K Lightman writing from what she sees at CES.

Who is K Lightman?

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Karen Lightman
Executive Director
MEMS Industry Group

She knows it 

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Karen Lightman became MEMS Industry Group (MIG) managing director in 2007 and promoted to Executive Director in 2013.

What’s my number one? Something that I’ve known for a while but now really believe is the HOLY GRAIL to both the future success of wearables and IoT/Everything: POWER.  Power reduction and management through sensor fusion, power generation through energy harvesting as well as basic battery longevity. It became very clear from conversations at the MIG conference as well as in talking with folks on the show floor that the issue of power is the biggest challenge and opportunity facing us now.


The standard metric unit of power is the Watt. 

• The ArcticLink® 3 S2 at 150uW, the lowest power sensor hub for always-on, always-aware mobile applications, including hardware, software algorithms, and wearable and smartphone evaluation kits;

Nobody else puts in the right units....ATML G MCU?

 µA/MHz

U gotta do the story problem to get the real answer.  Obfuscation, see they DON"T want u to know the answer.

This is real time reporting from someone in a position to know what is the HOLY GRAIL....

its what QUIK is very good at.  

slide 11 goes here

http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/QUIK/3854974132x0x803270/44b360e0-2975-4df0-b6c2-01a9fc14b9d3/QuickLogic_CES_2015_Presentation.pdf


QUIKs IP is increasingly valuable, not algo IP that they are building, but the whole way they have done the fusion.
It needs to be protected.  QUIK's slide deck still says patent pending.  They need to get the pending gone soon.

How is it coming QUIK.  It the Holy Grail now and some will want to take it. If you speak to management ask them how its coming.  Thanks in advance.

Nice read is here...

QUIK, it seems to be coming right at you...:-)

Wearable Devices and the Search for the Holy Grail at 2015 International CES®

JANUARY 16, 2015 / LEAVE A COMMENT

By Karen Lightman, Executive Director, MEMS Industry Group

I have listened to her speak and she really believes and enjoys her work and is good at her job.

Several years ago I coined the phrase “MEMS frickin’ everywhere.” I shared my vision for MEMS enabling a smarter and better world. This was before the term Internet of Things (IoT) had taken hold. My catchphrase got me into a bit of trouble with those offended by my use of a modified expletive as well as skeptics of the potential of MEMS.

Today that vision of MEMS everywhere seems passé and so obvious. That’s because the outlook for MEMS and sensors has never looked brighter – this was incredibly apparent to me at the 2015 International CES.

At this year’s CES, in addition to hosting the Sensors Marketplace on the show floor and hosting a booth with several of our member companies, MEMS Industry Group (MIG) hosted its third annual conference at CES. In 2013 we were invited by CEA to host a 1.5 hour conference; in 2014 it doubled to three hours and this year we filled an entire day of content plus a cocktail party. Some might say that MIG is growing as fast as the MEMS and sensors industry it represents!

2015 has already been heralded as the year of the wearable device and MIG chose wearables and the MEMS/sensors supply chain as the theme for our conference. We packed an impressive lineup of featured speakers and panelists. There have been several stories already posted by the press on the conference track as well as our exhibit so I won’t retell the already told. Instead I’d like to share with you my favorite quotes, moments and impressions from the entire show.

What’s my number one? Something that I’ve known for a while but now really believe is the HOLY GRAIL to both the future success of wearables and IoT/Everything: POWER.  Power reduction and management through sensor fusion, power generation through energy harvesting as well as basic battery longevity. It became very clear from conversations at the MIG conference as well as in talking with folks on the show floor that the issue of power is the biggest challenge and opportunity facing us now.

MIG’s recently announced Accelerated Innovation Community (AIC), an open source algorithm library for sensor fusion, is a good first step. AIC can help address the issue of sensor fusion to enable more powerful and power-efficient wearables and IoT/E. It has become clear that as an industry we’ve got to do more to address the issue of sensor fusion as well as power reduction, management and creation.  In order to be successful we need more folks onboard to participate in AIC as well as spread the word to end-users and integrators. Won’t you join our merry band of sensor fusion evangelists?

Favorite quote? It comes from David He, Chief Scientific Officer, Quanttus, when he described his company’s goal to find the “unkiller app” by enabling clinically accurate, contextual and continuous data that can empower people to truly take control of their health and yes, save lives. At our conference, David unveiled Quanttus’ never-seen-before health analytics that mapped the blood pressure of 200 people, which gave the audience a glimpse of the future described by Dr. Eric Topol in his book The Creative Destruction of Medicine. As someone who has been at the mercy of out-of-touch doctors who controlled my cancer treatment/healthcare, I welcome the day when I have a wearable device enabled by MEMS and sensors along with data analytics that gives me smart, useful and actionable data to help me guide and manage my own healthcare, thank you very much.

Lastly, being at CES this year reiterated my love and affection for MIG members. From the members who have been with MIG since its foundation in 2001 like Intel to our newest member, Virtuix (whose President joined MIG only minutes after speaking at MIG’s CES conference), MIG members totally rock. It was a pleasure and a delight to be in their company for one week, even at the world’s most insane tradeshow (because it’s in Vegas, after all).

MIG is a growing industry association in a growing industry. I’m confident that together, we can create a world that has MEMS and sensors frickin’ everywhere, but only if we continue to address the remaining challenges to commercialization. Won’t you join us?

The big thing that will happen in 2015 will be context aware smartphones. 

I estimate that it was in 2011 when QUIK IDed sensor hubs and drafted their plans for the FFE and hoped to keep it secret till fall of '13
They focused right in on the important issues and thought differently.

When Dr. Saxe thoughts in this item ( context smartphones)become real with a Flagship smartphone that can do things as he lays them out everybody at QUIK deserves to take a bow for the focus and energy of these past yrs.

As I let the descriptions of them fill my mind it's not hard to imagine that people will say I want one like that. They are better and will be a way to get the market share.

Usually the one who doesn't have it ( market share ) are the ones who want it most....time will tell.  Can the bottom 1/3rd beat the top dogs to market with this?

PS I spent about 20 minutes on compound searches with tags like these

context app sorting smartphone...and I did NOT find any Flagship.


  The only name that did pop up more than 1 time Google and Google now.  Consider that GOOG would want beta devices just like Dr. Saxe has described on their benches. They sold MOT but still keep the Nexus line testing stuff out...

Google Nexus is a line of consumer electronic devices that run the Android operating system. Google manages the design, development, marketing, and support of these devices, but some development and all manufacturing are carried out by partnering original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). 

So JUST for fun and a mental model.maybe its in the Nexus smartphone raodmap- it should be.

PS  Note that slide 8 at NEED has 8 algos in activities. The new ones are swimming, sleeping and heart rate.

QUIK speaks that most often algos move from the custom CSSP, where they are worked on initially and then into the catalog where they may be of use to smaller interested parties.

Consider that a wearable has use of many activity classifications of a fitness band.........

http://www.ecnmag.com/articles/2015/01/what-will-be-must-have-consumer-product-2015

5 stars here, as its so well articulated, use it to make some mental models of what will come to pass l8er this yr. Also continue to notice that until recently nobody much asked what Dr. Saxe thought.Now he's in demand and that should continue or increase-( like our new Frinds at PEEL) He is making the most of his increasing opportunities.  Nice that it just tells so well. Mispriced bet...

Tim Saxe, CTO, QuickLogic Corporation

The big thing that will happen in 2015 will be context aware smartphones. Apps have been sprouting like weeds because they bring great value to our lives by helping us make nearly every aspect of our lives more efficient.  However at the same time the phone is making the rest of our lives more efficient, the vast number of apps on the typical user’s phone is making the phone experience less efficient and more frustrating as the user has to flip through screens or dive through folders to find the appropriate app.  And to exacerbate the problem, the more we use the phone to manage our lives, the more we drain the battery creating the fear of being disconnected from our friends and colleagues and the services we have come to rely upon.

A context aware phone, one that knows where you are, can start to anticipate your needs. Sitting on a train? Then it is more likely that you are going to be listening to music and reading digital media – so make those apps more easily accessible.  Sitting down to breakfast? Then it is more likely that you are going to want the news and see how you did on fantasy football.  Sitting in your car?  Then it is more likely that you are going to be listening to music and using the navigation function – so make them easily accessible. Also, you don’t want to waste power logging into all of the WiFi networks that you drive past, so turn off the WiFi, and if you are the driver you do want to use Bluetooth, so turn that on.

The context aware phone will restore the simplicity that we had a few years ago without reducing the rich capabilities that have developed over the past few years, making this the big win for 2015.


The blog post that goes along with it...




So some of the above features are exactly what we might expect when someone rolls with a context aware phone.  It could change the device fairly QUIKly. Dr. Saxe articulates well how context will be a strong selling point for a device when it rolls.................

Commentary-  We did a LOT of work as I was ALL ready to add a meaningful position of NOD.OL 
as a focus holding as they are doing all the right things. But then then C Munger thing of looking at the lines on the bets.  NOD 10x valuation of current BLE revenue stream.  QUIK adding 100 man yrs of expertise and a LOT of it in Algo chef talents,  Those Movea, SPI Trusted P went for some good $$ and soon/perhaps already we are at the amount.  NO valuation is given 'lil QUIK for helping to usher in the above device.  SO I took those NOD.ol $$ and bought QUIK as the pay out is so much greater from where it is perceived to be to where it has come.

Preedicting The Future, 2015 Version, From Our Very Own CTO…

By Paul

Jan. 16, 2015 @ 9:28 am | Leave a comment

Our resident CTO, futurist, and marathoner Tim Saxe was featured in ECN Magazine’s recent panel on “What Will be the Must-Have Consumer Product of 2015“.

Of course, his opinion may be somewhat biased, but there is no doubt that makers of smartphones and wearables are working towards devices which as always-on, and always-aware.  They want devices that adapt to us (not the other way around).  Device OEMs benefit from a strong reliance on devices, carriers from increased bandwidth usage and user data, and advertisers from user data at a macro (or micro) level.

And users, of course, benefit in a great number of ways:

* Phones that will react to being in cars (i.e., shutting down the texting on the teenagers phone driving down Highway 101 at 80MPH in the early 90′s Honda with the flashy wheels, loud stereo, and engine sputtering through the chainsaw muffler)

* Wearables that produce accurate fitness assessments and recommendation– taking data on cadence of steps, altitude, speed, time sitting vs walking, intensity of heart rate, UV exposure and others, instead of a simple step count (which is the most basic of measurements)

* Tablets that can be used to measure living conditions, including your houses humidity levels, temperature, air quality, etc…

…and a whole host of other applications just now being conceived

- See more at: http://blog.quicklogic.com/corporate/predicting-the-future-2015-version-from-our-very-own-cto/#sthash.3EToN384.dpuf

QUIK may very well be in every one of the above beta devices that are being tested on the benches and some of which will make it to market in the first half of '15.
I have looked for yrs. to find other investments in this arena.  I did see what Authentec had and owned some shares when Apple took them out.  NOD was the best diversification to QUIK for me to come along, but the discount given to QUIK, as though they are not in the ecosystems of sensors/sensor fusion, werables, IoT etc is just wrong.  They are increasingly in the ecosystem so I will buy shares until it is repriced as a member of this exclusive group of companies.
It is a mispriced bet- is what the subjective probabilities increasingly say to me.  The fact that Dr. Saxe is getting so much more well deserved press time is just one way to see how things are different by a LOONG way from even 6 months ago.

I ended up taking the push out of the FLagship smartphone with the S2 as a good thing to allow more expansion of the allocation for this time.