Three Social Robots Arriving in 2016: Novelty or Next Level of Home Automation?

Who will be the first to arrive? JIBO, AIDO and BUDDY are scheduled to arrive in April, October and December 2016 respectively, though JIBO has run into delays. All solutions received funding on Indiegogo and have been widely covered in mainstream media.

Introduction

Even as smart technologies proliferate making smarter homes, clothes and appliances the world is still waiting for that one intelligent killer app that takes away the management of this technology. The ideal solution on everyone’s list? A robotic butler.

Although robotics automation has gone better and smart technology become cheaper (the average smart device costs below $500), the perfect robotic butler may still be a decade away.

Meanwhile, there is something (or someone) to fill the gap. Social or personal robots as they are called, have arrived on the scene in last year with prototypes vying for funding and presales. 2016 is when many of them will come into consumer hands and homes.

We profile three of the widely anticipated social robots that were crowdfunded on Indiegogo and arriving in 2016. 

JIBO -The world's first social robot for home

JIBO, a table top social robot. Source: JIBO

First on the list is the popular JIBO, which was in news last week for yet another delay in its widely anticipated launch. 

JIBO, dubbed as the world's first social robot for home, was founded in 2014 by Dr Cynthia Breazeal, a veteran in social robotic designs. Production launched after a presales funding campaign on Indiegogo that has raised over $3.7 million and 4,800 pre-orders at $749 apiece. New orders are currently on a waitlist.  

Standing at 11 inches, JIBO’s has a cute animated face sitting atop a 6-inch base. JIBO is not mobile, but can swivel around its base in response to its 3600 sound localization sensors. JIBO’s in-built hardware includes high resolution cameras, 3D microphones and speakers for facial recognition, voice recognition, taking pictures and videos and notifications such as reminders and alerts. 

Voice assistant capabilities like Siri or Google Now are delivered through natural language processing for speech to text/speech conversion. JIBO also has artificial intelligence algorithms that progressively learn and adapt individual user preferences.

Processing capabilities are delivered through a high end mobile ARM processor. JIBO connects to the Internet using wifi and Bluetooth for communication with other mobile devices and other JIBO’s as well. 

JIBO also includes a developer SDK that includes a Visual Simulator and animation, timeline and behaviour tools to develop add on applications that will be available via a dedicated JIBO store.

JIBO technical specs as listed on their Indiegogo project

JIBO is already popular with consumers although the delayed launch this week, means JIBO will lose its first social robot tag and will have to compete with the more sophisticated alternatives that are also arriving this year.

AIDO: Interactive Personal Home Robot

AIDO, the interactive personal assistant. Source: AIDO.

Dubbed an interactive personal home robot, Aido raises the game up several notches from JIBO at roughly the same pre-order price. AIDO includes all capabilities that are bundled in JIBO and some more, making it closer to a robot butler (it actually has a mode called “butler”).

For one, while JIBO is more of a table top companion, AIDO can move. It is a three foot high ball bot with a single ball base for motion and swivel. Unlike the bouncy toy we played with as children, AIDO constantly equilibrates on its base even when stationary, with additional retractable legs to keep it in one place for longer periods.

AIDO also boasts a multimedia HD projector add on, which means it works as a portable entertainment unit cum projector screen for videos in any part of the house.

AIDO's features multimedia projection features Source: AIDO

The robot also supports ZigBee and Z-wave wireless standards which means it can communicate with and control compatible smart home appliances such as lighting systems, climate control and security. Users can program workflows via a mobile app creating a series of time sequenced instructions. 

AIDO packs in some heavy duty computing and innovative architecture to support all its capabilities. There is 3 quad core CPU and GPU processing unit. Its supports connectivity through wifi, Bluetooth, ZigBee and Z-Wave protocols, plus a Universal Infra Red remote that supports over 1000 devices. It has 4D gravity sensor, 6 microphone array, indoor object recognition, touch screen, multiple cameras and projector displays. All this makes it good value at the price offered for early birds. If it takes off, AIDO may be worthwhile at twice.  

For developers, AIDO is built on open source hybrid Andriod-Linux architecture and comes with OpenAIDO, an open platform SDK, which includes tools and libraries to build applications. 

JIBO technical specs as listed on their Indiegogo project

Also founded in 2014, AIDO’s design has already received awards wining "GameChanger" of 2016 by T3 magazine. At the time of writing AIDO’s Indiegogo campaign has raised over $370,000 in pre-orders and still has 11 days before it closes. First deliveries are planned in October 2016. If you are among those waiting to get your hands on a ball bot there is still a chance to do so.

In the optimistic world of smart tech, maybe AIDO will do everything that is promised. But even a fraction would still be a major step in the evolution of robot Jeeves cum Jarvis.

BUDDY - The Companion Robot

Rounding up this list is BUDDY from French company Blue Frog Robotics. Dubbed a social companion robot, BUDDY runs on wheels and casters and is available on pre-order price of $699 for the classic edition. Their campaign on Indiegogo raised over $600,000 from backers. Shipments are estimated in December 2016.

BUDDY’s capabilities are similar to AIDO’s. It provides the same range of capabilities from voice assistance, entertainment, smart home appliance management, multimedia projection and social interaction. BUDDY also lists two additional functions. It serves as home security unit, actively patrolling the house and sending alerts on detecting unusual situations. It also provides elder care serving medication reminders, detecting falls or unusual activity. 

It also runs on open source platforms, using Arduino and Unity 3D video gaming platform for applications.  Unlike AIDO, BUDDY supports wifi and Bluetooth connectivity only. 

Buddy Tech Specs

The future for Social Robots

Long featured in science fiction, social robots or personal robotic assistance may just become the critical accessory for home automation. 

2016 may be the entry point for many such products which are currently in the voice assistant/entertainment category. But the technology may not work completely as advertised through. The challenges with natural voice recognition technology, data security and privacy are just some of the concerns about social robots. Like this feature in IEEE Spectrum on JIBO and MIT Technology Review’s experience with Buddy  show that the first robots off the assembly line may still be lacking something.

Maybe the social robots score on cuteness but are not yet the real thing. But this is promising step in a market which is still in early stages. Another space where exciting things are in store. 

Bitcoin News Capsule: Analysis of Ten Developments in Q1 2016

Bitcoin News Capsule: Ten Developments in 2016

In the fast moving world of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin still dominates headlines. In this post, a quick round-up of events in the Bitcoin universe in the first quarter of 2016.

From the blockchain, markets, blocksize debates and node divisions, Bitcoin businesses, regulation and the competition we have tried to cover notable events across all. 

One: Bitcoin Ruled the Cryptocurrency Markets and Competition

2016 started well for cryptocurrency market with the total market cap reaching nearly $8 billion. Bitcoin ruled finishing with $6.4 billion market cap and 80% market share. Prices remained steady at $400 levels throughout the quarter starting at $433 on January 1 and ending at $417.

Source: Coin Dance

The first quarter also saw the emergence of Ethereum. Ethereum is growing in market cap and Ethereum dapps attract a lot of attention. Ethereum, as we saw in the article comparing the two, is the most serious competitor to Bitcoin but it is not a Bitcoin killer. 

Banks, FinTech and BigTech consortia continued a slew of announcements of successful tests on blockchain technology, partnerships and more, using Ripple and Ethereum. The only reason this is included here is the fact that of headlines include the word Bitcoin blockchain technology, such as this one from Wall Street Journal.

Maybe the Bitcoin tide is needed to float all blockchain boats.

Two: Business as usual at the Bitcoin blockchain

 

The blockchain height grew to by 10,000 blocks to over 400,000, minting 25 new coins per blocks. 

Bitcoins in circulation also grew by 400,000 with a total of 15.4 million BTC at the end of the quarter. Average block sizes have started reaching the 1 MB limits. The blockchain size is now approaching 70 GB. 

Source: Satoshi.info

Three: Blocksize Forks - Nodes divided between Core, Classic, XT and Unlimited

The blocksize limitation debate has fragmented the Bitcoin developer community, businesses and miners with different parties implementing their vision for an immediate and long term fix in a different fork. 

At end of  Q1 2016, nodes are running four different versions Core followed by Classic which between them, account for 94% nodes, followed by Bitcoin XT and Bitcoin Unlimited, at 3%. 

Source: Coin Dance

Will Core or Classic attain the supermajority for consensus? The answer may be evident next year.

Four: Bitcoin Classic Released 2MB hard fork

At least one code release came through with support for 2MB blocksizes. Bitcoin Classic, supported by former released a 2MB hard fork in February 2016. Classic is supported by former core/XT developer Gavin Andresen, businesses Coinbase, Circle, Bitstamp and Genesis mining.  

Five: Bitcoin Roundtable Consensus

Also in February 2016, the Bitcoin Roundtable Consensus was announced, following a meeting in Hong Kong  which was organized by BTC China COO Sam Mow and attended by Bitcoin Core developers and leading miners such as BitFury. 

The agreement in effect rules out any immediate changes, but laid out the proposed roadmap for Bitcoin Core releases. The agreement supports a gradual increase in blocksize, retaining the 1 MB limit at present, with SegWit option to handle block limits, a proposal to release to release code to support 4MB blocks in June 2016 and a hard fork based on majority consensus occurring twelve months further down the line in July 2017.

The news had a positive impact on the price of Bitcoin.

Six: More on Block Size: Satoshi Roundtable and Other Recommendations

The annual Satoshi Roundtable, a private invite event/retreat attending leading names in Bitcoin and cryptocoin industry followed at the end of February. The major slant of the event was towards having a concrete solution for blocksize, such as adopting Classic Release which is now available and having a fallback alternative to Bitcoin Core.

Blocksize and Core roadmap versus Classic was the dominant focus of some of the posts from Gavin Andresen and Brian Armstrong who were among the attendees. The Satoshi Roundtable also ended with members signing a pledge in support of respectful dialogue (on Bitcoin).  

Other recommendations for block size kept coming through the quarter. BitPay, have proposed a release that uses dynamic scalability. Academia also joined the debate. The Initiative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3) at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, Cornwell , released a study that recommends a 4MB block size. 

Seven: Bitcoin in danger of Centralization?

Blockstream, the blockchain solutions startup founded by Bitcoin Core developers, has been at the centre of many debates, primarily around proposed changes (or not) to Bitcoin Core which effectively keeps block size and scalability to be handled via side chains aka Liquid. 

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, remained vocal about his concerns cum opposition to the Core roadmap. Xapo, the Fort Knox of Bitcoin has also moved away from Core and Blockstream.

BTCC and Blockstream (naturally) are those who defend the Core roadmap as the necessary for evolution of Bitcoin as a long term scalable settlements platform.

Will business interests centralize and/or cannibalize Bitcoin for good? Time will tell.

Eight: Funding Bitcoin Development

MIT's Digital Currency Initiative announced that it was setting up a $900,000 Bitcoin Developer Fund raised from contributions from industry and individuals to support development of the Bitcoin protocol.

Bitcoin developers Gavin Andresen, Wladimir van der Laan, and Cory Fields are former Bitcoin core developers who were offered positions with the Digital Currency Initiative after the Bitcoin Foundation ran out of funds in April 2015. Although these developers are associated with the Classic version, the Foundation funds will be used to pay salaries and other expenses to support development on the Bitcoin protocol than any specific position or project.

Nine: Startup Woes - Two More Exchanges Meltdown

CoinTrader the second largest Canadian Bitcoin exchange and its parent company joined the list of exchanges that shut down overnight, without warning and blaming a hack. More bad news were in store for clients Cryptsy, which suspended trading in January. A Florida court has taken control over the exchange's assets and placed it in receivership.

Ten: Bitcoin and Lawmakers

In good news, Australia is planning to end double taxation treatment for Bitcoin, while New Hampshire in USA rejected a proposal to accept tax payments in Bitcoin.

In the USA, six after Circle became the first company to receive BitLicense from New York Department of Financial Services, it remains the only one. Other Bitcoin businesses that have applied for BitLicense are still awaiting approval.

Bitcoin is currently legal in 71 countries.

Summary of Bitcoin in Q1 2016

By Bitcoin standards, Q1 2016 has ended on a fairly mild note. The block size debate has momentarily receded from headlines although nodes are running as many as four different versions of Bitcoin. No pricing bubbles burst and anyone hoping for some negativity to dent the $400 price to bargain levels, was left disappointed. Two exchanges went belly up, a few more governments accepted Bitcoin, and, thanks to the blockchain hype, there is more love going around for Bitcoin.

The second quarter is bound to see some serious action as block rewards drop from 25 to 12.5 bitcoins around June. 

Ethereum Dapps Showcase: Peer to Peer Insurance Applications

A dashboard view of decentralized apps on Ethereum as published on State of the Dapps website.

In the early days of online marketplaces, online shopping for insurance changed the insurance company-agent-customer relationship forever. Buyers could compare quotes from multiple insurance companies online instead of going to an insurance agent. Online quote comparisons changed information asymmetry, the economic term made popular by the 2009 bestseller Freakonomics in favor of buyers. 

The end result was that the bargaining power of insurance buyers increased. The role of agents was diluted and insurance companies were forced to become more transparent about their premiums and and offer competitive pricing. Today, insurance exchanges are a norm worldwide and one of the enablers of Obamacare in the United States. 

Like the disruptive insurance exchanges, decentralized apps on the blockchain hope to solve other gaps that have been either too costly, or inefficient, or simply unprofitable in the insurance industry model. 

We look at two applications that will soon be rolled out on the Ethereum blockchain, intended for the uninsured and underserved customer segment, using the model of peer to peer insurance on the decentralized blockchain.

InsureETH: SMART FLIGHT INSURANCE

What if you bought insurance and needed it but never made a claim? Many air travellers have been through this experience. A travel insurance policy is an essential pre-requisite for the large segment of air travellers all over the world. 

Travel insurance policies cover a wide range of risks from flight delays, lost baggage to  overseas hospitalization. While the prospect of hospitalization away from home is a daunting enough incentive to buy travel insurance, only a small percentage of total travellers have actually taken ill and were required to claim medical benefits.

On the other hand, the most common event, flight delays and lost baggage, ends up with fewer claims than experiences. Fliers have to submit claims in a limited window and approval can take days. This is a distraction for frequent business travellers. If evidence such as ticket stubs are lost, claims can be denied. Because the inconvenience is temporary and usually at a moderate cost, most fliers forgo reimbursement they are entitled to, in spite of paying for coverage. 

InsurETH is a startup that aims to solve this problem using Ethereum. Their idea, a smart flight application, was an award winner in the Programmable Assets category at the 2015 Hack the Block London Blockathon. 

Source: InsureETH demo

Using the InsurETH application on the Ethereum blockchain, fliers can purchase flight delay insurance through an ether payment transaction. The premium payment is recorded as a smart contract transaction on the Ethereum blockchain.  If the event that is, a flight delay occurs, the flier receives the claim amounts as per the terms coded in the contract. 

InsurETH also shifts the burden of proof of the claim from the policy holder. The application sources public flight data feeds using Oraclize, the "provably honest" blockchain application to verify the claim event and automatically pays out the claim as per the conditions of coverage. Investors can also purchase (shares presumably) in the pool using ether. I assume the investor feature provides risk liquidity to the pool and returns based on pool performance which may be claims experience and investment returns.

InsurETH’s solution should see massive adoption for two reasons. It tackles head on, the real problem of lost premiums in the travel insurance business due unclaimed travel insurance as well as denials from airlines. It also allows unbundling of travel risks. For example, domestic travellers or short stay globetrotters are are more likely to need only this one coverage can purchase insurance at a lower premium than an umbrella type of policy that is more suited for vacationers. 

The InsurETH application is in work in progress status on dapps dashboards but a demo version is available online. 

DYNAMIS: PEER TO PEER UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

Source: Dyamis Website which features in-depth coverage on the vision and implementation of peer to peer insurance

Dymanis is a start-up creating and promoting peer to peer insurance applications using the Ethreum blockchain based on a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) framework. The broader vision of Dynamis is to create a DAC owned by the policy holders who contribute to a risk pool, for supplemental or low value variety of insurance. 

The Dynamis application which is also under development, offers supplemental unemployment insurance in a peer to peer model. Participants apply to the pool and are accepted based on their social capital status (an example of a social capital indicator can be their online footprint and reputation derived from participation on social media platforms such as Facebook) . Participants themselves evaluate applications and claim payouts or source out to a Human Intelligence Task (HIT) pool paying in ether.

The burden of claim is shifted from the policy holder or participant to a provably honest trustless platform.  Social network LinkedIn is used as an oracle to help evaluators verify employment records and approve claims. Approved claims are paid out based on the terms of the contract.

The Dynamis smart contract also offers policyholders benefits similar to self-insured groups and that of mutual insurance companies in the United States. If there are fewer claims (favourable claims experience), the participants can also receive back a portion of their contribution. 

The Dynamis website features a detailed white paper, infographics and blog posts expanding on the implementation of DAC insurance company. 

A New Wave of Peer to Peer Insurance?

Decentralized apps for peer to peer insurance have several innovative features. The decentralized model is suitable for many self-insured, small groups and niches that may remain in the uninsured segment (the anti-selection or high risk category usually declined by insurance underwriters). 

The more attractive proposition is the claims automation by using a decentralized oracle platform. This shifts burden of claim from the insured and the one-sided power of adjudication from insurance company (the process to approve or deny claims or determine claim amount which may be below contract terms).

Decentralized insurance is a very interesting concept and one that has a long history of using available technology to create smart contracts. This is because the 2000 year old insurance is the one place where, in game theory terminology, there is incentive for all stakeholders to be dishonest than otherwise. 

We will explore the concept of peer to peer insurance on the blockchain in future articles.

Life On A Wrist: Five Use Cases for the Smartwatch

More than a fashionable smartphone accessory? Smartwatch and wrist wearable technologies  are converging in use cases for security, senior healthcare, child safety and docomotion.

Introduction

Year 2015 ended with a phenomenal increase in smartwatch sales led by Apple Watch. Although the market  forecasts remained upbeat in the first quarter of 2016, cutbacks such as Pebble’s staff layoffs and Apple’s $50 reduction in Apple Watch pricing have started waning the enthusiasm. Like any emerging products, industry sentiments on the the three year old smartwatch fluctuates almost daily between short term fad versus a future necessity.

It may be a safer bet to say smartwatches are here to stay. What is likely to happen is a convergence of many wearable uses cases being adapted into a smartwatch. Like smartphones which became more than just telephony (and that is understating it!), smartwatches will come to represent many different applications of electronic wrist wearables.

The use of a smartwatch as a wrist strapped mobile device has variety of applications in everyday consumer and industry use cases where hands-free and/or gesture based communication is required.

In this article we look at the five quietly evolving use cases and value additions of the smartwatch.

Between them, they represent a bright future for the technology as the platforms improve and developers and consumers find innovative applications for the watch.

Use Case 1: Insuring Smartphones from Physical Damage

As smartphones continue to grow bigger in size and price, smartwatches will provide value as a safer and more convenient accessory. Smartphone losses alone make a solid case for smartwatches. Sample some of the statistics reported on lost smartphones. In 2013, Consumer Reports Group estimated that a combined 4.5 million phones were lost or stolen. Dropping phones (into undesirable places) is a major cause of damage. A majority of people were willing to spend equal or more than the cost of the phone to recover stolen phones. When Apple introduced kill switches for the iPhone, an expert estimated the industry would save $34 billion. Mobile insurance premiums offered for theft or damage can cost almost as much as the phone $650 premium including deductible for an iPhone 6s. (Sources: Consumer Reports, CNET, Wired).

Peace of mind on smartphone whereabouts? With a paired smartwatch, smartphone loss and damage statistics might just improve.

Image: A composite from Consumer Reports and Visual.ly. 

By using a smartwatch as wrist accessory, the incidents of leaving smartphones can decrease. In fact a smartwatch accessory can be used to lower the underwriting risk and premium of an insured smartphone.

Use Case 2: Senior Care and Emergency Assistance

Wrist tags indicating serious health conditions and emergency measures are commonly used by sufferers of chronic ailments of all age groups and by seniors living alone. A smartwatch app can enhance this capability. For example, the app can use in built GPS functions to locate nearby hospitals or send location information. Users can use the voice control to look up information, send notifications or alter emergency services automatically in case of an incident. The smartwatch fitness sensors can continue to provide health indicators such as heart rate. By combining timing and alert functions, with Internet access and health sensors, it is possible for users to keep track of critical health indicators such as heart rate and take prompt remedial measures in case of an emergency. The fitness apps monitor health parameters and can retain history in the cloud. If sensors detect readings exceeding a threshold the app can prompt users to take the necessary action such as taking a required medication in a prescribed time limit. Apps can also send notifications to take additional action such as asking users to stop driving, alerting emergency contacts or notifying emergency services.

Lively, a smartwatch for senior citizens provides many such functions. The watch is waterproof and can be used in a bath or shower. An emergency button dials for assistance when needed. The watch communicates with other wellness sensors such as pillbox and food monitoring sensors in the home and sends notifications to users and designated family members.

The Lively smartwatch is specially designed for seniors living alone

Use Case 3: Child Safety

Smartwatches designed for kids are really built for the safety use case for concerned parents. This range of smartwatches provide time keeping as well as location tracking, walkie-talkie and GPS functions to enable parents to monitor the child’s location, receive alerts when they move out of designated safe areas or get in touch using call or voicemail functions. These wrist wearables let parents and their children stay remotely connected when away or in crowded public areas such as malls, amusement parks or airports.

FiLIP and Jumpy are two start-ups that make smartwatches designed for location tracking and call functions using GPS and GSM technologies. The Filip smartwatch is actually described on their website as a wearable phone and locator. The device does not pair with a connected smartphone, instead it works as a locator and sends notifications to a companion app on the parent’s smartphone using their patented technology that combines GPS, GSM and Wi-Fi triangulation.

FiLIP and Jumpy smartwatches feature child friendly designs and combine GSM/GPS capabilities to provide calling and location tracking functions for parents.

Use Case 4: Remote Control

The consumer electronic/IoT industry is grappling with the problem of basket of remotes for a long time. Smart home device management comes equipped with mobile apps that work as remote controls and control centers of smart home devices from TVs and thermostats to garages and entry doors. The smartwatch can perform the remote activation function allowing users to perform actions through gestures or wrist motions. Pebble watch users have built apps to open garage doors, while Apple Watch  has a growing list of apps from leading smart home automation companies that perform functions from security access to controlling connected devices.

Home automation management through remote control apps. Apple Watch app from alarm.com is available on iTunes (left) and (right) a universal remote control app extention on Google Play for Sony smartwatch on Android Wear.

Samsung is building remote management capabilities integrating SmartThings automation into the Tizen OS which powers the Gear smartwatches and Samsung’s new line of smart home entertainment TVs and appliances.

A major concern in this area is the security vulnerabilities in the current range of smartwatches themselves although one can expect future versions will have improved security features.

Use Case 5: Access Control

From public transportation to accessing secured areas in building, a smartwatch access app can be a convenient replacement to the smartphone. A smartwatch can also replace handheld magnetic strip cards such as in office building and hotel room keys, allowing gesture based access without having to pull out a card or smartphone. Similarly, a smartwatch security access can allow photo ids or unique personal identifier such as fingerprints to be stored on the watch instead of a card.

Biometric identification is also a possibility using in built health sensors. Samsung has recently received a patent for a biometric access enabling feature. Samsung’s patent envisions using a unique vein image of a wearer to unlock the watch. This can also have potential use to authenticate access to a home or car in future. FiDELYS is another venture that announced designs in 2014 for a smartwatch that can provide biometric security using iris detection technology.

Samsung's patent for a biometric access mechanism using vein signature (left) and (right) FiDELYS proposed smartwatch design that uses iris scan technology.

These use cases and more are indicators of the future of the smartwatch industries. Like smartphone, smartwatches will eventually come to mean wrist wearables that will have a very wide spectrum of applications from notifications and payments of today to the intelligent voice assistant of the future. To reiterate what we observed in the first post in this series covering the industry landscape, technology companies will ultimately shape the future of this domain.

Smartwatch Comparison Guide: The Six Key Components of a Smartwatch from Case to Glass

Introduction

A smartwatch crams in a lot of features in one and a half square inches of space at an affordable price. The wear on the wrist feels like a conventional watch or better. Smartwatches pack in notifications via smartphone communication, an array of sensors from health monitors to GPS, capability to run apps and personalization through interactive watch faces all delivered in through interactive high resolution display technology. This does come at some loss of convenience that is a given with regular timekeeping watches. Battery life is a major issue that is still to find a satisfactory answer.

This article breaks down key components that go into making a smartwatch. While not intended to be a full technical teardown (iFixit has wonderfully detailed technical teardowns of major models described with style and aplomb), it hopefully gives some context to the features used to advertise these new best selling wearables.

The Six (or Seven) Key Features (excluding price)

From case to glass these are the components that go into the building of a smartwatch.

Case

The case is the watch container. Watch cases come in stainless steel, the standard for most watches, aluminium steel, gold at the high end and plastic in budget watches.  Case design dictates the watch shape. Cases come in square and round shapes with some design contours and profiles. For example, Pebble watch features a curved profile that fits better on the wearer’s wrist.

The case also includes watch band (or strap) attachment, ports for internal built in microphone and speakers for voice control (if included) and user navigation controls such as buttons or bezels on the side. 

Bands (or Straps if you prefer)

Bands attach to the watch case and come in standard 16 mm, 20 mm and 22 mm sizes. The preferred band material matches their conventional counterparts and are available in leather, leather steel, elastomer materials. Flexible silicone bands are preferred for outdoor and sport watches. Smartwatches allow user personalization options through watch faces, providing more than one band to match the watch face. A quick release feature is provided in some brands such as Apple Watch to allow users to change bands securely without using tools.

Battery

Battery could be the number one reason that smartwatches do not succeed in taking over the conventional watch industry. From the 18-hour life for all day use of Apple Watch to 7 days for Pebble watches that use e-Paper technology, battery is dependent largely on the application usage and display (in general, the smarter the watch, the more power it consumes).  

Smartwatches generally feature sealed cases with enclosed industry standard rechargeable lithium ion polymer batteries. Smartwatches rely on wireless induction charging eliminating use of pin technology or ports on a limited surface area. Instead of contact charging,  a magnetic connector or port at the back of the case charges the battery through an internal induction coil when connected to a charging dock.

To lower user exasperation of having to look at a battery drained or switched off display, most watches switch to power saving mode, conserving batteries only to tell the time, a display feature known as “always on”.

Processing Unit

The smarts in the smartwatch are thanks to the processing circuit that includes an integrated processor (ARM processors are the most commonly used), flash storage, wireless interfaces and sensors. The watch software - the operating system, system applications and pre-loaded apps are included with some additional space for user apps and personalization. The smartwatch platform determines compatibility with the host smartphone. 

As we saw in the previous article on the industry, smartwatch lines can support connectivity to Android or iOS phones. Wireless interfaces include Bluetooth connectivity, wi-fi 802.11 and NFC (Apple Watch features NFC allowing mobile payments using Apple Pay). Recent smartwatch editions such as Samsung Gear S2 also include a SIM for 3G connectivity. 

Sensors are a key part of the smartwatch processing hardware. On board sensors can include motion detectors, ambient light sensors and notification sensors (for vibration or audio notifications from phone, when watch is out of wireless range etc.). Fitness tracking sensors can range from pedometers, accelerometers, heart rate monitor and motion detectors. GPS sensors include inbuilt gyrometers, GPS and compass.

Navigation

While most smartwatches feature touch screen displays for user interaction, it is not the only interface. Smartwatches support other forms of navigation, allowing users to scroll and switch between different applications. 

Because watches have small surface area, smart watch makers have turned to innovative ways – from the Digital Crown in Apple Watch, the rotating bezel in Samsung Gear and tactile buttons in Pebble Watch. These controls function similar to the smartphone buttons, which allow users to perform functions such as returning to home screen, using the camera and scrolling through menus. 

Display

Displays are a major selling feature of smartwatches, where, in a limited 400 x 400 pixel area, usability in all environments and battery conservation trump high definition needs. Display screens vary from AMOLED (active-matrix organic light emitting diode) displays which are at the high end, displaying full-color screen and illuminate individual pixels. OLED technology displays allow the same options but support single and multi-color screens as well. Other display technologies include LCD backlit displays and e-ink displays that use less battery and enable viewing in outdoor environments such as in bright sunlight.

Touch screen displays enable users to interact with tap or swipe or pressure touch which brings up more menu or app access options on the watch.

To conserve battery life, some smartwatches turn off the display like a smartphone. Others watches have an “always on” feature where the display shows time like a regular watch instead of coming to life on notifications or user activation.  

Glass

The cover of the watch is made of fortified glass to handle daily use. Chemically strengthened Gorilla Glass or naturally resistant material such as sapphire and sapphire onyx which are known for their scratch resistant and durability features are used in most smartwatches.

This article was a high level overview of the building blocks of a smartwatch. Many comparison and buying guides on manufacturer sites, review sites and shopping sites will feature the highlights and specifications of these components (such as this comparison from gizmag).

In the next article in the series on smart wearables, we will cover uses cases for the smartwatch.

Bitcoin, Banking, Fintech and Blockchain Developments: A Four Fold Approach to Blockchain Applications

Big Name Banking and Technology Businesses have invested in developing blockchain applications. In the financial industry, blockchain is treated as an emerging tech and a potential major disruptor in contracts and settlements. Bitcoin blockchain is the best demonstration of a secure distributed ledger.

Introduction

"Go forth and multiply.."

The first altcoins to bitcoins appeared on 2011. In the preceding post we saw the rise of cryptocurrencies and the next wave cryptocurrency platform. In this article we explore developments in the major mainstream adopters of blockchain applications – the financial industry. 

Poor Bitcoin (a paradoxical way to describe an asset with a market cap of 7 billion), has never received a (publicly) rousing welcome from the “fiat” based global financial industry. But the open source, paradigm shifting, “libertarian favorite" and  "upstart" cryptocurrency is going on nevertheless, thanks to a whole new start-up ecosystem that has built the Bitcoin economy and given birth to a crypto application industry.

This latter concept, a crypto industry, is another way to define blockchain applications, which, since 2015, seem to have found applications everywhere, across industries as diverse as healthcare, energy and finance. 

Somewhat like chickens coming home to roost (in a good way), leading names in Big Finance and Big Tech have become the most vocal proponents of block chain financial industry and technology industry, investing efforts and cash in exploring new use cases for innovative uses of the block chain, albeit without Bitcoin in the picture. 

Blockchain Revelations from Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the tipping point for cryto based security applications, that Nick Sbazo and others envisioned as early as 1997,  as a way to enforce trust in contractual transactions concerning tangible economic value between faceless participants and an equally anonymous “trusted” intermediary on a globally distributed public infrastructure of the Internet. The Bitcoin blockchain is the pioneer and demonstrated proof of such as application which has enabled others to follow suit. 

So what has been revealed in six years of Bitcoin? The Bitcoin blockchain has never been hacked. Transactions confirm in minutes. The transaction token itself (bitcoins, altcoins) becomes a usable store of value. Bitcoins and altcoins are now used as currency and commodity asset classes.

Angel investors, technology innovators and venture capitalists are backing developments in Bitcoin and blockchain. 

Big businesses are following suit for blockchain technology in part from foreseeing revolutionary value of the blockchain,  in part to ride the next big technology “wave” and become an early adopter. 

Banking and Technology Approach to Blockchain Applications

Its early days since big brand financial institutions (read global banks) have started exploring blockchain applications as an emerging technology. The overall process that the industry has followed is to jump start blockchain applications with collaborative and incremental investments on cryptocurrency 2.0 start-ups such as R3, Digital Asset Holdings and Ripple. To accelerate development and innovation, mixed model of open innovation (open source applications, providing application developer tools) in combination with industry sponsorship (banks, tech industry consortia) has been adopted.

A Timeline of Events – Big Finance and Blockchain circa 2015

Blockchain startup R3CEV LLC (R3) is spearheading the foundation of blockchain framework for the banking industry. R3 can be called a blockchain entity (maybe an eventual blockchain platform) which is focusing on blockchain use cases for smart contracts and settlements. In September 2015, a consortium of 9 global banks came together to build and test a distributed ledger technology. By November 2015, this number rose to 30 and 42 towards year end. First tests between sub-groups of this consortia have been running since January which have consisted of simulating transactions using crypto tokens in a permissioned block chain developed on Ethereum.

R3 is also heading Global Collaborative Labs, an umbrella that allows emerging blockchain platforms apart from Ethereum to create prototype applications and run trials with industry participants.  In March 2016, R3 announced that five blockchain cloud platforms were tested including Ethereum, solutions from IBM and Intel and hosted on IBM and Microsoft Azure cloud services.

IBM is adopting its mixed open source, shared, run on IBM cloud model that it has applied to its industry solutions such as Watson and Big Blue. While R3 is using Ethereum, IBM has partnered with Digital Asset Holding, a blockchain platform company that has moved its distributed ledger platform, called Hyperledger to the Linux Foundation. While R3 is a banking led consortia, Hyperledger is similarly made up of 30 founding companies, including R3, some of its consortia members such as JP Morgan and a mix of technology consulting companies including IBM and Accenture.

Big banking names are also in an accelerated patent filing mode. Bank of America has chalked up between 20-30 patents, covering apparently a whole cryptocurrency ecosystem from wallets to exchange, transaction confirmation etc. Since Bitcoin is open source, it remains to be seen if BoA patents are related to a new technology, a process, a trademark or something else. J P Morgan, an early mainstream competition to Bitcoin, tried to unsuccessfully patent a blockchain version in 2013. Goldman Sachs has filed a patent for SETLcoin, its propreitary token for a settlements blockchain.

The patent war while a common competitive process where industry innovation is concerned, signals that whatever banks view of the blockchain, there is little readiness to adopt a public decentralized model that Bitcoin has demonstrated so well. It reveals the extent to which some elements of the block chain will be used, while real industry disruption features may eventually be ignored or abandoned by established players that may view trustless decentralized systems as a threat.

Other industries such as insurance or energy or emerging market may well become those who build truly disruptive crypto applications. We will explore this and the blockchain versus Bitcoin debate in subsequent posts in this series. 

Bitcoin Markets - A Profile of Leading Exchanges

In the last post, we explored the landscape of bitcoin markets - exchanges and the evolution of investment vehicles with bitcoin as the underlying asset.

In this article we profile a cross-section of bitcoin exchanges - volume leaders, peer to peer exchanges, derivatives exchanges and exchanges that have opted to be regulated under banking and investment laws. 

http://bitcointicker.co

Top Five Exchanges (by Volume)

The top five bitcoin exchanges handle around 85% of daily volumes. All of them have been also classified as “Big Four” at some time by various sources, though in the evolving world of bitcoin, this designation and definition is likely to have many candidates. 

Source: http://bitcoincharts.com/

BTCC 

BTCC is the largest exchange by volume handling between 40-50% of transactions and is the dominant exchange for BTC-CNY trading. Formerly known as BTC China and rebranded as BTCC, the exchange was launched in 2011. BTCC is headquartered in Shanghai, China and serves a global customer base.

BTCC is expanding the breadth and scale of their services on mining and trading. BTCC launched 100 nodes in December 2015 across five continents to address the issue of decreasing full nodes.  Their trading services now include ProExchange, a spot trading platform that provides 20x leverage and Block Priority, a service that expedites transaction confirmations for BTCC account holders.

Bitfinex

Owned and operated by iFinex (a British Virgin Island company), Hong Kong based Bitfinex, is the largest exchange by BTC-USD volume. Bitfinex’s platform was launched in 2014 and is in beta phase. 

Bitfinex’s trading platform is very popular and matches bitcoin lenders with margin traders allowing peer to peer margin liquidity. Bitfinex has become a “go to” source for bitcoin owners to earn passive income by lending to traders. Bitfinex also provides bank level security with over 100% reserves and securing coins in cold storage.

Bitstamp

Launched in 2011, the Bitstamp exchange operates from Slovenia and has offices in UK, USA and Luxembourg. Bitstamp supports trading in US dollars and Euros.   

Coinbase

Launched in 2013, US headquartered Coinbase is known for their full portfolio of offerings from wallet, exchange to payment processing. Coinbase launched their US based bitcoin exchange in 2015, becoming the regulated cryptocurrency exchange in the US. Within a year of operation the Coinbase exchange has expanded services to Canada, Europe and Asia. Coinbase US user deposits are FDIC insured and online wallets are insured.  

BTC-E

Also launched in 2011, Bulgaria based BTC-E supports trading in multiple currencies and crypto-currencies including the rouble and offshore yuan. BTC-E philosophy can be said to be diametrically opposite to Coinbase. BTC-E provides anonymous trading to users (the exchange does not ask for customer information to sign-up), operating as an online only business and the platform owners have remained anonymous. Although this has been flagged as a red flag, the volumes still signify the popularity of BTC-E.

Peer to Peer Marketplace

A P2P marketplace allows users to buy and sell bitcoins without the exchange acting as intermediary. 

LocalBitcoins.com

Finland based LocalBitcoins.com is the leading online peer to peer or (broker-less) OTC bitcoin marketplace. Launched in 2012, LocalBitcoins is among the top 10 exchanges. Its operation can be described as similar to Craigslist. Buyers and sellers use localbitcoins.com hosted wallet (or their own) to transact. Advertised listings are posted on the platform which include location and payment method information. Trades can be initiated and completed through an online only process or by making the exchange offline. The process on the platform offers buyer and seller protection through an escrow mechanism and dispute resolution process. Participants on the platform also rate sellers, a model similar to other peer to peer sharing businesses such as AirBnB. LocalBitcoins.com exchanges are available in 249 countries and over 13,000 cities. 

Derivatives Trading

Leveraged trading and investment products designed for capital market and institutional investments have started making frontlines in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency space and have received mixed feedback. 

BitMEX

Launched in 2014, Hong Kong based BitMEX (or Bitcoin Merchantile Exchange) is a bitcoin derivatives exchange that offers digital currency futures and options. BitMEX has a small user base primarily from Asia but daily trading volumes have reached $5 million within a year of operation. The latest offering is a leveraged China A50 stock index hybrid futures contract which gives bitcoin traders an option to take short or long positions on the Chinese stock exchange, with up to 25x leverage. 

Ledger X

LedgerX describe themselves as an institutional trading and clearing platform. New York headquartered Ledger X was founded in 2014 and aims to be the first US based bitcoin derivatives exchange, currently awaiting regulatory approval from the US Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Ledger X has received an order of temporary registration from the CFTC as a swap execution facility in September 2015. 

Coinut

Coinut exchange is owned by Singapore based Coinut and was launched in 2014. Coinut offers exchange traded bitcoin options (vanilla or binary) on the price of bitcoins. 

Licensed Exchanges

While different countries take different legal and regulatory approaches towards bitcoins, some exchange businesses have sought licenses applicable to banking and financial market operators. This arises from reasons such as ensuring business continuity in heavily regulated markets, serving legitimate customer interests, retaining access to capital markets and banking systems for investments and attracting institutional investors.  

While cryptocurrency specific licensing requirements such as the much debated BitLicense in US are one approach to compliance, these firms based in US have also opted to apply for licenses under the existing banking and financial services regime.

Genesis Trading

Genesis Trading, a subsidiary of the Digital Currency Group became the first fully licensed digital currency-centric broker-dealer in the US, in 2015. Genesis Trading was spun off from the bitcoin trading desk of Singapore based Second Market to become the first FINRA and SEC regulated broker to actively deal with bitcoins.  Genesis Trading offers derivatives and OTC trading for private and institutional investors. 

itBit

itBit, a bitcoin currency exchange operating in New York received a license to operate as a trust charter under New York Banking Law in May 2015. As a trust company, itBit is licensed to provide custodian services nationwide in the US, an overarching advantage over applying for state specific money transmittal licenses. itBit also has to ensure adequate capital reserves as per NYDFS requirements and client deposits  upto $250,000 are FDIC insured through itBit’s banking partner.

At last count there are 46 exchanges operating worldwide specializing in digital/crypto/blockchain currencies. Exchanges continue to launch, grow and fall but the marketplace for bitcoins continues to thrive around the world with investment options available for optimists and pessimists alike.