Neal's Notes

So another Game Developers Conference (GDC) has come and gone – 400 panels, roundtable discussions, lectures, tutorials, 350 exhibitors, 20,000+ attendees.  Seems like every gaming publication and industry analyst swooned and fawned over Project Morpheus, Oculus Rift, Valve’s Steam Controller and how virtual reality in general is poised to take over the gaming universe.

What was also interesting, however, were the findings of a survey conducted before GDC opened its doors for the 28^th time last week, a few emerging gaming industry trends, and one rather dopey game that even its developer said “is a small, broken and stupid game” – yet has now garnered literally millions of views.

The second State of the Industry GDC survey polled more than 2,600 North American game developers who attended last year’s conference.  According to GDC, notable trends “include a preference for the PlayStation 4 platform for console developers, the prevalence of self-funded projects and the changing reliance and relationship with publishers.”

The survey indicated that 20 percent of developers intend to release their next game on Sony’s PlayStation 4, slightly edging out Xbox One’s 17 percent.  Developers also want to do their own thing – 64 percent want to self-publish.  And self-funding is still popular among developers – 52 percent said part of their funding is from their company’s existing coffers; 46 percent said they contribute their own money to launch their projects.  About 11 percent used crowdfunding, up from 4 percent in last year’s survey.

And a couple of interesting trends to watch too.   This year we’ll continue to mark the rise of independent game developers.  Digital Trends reported that both Epic Games and Crytek will make their respective development engines available via a subscription model.  Epic’s engine will cost only $19/month and 5 percent gross revenue from any games released; Crytek’s for a $9.90/month flat fee.

“This unprecedented move allows anyone to craft a game with the same tools as the pros, limited only by imagination and dedication,” noted Digital Trends.

And the publication also stated that the free-to-play model for PC games is fast becoming the dominant financial model for PC games.

“Part of the reason for the shift is the globalization of gaming. China, especially, has emerged as one of the biggest gaming markets on the planet, and the majority of revenue created from gaming in China comes from free-to-play PC games,” added Digital Trends.

The standard pricing model won’t disappear overnight, but, noted Digital Trends, “the momentum is definitely shifting, and as it does, the way people play games may shift with it.”

Lastly, one of the silliest – but most popular games at GDC was Goat Simulator, created by Coffee Stain Studios.  Basically, as reported in Ars Technica, “the more mayhem your goat achieves, the more points you get, and a list of objectives keeps players looking for alternate means of mayhem to keep that score ticking higher and higher.”

The studio isn’t exactly helping sales/marketing efforts with this disclaimer (but then again, the self-flagellation may pique interest):

“Goat Simulator was made in a couple of weeks…in fact, you’re better off not expecting anything at all actually. To be completely honest, it would be best if you’d spend your $10 on a hula hoop, a pile of bricks, or maybe a real-life goat.”

Baaaaaaa…

A client recently emailed me that ‘121 meetings might be the sensible approach’ – we were strategizing about holding a press event in advance of a conference.

SMH (‘Shaking My Head’), I wanted to have a bit of fun so SCNR (‘Sorry, Could Not Resist’), I lobbed back a zinger that we should shoot for 122 meetings, figuring AFAICT (‘As Far As I Can Tell’), the client had inadvertently made a typo.

AWK (‘Awkward’). Brain freeze. He meant ‘1 to 1’.

I thought about adding a smiley along with the reply but TBH (‘To Be Honest’), if I see one more emoticon, FMCDH (‘From My Cold Dead Hands’)…you can fill in the rest here.

All of the aforementioned further elucidates what’s finally happened. Internet/text messaging slang has taken over the business world, for better or worse – so, to quote the Borg from Star Trek, ‘resistance is futile.’

AAR (‘At Any Rate’), I started wondering how certain Internet slang, acronyms and text messaging aphorisms have steadily crept into our daily lives. How did this happen?

FWIW (‘For What It’s Worth’), lots of theories abound but here’s a favorite – Harvard sociology professor Steven Shapin noted a few years ago that Internet slang is an interpretation of language that people have found necessary to create in order to confuse the “older” generation.

So, TTBOMK (‘To The Best of My Knowledge’), 2014 will result in even more abbreviated chunks of gibberish as it’s all about the quick and mobile Internet. In fact, Paul Gil, a Canadian project manager/certified computer instructor, came up with an extensive list of hot text/chat expressions being/will be used this year:

COO – Spawned in California, Gill says “COO is a stylish way of saying ‘Cool’ or ‘I definitely approve of this.” Probably created by someone with ADD who couldn’t wait to type in the ‘L’ before moving on to something else.

HMU – Hit Me Up. Used to say ‘contact me,’ ‘text me,’ ‘phone me.’ Gil says it’s a “modern shorthand way to invite a person to communicate with you further.”

IDC – Not the global market research firm but the acronym for ‘I Don’t Care,’
Gil says people use IDC when they’re trying to make a decision with a messaging friend and are open to multiple options.

And while not directly business-related, the following example illustrates just how far language has morphed into symbols and letters that would have even stumped Alan Turing.

BBC News recently asked readers to rewrite some classic texts in txt. Here’s one example from Alfred, Lord Tennyson:

0.5a leag 0.5 a leag
0.5a leag onwrd
All in T valy o Dth
Rd T 600
“^ T LB!
“Chrg 4Tgns” he sd
In2 T valy o Dth
Rd T 600

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward the Light Brigade!
“Charge for the guns!” he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred

Keeping up with all the latest online/text lingo is a losing proposition these days as cyberspace/mobile verbiage seems to be expanding faster than the universe.

James Poulos, writing in The Daily Beast, added this cogent admonition:

“It’s enough to make you suspicious that the Internet was designed to create a race of illiterates, communicating through a primitive system of winks, tongue selfies, rap squats and chunked deuces. There’s no doubt now that the Internet has tipped the balance away from continuing our multi-millennial streak as a fundamentally text-based society – in favor of pictures, moving and otherwise,” he noted.

LEmntry, my dEr wtson.

Wearables wearables wearables.

Attendees at CES earlier this month couldn’t avoid them – seems like every other booth was pitching a smart watch or fitness app.

But the real ‘wow’ factor, in my humble opinion, was all the futuristic car technology on display.  Automobiles are quickly evolving into moveable infotainment machines – and many major manufacturers – both foreign and domestic – unveiled prototypes that you may find in your next model quicker than you think.

“Cars will become self-aware where they can understand what’s happening inside and outside,” said Thilo Koslowski, an automotive analyst for market research firm Gartner.  “We’re going to see a self-aware vehicle that looks out for you, controls the information and focuses on providing the right information at the right times to protect, inform and entertain you.”

Taking this even further, Roger Kay, who heads up market research firm Endpoint Technologies, recently wrote in Forbes that perhaps in less than 20 years, drivers will even have an ‘autopilot’ option, particularly on highways.

Kay said decision-making on a busy freeway is easier for a machine than a person, particularly when the machine can coordinate with other machines on the road.

“Traffic flows are better managed by an omniscient driving algorithm when the number of choices is limited: cars must all stay on the highway and move forward.  But the driver will be able to take back control merely by touching the steering wheel, when, for example, he or she is looking for a parking space,” said Kay.

And at CES, we’re just on the cusp seeing how intelligent cars may interact with each other and their drivers.

A few notable examples:

Jerry Garrett reported in the New York Times that Mercedes-Benz rolled out a new wearable interface that lets a smart watch monitor auto functions such as door locks, climate control, tire pressures, even an electric vehicle’s charge rate.

“Another Mercedes system would let a car talk to your house,” said Garrett.  “The interface is with the Nest (recently purchased by Google for $3.2 billion), which can provide remote control of a home’s thermostat and monitoring of the smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms.”

Ford showed off its Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) technology which uses 802.11p – a simplified form of Wi-Fi developed specifically for the automotive industry.  According to Chris Ziegler of The Verge, V2V beams small pieces of info between nearby cars.  Ford demonstrated a mode called ‘Where I Am’ that tells other cars your vehicle’s position, direction, speed, and more.

But Ziegler added that V2V is not quite ready for prime time.

“Extremely dense traffic can over-saturate the system, preventing it from working correctly-there are just too many cars in close proximity broadcasting their position at the same time.  Also security and privacy concerns are more prevalent – a hacker spoofing a ‘Here I Am’ signal could cause cars on the road to behave erratically,” said Ziegler.

General Motors also announced it would build an optional 4G/LTE connection in 10 models available mid-year this year; one of these will be the Volt, Chevrolet’s plug-in hybrid.  By 2015, most Chevrolet models will have these connections automatically built in, providing Wi-Fi to people inside their cars. AT&T will provide the connectivity.

All very exciting stuff; in fact, Kay summed up in his Forbes story what the future may portend – and what’s already here. Kay recently interviewed the CTO of Global Connected Consumer, a GM division.  The CTO told Kay that when he was in a hotel in China he couldn’t remember whether he’d locked his car back in Detroit.

“He simply fired up a smart phone app for that, pressed ‘lock’ and received a positive confirmation on his phone a few minutes later.  He locked his car from thousands of miles away – over the Internet,” said Kay.

In one form or another, they’ve been around for centuries.

Infographics- to use a buttoned down definition, are basically an assemblage of data depicted in visual form.

In fact, one of the earliest infographics was created by Christophe Scheiner, a 17th century German priest, physicist and philosopher. In 1630, Scheiner wrote Rosa Ursina (1630), his magnum opus on sunspots. He used infographics to illustrate the sun’s rotation patterns.

Jump-start almost 400 years. In today’s often frenetically paced digital world, infographics have now become yet another important online marketing communications tool, not only for the private sector, but increasingly in the public sector too.

Ai Ching Goh, co-founder of Penang, Malaysia-based Piktochart, which offers both free and fee-based infographic solutions, says teachers and students create about 20 percent of the infographics on Piktochart. She added the company recently surpassed 600,000 users worldwide.

According to David Jenyns, founder of MelbourneSEOServices.com, a Melbourne, Australia SEO consultancy, while the technology to create infographics hasn’t changed dramatically over the past 12-24 months, what has accelerated its growth/usage is the speed in which infographics is shared.

“Services like Slideshare and Pinterest are encouraging more people to use infographics; clients are finding that infographics are especially good for various types of surveys to illustrate key findings,” said Jenyns.

“We are also seeing more and more animated infographics which essentially are huge animated GIF files as well as interactive and video infographics,” added David Wallace, who edits Infographic Journal, an infographics blog that is also a project of SearchRank, an Arizona search and social media marketing company.

And Amy Balliett, co-founder of Seattle-based Killer Infographics, said their firm’s private sector clients primarily use infographics to grow brand or product awareness or to showcase themselves as industry thought leaders.

Measuring ROI for infographics is also becoming easier to quantify.

“A lot of bloggers will repost an infographic using simple embed code provided with the infographic itself,” said Balliett. “That code will include an anchor link back to the original host of the infographic, which helps to grow inbound links quickly.”

But Balliett noted that ROI also depends on the project’s goals – if a client wanted to grow their social following, it might necessitate creating a humorous infographic that would play well in social media. If a client wants backlinks from industry sites, then a thought leadership infographic would be more appropriate.

“Marketers have to come to the table with a well-executed infographic to get any traction and then measure success based on the infographic’s goal,” she said.

In addition, Wallace said you can measure how many social shares occur in the two to three week timeframe that they are published.

“You can also monitor new inbound links the infographic generates. And finally, you can look at analytics to see what kind of traffic they generate and more importantly, what that traffic does after landing on the infographic page,” said Wallace.

Balliett added that one of her company’s most successful infographics was for an online educational lead generation company that wanted to build links for their IT schools’ website. Called ‘Geek versus Nerd,’ Balliett said the infographic generated more than 3,000 reposts on key targeted sites like Geek Tyrant, Search Engine Journal and Wired.

“The client received more than 200 backlinks from these posts and to date, the infographic has gotten more than 10,000 tweets, stumbles and Facebook shares independently,” said Balliett.

And a recent example of how a non-profit organization utilized infographics to drum up some publicity was a Piktochart-generated infographic for YES Scotland. Stewart Kirkpatrick, whose title there is Head of Digital, said his organization wanted to convey a lot of complex information in a graphic that would be both engaging and easy on the eye. The infographic has been viewed widely on the YES Scotland Facebook page.

As 2014 looms, look for infographics to continue to grow in popularity, even though, noted Balliett, costs for infographics have actually increased – it has nothing to do with technology as the tech improvements the past few years haven’t made design any faster.

“With thousands of infographics going online every day, it’s essential that brands release infographics with high quality design and research to see any success – and to get this kind of quality, brands have to pay for experts,” said Balliett.

And it’s the sharing element that really adds value, noted Jenyns.

“If someone creates an infographic that’s interesting enough that the viewer wants to share it, it will create a ‘viral’ effect and that’s brilliant marketing.”

Yes, it’s that time of the year again – Internet marketing pundits and prognosticators are popping up everywhere to opine about what they think will be hot trends in 2014.

Some of these trends seem interchangeable with 2013; others may have a significant impact for companies and customers as technologies continue to evolve and improve.

Here are a few that grabbed my attention:

Suraj Sondha, who founded UK-based consultancy Internet Marketing Highway, says Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will not be a primary traffic generation tool albeit it will still be a factor in page ranking. Local search will continue to be important, but we’ll see a rise in what Sondha calls Social Media Optimization (SMO).

“More people are turning to social media for research and information; they’re relying on their peers and brands they connect with,” said Sondha. He adds that Internet marketers need to better capitalize on this growing trend.

And mobile will matter more than ever. Forbes, for instance, recently reported that by 2017, 87 percent of connected devices sales (including desktop and laptop PCs) will be smart phones and tablets.

“The shift toward mobile is undeniable,” added Drew Hendricks, writing in Tech Cocktail. “Next year’s Internet marketing battlefield will play out largely on mobile devices, as a growing number of users expect to access products, services, apps, and information on smart phones and tablets. Your business needs to have a responsive design in place and online features catering to a mobile audience.”

Many online users are bombarded daily with a plethora of ads. No matter if banners, frame ads or other formats, what’s critical for 2014 will be the need for smart image content; and by that, specifically, content that’s easy on the eye and quickly digestible.

As reported by Jayson DeMers in Forbes, blog posts that garner the most social shares all weave in strategically placed visuals to break up content and to emphasize key points.

“Another example is infographics which combines images with a minimal amount of text to explain a topic and provide statistical information or data from research studies,” said DeMers.

Two more trends worth mentioning.

Expect ad retargeting (a cookie-based technology that uses Javascript code to anonymously follow your audience online) to go mainstream. San Francisco-based ReTargeter (see their visual illustrating how the technology works) provides one of the more cogent explanations on how/why ad retargeting can be effective as part of an overall Internet marketing strategy:

“Retargeting works best in conjunction with inbound and outbound marketing or demand generation. Strategies involving content marketing, AdWords and targeted display are great for driving traffic, but they don’t help with conversion optimization. Conversely, retargeting can help increase conversions, but it can’t drive people to your site. Your best chance of success is using one or more tools to drive traffic and retargeting to get the most out of that traffic.”

And my favorite trend – less will be more. Again, most of us are getting so overwhelmed by online digital clutter that it is becoming a real challenge for Internet marketers to capture our attention – and wallets. Instead of shouting at us, DeMers reported that we’ll see more simplistic marketing messages that are clean and offer minimalist aesthetics.

“Innovative marketers are now making efforts to tone-down their campaign messages and not overwhelm consumers with hype,” added DeMers.

I hope this particular 2014 trend does indeed come true.

Mass market deployment of 4K/UHD is not going to happen overnight.

But as the ecosystem matures, the potential is huge. Futuresource Consulting for instance, estimates that 4K TV sets will increase from 62,000 units last year to almost 800,000 by year’s end – and skyrocket to about 22 million units by 2017.

But there are a number of potential bumps in the road.  As reported in TechZone 360, a number of operator challenges must be surmounted.

“Delivery of 4K requires four times the bandwidth of 1080p, which has significant implications for the production and distribution chains,” said Adam Cox, head of broadcast equipment at Futuresource.

While tools like HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) compression can mitigate some of the delivery overhead for pay-TV providers, one factor that’s affecting 4K investment added TechZone 360, is “a lack of an accepted broadcasting and transmission standard that meets the defined UltraHD TV spec and a current lack of 4K content – a big obstacle to the adoption of 4K TV sets and general uptake by consumers.”

No surprise then, that a panel of experts who recently sat down at the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) 2013 Symposium in Hollywood, offered further insights on key issues and challenges that will drive how 4K/UHD is accepted by the marketplace.  SMPTE is the technical society for the motion imaging industry, founded in 1916.  Members are spread throughout 64 countries worldwide.

Entitled, ‘Who Will Make Money in the 4K Ecosystem,’ the panel was moderated by entertainment industry veteran Marty Shindler, who heads up Los Angeles-based The Shindler Perspective, an entertainment/entertainment technology management consulting firm.

Panelists included:

• Peter McGuinness, Director of Multimedia Technology Marketing, Imagination Technologies

• Tom Adams, Senior Principal Analyst, US Media, IHS

• Bryan Burns, President/CEO, The Forward Direction Group

• Peter Keith, VP/Senior Research Analyst, Piper Jaffray

The panelists discussed a wide array of business-centric issues – who will profit in the 4K ecosystem, what could delay implementation, who are the suppliers making investments, who’s active in the 4K value chain, and more.

”It will take a substantial investment in infrastructure before 4K makes a significant penetration into homes,” said Adams. “And it’s all about image – if your product looks great in 4K, advertisers will get behind the technology.”

And sports, added Burns, is likely to be one of the genres most likely to be captured in 4K because it has such uniform and commercial appeal.  But he added a caveat that widespread acceptance could take longer because the major networks have yet to convert all their trucks to HD.  In fact, one panel session attendee from a well-known sports network said he didn’t think it would be possible for them to get the content from the truck to the station because they are still using JPEG 2000 (an image compression standard and coding system) for insertion quality – right now they just don’t have the bandwidth for that if they convert to UHD.

Imagination’s McGuinness said it’s inevitable that 4K will be available on handsets and tablets, eventually allowing people to generate their own content.

“This will drive demand for them to also replace their TV sets, therefore the mobile arms race is actually going to drive adoption, not the TV networks,” he said.

McGuinness added that‘s where H.265 comes in – the codec is designed to utilize substantially less bandwidth thanks to advanced encoding techniques and a more sophisticated encode/decode model. It was also built to match the capabilities of future screens and includes support for 10-bit color and high frame rates.

On the retail front, it will be a few years before TV set manufacturers will make any money, said Keith.

“People like to show off their TVs – as prices come down, we’ll see an uptick in interest.  We’re also seeing more unilateral pricing policies from brick and mortar and online companies like Costco, Best Buy and Amazon, so as prices come down in a controlled fashion, this will help sell 4K TVs to consumers,” said Keith.

And the bottom line?

The panellists were in agreement that upgrading to 4K will be a major investment not only from a technology infrastructure perspective, but for the consumer as well – manufacturers will have to pitch an effective use case to end users that 4K is the next cool thing.

Pundits/prognosticators/mavens/gurus – call them what you like – are now popping up more frequently now as we get closer to punting 2013 and welcoming in 2014.

So what’s on tap? What’s hot, what’s not for next year?

Forbes recently outlined a number of online marketing trends that they believe will be integral to companies/marketers in 2014.

A handful of examples:

Content Marketing

The Content Marketing Institute says top B2B content marketing strategies are articles on a company’s website, social media, e-newsletters, case studies, videos and articles on other websites. Marketing to the masses is becoming passé – it’s more effective to produce engaging content designed for specific audiences.

Image-Centric Content on the Rise

Buzzfeed and Pinterest – Forbes says these are just two examples of how image-based content can help a company’s product or service go viral. “Successful blog posts that receive the most social shares also usually have a common characteristic – they pepper in some well-placed pictures to break content up and emphasize certain points,” notes Forbes.

Mobile-Friendly Content Absolutely Essential

Get with it – the shift from boxy PCs and laptops to mobile devices is accelerating – your business won’t remain competitive unless you create content that’s accessible to mobile users. In fact, Forbes predicts that by 2017, an astounding 87% of connected devices sales will be tablets and smartphones.

Ad Retargeting Becoming More Popular

Only two percent of web traffic converts on the first visit; ad retargeting can help increase conversion rates by reminding consumers what product or service they saw online. Browser cookies are utilized to track visited websites and once a user leaves a site, those products/services will be shown to them again in ads across different websites. “This keeps the brand and product at the top of the consumer’s mind,” noted Forbes. “Due to the success that many marketers have had with ad retargeting, there’s a good chance that it will become more mainstream in 2014.”

Ajay Prasad, reporting in New Canaan Patch, added that author ranking will play a pivotal role, e.g., creating engaging and regular content on various social media platforms will result in more people responding, commenting, sharing whatever the author’s waxing eloquent on, e.g., a product, service, etc.

And Neil Asher, who heads up ROARLocal, a UK digital marketing agency, says we’ll see the rise of video monetization next year. Asher said online video advertising is starting to compete with traditional TV advertising.

“Although the format isn’t as forgiving, with the average ad lasting 15 seconds, it’s time to take this venue seriously,” said Asher. “From creating original content as part of a content marketing plan, to actively using video ads to promote your services, video is where it’s at.”

And social media is now a game changer on the political front and will continue to do so.

Indonesia, for instance, has 64 million Facebook users and about 30 million Twitter users. Social media, according to the Jakarta Globe, is playing a key role in disseminating information and educating people on political issues in advance of the July 9, 2014 presidential election.

And India, with 778 million eligible voters, has 82 million Facebook users. The April-May 2014 general election for the 16th Lok Sabha (the lower house of India’s parliament) is already generating a lot of buzz in the social media world. Many key candidates have created extensive Twitter and Facebook profiles/pages operated by various parties to help influence voters.

Social media, noted Indian Affairs, is becoming an essential tool for politicians since India’s population is very young – 50% are below age 28 and the young population is becoming increasingly tech savvy/literate.

“Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and text messages are all now enabled for Indian languages. Not knowing English is no longer a constraint,” added Indian Affairs.

The publication also succinctly summed up what lies ahead in 2014:

“Social media will influence the mainstream media, set the agenda for television, and will be a source for spotting the ‘buzz’ that will function like TV debates of the new age in which citizens are now participants.”

When you think of key geographic locales for technology startups, odds are Silicon Valley immediately comes to mind. Ditto with the Route 128 corridor near Boston, perhaps Northern Viriginia/Washingon, D.C.

But San Diego? Add ‘America’s Finest City’ to the list. The city is fast becoming a hotbed for successful tech startups in a wide variety of verticals thanks in part to a number of entrepreneur-oriented networking organizations that bring together startup executives, prospective investors, academicians, and more. Some of these include StartUp San Diego, part of the Startup America partnership, and StartupCircle, founded in 2007 by Robert Reyes. The former claims 370 ‘SD Startuppers’ as members and lists three main goals:

• Provide valuable resources and connections to help young companies grow
• Support regional startup ecosystems throughout the country
• Recognize startups as important drivers of the economy

StartUpCircle has also posted some impressive objectives:

• Achieve $1 billion of valuation growth and $100 million of investment
• Support 200 student entrepreneurs to create 50 startups generating $30 million
• Attract 10 international startups to generate over 1,000 local jobs
• Continued emphasis on female entrepreneurs by funding 30 female entrepreneurs
• Complete 10 venture manufacturing deals between Mexico and San Diego

Some startups currently working with Startup Circle, for instance, include Anametrix – the company provides a cloud-based real-time marketing analytics platform; DAR.fm – a free radio recording service; and BUMP Network, which provides software and technology to assist enterprise customers with membership, monetization and communication programs.

StartUp Circle also hosts monthly events providing a showcase for startups to make brief presentations to attendees. Earlier this month, healthcare entrepreneurs flocked to the offices of a well-known law firm, Mintz Levin; keynotes included:

• Portable Genomics – the company founded by Patrick Merel, develops software for comprehensive visualization of personal genomic data.

• Yolia Health – Founded by Alberto Osio, the biomedical device company helps eye care providers preserve, restore, enhance vision through non-invasive treatment.

• Anywhere Science – Established by Brian Noland, the company has developed the LabStrip ecosystem that leverages an iPhone into a personalized mobile lab.

Two other companies in attendance that didn’t make full-blown presentations also merit watching.

As outlined by CEO Alan Remen, San Diego-based MyoStim is a medical device company focused on delivering heart muscle regeneration, blood flow stimulation and wound healing products producing angiogenesis, myogenesis and arteriogenesis results through implementation of the company’s patented electro-stimulation technologies.

Philippe Faurie, CEO of LabATM (web site still being developed), located in Solana Beach, CA, said his fledgling company is dedicated to providing consumers with access to testing platforms and tools to personalize the prevention of chronic diseases and simultaneously enable the company to provide critical material on a large scale to companies focused on genetic, environmental, and health diagnostic analysis, as well as pharmacogenomics.

It’s encouraging that regional startup organizations like the aforementioned are bringing together people and companies from all walks of life; what’s happening now in San Diego will hopefully take root in other cities nationwide!

SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) just wrapped up its 40th annual convention a few days ago; this year’s event was held in Anaheim. The convention is organized by ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society.

ACM reported that more than 17,000 artists, research scientists, gaming experts and developers, filmmakers, students, and academics from 77 countries attended; more than 180 industry organizations exhibited.

While it’s always interesting to roam the aisles to view the latest offerings of established companies, it’s just as compelling to visit the Studio and Emerging Technologies exhibits.  Both are great opportunities for attendees to nose around and play with a considerable array of new techniques and media encompassing 3D printing, modeling, and animation software.

Studio, according to a SIGGRAPH spokesperson, serves as a hub for tech creation.

“Studio is a stand out program at SIGGRAPH,” said Patricia Clark, SIGGRAPH 2013 Studio Chair. “Attendees have the chance to see how experienced professionals are making the technology work for them in real life.”

Emerging Technologies, organized by Dylan Moore and his team, showcases technologies being developed in labs and studios worldwide.

A number of demos on display at the Studio could one day find real-world applications and markets. One of these was EMY (Enhancing Mobility), a full-body exoskeleton designed to help quadriplegics. EMY was created by a team of 20 researchers and engineers working for Paris-based CEA List. One key design element — the arms can be used as haptic devices.

Light-in-Flight was developed by a research team from the University of British Columbia in Canada. The portable device allows inexpensive and fast transient imaging using photonic mixer devices (PMDs). One potential real-world market, say the researchers, could include more effective ways to measure surface reflectance, which could have both industrial and research applications.

WAYLA is an eye-tracking technology developed by a research team from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) and Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (Portugal). The team integrated eye-tracking technology into a video game. While there are a number of software companies already offering eye-tracking systems, these are primarily used for studying human behavior (psychology, psychiatry, psycholinguistics), neurosciences and for market research. The researchers said few attempts have been made to integrate eye trackers into video games – so the market potential could be considerable.

Lastly, a research team from the University of Southern California (USC) debuted Skyfarer, a mixed-reality shoulder exercise game developed for preventing/treating shoulder pain for individuals with spinal-cord injury.

The USC team said the system is based on a second-generation integrated exercise hardware/software system that was evaluated in a biomechanical study at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, CA, about 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

“The system consists of an adjustable metal rig outfitted with GameTrak sensors that are attached to interchangeable TheraBands (a line of progressive elastic resistance exercise products developed/manufactured by The Hygenic Corporation) and free weights. The rig can accommodate individuals with various types of manual wheelchairs and can be adjusted for arm length,” said the USC researchers.

Who knows – by the time SIGGRAPH 2014 comes around (in Vancouver, British Columbia), some of these technologies may already be in the marketplace!

Walk up and down the aisles of last week’s Intersolar North America conference in San Francisco and the gist generally echoed among exhibitors, attendees, industry analysts and the media is that the future looks bright for the solar industry. In fact, according to EuPD Research, the solar market is poised to add about 3.9 GW of new solar capacity by the end of this year; in the U.S., the grid storage market could hit 4 GW by 2016.

More municipalities in the U.S. are also taking proactive steps in utilizing solar – earlier this month, Palo Alto, California, Ground Zero for Silicon Valley, approved 80 megawatts in solar power purchase agreements (PPAs) to meet approximately 18 percent of the city’s load. In addition, as reported by Greentech Media, three solar projects slated to be operational by 2017 will generate almost half of the city’s renewables; Palo Alto also estimates that meeting its goal of being 100% carbon-neutral will cost each ratepayer about $3 per year.

But back to the conference – with about 700 exhibitors and 18,000 attendees, Intersolar North America had a little something for everyone. There were a slew of panels, breakfast sessions, and more, appealing to a wide swath of attendees. One event, the PV Energy World Stage, focused on production technology- everything from crystalline silicon and roll-to-roll manufacturing of organic solar cells to inkjet processes.

Solar Power World Editorial Director Frank Andorka attended a breakfast with the truSolar Initiative, a consortium of leading solar market participants (panelists included executives from consortium members Assurant Insurance, Distributed Sun, PanelClaw and Underwriters Laboratories) that’s trying to establish uniform credit screening standards for commercial and industrial photovoltaic (PV) projects. Andorka said the organization, formed earlier this year, is also trying to develop a common language between the solar industry and financiers that’s critical to the future strength of the industry.

Another panel session comprised entirely of solar industry CEOs, said the solar industry will be characterized over the next few years by increased diversification in terms of both geography and market segment.

As reported by Intersolar News, “large-scale utility installations will witness growth in developing regions with surging appetites for energy such as Asia and Africa, but also in the Middle East, which is increasingly turning to solar as a means of preserving its fossil future energy assets for sale abroad, and in the desert regions of the U.S. South and West.”

Intersolar News also reported that we’ll see an increase of solar to power electric cars. Pierre-Pascal Urbon, CEO of SMA Technology AG, based in Germany, said “people want to connect their PV systems with their house and their cars, and manage both through their smart phones.”

Numerous companies used Intersolar North America to debut new products and services. Boulder, CO-based AlsoEnergy, which provides energy monitoring/financial management software solutions for renewable energy developers, manufacturers, and investors, unveiled PowerOperations, an operations management workflow module, and PowerRes, a residential packaged designed/tailored for the financial community and developers of residential lease programs for the solar market.

And dozens of companies displayed a wide array of inverters. SMA Technology AG introduced its Sunny Boy TL-US series that, per a press release, represent “an evolutionary leap forward in residential string inverter performance.”

While California Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr., indicated in his conference keynote opener that California has set a target of 33% of renewably-sourced energy by 2020, perhaps the potential long-term growth of the solar industry was best summed up by Dan E. Arvizu, director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Arvizu said over the next decade, photovoltaics will increase tenfold and institutional investors will inject $2 trillion into PV endeavors.

Looks like sunny days ahead.