New Florence. New Renaissance.

ESPN’s 80+ cameras at Indy 500

“On the new DW12 chassis, we've been able to work with Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IZOD IndyCar Series and the chassis developers to install four cameras on every car,” said Rich Feinberg, ESPN vice president, motorsports production.  “If we achieve our goal of 12 cars, that would be 48 onboard cameras, which is a first in terms of volume for us. Additionally, for the first time, all the cars that have systems will offer our viewers driver shots which we've not been able to do in many, many years.”

Feinberg added that ESPN will also return to Indianapolis with its “Batcam,” a camera that provides unique views running on a cable over pit road and the frontstretch and can move at more than 80 mph. “We can use it for beauty shots, crowd shots… we can also use it for coverage as the cars are coming down the frontstretch headed towards turn one,” Feinberg said. “It’s an exciting shot, unique to that racetrack, and offers some glorious views of the pageantry of the Indianapolis 500.”

TV Technology

The exciting finish at last year’s race

Digital Cat and Mouse

I went into sleuth mode thinking through the m.o. of the SAP executive who is alleged to have pasted fraudulent barcodes on LEGO toys at Target stores in California. Did the cashiers not notice the description of the items on the receipt were different from the items? Were there any self check-out lanes in those stores? Does Target not segregate the payment from the delivery step for high valued or bulky items as some other stores do?

While the detailed steps probably varied, this arrest warrant from Montgomery County, PA in November 2011 describes a similar operation against Target stores in a different part of the country. It involves similar UPC tampering on Dyson vacuums and Bose speakers in addition to Lego sets. The eBay sale process of those items under assumed names and the money laundering of the proceeds is even more elaborate.

I was amazed at the complexity of the theft – seems like a lot of work and risk for a net gain of $ 50 or $ 100 on an item. I was also impressed at how much technology they likely used to decide which items to target, the UPC code home printing (good quality to not attract attention), the eBay sale process, the payment laundering. In reverse, get a feel for the technology Target and the banks and law enforcement used - Target’s surveillance tapes, the POS data analysis, the identity tracking (driver’s license etc) and money trail analysis. For more elaborate and much less sophisticated similar scams read this article here.

I post this on my innovation blog with a sense of awe. Not because I condone such crimes, but to reflect how much more complex “shop lifting” and its investigation have become.  

Picture of UPC Code I generated using this site for a package of Ramen noodles. Retail value = 12c. Seriously high value :) 

Sprint’s HD Voice

Senior electronics editor Mike Gikas had an opportunity to try HD Voice, which is currently available only for the HTC EVO 4G LTE on Sprint. He was impressed: "When speaking on the older EVO model, voices sounded typically tinny. But on the EVO 4G LTE, it was as though the Sprint rep was speaking directly into my ear. I could even hear the sound of his lips moving."

Consumer Reports

Next-gen Heads-up Displays

Microvision's system uses a set of three lasers—red, green and blue—and a single, millimeter-wide silicon mirror that tilts on two axes. The lasers put out light at different intensities, and the three colors are mixed to produce the final pixel color. As the lasers shine light on the mirror, it rapidly scans horizontally and vertically, painting the image onto the windshield one pixel at a time. This happens so fast that the image looks static. Evans says that the lasers' pure, saturated colors result in more vivid images with a higher contrast ratio, so they are visible in daylight. Illuminating one pixel at a time also saves energy. And the use of a single mirror rather than an array makes the device smaller, simpler, and cheaper.

MIT Technology Review

Some light reading on SAP HANA

From this week’s  ACM SIGMOD/PODS Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, a paper by Dr. Vishal Sikka and others at SAP

“Within this paper, we highlight the main features that differentiate the SAP HANA database from classical relational database engines. Therefore, we
outline the general architecture and design criteria of the SAP HANA in a first step. In a second step, we challenge the common belief that column store data structures are only superior in analytical workloads and not well suited for transactional workloads.”

Download PDF below. Thanks to Nenshad Bordoliwalla for sharing,

Download Efficient transaction processing in SAP HANA database - the end of a column store myth

Safelite: Mobile Windshield Repair

My son recently shattered his rear window on a fishing trip (don’t ask). It was a write-off which the dealer had to replace and re-tint, but I considered calling Safelite, which makes repairing windshield chips a breeze.

Once a mobile repair appointment is confirmed, the company sends the customer an email containing the name, picture and background information of the technician who will be sent to complete the work on their vehicle via email.The email also contains other pertinent information such as appointment time, claim number, vehicle information and insurance claim data.

The tech injects liquid resin into the damaged area using Glass Medic technology, seals it with Mylar and hardens the resin with ultra-violet rays.

Here’s even better news.   Many insurance companies cover the claim in full – even waive the deductible for glass repair since it is much cheaper than replacement.

The Factory Floor as Classroom

Indeed, the leapfrogging of ivory tower with factory floor puts the lessons of each in context so that theory becomes concrete and actual business problems and technical issues inform class discussion. "At GE, they try to get you to do more critical thinking" rather than just following instructions, Kirievich says. "You get to see technology in action, and you get to see how things are done in the real world."

She hopes to get hired by GE when she graduates. The Georgia Tech Graduate Co-operative Education Program, which according to CEED is the nation's largest among engineering and science programs, counts nearly 750 grad students working in paid co-op assignments. Half hail from the engineering school; most are getting master's degrees, while some are working toward a Ph.D.

US News and World Report

Photo Credit – U. of Cincinnati which has been offering a co-op program since 1906

When Jobs met Bezos, Doerr and Kamen

I set next to a gentleman on a flight last week who marveled at how the author of a book he was reading made him feel he was at Gettysburg during the battle 150 years ago. It made me realize this short read about a 2 hour meeting in 2003 took me off and running in just as many ways.

John Doerr, the Kleiner Perkins lead investor, Steve Jobs of Apple and Jeff Bezos of Amazon are providing design and product launch feedback to Dean Kamen’s team about the Segway personal transporter, then code named Ginger. Kamen is a brilliant serial entrepreneur with over 400 patents to his name.

Jobs, Bezos, Doerr and Kamen in one room.

Think of the firepower. Listen to Jobs and Bezos talk about global trends and threats a decade ago. Listen to their keenness on design excellence.  Listen to Jobs’ views on outsourcing manufacturing even back then. Listen to his philosophy on big bang launches. Listen to them debate intellectual property theft and exclusive component sourcing philosophies.

I was fascinated Jobs had such mature (and opinionated) thinking about so many product areas long before the learnings from the iPhone and iPad processes. I wondered how much Bezos was influenced by that meeting as Amazon built its Kindle. I marveled at Doerr’s ability to invest in so many revolutionary technologies in so many sectors. I also salivated at Doerr’s network and for his ability to pull such a group together (Jobs was a neighbor and he is on Amazon’s board). I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when Kamen and Jobs met the day before at Jobs’ house. I wondered if any of them would today hold such a critical meeting at the San Francisco Airport Hyatt ( a perfectly fine overnight hotel) given today’s security and surveillance paranoia. And yes, I wondered what other colorful language Jobs used during the meeting. 

Photo Credit

Social Security Statement goes online

“Social Security has gone digital. The federal retirement program, which last year stopped mailing out estimated benefit statements to everyone who has paid into the system, launched an Internet tool this month that can be used to view several aspects of your personal status.”

Los Angeles Times

Recognizing how squeamish people may be about the "security" of a site about Social Security data, it allows for a cell phone alert feature when your account is being accessed and in the set up process, the validation questions reflect your personal history from the Experian credit database.

 

The Lytro dissertation

NetSuite last week kindly gave a few of us the revolutionary Lytro light field camera (Lytro is one of NetSuite’s growing base of fast-growing tech companies). The video below shows off its very different look and feel and functionality.

My friend Michael Krigsman, who is a great photographer and has written guest columns for this blog, suggested I read founder Ren Ng’s Ph.D dissertation at Stanford which explains the principles behind light field photography. It is an easy read, if 200 pages, available here