Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/918289
Consumer Electronics Daily News 5 7 Tuesday, January 9, 2018 definition to sounds. Chief Executive Officer John Kasha says KAI Technology is at CES first and foremost to create awareness for the company's technology and its product, m.e. He adds, "We are a startup looking for partners to help get our technology out into the world. We created a technol- ogy that will make any audio sound uncompressed and live." The m.e. was engineered to hear every sound, instrument and note with unmatched clarity. Its durable design easily handles both stage and performance. When a device is plugged into the m.e., users are immediately transported to the front row of a live concert. The sound delivers outstand- ing VR and 3D audio to all listening devices, smartphones, headphones, TV, gaming systems, cars and more. All that and it's smaller than a matchbook! While at CES, the company is launch- ing new facets of the product by adding HDMI and optical interfaces so that the m.e. experience can be enjoyed with Hi-Fi systems, sound bars and TVs. "We are in the business of developing and delivering quality audio," explains Kasha, "KAI-X is our latest release. It is designed to deliver 'virtual reality audio.' This is the best description we can give to the experience of listening to any sound after its signal passes through our technology. Regardless of whether the listener is hearing vocals, instruments or the spoken word, KAI-X delivers sound with unmatched clarity." KAI Technology (Cont'd. from p. 1) Although the company's main cus- tomers are consumers of audio products, everyone will enjoy the enhanced audio experience with KAI Technology's prod- ucts. Kasha states, "the m.e. was particular- ly designed for musicians. Musicians are stuck with monitors shared with other musicians, so to compensate, they increase the volume of amps, and the performance can go downhill. To solve this problem, personal sound monitors may be used. These systems do allow musicians to hear and isolate instruments and vocals, howev- er, expensive earbuds are required to recre- ate what they previously heard with moni- tors and/or amps. In most cases, what musi- cians then hear is 'audio in a box,' sound compressed and without 'life.' Adding our m.e. to these in-ears systems amplify, expand and excite the audio, which allows a musician to perform even better. That it can do this for a musician on-stage means that the quality is extraordinary for an indi- vidual simply listening on a device. The m.e. allows a listener to hear as if it is live." Furthermore, KAI Technology's m.e. enhances any type of audio, regard- less of whether the listener is using head- phones, earbuds, computer sound sys- tems, game systems, car stereos, sound bars or television. With this technology, listeners are able to "be there" even when they are home. For more information stop by booth #51668, Sands, Hall G, check out www.getmeaudio.com or call 818.739.1160. at the office in minutes. As I leave, I get a thank you text that mentions an invita- tion-only sale the next week. Backed by big data and analytics, the shopping experience will be highly per- sonalized, seamless and frictionless. By leveraging every medium, the retailer can deliver in-the-moment customer engage- ment, forge deeper relationships with their customers and engender powerful, lasting customer loyalty. Digital technology and the torrent of data it produces will also help the enter- prise optimize operations as never before, down to shelf space, lights and refrigerator usage. Smart and autonomous logistics and transport and even autonomous driving and drones will become commonplace. For Information Communications Technology players, the digitalization of retail will reap tangible benefits – new Ericsson (Cont'd. from p. 4) global revenues of $140 billion by 2026, according to the Ericsson 5G Business Potential Report. Innovations in customer experience alone will bring in $43 billion, and operational efficiencies will save another $35 billion from applications such as chat robots for customer service and smart sensors for equipment maintenance. Much of this requires the power of 5G. 5G provides retailers with high-speed in-store connectivity for rich content delivery, low latency enabling mobile AR/VR applications without queasiness, and a continuously secured and reliable connection for a seamless shopping expe- rience. Grabbing new business opportuni- ties as they unfold, retailers will be able to grow year-on-year sales via multiple channels that reach inside of, or exist apart from, their brick and mortar stores. Visit Ericsson at booth #2119 to learn more and download the report at www.ericsson.com/5G-northamerica. trainers and parents via the app. The prevalence of sports-related concussions in athletes is not precisely known due to under-reporting. However, estimates from the Center for Disease Control put the total annual number at nearly four million in the United States alone. With over five million athletes participating in organized contact sports with a high concussion risk and an addi- tional 30 million playing other sports where athletes sometimes collide violent- ly, the potential for these monitors is massive. This partnership is a natural fit for Murata. Further, the relationship forged Murata (Cont'd. from p. 4) with Prevent Biometrics underscores the importance of innovation through collaboration. By marrying collective and very different disciplines and leveraging each other's existing core technologies, both companies create an immediate benefit to society. This ini- tiative also aligns closely with Murata's strategy to use technological expertise, such as communication, sensing and flexible electronics tech- nologies, to improve people's quality of life. To see Prevent Biometrics' IM Mouthguard first-hand, stop by Murata's meeting space at #MP26151, South Hall 2 or booth #45731 at the Sands. Most can agree that dealing with the cat's dirty litter box stinks. No one likes to scoop the litter box. It's often hidden in a low traffic area of the home, which can lead to an out-of- sight, out-of-mind scenario – resulting in infrequent cleaning and unwanted protests from our feline family mem- bers. The Litter-Robot solves this problem by doing the dirty work for you. It is an automatic self-cleaning litter box for cats. It detects when your cat is inside and when it's time to clean up, leaving a clean bed of litter for your cat after each use. No more scooping the litter box. All you have to do is empty the waste drawer when it indicated and add clean litter as needed. CEDN: Can you explain the reason for Litter-Robot's unique design? DS: There is no question that the Litter- Robot is a unique looking litter box. Its design is derived from its function – to be a comfortable space for a cat to do its busi- ness while providing hands-off, automatic cleaning of the litter box after each use. CEDN: How does the Litter-Robot work? DS: The Litter-Robot uses a sensor to detect when a cat enters and exits the unit. Once the cat exits, a timer counts down, allowing litter to clump before a clean cycle begins. The clean cycle begins when the globe starts to slowly rotate. Our patented sifting process sepa- rates the clumps from the clean litter Litter-Robot (Cont'd. from p. 1) through rotation and a clever use of grav- ity. The clumps are then deposited into a carbon-filtered waste drawer for odor management and easy disposal. CEDN: Do you have to buy special Litter-Robot products for ongoing use? DS: No, absolutely not. The Litter-Robot was designed to be free of proprietary consumable products. We do sell premi- um clay clumping litter and biodegrad- able liners for the waste drawer, but our customers can simply use 13-gallon kitchen bags and a clumping litter of their choice. CEDN: Does Litter-Robot have anything new for 2018? DS: Yes, we do. We recently launched our Connect app. The Connect app gives you additional freedom from your litter box duties by allowing you to monitor and control a single Litter-Robot or mul- tiple units from wherever you are. You can use the app to navigate through fea- tures like remote control, notification history and troubleshooting. A Stats fea- ture displays useful insights into your cat's bathroom activity that may be used to indicate abnormal behavior. The most prominent feature is the Waste Level gauge that graphically displays the waste level in the Litter-Robot and will alert you via push notification when it's time to empty the unit. For more information, visit www.litter- robot.com or go to the Smart Home sec- tion at Tech East, booth #42935 in Halls A-D at the Sands. by the commercial push during this past year's holiday shopping season, the entertainment industry has been an early adopter of VR, with proprietary solutions offered by a number of leading brands. As the Virtual Reality ecosystem expands, so too does the demand for VR to leverage standard web technologies such as HTML5, and to provide common ways to define, build and interact with 3D content on different devices. In the same way we advanced web standards for the mobile web and web and television, the World Wide Consortium (W3C) – the global stan- dards body for web technologies – con- tinues work to enable Virtual Reality solutions to use the Open Web Platform as a full-fledged development environ- ment. With standards, there will be inter- operability to avoid fragmentation and duplicated effort, which in turn lowers development costs. At the 2016 W3C Workshop on Web and Virtual Reality, more than 70 organ- izations actively working in the VR ecosystem came together to demonstrate the benefits that the web can bring to VR development. Industry experts from companies including W3C members W3C (Cont'd. from p. 1) Apple, BBC, Dolby, Facebook/Oculus, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Qualcomm and Samsung, addressed some of the shortcomings needed to make the web more feature-rich and attractive for deploying innovative VR applications and services. Among the features workshop par- ticipants identified as needing standardi- zation attention were: better integration of existing web content in VR experi- ences; improved support and optimized transmission of 360° videos and audio; turning web pages into enjoyable Virtual Reality spaces; and integrating the 3D building bricks of VR content into the fabric of the Open Web Platform. In order for VR technology to be further defined and integrated into the Open Web Platform, the W3C held a 2017 workshop dedicated to bringing together WebVR stakeholders to identify unexploited opportunities as well as technical gaps in WebVR authoring, and will plan a broad AR workshop in 2018. We will consider the path for formal standardization based on Community Group incubation after our December workshop. For more information about W3C's WebVR activities, email w3t-pr@w3.org.