Gemba Raises $18M for Executive Training in the Metaverse
... As an educational technology company, Gemba evolved out of an executive training business known as The Leadership Network. But while The Leadership Network utilized more traditional technologies in its approach to workplace training, Gemba is designing training tools for the remote working environment using virtual reality (VR).
Rather than businesses sending their executives to corporate training events, often running up a hefty bill in the process, with Gemba, they can run educational exercises remotely in virtual environments.
Robinson said that Gemba’s VR learning platform has been deployed by some of the largest corporations in the world, including Philips, Pfizer, Nike, Coca-Cola, Caterpillar, Johnson & Johnson, Dell and Amazon, which use the company’s system to train their leaders and senior workforces around the world. ...
See the full story here: https://www.pymnts.com/metaverse/2023/gemba-raises-18m-for-executive-training-in-the-metaverse/
CES: Startup Leverages AI to Address Problematic Acoustics
By Phil Lelyveld
January 9, 2023
There are a growing number of companies working on technologies that strive to make a person’s voice more intelligible to the listener over speakers, headphones, hearing aids and other consumer audio devices. Augmented Hearing, a Danish startup launched two years ago, is one of the more interesting companies at CES 2023 focusing on this space. The firm’s software-based solution runs on iOS, Windows and other CE operating systems. Their solution could mitigate the current trend of people across all age groups turning on closed captioning because they often find video dialogue difficult to understand.
Augmented Hearing, which develops extended earbuds with AI to enhance speech in challenging acoustics, designed its product for first responders and other critical communication situations where loud background noise would be expected and could make critical spoken information difficult to hear.
The company cites public safety, aviation and call centers as just some of the sectors that would benefit from its products.
There are multiple ‘before and after’ demos of the tech at work on the company’s website. They currently achieve 20ms latency on real-time processing, and they expect to achieve 6-8ms latency in the near future for the hearing aid market. That means that the enhancement doesn’t interfere with the natural flow of conversation.
The software was trained primarily on the voices of English speakers, but the solution is language-agnostic and will improve for all languages with more diverse training.
See the original post here: https://www.etcentric.org/ces-startup-leverages-ai-to-address-problematic-acoustics/
CES: Kardome Audio Solution Could Serve Virtual Production
By Phil Lelyveld
January 9, 2023
The rise of virtual production stages has elevated the importance of finding a solution to echoing and sound distortion on the set. A company called Kardome that has created a sound isolation technology and “Spatial Hearing” solution for automobile cabins may have a solution applicable to the virtual stage. At CES, the company was demonstrating targeted speech and voice tech that brings clarity to speech recognition devices. According to Kardome, its “AI-driven Spatial Hearing and noise reduction technology facilitate a seamless voice recognition experience in any acoustic environment, from the quiet to the chaotic.”
“Kardome’s spatial sound analysis algorithms and innovative speech-AI models leverage reverberations and eliminate interfering noises, focusing on the desired speech with unparalleled accuracy,” CEO and co-founder Dani Cherkassky explains on the company’s blog. “As a result, Kardome knows who is talking, where they’re talking from, and what they’re saying in any soundscape.”
Their approach requires N+1 microphones to isolate and capture each voice in a room with N people speaking (for example: five microphones in a room with four people).
Kardome is promoting number of applications for assisting voice-enabled devices “in the office, home, car or other environments,” in addition to those “used in mixed or virtual reality environments.” High-quality voice capture with echo and noise reduction for virtual production stages was not on their radar until we discussed it with them at length. The reps expressed interest in additional conversations on the matter.
See the original post here: https://www.etcentric.org/ces-kardome-audio-solution-could-serve-virtual-production/
CES: Superimaging Creates New Clear Window Display Tech
By Phil Lelyveld
January 9, 2023
Last year we told you about VideowindoW, a high resolution clear-glass display that transforms windows, including the entire glass curtain of a skyscraper, into a black and white video screen. This year at CES, Superimaging Display showcased a proof-of-concept demo of a simpler approach to transparent window displays. The company has developed a thin film embedded with nanophosphors that display visible RGB images when excited by ultraviolet light from a DLP projector. The thin film can be attached to any glass surface, and the image is visible but translucent in daylight.
Superimaging is an advanced materials development research lab based in Fremont, California with many years of industry- and government-funded R&D work, including projects with the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Department of Energy and NASA. Its commercial partners include GM, Volkswagen and Texas Instruments, among others.
According to its website: “Superimaging develops advanced photo-emissive films that convert any glass window or vehicle glass to a haze-free transparent emissive heads-up display screen, with unlimited viewing angles.”
Superimaging hopes to find support to commercialize the product it demonstrated at CES, a technology that could have applications related to advertising, exhibition, sports and more.
See the original post here: https://www.etcentric.org/ces-superimaging-creates-new-clear-window-display-tech/
CES: Contact CI Shows Maestro EP Haptic Feedback Gloves
By Phil Lelyveld
January 8, 2023
Ohio-based startup Contact CI has launched its Maestro EP haptic gloves that work by mirroring the human body’s sheathed tendon design. They provide light- to moderate-haptic feedback by pulling on a cloth sock covering each fingertip. There is also vibrotactile feedback technology in the glove’s fingertips. The “multi-force ergonomic haptics” product is compatible with any system designed for hand tracking (for example: Meta Quest 2). The Department of Defense and enterprises are already purchasing the gloves at $3,750 a pair, primarily for simulation training purposes, while Contact CI continues to improve the design for a wider commercial rollout.
Unlike other haptic feedback gloves that use a mechanical rigging on the back of the hand to physically push and pull on fingertips, the Maestro EP has sheathed cables that move imperceptibly between the forearm-mounted mechanism housing and the fingertips. The lightweight housing looks bulky, but during my demo inside a VR headset it had no impact on my experience. That is probably because it is sewn into the forearm sheath so the glove and forearm move as a unit.
All of the haptic feedback is in the fingertips so pushing buttons and flipping switches is a natural and effective application. However, catching objects was less effective because they involve your palm more than your fingertips.
In Contact CI’s CES 2023 press release, USAF simulator chief innovation officer Margaret Merkel weighed in on the quality of the Maestro DK3 haptic interactions: “Contact CI has done an excellent job of blending force feedback and vibrotactile feedback, they have been able to create complex tangible interactions like switchology tasks inside VR cockpits while using a wireless lightweight wearable glove.”
While Contact CI is selling the gloves in their current form, it is clear from the care required to put the gloves on properly that the design has to be made simpler and more robust. However, their embedded cable approach enables them to withstand rugged use, so they have the potential of being a successful consumer peripheral product.
See the original post here: https://www.etcentric.org/ces-contact-ci-shows-maestro-ep-haptic-feedback-gloves/
CES: Magic Leap 2 Exhibits Impressive Dimming Capabilities
By Phil Lelyveld
January 7, 2023
The most impressive feature of the Magic Leap 2 demo at CES 2023 involves Global and Segmented Dimming. Global Dimming is a feature that dims the entire display without dimming digital content to make text and images more solid and precise. Segmented Dimming dims specific portions of the display to enhance legibility and clarity of selected content, and can also be used to focus attention to areas or components of interest. Both of these features produced outstanding visual results during our CES demo. Segmented Dimming produced very bright digital objects in front of a well-lit room, while Global Dimming could be used for VR immersion.
Magic Leap describes the $3,299 ML2, which launched last year, as “the most immersive enterprise device.” The company emphasizes an AR wearable that is secure (“enterprises retain control of their data … store data anywhere and use any preferred cloud setup”), open (choice, ease of use, and support on an open platform — Android AOSP-based) and collaborative (“collaborate in real time across time zones”).
At its CES booth, Magic Leap is promoting applications for a range of key areas such as enterprise, design, manufacturing, training and medical. Booth demos of AR solutions on ML2 include Cisco Webex Hologram and Nvidia’s Omniverse, among others. The company also debuted its new remote assistance reference application, Magic Leap Assist.
Chief exec Peggy Johnson announced during AMD’s keynote that ML2 is the first AR device to earn IEC 60601 certification, a collection of tech standards to ensure the safety and effectiveness of medical equipment.
The field of view is currently 70 degrees, which may need to be widened going forward. Resolution is 1440×1760 per eye, with a 120 Hz refresh rate and 2000 nits maximum brightness. Four eye-tracking cameras constantly adjust the lenses to avoid eye strain.
The Magic Leap rep called the current version of hand tracking “rudimentary.” The wire frame hand came close to overlapping on my hand in AR mode as it did a good job tracking my movements. More impressively, the Segmented Dimming rendered my hand invisible while clearly displaying the wire frame hand.
See the original post here: https://www.etcentric.org/ces-magic-leap-2-exhibits-impressive-dimming-capabilities/
CES: The NPD Group Analyzes Changes in Consumer Trends
By Phil Lelyveld
January 5, 2023
The NPD Group’s Paul Gagnon and Ben Arnold presented “7 Ways the CE Consumer Has Changed” in the last few years. U.S. consumer attitudes and behaviors changed from early-pandemic lockdown to the slow reopening, and then the fear of inflation and recession. In general, consumers are buying more for individuals than for shared home experiences, they have equipped themselves for remote work which may suppress future sales until they are ready to upgrade, and they buy when bargains appear even if they plan to actually open them for a holiday or special occasion.
Gagnon and Arnold addressed the following trends identified by The NPD Group.
Consumers are willing to pay more: Prices went up during the pandemic due to shortages and supply chain disruptions. That primed consumers for decreased price sensitivity just as prices started to go up due to inflation.
Non-traditional shopping seasons grow: Amazon created Prime Day in July as a global purchasing event. Other retail firms have built on both Prime Day and Black Friday; for example, Best Buy (October 10-12), Target (October 6-8) and Walmart (October 10-13).
Demographic changes matter: In 2022 consumers with incomes over $100K per year accounted for 46 percent of all consumer tech spending. Consumers ages 18-24 spent the most on notebook PCs, ages 25-34 led TV purchases, ages 35-44 were the largest purchasers of notebook gaming PCs, ages 45-54 were the largest cohort for desktop gaming PCs, and ages 55+ bought a significantly higher share of tablets.
Tech products are essential: The spike in work-from-home and remote schooling drove a spike in tech resource purchases. Consumers are buying for individuals within the household rather than shared resources for the household. Looking forward, 31 percent say that they will cut back on buying tech products in 2023, while only 25 percent plan to cut back on gaming and streaming.
Online and social shopping: The e-commerce share of total tech dollars spent increased from 44 percent in 2019 to 57 percent in 2022. This includes online purchases for both home delivery and in-store pick-up at brick-and-mortar retailers. Additionally, 20 percent of consumers plan to use social media to research products, a bump from past responses.
Technology to make life better: Item trackers, like the Apple AirTag, have achieved 41 percent revenue growth in 2022. Digital health tech similarly showed 31 percent revenue growth.
Flexible work: Desktop monitor sales grew 78 percent in 2020 and another 7 percent in 2021.
Looking toward the near future, The NPD Group is watching experimentation with features-as-a-service. Last November, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would lock faster acceleration for its EQ electric models behind a $1,200 annual pay wall. NPD posited it is possible that a display manufacturer may make one full-featured device and sell it at different price points and subscription levels depending on which features are unlocked at the point of sale.
See the original post here: https://www.etcentric.org/ces-the-npd-group-analyzes-changes-in-consumer-trends/