Development in any field is closely associated with the growth of technology. Cricket is no exception. Technological advancement is an indispensable part of the game now. Analytics and numbers determine the value of a player and every move is closely monitored to determine his strengths and weaknesses. A small fault can be easily exploited with the assistance of sophisticated software.

In this scenario, when a batsman or a bowler shows rapid progress at the international level, it indicates the humongous amount of work hes put in to strengthen his technicalities. He works hard at developing his repertoire.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Virat Kohli have created history in Test cricket. The former became the fastest to reach 250 Test wickets and the latter scored double century in four consecutive series. These feats are extraordinary to say the least.

Gone are the days when the game was played for fun. The young players entertained the crowd with their talent.

I wonder if those players would have succeeded the same way in todays world when subjected to scrutiny every single time.

Juggling formats

The modern generation of players are juggling with three formats of the game. They have to constantly change their approach without disturbing the base of the technique. The aspects that matter shot selections, variations of bowling have to be right. Alas, they hardly have the time to practice the technique.

The variables also change with formats. In Tests, solid technique and patience are of utmost importance. Whereas in a shorter format, patience goes for a toss. Its the strike and economy rates that matter the most.

Against this background, when a player performs exceedingly well, it is a reflection of his intelligence and hard work.

There is no room for imperfection here. Both Kohli and Ashwin seem to have really worked hard at the nets to ensure the perfection they want to achieve.

If Kohlis geometrical precision in his batting and fitness are commendable, Ashwin has relentlessly worked on his variations.

He is mesmerising them by using different tactics. He keeps the batsmen guessing which gives him an upper hand.

His manoeuvre reminds one of the duel between Ian Chappell and E.A.S. Prasanna in the 1969 series. Ian Chappell, Ian Redpath and Doug Walters continuously challenged Prasanna and Bedi even on rank bad turners by stepping out to them. This approach benefited them.

Before the advent of technology, the spin bowlers had more difficulties picking up wickets. That was an era when the batsmen played sweep shots after misjudging the line. Even the umpires were reluctant to uphold a leg before wicket appeal.

Things are different now. There is a significant increase in the number of LBW dismissals due to the DRS. In the nine Tests that have been played this season, Ashwin has bagged a total of 61 wickets out of which 15 are LBW. Out of the 48 wickets that Jadeja pocketed so far, 12 are LBW. The percentage of LBW dismissals can be gauged from these figures: which are 28 and 32 respectively.

Unlike some of earlier teams this Australian team has practised at Dubai on slow turners. The players are an attacking lot. The added advantage for them is that most players have played in the IPL and are accustomed to the pitches here.

Though there are four to five left-handers, their attacking style could still be nerve-racking for Indian bowlers.

Employing the sweep

The Australians have also revealed that sweep is their only way to tackle spinners. When Matthew Hayden swept against the left-arm spinners, it is important to note that barring Harbhajan Singh, others were of poor quality. This approach cannot be followed blindly now.

Ravindra Jadeja is a wicket to wicket line bowler who cant be swept away that easily. He is a smart customer. With his accuracy, the advantage of DRS will be in his favour. The Australians will have to tread carefully and have a better game plan.

When it comes to swing bowling, both the teams have skilful bowlers to perplex the batsmen with their talent. While the visitors are aware of the reverse swing that Indian seamers use effectively with SG Test ball, they too have bowlers of higher speed to bamboozle Indian batsmen with reverse swing. It will be riveting to see what combination both the teams choose.

The series against Australia is a big one. Considering Indias triumph in all formats and the visitors aggressive nature, this will certainly be an exciting one. Deep analysis, numbers and software have given a whole new meaning to game plan.

It is obvious that the visitors will dissect each move and plan a counter-attack of their own. The first Test will set the tone for the entire series and it will be exhilarating to watch if India can continue its winning streak with its formidable team.

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Technology is an integral part of cricket now - The Hindu

As one who listened to the Micron (NASDAQ:MU) 2017 Analyst Day who has been following this company for a while, I came away with two principal thoughts. First, and undeniably, there was a lot of good news delivered for Micron's shareholders. The company's leaders made a compelling case in every business line that the future prospects for Micron have never been brighter.

The second thought followed close on the heels of the first and grows directly out of that good news. Micron can't afford to fund its very bright future. So here on to the message of this brief article: the company's future progress will be hindered if the Board does not act decisively to find a deep-pocketed partner that will enable Micron to take advantage of its emergent strategic technology strength.

I realize that there is a lot that needs to be unpacked regarding these two items, so much that it simply can't be contained in one single article so consider this piece a strategic summary that will be followed with several more detailed pieces on the key areas that investors need to be aware of going forward. For now, though, here's the big picture.

Short term (this FY '17), Micron has a license to make lots of money in the memory business. I'm on record predicting $3 for the year, and I now think that is low, perhaps significantly so. Electric Phred's recent piece projecting a possible $4.45 is an excellent analysis of the best-case scenario for this year. It's unlikely we'll see that much but an outcome north of $3 is certainly possible. The question for the stock, however, is how much of that bonanza gets priced into the shares. Here we go again. In the end, in good times and bad, Micron's stock performance is always about the multiple, and the low multiple is always a function of deep and abiding doubts about the ability of the company to overcome the business cycle and show consistent performance.

I believe the company presented compelling evidence that the long-term growth prospects are excellent. Specifically, the company is capable of taking market share in NAND and new memories over the balance of the decade and well into the next. It will see DRAM share gains this year and next, but it is in NAND and new memories that the share gains will be the most pronounced. For me that's the biggest thing from the day. If the '17 news was good, the FY '18 and '19 news was potentially way better. Here's why.

Let's look at three of the slides. Exhibit 1 is this slide that rather confusingly expresses Micron's confident assertion of a 25% NAND cost advantage at the 64-layer level, something that DeBoer confirmed in the Q&A in the following exchange:

Q."Does the 25% die size advantage at 64L translate to cost advantage."

A. "It absolutely translates to cost." [..] We have no concerns with our yield curves on this technology." - Scott DeBoer, VP Technology

The second slide of interest is this one:

Here's what really strikes me on this slide with its associated comments:

The yields on the 32L are equal to planar MLC - probably low-mid 90% range."Meaningful" output on 64L (Gen 2) late this fiscal year - translated - greater than 10% of the 3DN bits will be 64L where the big cost advantage kicks in. Gen 3 (probably a 96L die) is close behind Gen2 with manufacturing start-up this calendar year. QLC. (Translation - 4 bits per cell) This could be the real sleeper of the presentation in terms of its impact on Micron's share gain potential. "Aligned to market potential" means that Micron is doing this at the behest of the hyperscalers and will ship it into that market if it meets certain (unspecified) requirements. At the 64L node this technology could take big swathes of HDD in the "warm" storage tier.

Finally, the best slide of all, the slide where Micron claims it has a strategic technology advantage over the long term:

This slide was offered alongside a lengthy colloquy by Scott DeBoer that was really quite remarkable for a company as buttoned down and as loathe to hyperbole Micron is (Think of DeBoer as the anti-Rob Crooke). I highly recommend that you listen for yourself (38:10 in the webcast audio), but the gist of it is that bringing a new memory to market is very hard because it takes a long time and it must overtake an old technology that is also advancing. Micron has two new memories that meet that imposing criteria in addition to having the best NAND technology on the market.

First, 3D XPoint [XP]. According to DeBoer:

"This is actually the only commercially ready high density memory technology on the market right now [ ] and there's a lot of interest in this. [But] we're focused on the next two generations and those two generations are going to give substantial cost and performance increases compared to the current [product]. We have high confidence in that roadmap."

This rather innocuous statement needs translating for those of you new to Micron and the industry because it has immense implications. Because of the cloud of mystery that has surrounded XP since its announcement in 2015 there has been great doubt that the product could be cost-effectively scaled. The implication of this claim being that XP would be something of a one-trick pony that would have a relatively short shelf life commercially - if it gained commercial viability at all. The problem you see was that the cross-point arrays were too litho intensive and that wouldn't allow the technology to be scaled. Here's a flavor of the skepticism in the tech community in the form of a slide from Dave Eggleston's presentation at FMS '15. Note the comment at the bottom of the slide:

The bottom bullet is pretty much the conventional wisdom in the industry. Here's a Paul Alcorn article from "Tom's Hardware" citing the views of Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) and SanDisk (now Western Digital (NYSE:WDC)):

[] A Samsung whitepaper presented in 2012, [] contends that 3D crosspoint architectures are not scalable in a cost-effective manner over the long term. The lithography tools and the need for EUV for advanced nodes (which IMFT has acknowledged for 3D XPoint) are significant barriers, along with the number of lithography steps. It's noteworthy that SanDisk has also expressed a similar opinion that 3D crosspoint architectures aren't scalable--and it speaks from experience, since it has shipped multi-layer crosspoint architectures in volume in the past. [] IMFT may have the silver bullet to solve the production challenges, but it's apparent that other industry heavyweights are skeptical."

So much for that problem. DeBoer's assertion that he has "high confidence" in "substantial" XP scaling is enormous news for Micron in the mid-term - think 2019 to 2023. The story that comes together on the slide is the positioning of XP vis--vis ReRAM (resistive RAM), which has generally been assumed to be the natural heir to the mid-range NVM crown. Note DeBoer's positioning - XP is higher performance and less costly than the potential competitive technology.

Contrast DeBoer's slide with what is still the industry's view of how the future technologies will play out:

Source - Western Digital Corporation

Overlaying DeBoer's chart with the WDC chart, you would find XP positioned to the left and below ReRAM with a performance/cost oval bisecting the green background. Notice the die cost positioning on the log chart. DeBoer is positioning the future generations of XP significantly less than the ReRAM cost which is shown ranging from $.15 to $.30 per GB (Note: this is NOT where Gen 1 XP is today).

Here's DeBoer again from the webcast:

"The substantial challenge [is to] find an intercept point for that technology where it is meaningful when it gets there. If you look at the commercially viable technologies today and project where they are going to be in five years or so you see a couple of trends here. One is for a new technology to be in this bottom quadrant on the performance versus cost-per-it graph both NAND and 3D XPoint have very significant cost reduction paths over the next few years. So this is very much a moving target for any new memory to intercept [] with a cost profile that makes it significant and enables a market at the same time. So the opportunity there for prospective [replacement] technologies [] is very challenging."

When DeBoer uses the term "high confidence," take it to the bank. The "very challenging" comment is as close to smack-talk out of the mild-manned DeBoer as we're likely to hear. Whatever is going on with the XP program right now (I have written about the many mysteries with this program here), DeBoer is giving a full-throated assurance that the best is yet to come.

And the good news (and bragging) doesn't stop there. Note the "New Memory" positioning that overlays DRAM performance at the low end (probably at the "1Y" node in 2019) with a cost that is somewhat less expensive. Note also its positioning vis--vis STT-RAM (spin-torque RAM) that has been thought to be the likely high-end DRAM replacement product. As you can see, Micron feels it has a winner that is much less expensive than any STT-RAM offering with higher performance to boot.

There are two important takeaways from this. First, this is a true DRAM replacement memory, and second, as Micron has made clear previously, this is NOT an IM product. This is Micron proprietary and, if achieved, represents a strategic coup for the company. The bottom line: Micron has the best technology in its cost-leading 3D NAND at the storage end of the market along with two new main memories that will by the early 20s offer customers an unparalleled combination of cost and performance for every use case.

So what are we to think of all this? Personally, I take DeBoer at his word. Obviously there is a big leap of faith in my belief, because we haven't seen any of these technologies yet. Nevertheless I believe him, and I have a great deal of confidence that we will see the claims made in the slide delivered. I say this because over the last three years, he has delivered - consistently and, more often than not, ahead of schedule.

One thing DeBoer did not say was when. He did talk about Micron's advantage with 3D NAND and XP being pervasive through a 10-year period. The "New Memory" reference is very interesting because it has reappeared after being absent from Micron commentary throughout 2016. Here is DeBoer's Memory timeline from Micron's Summer Analyst Conference in 2014:

Originally positioned as "New Memory B" for an FY 2017 announcement, I do not believe he would have mentioned it if he did not think he would be announcing sampling in the FY '18 time frame. Assuming that is the case and it has a development and roll out schedule similar to XP, that would imply that Gen 1 would be deliverable in the 2020/21 time frame.

Bringing this altogether, the most likely technology scenario going forward looks like this. Take it as you will.

FY 2017 - XP and Gen 2 64L 3DN initial delivery, "1X" (16nm) DRAM initial deliveries, "1X" DRAM and Gen 2 3DN > 20% of bit volumes by the end of FY '17 and ramping rapidly.

FY 2018 - XP market enablers like the "Gen-Z Consortium" publish specifications allowing industry-standard XP-DIMMS on the memory bus by mid-year, XP Gen 2 sampling and XP Gen 1 wide deployment with XP DIMM deliveries by year end, Gen 2 64L 3DN bit crossover by year end, announcement of "New Memory" [NM] late in FY, "1X" DRAM bit crossover, "1Y" DRAM sampling.

FY 2019 - XP Gen 2 bit majority and mass-market deliveries with DIMMs greater than 75% of shipments, Gen 3 (96L) 3DN bit cross-over with Gen 2 3DN by year end, "1Y" DRAM > 20% of bit shipments. NM sampling mid-year.

FY 2020 - XP Gen 3 announced and sampling with XP Gen 2 bit crossover, NM commercial shipments late in the year, 3DN Gen 4 announced.

Does this look like a challenging pace to you? It does to me, too. By FY 2019, in two years, Micron will likely have four major technologies in production - DRAM, NAND, XP, and NM - with multiple types and generations of DRAM, NAND and XP adding to the complexity. Note I have not addressed the CapEx requirements to exploit this rapid-fire cadence of technology product advancement. Other companies in the industry will be building fabs during this period. Will Micron?

One other daunting bit of strategic complexity must be added to the list: timing the demise of DRAM. Note the following Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) slide from its recent investor conference:

Note the relative size of the DRAM market in 2021 compared to today. For Intel, this is simply market opportunity for XP. For Micron, this is a different and decidedly more poignant issue. Certainly, the good news overwhelms the bad news in this slide. Echoing Steve Jobs, if a company is going to take down the DRAM business, Micron will benefit by being the principal one to do it. Other companies will be bringing DRAM replacement memories to market over the next five years, but Micron is the only one I've seen position a replacement as aggressively as it has. To the extent that it can bring NM to market sooner rather than later, it should be able to harvest profit margins that will cushion DRAM business losses. But this is all speculation at this point.

So we are left with the question of the way forward. How successfully it can navigate its way through the myriad challenges and complexities of the next four years is certainly open to question. From a technical perspective, I will echo DeBoer's "high confidence." From a business perspective I have my doubts that it can afford to exploit its opportunities. My analysis, which I will detail in the next article, is that the company needs to fund at least $16B in new capacity for the various technologies over the balance of the decade if DeBoer's claims come true. All this with a balance sheet that is seriously in need of repair with $8B of debt and a debt to equity ratio near an all-time "high" at nearly 70%.

Can it make enough money to self-fund its opportunities? The $1.5B of cash flow Maddock is projecting this year will certainly help. Can it achieve equal to better results next year? Most of the analyst community doesn't think so. Many analysts are pointing to the potential of a NAND glut next year with reduced DRAM pricing. I don't agree with the NAND projection for reasons I will detail later, but I can definitely see DRAM pricing receding somewhat. The real issue, though, is that Micron's dilemma remains in good times and only gets worse in bad.

In closing, as a Micron investor, I couldn't feel better about the technical proofs and claims made in the investor meeting. The short-term business view is very bright. I see $.80 this Q2 and $3+ this year unless externalities overwhelm the secular tailwinds driving the business (#1 on list of possible horribles is a global slowdown driven by a China/US trade dustup, with the trigger event being a serious run at broad-based import tariffs by the Trump administration). The open question remains funding what could be a very bright future.

Durcan's departure affords the company an excellent opportunity to use the hiring of the next president (hopefully an outsider) to reimagine the company. However good the balance of 2017 looks, Micron's Board must seize this chance to take a hard look in the mirror. The company has been losing share and is at the bottom of the industry in terms of profitability. Micron has persevered through the PC and Samsung induced trough of 15-16 with a treasure-trove of technology and a boatload of debt. Will the company move aggressively and rapidly to find the resources it needs to fundamentally change its laggard position vis--vis its peers or will it resign itself to remaining in the tenuous position that it has occupied for most of its history? We're about to find out.

Disclosure: I am/we are long MU, WDC.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Originally posted here:

Technology Rich And Deep In Debt: Can Micron Fund Its Future? - Seeking Alpha

The Africa Rising narrative is increasingly giving way to that of Aspiring Africa, as the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) shrinks and the new middle class burgeons, writes Wim van der Beek, founder and managing partner of Goodwell Investments.

Central to this new narrative is inclusive growth: the idea that economic growth must come with equitable opportunities for all participants, with benefits enjoyed by every section of society.

As Africa develops, it is pivotal to ensure that the currently underserved majority feels the benefits. This is not only about poverty reduction, but about creating opportunities for lower-income segments to generate wealth. It is a virtuous cycle; inclusive growth equals faster and better economic growth.

If we can ensure that Africas economic development happens in a more equitable and sustainable way, the macroeconomic positives are myriad. Offering young, aspiring Africans the opportunity to create wealth, has the effect of turning this demographic into producers and consumers of additional products and services.

The role of technology in inclusive growth

Africas mobile revolution has offered entrepreneurs an opportunity unlike any other to disseminate products and services that can contribute to inclusive growth on the continent. It enables digital innovation that allows African entrepreneurs and developers to leapfrog technologies, creating access to previously unavailable services for the majority.

Finance is a key enabler of growth, which is why the provision of accessible and affordable financial services to the majority of Africans is a prerequisite for faster and more sustainable development. Access to financial services increases access to other opportunities, hence fintech becoming central to Africas inclusive growth story.

For example, South Africas Nomanini is allowing informal merchants to improve their income generation capacity by selling airtime and other digital services through their point of sale (PoS) devices. This creates a ripple effect. By increasing the wealth-generation capability of the majority, it allows them to access additional products and services and contribute to economic growth.

The trend goes beyond financial services, however. In healthcare, diagnostic apps such as Vula Mobile are making world-class diagnostics available to lower-income segments in a more affordable way.

Companies in the education space are making digital content available to young Africans, while in agriculture, mobile is being used by companies like Kenyas WeFarm to disseminate crucial information for farmers, having a direct impact on their productivity and wealth-generation abilities.

Africa is seeing the same technology innovations that are emerging in developed countries, however, they are used in a unique manner. In Africa, technology is not replacing or assisting existing infrastructure; it is creating the infrastructure where there is none. Brick-and-mortar clinics, schools and grid-powered electricity are not in place across vast swathes of the continent. And they will not reach every rural village or urban slum in the future. Instead, these services will be provided more and more through innovative mobile technologies, reducing the need for expensive physical infrastructure.

In its ability to democratise and increase access to more affordable services that have, until now, remained inaccessible to the majority of Africans, technology has the potential to play a huge role in ensuring inclusive growth on the continent, opening up new opportunities for aspiring Africans.

Laying the groundwork for inclusive growth through technology

It is evident that from financial services to education, healthcare to transport, technology can be a key enabler in ensuring the benefits of Africas economic development are felt by all. There are four factors that are critical in enabling the growth in of the inclusive digital economy:

The first is improved access to the internet. Without access to mobile internet connectivity, the digital innovation that makes products and services more affordable to the majority remains out of reach. Approximately only one-third of Africans currently have access to the internet.

This issue is, fortunately, being addressed. Internet penetration in Africa has grown to almost 30 per cent from just 11 per cent five years ago. Internet bandwidth on the continent increased by 41 per cent between 2014 and 2015, according to research from TeleGeography, with the growth being driven by the increasing prevalence of 3G and 4G connectivity.

The second prerequisite for enabling inclusive growth through digital innovation is increasing access to smart devices. Getting the right devices into the hands of Africans is crucial to ensuring access to opportunities. Here too we are seeing significant progress. The number of smartphones across Africa has almost doubled to 226 million over the last two years, according to the GSMA, as entry level prices are falling rapidly.

Another key factor for inclusive growth is reducing the cost of communication. The majority of Africans will remain unable to access digital services if they cannot afford data bundles or voice calls. But with data prices falling across the board and OTT services such as WeChat and WhatsApp enabling cheaper communication, this issue too is being addressed.

The fourth factor is reducing the cost of creating technology solutions. Whereas in the past the development costs of a mobile or web application would have been unaffordable to many digital entrepreneurs in majority markets, thanks to lean methodologies and open source platforms like GitHub the process is now simpler and cheaper. This drop in the cost of technology has created opportunities for the development of more innovative applications to meet African needs.

Africas inclusive digital future

There are many reasons to be positive about Aspiring Africa and the impact of the digital economy.

The continent is brimming with the energy and passion of a young generation of ambitious innovators and entrepreneurs. And Africa is the youngest continent populated by digitally savvy and creative Africans that are keen to grab the opportunities that the digital economy creates for them as economically included citizens. The widespread emergence of tech ecosystems across the continent is supporting a rapidly growing number of increasingly impressive startups and innovative solutions. The increased accessibility and falling cost of relevant services through internet-enabled smart devices, is putting these innovations in the hands of the young and aspiring African mass markets.

These innovations are changing the lives of the average African byte by byte, day by day. As the majority of Africans enter the digital economy, technology innovations are playing a pivotal role in creating the inclusive growth story that is changing the face of the continent. Our firm invests in many technology innovators. Working with these passionate young entrepreneurs on the ground on a daily basis, it is hard not to be optimistic about the inclusive digital economy that is taking shape in Africa as we speak.

Read more from the original source:

How technology can create new pathways for inclusive growth - Disrupt Africa

Many of Jonathan Anderstrom's tech industry friends work at businesses located in Minneapolis' buzzy North Loop neighborhood.

His company, Creed Interactive, is firmly planted in St. Paul's Lowertown and he'd like to draw more like-minded entrepreneurs to the area.

Anderstrom is a member of St. Paul's new Innovation Cabinet, which is creating a plan to attract more technology and innovation-driven jobs to St. Paul. The 16 members of the group will come up with a strategy by July.

Anderstrom and other cabinet members are quick to add that this isn't about competing with the city across the river. They want to highlight St. Paul's assets, like its many colleges, and said the cities can complement each other.

Meanwhile, the Department of Employment and Economic Development is launching its own "#InnovateMN" effort to highlight creative businesses in the state and help them connect with state funding.

The timing of the two efforts which were announced on the same day was coincidental, said DEED Commissioner Shawntera Hardy, who is involved in both the state and city efforts. She and Lt. Gov. Tina Smith kept hearing stories of innovative job creation as they traveled the state, and Hardy said they decided: "We have to tell this story."

There were 141,934 people working in the technology industry in Minnesota in 2015, an increase of 5,475 over the year before, according to an analysis by the Computing Technology Industry Association.

The average technology worker's annual salary, $93,500, was 78 percent higher the average private sector worker in Minnesota, the analysis showed.

Technology companies often create well-paid jobs, but not that many of them, Anderstrom said.

The financial resources that St. Paul offers to help new businesses seem to focus on attracting companies that create a lot of lower-paying jobs, he said. He plans to suggest that the city have more flexibility in its business grant programs.

The cabinet has met twice. Members have talked about the need for creative workspaces and improving communication between companies, City Council Member Chris Tolbert said.

"We're not going to be Silicon Valley," he said, but the Innovation Cabinet will "make sure we keep our momentum going, and if nothing else, try to tell St. Paul stories."

Tolbert worked with Mayor Chris Coleman, who is running for governor, to create the cabinet. The effort fits with Coleman's goal, which he announced in August, to add 3,000 jobs in the city over the next three years.

St. Paul College President Rassoul Dastmozd, who is also a member of the cabinet, said having a variety of partners including business owners, state and local government officials and educators come together will ensure they look at the issue in a comprehensive way. He is interested in making sure the community and technical college's programming and services stay relevant for St. Paul businesses.

There will be a public "Conversations on Innovation" event with the cabinet members at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at a co-working space at 213 4th St. E.

Continue reading here:

St. Paul aims to attract more innovation and technology jobs - Minneapolis Star Tribune

VANCOUVER, Feb. 21, 2017 /CNW/ -MGX Minerals Inc. ("MGX" or the "Company") (CSE: XMG / FKT: 1MG / OTC: MGXMF) ) is pleased to report that the Nanoflotation technology developed by David Bromley Engineering (DBE) and licensed exclusively to MGX engineering and technology development partner PurLucid Treatment Solutions Inc. ("PurLucid") has been nominated for the prestigious international Katerva Award.

The Katerva Award recognizes disruptive sustainable innovations from around the world. The patented nanoflotation technology, which removes metals and physical particulate from oil and gas waste water, has been nominated as one of ten finalists for the Energy and Power category. Purlucid has developed a lithium recovery method that relies on Nanoflotation as a core component of the water treatment and mineral recovery process. Purlucid holds exclusive rights to the technology for use in oil and gas water and brine treatment with the rights to expand licensing across sectors and geographies globally.

MGX and PurLucid entered into an Acquisition Agreement (the "Agreement") in September 2016 (see press release dated September 15, 2016).

About MGX Minerals

MGX Minerals (CSE: XMG) is a diversified Canadian mining company engaged in the development of large-scale industrial mineral portfolios in western Canada and the United States. The Company operates lithium, magnesium and silicon projects throughoutBritish Columbia andAlberta as well as petro lithium exploration in Utah.

Read the original:

MGX Minerals Core Technology Recognized as Finalist for Katerva Award - The Nobel Prize of Sustainability - Junior Mining Network

Microsoft and UPMC have partnered to improve healthcare delivery through a series of projects, Microsoft announced Thursday. The health system will work on Microsoft's Healthcare NExT Initiative, which will focus on clinician empowerment and productivity with AI, officials said. The companies will work together to develop new tools that will first be implemented at UPMC before it hits the market.

The partnership will focus on products to empower patients and providers, while advancing UPMC's immunology research.

"Despite UPMC's efforts to stay on the leading edge of technology, too often our clinicians and patients feel as though they're serving the technology rather than the other way around," UMPC Chief Medical and Scientific Officer and President of Health Services Dr. Steven Shapiro said in a statement.

"With Microsoft, we have a shared vision of empowering clinicians by reducing the burden of electronic paperwork and allowing the doctor to focus on the sacred doctor-patient relationship," he added.

The collaboration is part of multiple Healthcare NExT initiatives that include: HealthVault Insights, a research partnership with Tribridge and System C & Graphnet Care Alliance focused on finding insights on patient health, care plan adherence and patient engagement; and Microsoft Genomics, an Azure-powered genome analytics pipeline and partnership with BC Platforms and DNAnexus, among others.

Healthcare NExT also includes Microsoft's AI chatbot, which officials said telehealth provider MDLIVE will use to help patients self-triage inquiries before speaking with a provider by video. Further, Premera Blue Cross will use the tech to improve the way patients find their health benefit information.

Microsoft also launched CGI ProperPay for claims analytics. The new service from its SaaS apps, provides predictive analytics, rules management and best practices to reduce healthcare claims fraud, waste and abuse, officials said.

"At Microsoft, we're grounding our efforts in a set of core design principles that focus on the human benefit of AI, transparency and accountability," officials said in a statement. "We believe that ethics and design go hand in hand. Further, we understand that security, privacy and compliance remain a top priority for health organizations."

More:

Microsoft, UPMC's technology collaboration includes health chatbot, population health tools - MobiHealthNews

Children with a curvature of the spine need regular monitoring as they reach the end of their growth period, so doctors can treat them with whatever method will keep the condition from getting worse. Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and Allegheny Health Network doctors are now watching their progress with a device that exposes boys and girls to about a tenth of the radiation of traditional X-rays.

It looks like a transporter from Star Trek, but the EOS device gives young patients a safer trip in treatment for their spine, hip and leg disorders, said Sheila G. Moore, clinical director of pediatric radiology at Childrens. The first patient at Childrens was scanned on Jan. 9.

Allegheny Health Network got its EOS unit up and running in December at its new Pediatric Orthopaedic Institute in Pine, according to orthopedic surgeon Mark J. Sangimino. Images taken on several planes through the body build a three-dimensional model of the bones and joints of the spine and lower extremities.

Both reduced radiation exposure and the 3-D imaging are important advantages of the new technology, said W. Timothy Ward, chief of the division of pediatric orthopedic surgery at Childrens.

Radiation exposure is a potential issue, Dr. Ward said. Many get a lot of X-rays over a period of time. We cant say anyone has been hurt. But everything is cumulative. EOS allows us to dramatically cut down on exposure. Its a great advance. ... It gives a 3-D image that is helpful when planning surgical approaches.

Surgeons use the 3-D model to detect and place rods, hooks and screws that help to straighten the spine in severe cases.

The device, which cost $680,000, can scan the whole body. Total cost of the installation approached $1 million, Dr. Ward said, but he anticipates the EOS being used in various orthopedic areas and offered for patients now treated at UPMC satellite centers.

Dr. Sangimino agreed the advantages are twofold: We have wonderful resolution. The machine provides increased information, better resolution at a lower dose.

The patients love it, said Helen Bradley, lead diagnostic radiology technologist at Childrens. The patients are less frightened, dont seem to mind being closed in. They see the light going up and down.

Parents can sit nearby, and instead of bulky X-ray technology, the children walk into the booth-like unit and standing they can be scanned in both a frontal and a side view. At first, theres a loud noise, red lights line up a crosshairs, then the scan emits a green beam of light from the top cervical vertebrae to the base of the spine, the sacrum.

Those who have difficulty standing because of surgery or other reasons appreciate that its fast 5 seconds to do the whole scan.

Both health systems anticipate the arrival of a new chair that will allow upright screening of children who cant stand.

Treating scoliosis

Scoliosis can be caused by cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy, but the National Institutes of Health reports the most common type is idiopathic scoliosis, meaning the cause is unknown. The condition affects about 2 to 3 percent of the population and is often found in children ages 10 to 12 and also in their early teens. Girls are more likely than boys to have it.

In mild cases children may need checkups every four to six months to see if there have been spinal changes. A brace may be recommended, and surgery may be needed to control or straighten out severe cases.

Spine fusion surgery uses metal rods, hooks, screws or wires to hold the spine straight as the bones grow together. Sometimes a rod is attached to the top and bottom sections of the spinal curvature and is lengthened every six months.

Safety for growing children

Dr. Sangimino said the EOS technology can help doctors treat children with a variety of problems involving the neurological, muscular and skeletal systems.

Last week, he said, On Wednesday we had 11 kids, with scoliosis, limb-length inequality and spinal pelvic imbalance. With EOS, theyre screened to try to help build braces that are more effective, therapies that are more effective.

For example, he said, a 3-year-old with a curvature of the spine will first have to be scanned with a higher dose to get a high-resolution picture of the bones. But once that is determined, he said, You dont need a higher resolution. We can lower the dose and modify the dose.

There might be two or three scans needed each year to monitor the childs growth. When needed, ultrasound technology and standard X-rays are still used.

Radiation exposure for scoliosis patients varies, Dr. Moore said, depending on the method.

Putting EOS to use

Were very quickly seeing the advantages, Dr. Ward said, adding that Childrens is starting a spinal deformity center that will offer low radiation imaging, bracing experts and physical therapists all in one place, designed to draw young patients from UPMC satellite centers as well.

Prevention of severe scoliosis is the focus of the AHN practice, Dr. Sangimino said, Were doing better therapy, doing better interventions. Were able to control a lot of curves we couldnt control before. EOS technology helps determine when simple therapy routines are most effective and helps brace makers with their work, he said.

Among children with cerebral palsy, spina bifida and other conditions, he said EOS can deal with the multiple systems involved; sometimes there are hip dislocations. The EOS scans allow doctors to see inside joints as a young patient is standing, and mechanical problems can be diagnosed, even with girls who have a problem with dislocated kneecaps, for example. We can use tricks to keep them out of the surgery unit, Dr. Sangimino said.

My goal is to put myself out of business as a surgeon. Its hard in todays medicine to do that, he said. This is a wonderful thing.

Jill Daly: jdaly@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1596.

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New scan technology gives lower radiation dose for children with scoliosis - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Snunit CEO Revital Rubin in January with Geoff Cohen, the principal of the Herzliya School in Cape Town, South Africa. (photo credit:Courtesy)

The Snunit Center for the Advancement of Web-Based Learning, the largest educational web portal in Israel, is seeking to launch a new site dedicated to connecting Jewish children and youth in the Diaspora with Israel.

Snunit was established in 1994 as a project of the School of Education at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and in 1999 officially became a non-profit NGO established by the university and the Nir and Beverly Barkat family.

Responsible for launching the first Hebrew language website, today Snunit creates, develops and manages innovative educational sites for elementary and middle schools pupils, reaching hundreds of thousands of users throughout the country and the world.

The easiest way to transfer educational messages to a critical mass of people, especially to youth, is by technological means with the push of a button, Revital Rubin, CEO of Snunit, recently told The Jerusalem Post.

For youth, Rubin explained, the technological world is their first world.

We take advantage of this media to reach wider audiences of youth and provide them with knowledge, she said.

Snunits latest project, in the process of development, includes a new English site and application aimed at connecting and teaching Jewish children from the Diaspora about Israel.

As a Jew who lives in Israel, I understand the importance and necessity of doing this, Rubin explained, crediting this latest endeavor with her visit last month to South Africa, organized by Community, a joint program of The Gesher Leadership Institution and the Diaspora Ministry to expand and deepen the connection between public opinion leaders in Israel and Diaspora Jewry.

As part of her visit she toured South Africa and also met with pupils and school principals in Cape Town and Johannesburg. She explained that while there, she saw firsthand how little adults and children alike in the Jewish community knew about Israel or had any connection to the country.

They study the bible and Jewish holidays but they dont learn anything about the State of Israel and the culture and what troubles youth in Israel, she said.

It is important that children learn that Israel is not only about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or politics, or the ultra-Orthodox, of course these are issues but there are a lot of other parts of Israel that youth should get to know, she added.

Rubin said she was shocked to discover that around a third of Jews in the world have no connection to Israel whatsoever.

Due to this journey, I understand this need to create connections [with the Diaspora] and today I see this as a mission, she said.

She stressed that it was important to understand that religion is not everything when speaking about Jews and Israel.

If we keep presenting this to the world, we will lose a lot of Jews along the way and the Jewish people cannot afford this, she said. We have to understand that there are also Jews in the world that currently have no link to Israel and there are people in Israel who are secular and we must think how to connect between them to develop a diverse Jewish synergy.

Rubin explained that the applications aim would not only teach Jews about Israel but would also serve to connect between youth and create a dialogue on issues that are important to them.

There are children and youth who deal with the same problems that youth in Israel do, wherever they are in the world and it is important that they make that connection, she said.

Still, she added, it is a two-way street. While children in the Diaspora know little about Israel, so too do Israeli children know very little about their counterparts abroad.

I believe in reciprocity we also need to teach kids in Israel to get to know the Diaspora, she said. And I believe that we need to start establishing roots of this connection at a much younger age, and not only focus on adults or young adults.

Rubin stressed the positive effects of web-based learning in reaching out to youth in the Diaspora and connecting them with Israel.

Israel has brought children and youth to Israel on trips [like Birthright and Masa] but how many children can you bring? Two hundred thousand? Three hundred thousand? With this technology we can reach out to millions of children, she explained.

She acknowledged that it is no substitute for bringing youth to Israel but said it could serve to complement their physical presence in Israel and provide them with knowledge about the country.

We dont need to stand on our two hind legs I think it is a good thing, both tactically and strategically that there will be Jews in the Diaspora and our responsibility is to strengthen our connection with them and to strengthen them with all the challenges they face such as antisemitism, Rubin stressed.

If we dont understand this we will distance youth and adults in the Diaspora from the Jewish people, she said.

Overwhelmed by her experience in South Africa, Rubin ensured that the pupils and teachers in the two Jewish schools she visited would be provided free access to Snunits educational portals.

Many of our websites are in Hebrew only and so now we are also looking to translate these sites to English and we are looking for a partner who understands the importance of this, she said.

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Technology connects Diaspora youth to their Israeli counterparts - Jerusalem Post Israel News

NEW DELHI: DBS, Singapores leading bank plans to hire 100 technology skilled professionals, in emerging and disruptive technologies across cloud, machine learning and Big Data through a hackathon.

The 100 new selects will join DBS Asia Hub 2 in Hyderabad, India, according to a release. This coding challenge, which has already received more than 3000 applications, is open to both fresh graduates and experienced professionals who can apply up to March 12, 2017.

Mohit Kapoor, CEO, DBS Asia Hub 2 said We want to build a culture of experimentation, backed by robust technology solutions and creative intelligence to consistently innovate and evolve our digital journey. Hackathons like this help us connect with top talent across the country who are game changers and will be instrumental in reimagining banking.

The recruitment drive, DBS Hack2Hire, consists of two parts - an online assessment challenge followed by a live two-day hackathon session. Shortlisted candidates from the second round will undergo interviews for full-time roles at DBS Asia Hub 2. The bank has collaborated with leading technology providers such as Amazon Web Services, Cloudera and Pivotal for conducting the hackathon, according to a release.

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DBS to hire 100 technology skilled professionals through hackathon - Economic Times

LOWELL -- As ISIS' wave of destruction has swept through the Middle East, it has claimed many artifacts of pre-Islamic history.

Iranian-born artist Morehshin Allahyari has been using cutting-edge 3D modeling software and printers to bring new life to those lost treasures.

Allahyari will discuss this work and her other groundbreaking projects in a public lecture Wednesday at UMass Lowell's O'Leary Library. Her exhibition, Solid State Mythologies, is open through Feb. 28 in the University Gallery at Mahoney Hall.

Misha Rabinovich, assistant professor of interactive media at UML's Art & Design Department and co-curator of the exhibition, said Allahyari's "wildly creative" approach with emerging technologies is very empowering for women, who often leave science and technology fields because they feel they are not engaging the problems they care about and don't want to support the "patriarchal system of technocratic development."

"She's a pioneer of this technology, and more importantly the artistic application of the technology, and as a female, we think it's very powerful and one of the reasons we wanted to bring the show to UMass Lowell," he said.

Allahyari approaches her work in The Material Speculation: ISIS series as a kind of feminist, sculptural response to the performative destruction of ISIS, which uses footage of its members smashing ancient artifacts and art for propaganda videos, Rabinovich said.

Using bits and pieces of information and photographs, Allahyari reconstructs lost artifacts through 3D-printed sculptures with modeling files archived on flash drives and memory cards embedded inside the objects, he said.

Allahyari's work has an open-source element, and she's always eager to share the research and inspiration behind it, said exhibition co-curator Caitlin Foley, a part-time faculty member of the Art & Design Department.

Other works on display explore images and ideas censored by Iran's Islamic law, from The Simpsons to lingerie advertisements.

UML hoped to promote the speaking event sooner but the recent travel ban enacted by President Donald Trump cast a doubt on whether it would occur, Rabinovich said.

A green card holder, Allahyari was showing her work at the Transmediale festival in Berlin, Germany, at the time and it was unclear whether she would be allowed to return to the U.S., where she has resided since 2007, he said.

Following the judiciary overturn of the ban, Allahyari safely returned on Feb. 9, Rabinovich said.

Allahyari's public lecture will be held Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in the O'Leary Library, Room 222, at the UMass Lowell South Campus. A reception will follow from 6-8 p.m. in the University Gallery in Mahoney Hall. Both events are free and open to the public. Parking is available in the Wilder Metered Lot at the intersection of Wilder and Bachelder streets.

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Technology brings new life to ancient art - Lowell Sun

Former Barcelona and Valencia striker David Villa was sent off in a pre-season friendly between New York City and Houston Dynamo on Saturday.

The 35-year-old was caught via video technology punching an opposing player in the face in the Desert Diamond Cup.

The incident occurred in the 37th minute with the game at 1-1 (Villa having scored New York's goal) as Andrea Pirlo took a corner.

Initially, the referee had brandished Villa with a yellow card and awarded a free-kick to Dynamo.

But just as play looked to be getting back underway the referee blew his whistle and signalled a box shape with his hands.

The referee then ran over to the sidelines and watched the incident back on a monitor, using VAR (video assistant referee). Players from both sides began to congregate in the middle, with Villa and victim AJ DeLaGarza still arguing over what happened.

Nearly four minutes since the original incident passed before the referee trotted back onto the pitch and asked to see Villa.

The official once again made the box shape with his hands before producing a straight red card.

The striker nearly caused more trouble after another coming together with DeLaGarza, only for his teammates to get in the way.

The Spaniard continued to protest with the fourth official on the touchline, claiming his victim wasn't innocent, either, before eventually taking a seat on the bench.

Dynamo capitalised on New York's 10 men and won the encounter 3-1.

Video technology has so far only been used in the reserve tiers of MLS and last year's Club World Cup.

But Saturday's decision will come as a major boost to Howard Webb and America's Professional Referee Organisation.

Webb has been installed to oversee the the introduction of VAR into MLS football.

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One of the biggest differentiators between a home or small business and a larger enterprise is capacity. And in a world where speed is tantamount to efficiency, enterprises enjoy a commanding lead. However, Qualcomm(NASDAQ:QCOM) has introduced new 802.11ax WiFi chips that will reduce congestion on next-gen networks to deliver vastly enhanced connection, perhaps evening out the playing field.

According to Qualcomm, the new 802.11ax WiFi chips will be able to deliver speeds of up to 4.8Gbps. The company also says it is the first to announce end-to-end commercial solutions to support 802.11ax.

Without getting too technical, 802.11ax mainly focuses on expanding network capacity instead of speed to get the best possible connection, and make better use of the WiFi spectrum. This is an important development because there is more variety in todays networks. This variety overloads the WiFi spectrum and negatively affects the connection, and thus the spinning wheel of doom when you are trying to watch that cat video.

In the prepared statement released by Qualcomm, David Henry, senior vice president, home networking, NETGEAR, one of the leading manufacturers of routers in the world said:

We are excited about the potential impact that 802.11ax will have in the home and small businesses, 802.11ax is not an incremental upgrade to keep pace with todays demands. The technology will reset the bar for what matters most in networking, and will lay the foundation of network capacity for years to come.

Whether in your home office or retail store, your WiFi connectivity is going to be affected by the tens of thousands of things that will be part of the Internet of Things (IoT) in your vicinity all clamoring for bandwidth at once. With 802.11ax, Qualcomm says connections will be seamless, dead spots will be reduced and harmful interference where there are many WiFi access points that overlap will be reduced. You will be able to stream 4K Ultra HD, video conference, collaborate, share and transfer files easily.

Qualcomm expects to toll out the chips in the first half of 2017, so it remains to be seen which manufacturer will incorporate this technology into its devices first.

WiFi Symbol Photo via Shutterstock

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Qualcomm's New WiFi Technology Should Boost Capacity for Small Business - Small Business Trends

HERMITAGE The local public bus system is going high-tech.

Mercer County Regional Council of Governments is getting nearly a $275,000 state and federal transportation grant to buy digital technology to aid bus drivers and passengers.

The technology will be placed on its Shuttle service, which has short routes.

COG oversees the bus service.

Among the upgrades will be smart cards for fares that will be swiped like a credit card. Another perk will be a GPS system, saidKim DiCintio, executive director of COG.

The GPS can be used by passengers to track where the bus,DiCintio said.

Yet another perk is the buses will have an electronic voice to tell passengers what the next stop will be. And drivers will have computer tablets that can track passenger volume.

Bids already have gone out to buy and install the technology, so the upgrades will be this year, she said.

In recent years the agency had to be nimble in its operations. For years public school children were charged 25 cents for a one-way ride. But last year the service bumped the price up to 60 cents.

We lost a lot of students because of that,DiCintio said.

In January student rates were restored to 25 cents.

And we have no anticipation of raising the student rates again, she said.

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Shuttle buses getting up to speed on technology - Sharonherald

Melissa Jun Rowley Crunch Network Contributor

Melissa Jun Rowley is a journalist, entrepreneur and activist focused on the intersection of storytelling, technology and social justice. As the founder and CEO of Humanise, Inc., she is developing The Toolbox, a data-driven humanitarian initiative created by musician Peter Gabriel.

Deep in a rural village in India outside the city of Jhansi, children play on dirt roads where goats and cows roam. The humble and colorful homes have mud floors, and women collect drinking water from wells.

All the sights and sounds are quintessential aspects of the region, with the exception of one feature the use of smartphones to save lives. In this village, women healthcare workers, known as accredited social health activists (ASHAs), use a mobile application called mSaki to help them educate expecting mothers about maternal and neonatal danger signs.

Funded byQualcomm Wireless Reachand developed byIntraHealth International, mSaki is currently being used by 329 ASHAs to benefit 16,000 mothers. Amobile broadband initiativeaccomplishing such a task in rural India is no small feat.

According to the national health ministry, Indias newborn mortality rate stands at29 per 1,000 live births. The country is aiming to get the number down to a single digit. Additionally, the literacy rate among females in India is low. A background paper done by the New York-based International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity revealed in October of last year that only48 percent of India girlsstudying up to the fifth grade are literate.

As for internet connectivity, according to a Pew Research Center poll, a mere22 percent of Indias adultscould get online in 2015. That being said, there are nationwide efforts being made to get people connected. The countysDigital Indiaprogram aims to digitally empower citizens and provide broadband in remote areas. As part of this plan, the government wants to make mobile connectivity available in more than 40,000 villages by 2018.

In the meantime, mSaki is still able to have an impact, because the application is designed to manage low connectivity. The data thats fed into mobile devices is stored offline. When theres a network thats available, the data is then uploaded to a server.

Frontline health worker Ram Kumari Sharma travels to villages across India. Using mSaki, she registers the details of pregnant women, new mothers and newborn babies, and gives them medical examinations. Through text and animated images the tool assists her in describing the day-to-day symptoms patients should look out for and how they should address them.

The mSaki app also supports auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) working in the field. Anita VT is an ANM who has worked in the village health center for the last 20 years, registering patients, delivering babies and vaccinating children. While the facility she works in is no more than a small room with a few manual tools, the mobile technology she uses brings an aspect of the process into the 21st century.

I can do everything on this, says VT, pointing to her tablet. Why should I do it on paper?

Meenakshi Jain, IntraHealth senior advisor of programs, says mSaki as a whole is enabling a more cost-effective and efficient health registration process.

The government of India has a program across the county where every pregnant mother has to go into an online system, she explains. Its the duty of frontline workers like ASHAs and midwives to make this happen. So they have the job of identifying and registering pregnant women. The catch is that they have to fill out forms, and then travel 10-20 km, sit with a data entry operator at a community health center, and then get the data fed into the computer. What mSaki does is it saves a lot of paper time.

To get the funding needed to scale the mSaki program, IntraHealth is generating evidence to share with stakeholders the federal government, state government and donors that mSaki is improving the health and well-bring of mothers and children. Jain says she would like the government to implement mSaki or any similar application, as long as it empowers frontline health workers to do their jobs better and uses the most recent technology. If IntraHealth is able to bring in more funding, mSaki will continue to evolve and include technical areas such as family planning and literacy.

About 450 kilometers from Jhansi, the nonprofitPlanned Social Concern (PSC)is providing micro-finance opportunities to women in a village outside the city of Jaipur.

A number of PSCs micro-finance participants are able to build their own small businesses. One of the women in the program says she was able to build a new home and send her kids to school, thanks to PSC.

This economic empowerment is being enhanced through the power of mobile broadband. Through a partnership with Qualcomm Wireless Reach, PSC was able to digitize its entire loan-making process in 2014. The program is now 100 percent paperless.

Ravi Gupta, COO of PSC, says that through using 3G-connected tablets and a mobile application called MicroLekha, the organization is able to function faster and be more transparent.

When we were doing it [making loans] manually it used to take 17 to 18 days to process a loan, says Gupta. Now with MicroLekha we can place a loan in three to four days.

Because all the documents are stored digitally, theres no need for customers to submit paperwork each time they apply for loans. When customers pay back their loans they get receipts and account updates via SMS.

This is just the beginning. When Digital India is able to fully penetrate the rural parts of the country, hopefully even more mobile tech designed to assist health workers, educate families and facilitate small business opportunities will be implemented.

My wish is that large tech firms will take cues from these mobile for impact programs, and create similar initiatives for poor parts in the Western world, as well.

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How mobile technology is transforming lives in rural India - TechCrunch

The concept of measuring and responding to human eye motion, or eye tracking, isnt new, but the past year saw a rising interest in the technology. There have been a slew ofacquisitions of eye tracking startups by large firms and the rollout of several devices and software that support eye tracking.

Eye tracking sensors provide two main benefits, says Oscar Werner, vice president of the eye tracking company Tobii Tech. First, it makes a device aware of what the user is interested in at any given point in time. And second, it provides an additional way to interact with content, without taking anything else away. That means it increases the communication bandwidth between the user and the device.

Theres a chance that soon eye tracking will be a standard feature of a new generation of smartphones, laptops and desktop monitors setting the stage for a huge revaluation of the way we communicate with devicesor how they communicate with us.

In the past year eye tracking technology moved from being a promising technology to being adopted in commercial products in a wide array of consumer segments simultaneously, Werner says.

Dominic Porco, chief executive officer at Impax Media, a digital advertising company, says less expensive and more potent hardware; new open source software platforms; and new easier and faster ways of obtaining data to train algorithm models have driven the progress in eye tracking technology.

Companies like NVIDIA have launched products with more powerful GPUs at competitive prices, accelerating the image recognition speeds, Porco says.

Porco adds that popular crowd-sourcing marketplaces such as Amazon Mechanical Turk have enabled the collection of larger and broader datasets to train recognition algorithms. These developments have accelerated progress in eye tracking technology significantly, allowing researchers and developers to go faster through their cycles of experimentation and implementation.

But any technology wont grow unless it can fulfill specific demands and use cases. And in the case of eye tracking, there seems to be no shortage.

In a push to create a more immersive experience, VR headset companies are making large investments in eye tracking technology. In fact, in many ways, eye tracking is seen as the technology complementing VR.

VR is about immersion, Tobiis Werner says. But a VR headset without eye tracking will assume that I am speaking to the person in front of my forehead. It is approximating my area of interest to the direction of my forehead. We all know this is not true. Our real interest is where I am looking, and there is often a difference between where I look and the direction of my head. VR headsets need to take your gaze into account be become truly immersive.

Eye tracking technology is key to foveated rendering, a technique where only the portion of the image that lands on the fovea (the part of the retina that can see significant detail) is rendered in full quality.

With foveated rendering, Werner says, there will be a 30 to 70 percent decrease in the amount of pixels drawn, a processing power saving that can translate to higher framerates and the ability to achieve high quality output with 4k headsets as opposed to the 24k level needed to meet natural human vision level.

Also, eye tracking technology will make it possible to reduce graphics distortion caused from not taking eye position account when rendering VR graphics, Werner adds.

Fove, a kickstarter-funded project, is the first VR headset to have embedded eye-tracking. Others are not far behind. In the past months, Google and Facebook acquired eye tracking startups Eyefluence and Eye Tribe respectively, and are expected to embed the technology in their future products.

And SMI, a leader in eye tracking technology, has initiated several partnerships and projects to bring eye tracking to both standalone VR head-mounted displays and smartphone slot-ins.

Eye tracking will also be part of the upcoming Khronos VR API, an open standard under development which has garnered the support of Oculus, Google, NVIDIA and others.

The view that eye tracking will be a key part of second generation headsets is shared by a large number of VR HMD vendors, Werner says. This drives technology development and innovation.

Another successful VR demo, at HTC, that showed room scale gaming that actually worked.

For decades, weve used gamepads, joysticks, keyboards, mice and other peripherals to make PCs and video game consoles understand where were looking at. With eye tracking, your computer already knows what youre looking at and can react accordingly.

When you want to interact with an object you just look at it and press a button, says Werner. The computer understands which object you want to interact with. You dont need to drag the mouse or controller to the place you are already looking.

Whether its about hacking at an object, aiming at a target, designating a location for the game character to run, or simply changing the direction of the point-of-view camera, eye tracking might make it a whole lot easier for gamers to interact with the gaming environment. This can mean a big deal for games that require a high level of mouse and controller handling.

While it might render previously challenging games too easy, it can also pave the way for games that are much more fast paced.

Eye tracking can also create a cleaner and less intrusive user interface.

In games, graphical artists spend a lot of time creating beautiful environments, Werner says, and are in a constant battle with UI interaction designers that need to place UI elements on top, since it clutters the immersive feeling.

With eye tracking, Werner explains, you can hide the UI or make it transparent and only make it visible when the gamers gaze is directed toward it. This creates a more immersive feeling and solves a constant battle between graphical artists and UI designers, he says.

For simulations and virtual worlds, eye tracking can enable gaze aware objects, where game objects or characters will react to the gaze of the player to make the simulation more realistic, Werner says. This means that youll have to be careful not to stare too long at a mercenarys purse when entering a tavern in your favorite RPG.

Tobii itself offers a line of tack-on eye-tracking devices and eye-tracking embedded laptops and has worked with gaming companies on eye-tracking-enhanced versions of popular games such as Rise of the Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and Watch Dogs 2.

It is unlikely that eye tracking will replace controllers any time soon, but according to Werner, thanks to the technology, PC games will take into account one of the most powerful interaction methods we as humans have, our eyes. PC gamers will be able to utilize an additional control mechanism complementing the mouse and the controller. This will drive more natural and interaction without taking anything away.

Beyond the consumer level, the benefits of eye tracking expand to other realms where measurements of human gaze are key to obtaining results and insights.

There is an increasing interest in using eye tracking to help diagnose and potentially treat neurological disorders, says Bryn Farnsworth, science editor at biometric research company iMotions. For example, infants usually like to look at images with peoples facesscenes that have a social element.

Farnsworth explains that infants that go on to develop autism are much more likely to have a preference for images that feature geometric shapes, while for children with the Williams syndrome, Farnsworth says, the situation is reversed, meaning that they show a marked preference for social scenes in comparison to neurotypical children.

This all suggests, Farnsworth says, that the analysis of eye movements may help guide early diagnosis.

A research paper by students at UCSD states that eye tracking technology holds promise as an objective methodology for characterizing the early features of autism, because it can be implemented with virtually any age or functioning level.

Labs such as iMotions are helping researchers obtain those metrics through eye tracking devices in order to better understand and assess the conditions of patients.

Eye tracking company RightEye uses the technology to help physicians in administering test and finding symptoms for illnesses ranging from simple concussions to Alzheimers disease and dyslexia, and to help treat children with autism.

Eye tracking can also be a breakthrough for patients with physical disabilities, especially as affordable, consumer-level devices become available. This is a large area for eye tracking and it is evolving, says Tobiis Werner. Gaze keyboards and control panels powered by eye tracking, Werner explains, give people with diseases such as cerebral palsy and spinal cord injuries a means to communicate, control their environment and develop skills through therapy.

In the current state, the best metric advertisers get from ads are impressions and click numbers. But those numbers do not precisely reflect the effectiveness of ad campaigns because a lot of what gets counted as impressions goes to waste on non-human sources. That is something that changes with eye tracking technology.

The advertising industry is currently in the midst of some major upheaval when it comes to universal standards for measuring ad impact, says Porco, the Impax chief executive. The whole concept of viewability is now being redefined to make more sense in the age of ad blockers and bot traffic.

With eye tracking technology, online advertisers will be able to measure exactly how many actual human eyes actually view their ads when they appear on the page. While gaining precise metrics would be nearly impossible until such time as every computer and mobile device is embedded with eye tracking technology, using eye tracking does give insights into how users interact with ads.

In the physical world, however, eye tracking is already showing promise.

Market research firms are experimenting with directly measured biometric data to precisely determine the composition of people in out-of-home media environments such as retail stores, for audience measurement purposes, Porco says.

Porcos company, Impax Media, is investing heavily in eye tracking technology along with other computer vision techniques to collect attention metrics from its proprietary in-store advertising screens. Were big believers that the future of the ad industry is going to be grounded in attention metrics, as opposed to impressions, and eye tracking is, hands down, the best way to track attention, Porco says.

The data, Porco says, helps advertisers and location partners to assess audience interest in various messaging angles, and to correlate this information with parameters like location, timing and demographics. Its great for media buyers seeking to get the most for their budgets, and for store managers dealing with questions about everything from inventory to staff shift schedules.

While retailers always benefit from collecting information about customers, the area is somewhat a gray and is often subject to controversy and falls across privacy regulations. However, Porco underlines that theres no need to collect identity parameter in order to glean useful insights, and anonymized data about gaze point, age and gender along with duration of view suffice.

Its important for market researchers to evaluate peoples interactions and expectations across the whole omnichannel customer journey and its key touchpoints, says Simone Benedetto, UX researcher at TSW, an Italy-based market research lab.

Recent advances in eye tracking, Benedetto explains, open up new possibilities in both lab and real world neuromarketing tests.

It is crucial for us to involve users in product and service design and evaluation, Benedetto says. This doesnt mean just to ask them their opinion, but to collect objective data coming from their eyes and brain while interacting with the product or service.

TSW uses mobile eye tracking units along with other wearables in order to get precise user and customer metrics on a wide variety of products and services, both digital (such as online ads, mobile apps, websites, software and device control panels) and physical (such as print material, product packages, cars, home furniture and retail stores).

Being able to weigh the users natural interaction with products and services enables researchers to identify real usability problems and frustration points and collect actionable information that gives insights into customer satisfaction and engagement and drive design decisions.

One of the great advances last year has been the introduction of object tracking in relation to the analysis of data from mobile eye trackers, says iMotions Farnsworth, referring to the process by which specific visual features can be delineated from a scene, and information about how that particular feature is attended to can then be recorded.

This means that an individual can, for example, wear portable eye tracking glasses, interact with their environment normally, and how they attend to certain features can be automatically analyzed how long they look at a street map when theyre out walking, if they notice an advert that they passed, Farnsworth says. Being able to automatically understand how specific features are attended to clearly has great ramifications for understanding humans, and using that knowledge further.

From my perspective theres a huge market behind the exploitation of eye tracking into UX-neuromarketing investigations, Benedetto says. Eye tracking allows the implicit measurement of user behavior, and turns that measurement into quantitative objective data. We have only relied on subjective data for years, and its definitely time for a change.

Close Up of blue eye with computer circuit board lines, digital composite

Tobiis Werner told me he believes a new paradigm of PC usage will emerge, where eye tracking is a fifth modality that, in combination with touch screens, mouse/touchpad, voice and keyboard, will make computers much more productive and intuitive. Gaze always precedes any kind of action that you do with mouse, keyboard and voice, so much smarter user interactions will be designed using these technologies, he says.

As vision is the most used sense among human beings, being able to track and measure it digitally will have a great impact on how we make our intentions known to computers, wittingly or unwittingly.

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Unlocking the potential of eye tracking technology - TechCrunch

Weve entered crunch time for getting all of those last minute teasers out before the kick of Mobile World Congress, the years biggest smart phone show. Some have been cagey around their big news ahead of the event in Barcelona, while others, like LG havent left much all that to the imagination.

Oppo, the rising-est star in a Chinese market full of them, is playing its cards close to the vest with its own announcement. The company, which sprung to the top of Chinas smartphone sales last year, thanks to a 122-percent year-on-year increase in sales, isnt talking device yet, so much as underlying technology.

The company used the opportunity to discuss past years focus on imagining, including a slew of products with devoted selfie technologies, like last years Selfie Expert series of handsets, which featured a front-facing 16-megapixel camera.

The next step is something Oppos currently referring to as the 5x Project, which according to the press material, will give users unprecedented ability to capture highly detailed images. Not much in the way of details at this early stage, but the focus (as it were) seems to be on hi-res image processing, and, hopefully, more than just super detailed selfies.

Read the original post:

Oppo teases new mobile camera technology ahead of MWC - TechCrunch

New gene drive technology carries hope and risk

Caroline Davis2010 / Flickr

By Yasemin SaplakogluFeb. 19, 2017 , 12:15 PM

Q: Should we be looking at how the environment might be affected by gene drives?

A: Absolutely, this is a manipulation of nature. We dont know how it would affect population dynamics and ecosystems. In some cases, the purpose of gene drives would be to reduce population sizes of an organism, which could influence processes like pollination and transmission of parasites. In other cases, we would use gene drives to weed out disease by driving the population that carries that disease to extinction.

Q: What is the worst-case scenario of releasing these organisms?

A: Eliminating an organism or reducing its numbers greatly. By eliminating one plant species, you cause the proliferation of others, and this leads to a series of changes in the ecosystem. We need to understand the system well enough so that we can take ethical concerns into account as we make decisions.

Evolutionary ecologist James Collins

Charles Kazilek

Q: Who gets to make these decisions?

A:Social scientists are trying to come up with better ways to sample human populations to get a better sense of whats tolerable and whats not tolerable in terms of their release. . If you release [modified mosquitoes] in Town A, the mosquitoes may not have any problem flying to Town B, even though Town B is not interested in having them. Theyll go anyway.

A:The advantage of these other technologies is that they are effective only as long as youre releasing modified male mosquitoes. When you stop the manipulation, the population would bounce back to normal levels. You have a control over the system that is yet to be demonstrated for gene drives where once you alter the genes in these populations, they just keep changing.

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New gene drive technology could wipe out malaria, but is it safe? - Science Magazine

Venus is a toxic hellhole that's not only hot enough on the surface to melt lead, but the thick carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere has a pressure about 90 times greater than Earth's. This isn't very good news for any robots we want to send there to explore the planet and do science.

It's not like we haven't tried landing on Venus before. From the 1960s to the 1980s, the Soviet Union tried to send a series of 16 spacecraft to Venus as part of the Venera program - which included flybys, atmospheric probes and landers. But all Venus surface missions quickly succumbed to the extreme heat and pressure, most lasting for less than a couple of hours.

But there is hope. NASA engineers at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, are developing a new kind of integrated circuit that not only survives the rigors of being in space, it could also allow the delicate electronics inside Venus landers to live 100 times longer than previous efforts.

Thanks to our sponsor for supporting DNews! Check out Graze hereand use coupon code DNEWS for a free snack box.

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AIP Advances:Prolonged silicon carbide integrated circuit operation in Venus surface atmospheric conditions

NASA:NASA Glenn Demonstrates Electronics for Longer Venus Surface Missions

BBC:Venera programme

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This Powerful New Technology May Be The Only Way To Explore Venus - Seeker

Athletics and analytic technology have become increasingly intertwined in recent years, in nearly every sport at both the professional and collegiate levels. Its no secret that Virginia Tech, a school that prides itself on innovation, has been a leader in this trend. There has been a lot of talk about the mens basketball teams unique use of technology and data analytics, but the mens tennis team has flown under the radar with its innovative practices.

This Tuesday, when Virginia Tech faces off against the College of Charleston at Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center, it will be the first college ever to implement a live line-call review and challenge system.

The challenge system is through this technology called PlaySight, which we had installed in 2015. This system is used for statistic tracking and also can call the balls in and out, said junior Freddy Mesmer. In the match, we will get two challenges per set. If you get your challenge right, you get to keep it and if you're wrong, you lose one.

PlaySight was founded in 2011 and has since gained an incredible amount of support from the tennis community, drawing investments from numerous tennis icons including Novak Djokovic, Billie Jean King and Pete Sampras. The companys SmartCourt technology has become exceedingly popular, not just within tennis but also other sports, including basketball. The Golden State Warriors were actually the first professional basketball team to implement the technology, doing so in their practice facility.

PlaySight was invented in Israel by some jet fighters who loved tennis. After every flight, they did a debriefing on their mission and they applied that idea to tennis, said head coach Jim Thompson in text messages sent to the Collegiate Times. In the debrief they wanted to measure their performance in order to improve, and that is exactly what PlaySight has done for our team.

The SmartCourt technology is a setup of multiple HD cameras that track practices and the data in real time, while also serving as a tool for players and coaches to go back and analyze footage instantaneously from various devices.

We mainly use the PlaySight technology for statistics, Thompson said. The machines provide all types of information: spin rate of the ball, speed of every shot, calories burned, distance traveled and location where balls are landing. We certainly use this as much as possible, but we are always trying to improve. It is the same with our strength program, nutrition and even sports psychology. Every edge helps!

The players have really enjoyed using the new technology and are intrigued by the prospect of electronic live line-calling being used more widely in the future.

I think it'll be extremely beneficial for college tennis if this becomes a trend, Mesmer said. The players are extremely excited about it. Anytime you get to be a part of the first of anything it is an awesome opportunity, and it's so cool Virginia Tech gets to be a part of it.

Thompson has high expectations for the technologys future and is certain that this is the beginning of a new development in the sport.

This is the first time ever for college tennis to use the technology for challenges, but I think this is not a test run. This is inventing the future, Thompson said. Who knows what it will look like in years to come but I feel certain this will be more the norm in 10 years.

Continue reading here:

Virginia Tech men's tennis to debut unprecedented electronic line-calling technology - Virginia Tech Collegiate Times

On a daily basis, I scan the markets for stocks that have traded sharply lower due to earnings misses, weak guidance or negative press in an effort to find situations where the market has overreacted. Although most of the time there are legitimate reasons behind the size and pace of a selloff, every now and then there are selloffs that are overdone.

This is the case with the recent selloff in Orbotech (NASDAQ:ORBK) after the company reported disappointing 4Q2016 earnings and 1Q2017 guidance a few weeks ago. Despite being an industry leader with a top-notch balance sheet and diversified revenue portfolio, the stock fell over 10%, resulting in valuation multiples below its peer group.

At these valuations, shares of ORBK have an attractive risk/reward profile as I expect growth to accelerate across their divisions during 2017. Based on those growth expectations, I believe that ORBK's valuation multiple should rebound to trade in line with those of the company's peers. As a result, shares should rebound to between $40-$45, representing ~40% upside from current levels.

Overview

ORBK is a supplier of yield-enhancing and process-enabling solutions for the electronics products manufacturing industry. In plain English, their products allow companies that manufacture electronics to efficiently produce complex products and minimize defects to maximize output. The Company is comprised of three divisions: Production Solutions for the Electronics Industry, Solar Energy and Recognition Software.

The Production Solutions for the Electronics Industry segment, which represents 95% of revenue, includes three sub-segments, Printed Circuit Board (PCB), Semiconductor Devices (SD) and Flat Panel Displays (FPD).

Source: Company Presentation

In the Flat Panel Display (FPD) market, ORBK's has established a market-leading position in the fastest growing segments, including Flex OLED. This position has resulted in increased bookings for 2017, providing investors with improved visibility versus previous years.

In the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) market, ORBK's PCB repair tool allows customers to generate 100% yields in manufacturing, thereby reducing costs and improving profitability. As noted on the 4Q2016 conference call, "the PCB industry is expected to return to positive growth mode" in 2017, and management believes the PCB division will become "an even more meaningful part of our growth".

In the Semiconductor Devices (SDD) market, ORBK is the leading company for fan-out packaging, a segment which is expected to grow, and which ORBK should be able to take market share within. Additionally, ORBK is gaining traction in the MEMS market, which the company specifically noted on the 4Q2016 conference call. On the call management noted they expect to "see growth and demand for MEMS coming from the smartphones, automotive, Internet of things and wearables application. As has been widely reported, these industries continue to add a variety of sensors, for example, for automated collision avoidance system, autonomous drive vehicle, and pedestrian sensing in automotive, and new security feature such as fingerprint sensors in small devices."

Based on ORBK's competitive position in its three main markets and the expected growth in each I expect sales to increase to $900M and $970M; and EPS to total $2.75/share and $3.30/share during 2017 and 2018 respectively.

M&A Growth Prospects

In addition to expecting strong organic revenue and earnings growth, ORBK has the balance sheet capacity to make additional strategic acquisitions. Specifically, investors are hopeful that the company makes an acquisition in adjacent markets or further up the value chain.

However, in addition to having the financial capacity to make acquisitions, I believe ORBK management has proven their ability to identify, acquire and integrate acquisitions that deliver significant value for shareholders.

In 2014, ORBK acquired SPTS, a UK-based manufacturer of etch and deposition processing equipment company targeting advanced packaging and MEMS markets. The acquisition, which is now the SDD division of ORBK, cost the company ~$370M ($300M in debt, $90M in cash) and was priced at ~2x sales. Over the last 3 years, the acquisition has proven to be well-timed and well-executed. Since the acquisition, the Fan-Out, advanced packaging and MEMS product lines have driven SDD division a CAGR of ~25% and supported overall company revenue growth.

Source: Jefferies

In addition proving their ability to identify attractive acquisition targets and execute after closing, management has proven its ability to responsibly manage debt loads following acquisitions. As of EOY2016, the company had reduced total debt to ~$88M.

Source: SimplyWall.st

As reflected in the Jefferies analysis below, the company is in a strong position on both a cash/debt basis and Net Debt / FCF basis.

Source: Jefferies

Given its strong financial position, I would expect the company to pursue another large, strategic acquisition in the next 12 months. Based on management's proven ability to create shareholder value through M&A, as represented by the STPS acquisition, I believe any M&A announcement would be a positive catalyst for the share price.

Valuation

Following the company's 4Q2016 earnings call, on which the company reported weaker than expected 4Q2016 results and 1Q2017 guidance below consensus, shares plunged over 10%.

Source: YCharts, Internal Model

To recap, the company reported 4Q16 revenue of $215M (up +5% Q/Q, +14% Y/Y), which was below the midpoint of guidance and consensus due predominantly lower SD sales (down 14% Q/Q). One bright spot of the report was the strength in the FPD and PCB segments, which were +20% Q/Q and +12% Q/Q, respectively. Gross margin came in at 46.8%, which was below both guidance and consensus and was attributed to product mix, foreign exchange and hedging losses. Overall the lower revenue and lower margins led to EPS of $0.70, which was $0.07 below consensus. As a result of the slow SDD sales in 4Q2016, the company revised its guidance lower for 1Q2017, which put further pressure on the shares.

Although it is never great when companies miss and guide lower, I believe the underlying reason for ORBK's 4Q2016 performance and 1Q2017 guidance (lower than expected SDD segment revenue) has been misinterpreted by market participants leading to an overreaction in the share price. Unfortunately, SDD revenues are typically lumpier and a single customer order delay can meaningfully impact revenue. As I see it, the company simply faced SDD order delays during the period and is being conservative for 1Q2017. Despite these short-term headwinds, I believe the SDD division along with the FPD and PCB segments should accelerate through the second half of 2017. In contrast to my view, the market seems to be discounting ORBK's 2017 growth potential because one segment underperformed for one quarter, and that to me represents an opportunity to buy.

Due to the selloff, ORBK not only has underperformed its peers on a historical basis but is also undervalued on a variety of historical metrics. In my analysis I included Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT), Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX), KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ:KLAC), Nova Measuring (NASDAQ:NVMI), Nanometrics (NASDAQ:NANO) and Teradyne (NYSE:TER).

Source: YCharts, Internal Model

In addition to being undervalued on a historical basis, the company also seems to be undervalued relative to its future growth.

Based on my EPS and Sales targets, which are in line with many sell-side analysts, if ORBK traded at peer average PE or P/S ratio levels, the share price would be meaningfully higher.

Based on the peer average PE / 2017E Earnings ratio of 15.6x and target earnings of $2.75/share, the stock is trading at a 39% discount to the fair value price of ~$43/share.

Risks

Despite its growth prospects and valuation, there remain risks associated with an investment in ORBK.

First, should macroeconomic conditions deteriorate, causing a decrease in spending by ORBK's customers, my earnings estimates and price target would be negatively impacted.

Second, given that ORBK operates in a cyclical business, should electronics demand weaken or capital investment in China slow, it would materially impact ORBK's stock price. Additionally, ORBK has relatively high customer concentration and geographic (China and larger Asian-Pacific region) concentration risk. Should one of their major customers reduce spending or a regional macroeconomic event unfold in Asia, ORBK would be negatively impacted.

Finally, while I believe ORBK has a strong competitive position in the markets it operates in, there is always the risk that competition drives prices and margins lower.

Summary

As a leading supplier of solutions that are critical in the time-to-market sequence of its technology-focused customers, ORBK is ideally positioned to benefit as demand for mainstream products, such as smartphones, tablets, monitors, and flat panel TVs increases for the foreseeable future.

The company has a strong competitive position, the firepower to make another strategic acquisition and is undervalued relative to its peers across a variety of metrics.

I believe an investment in ORBK offers an attractive risk/reward profile at these price levels following the overreaction of the market to the most recent earnings release.

Disclosure: I am/we are long ORBK.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Additional disclosure: I recently opened a position in ORBK based on the thesis outlined in this article.

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Orbotech: Technology Manufacturing Growth Stock - Seeking Alpha