsidizing the equipment purchase in the same way it leases the cost of DVRs and digital set-top boxes. And with nearly 23 million subscribers, Comcast gives Skype a huge addressable customer base for HD video chat in the living room. But Comcast isn’t Skype’s only major entry into the living room; with its acquisition by Microsoft, the video chat service is expected to be integrated into existing products by the software giant, including its Xbox Kinect video chat service.

For Comcast, partnering with Skype gives it the possibility of yet another value-added service to offer subscribers. Last week, Comcast announced the availability of a broadband-powered home security system, for instance. Not only do those services help drive up average revenue per subscriber, but they also help make Comcast’s services more sticky with consumers, reducing the probability that they will drop Comcast as their service provider.

Comcast and Skype say that the combined service will enter trials in the next few months, and will make the service generally available to customers later this year.

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The Wii U will help make video chat mainstream

Ryan Lawler — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 20:15:49 +0000

CE manufacturers and services like Skype and Logitech Vid have long promised the ability to video chat with friends and family from the comfort of one’s living room, but so far, the consumer video chat market has been largely confined to the PC, with mobile video chat becoming a somewhat recent phenomenon. But video chatting from the couch might no longer be some Jetsons-esque fantasy: Video chat technologies are beginning to appear in game consoles, making them available to the wider mass market.

The new Wii U controller — just announced this morning — has a video camera built in, opening the door for video chat in the living room to a whole new generation of gamers. For many gamers — especially youngsters that Nintendo targets — the Wii U will be the first mass market device to enable them to video chat with their friends.

But Nintendo isn’t the console maker seeing this opportunity. Last fall, Microsoft introduced its Kinect gesture control system, which also has a built-in video camera and video chat service, Video Kinect. Microsoft has already sold 10 million Kinect units, and by combining its existing video chat services with the newly acquired Skype service, Microsoft could instantly have not just a huge install base of video chat users, but the ability to reach tens of millions of them in the living room.

There’s a growing demand for video chat from consumers, as seen by the rush to let users connect with one another on mobile devices. But video chat implementations in the living room so far have been disappointing. Making video chat services available through game consoles removes a lot of the friction and cost that has historically kept those services from going mainstream. They don’t need to install software on a TV or a set-top box to make it work, nor do they have to even buy any peripherals — like a special webcam — to make the services work. Instead, video chat is just there, as an added bonus on a piece of hardware they bought for another purpose.

Just as consumers bought the Xbox for gaming but later discovered other applications — such as watching streaming videos from Netflix — they could also begin leveraging the gaming machines they already have to chat with friends from the comfort of their living rooms.

All of which is to say that while video chat applications on game consoles are positive for the market as a whole, they’re bad for standalone hardware manufacturers or peripheral makers that are looking to latch onto other services. Cisco, for instance, has had a hard time gaining traction for its incredibly overpriced Umi consumer video chat service. Meanwhile, companies like Logitech – which makes many of the peripheral video cameras for connected TVs — will have a hard time competing with video cameras that actually come as a part of the Wii U controller or Kinect system.

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Software + Webcam = Gesture Controlled Devices

Kevin C. Tofel — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:45:33 +0000

Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect accessory might have the spotlight when it comes to gesture technology, but it’s not the only game in town. EyeSight, an Israel-based firm, was founded back in 2004 and focuses solely on touch-free interfaces for mobile devices. Tomorrow, the company will announce support for mobile computers and tablets running Google Android or Microsoft Windows: using the integrated front-facing camera on a device, one can control and navigate the user interface with the wave of a hand.

According to eyeSight, its Touch Free technology is ideal for activities that until now have been shackled to the keyboard. Gestures are suited for remotely controlling media playback, page turns for e-book reading, slideshow presentations and other navigation tasks that can be handled through gestures. The eyeSight solution is clever in that requires no additional hardware as integrated cameras are now a staple of netbooks, notebooks, tablets and other handheld devices.

EyeSight’s Touch Free solution leverages existing hardware by using software for real-time image processing and algorithms to interpret gestures. The company claims the technology has a small footprint and minimal hit to the device processor, which is important in terms of overall performance and battery life: gesture navigation is great, but if it slows down a computer or causes the battery to run down twice as fast, it’s not likely going to face adoption. And for gesture controls to gain traction, we need to see more natural computing user interfaces in the future.

In terms of that traction, I asked the company about its distribution model because I have both an Android tablet and an addiction to making myself look stupid in front of a gesture-based device like the Kinect. Some Symbian S60 smartphones support Ovi Store games that leverage eyeSight’s technology, but the company doesn’t currently offer its software for direct download to individual consumers. Instead, eyeSight is trying to crack the device manufacturer market by selling technology licenses. These could be used to fully integrate eyeSight into a device and bring gestures into the entire user experience of a notebook, tablet or handset.

Given the current interest in gesture based gaming and navigation, now might be a good time for eyeSight to build buzz and make its software available directly to consumers. I know I’d wave hello to it on my Android devices to see how well it worked. Would you?

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Guess Who Microsoft’s Kinect is Making Rich?

Om Malik — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:30:30 +0000

Last week when Microsoft reported earnings for its most recent quarter, Peter Klein, chief financial officer with the company waxed eloquent about the success of Kinect, a new kind of controller based on motion sensing gesture technology. [GigaOM.tv Video: Watch Kinect in action.]

Kinect, in particular, exceeded our expectation. Kinect is the fastest-selling consumer electronics device in history. It’s just our first step in delivering on the opportunity to fundamentally change the way people interact with technology. Kinect exceeded all expectations with 8 million stand-alone and bundled sensors sold in just 60 days. (Microsoft conference call transcript via Seeking Alpha.)

The success of Kinect, however, is having a bigger impact on a smaller company, which has been all but forgotten for nearly a decade – JDSU. The Milpitas, Calif-based company makes all sort of gear – from testing equipment to optical components.

It is mostly infamous for being one of the biggest companies of telecom bubble that plunged from heavenly heights straight into demonic hell. It has merged, scrimped, scavenged and retreated through the past decade. Things aren’t peachy just yet, but it seems there is some hope for the company – thanks to the growing popularity of gesture technology.

JDSU makes two different technologies which apparently are being used in Kinect, though the company refuses to identify its customers. These technologies are:

High-performance diode (light source) technology – illuminates a person from a gesture recognition system/3D camera/set top box and reflects data from the person’s movements back into the system.
Optical coatings technology – filters out unwanted incoming data and allows only data from the person’s movements to be incorporated back into the gesture recognition system.

The information about a person’s movements is mapped into a 3D image and then included in an application. This could be used in Kinect type gaming scenario or perhaps for navigating through menus of televisions and cable set-top boxes.

The second example is particularly intriguing because as Internet and traditional television worlds merge, we will find discovery of content a big challenge, and beyond the scope of current remote controls.

“Gesture recognition in gaming is getting a lot of visibility, but we see this thing expanding,” said Thomas Waechter, chief executive of JDSU. “We think there’s a lot of opportunity in interfacing with TV sets, interfacing with PCs; home lighting and security, automotive and military. It’s getting set up to expand into a lot of areas.” (Investor Business Daily)

For now, Kinect is clearly the driver behind gesture technologies – Citibank Research estimates that Microsoft will ship about 19.2 million Kinect controllers over next 18 months. According to estimates from Mark Sue, analyst with RBC Capital Markets, a research firm, JDSU is bringing in about $4 per Kinect controller. JDSU’s Kinect connect hasn’t gone unnoticed – over past three months, JDSU stock has jumped nearly 70 percent, enough for analysts to issue cautionary notes.

Still, the shift to these technologies is underway. It makes perfect sense – our interaction with digital information is getting more complex and we have to move beyond the mouse and text metaphor to be more productive. Microsoft clearly has made gesture based technologies an area of focus – it snapped up Canesta – a start-up that specialized in such technologies. It seems it will only be a matter of time before mobile handset makers and computer makers such as Apple start incorporating gesture-based technologies into their products.

Here is a short list of companies playing in the gesture food chain:

Chips: Applied Micro, Texas Instruments, Analog Devices
Optical components: JDSU
Integrators: Hitachi, Tessera, eLaser
IP: PrimeSense, Optrima, Canesta (Microsoft), GestureTek, Softkinetic and Elliptic Labs.

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Kinect and the Power of Big Broadband

Om Malik — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 18:30:54 +0000

Whichever way you slice it, I am not much of a fan of Microsoft products. Sure I like the Microsoft Office for Mac, but beyond that, I don’t think any Redmond-based products make much of an impact in my daily life. That was up until Microsoft introduced Kinect and its motion-capture technology that is in equal parts astounding, joyful and amazing.

To say I am besotted with it would be an understatement. Kinect, which on its own is pretty awesome, becomes even more powerful when it’s married to an Internet connection. The higher the speeds, the more the possibilities. Ironically, this seemingly fun technology is also showing us the need for bigger broadband pipes and the possibilities that raw speed can open up.

Today, many believe there isn’t much needed for pipes that go beyond 25 – 40 Mbps, contending that those speeds are good enough for surfing the web, Facebook-ing, Tweeting, emails and watching Netflix. If one has to understand why we need bigger pipes we need to think differently, and imagine new uses. As Albert Einstein once said: “The specific problems we face cannot be solved using the same patterns of thought that were used to create them.”

Tomorrow’s problems, and thus the opportunities are illustrated by some of the recent hacks around Kinect. Fredrik Ryden, a student at University of Washington developed a piece of software that allows Kinect to create 3-D maps of a patient’s body which can be used in tandem with force feedback technology and medical robots for surgeries.

“For robotics-assisted surgeries, the surgeon has no sense of touch right now,” said Howard Chizeck, UW professor of electrical engineering. “What we’re doing is using that sense of touch to give information to the surgeon, like ‘You don’t want to go here.’” “We could define basically a force field around, say, a liver,” said Chizeck. “If the surgeon got too close, he would run into that force field and it would protect the object he didn’t want to cut.” [The Daily]

This could also be used for remote surgeries, Chizeck contends, but broadband speeds would need to be faster in rural areas that might see the most benefit and most importantly, latency would have to be at 1 millisecond or less according to Cisco. And Chizeck isn’t the only one who is excited. A team from MIT Media Lab has developed a new tool that makes it possible to use Kinect to stream holographic video.

Right now, the system takes data from Kinect, and using an off-the-shelf laptop, streams an image over an Internet connection which is decoded on the receiving machine using three commercial graphic processing units. Currently, the data is sent at a frame rate of 15 frames per second, but in the near future, it will hit 24 frames per second.

The set-up generates about 1.5 gigabytes of data per second, which means it needs a really fat brand pipe to transmit the information. Given that you need a special holographic display, it would be a while before this technology becomes mainstream, but it does show you possibilities.

Kinect, also validates Einstein’s other astute observation– “Play is the highest form of research.”

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