Motorola Not Ebony And Ivory (Harmony)

Motorola Solutions Fit Every Segment - Image Credit: Motorola.com

Motorola Not Ebony And Ivory (Harmony)

Enterprise mobility, and the solutions they provide are not necessarily compatible across the need level ecosystem, at least according to Motorola management.

About eighteen months ago, Motorola felt that purchasing a mobility Auto ID company, like industry leader Symbol Technologies, would bring along a synergy to their business model that few cellphone/radio communications companies in the world would have. Most analysts agreed to the proposition that the small form factor manufacturing commonality, combined with the different and unique focus in non-conflicting markets could be a strong asset going forward.

If this concept was ever true, Motorola blew it. If the concept wasn’t true, a lot of the misunderstanding to corporate culture in niche markets and the ability to remain relevant in an evolving WEB 2.0 world may have been the culprits.

Motorola handsets to be made a stand alone business unit. Image Credit: Motorola.com

This excerpted from CNET -

Motorola hits redial on handset biz
Posted by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News.com March 26, 2008 7:37 AM PDT

Motorola is hoping two is better than one.

On Wednesday, the company, whose cell phone business has been in a death spiral for several quarters, announced that after a two-month formal analysis, it has decided to split the company into two publicly traded entities.

One will handle handsets and accessories while the other will continue to concentrate on wireless broadband and enterprise communication products.

"Creating two industry-leading companies will provide improved flexibility, more tailored capital structures, and increased management focus--as well as more targeted investment opportunities for our shareholders," CEO Greg Brown said in a release.

The Mobile Devices business will handle the designs, manufacturing, and sales of mobile handsets and accessories, and will license a portfolio of intellectual property.

The Broadband & Mobility Solutions business will handle service voice and data communication solutions and wireless broadband networks for enterprises and governments. It will also handle IP video, cellular, and high-speed broadband network infrastructure, and cable set-top receivers.

Investor Carl Icahn has been pressuring the company to separate out its mobile phone business, and has been engaged in a protracted legal struggle with the company regarding its future. Motorola offered up two board seats to Icahn this week, but the activist investor rejected the offer. Brown declined to comment on how this latest news will impact discussions with Icahn's camp.
----
But many questions linger. For one, how will spinning off the business unit actually help the company get back on track? And then there is the question of brand. Motorola has an 80-year history as a communications provider. The company practically invented the cell phone industry in the 1980s. So what will it do with a brand it has spent billions of dollars and decades creating?

Brown gave vague answers to these questions during the conference call. He reasoned that splitting Motorola into two separate companies will allow management teams to focus and tailor their financials to the needs of those businesses.
----
But even though it's easy to see how Motorola's other businesses might benefit from the separation, it's still a bit unclear what will really be different in the handset division. The company's problem is that it isn't making products people want to buy.
----
Brown acknowledged that new products are key to turning around the handset business. But he said the division needs to be separated to help attract new, top-level talent to lead the recovery. Brown is currently searching for a new CEO to head up the new company.
----
"The Motorola brand is strong and trusted and proven," he said. "It's valuable to mobile devices as well as other assets in parts of the business. We will refine the brand strategy in next several months going forward."

But Forrester's Daley believes that keeping the brand with the handset division really is the only viable option the company has.

"Good or bad--Motorola's brand is for mobile devices," she said. "The broadband and mobility solutions unit will have to grow and separate their brand/value from the consumer-device company."
Reference Here>>

So the name change from Symbol Technologies to Motorola really hasn’t helped ... Symbol Technologies already had great brand/value as an enterprise mobility solutions provider and NOW it has lost its "good" name - in only 14 months after Motorola's purchase.

Motorola enterprize mobility solutions (Symbol Technologies) to be made a stand alone business unit after only 14 months. Image Credit: Motorola.com

And this view excerpted from InfoWorld –

Update: Motorola to split in two
Reorganization mirrors moves Nokia, Ericsson have made
By Mikael Ricknäs, IDG News Service / InfoWorld March 26, 2008

"Everyone agrees Motorola had to do something, the split will relieve some of the pressure from stockholders," said Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight, who at first glance thinks the split makes sense.
----
"The mobile phone division has taken a bit of a beating, and this is what you get," said Richard Webb, directing analyst, WiMax, Wi-Fi, and Mobile Devices at Infonetics Research.

The split will provide improved flexibility, more tailored capital structures, and increased management focus -- as well as more targeted investment opportunities for shareholders, according to Greg Brown, Motorola's president and chief executive officer.

Analysts agree the split will bring improved focus, especially for the mobile phone company.

"[The mobile phone part] won't have to take the infrastructure side into consideration, and the split may also help raise its profile," said Webb.

But that can also be a bad thing. It was in part because of handsets that Sprint dared to make its big gamble on WiMax, which has proved problematic.
In the end, the mobile phone business needs a healthy and competitive Motorola, according to Wood.

"It's needed to provide some balance with Nokia. A Nokia-Samsung duopoly isn't good for anyone," he said.
Reference Here>>

Faceprints As Symbology

University researchers developed the URxD face recognition software that uses a three-dimensional snapshot of a person's face to create a unique biometric identifier. Image Credit: University of Houston via NetworkWorld

Faceprints As Symbology

Who needs a number when you have a face? That’s what we say here at Symblogogy!

Symbologies such as barcodes are rapidly being replaced by other pattern identifiers found through digital conversion.

As noted here a few months ago, ColorCode/ColorZip created a new type of symbology to be used for advertisers that takes a picture of an Ad an and converts it to a type of QR Code based symbology. The purpose here would allow the user access to additional information by taking a photograph with ones phone on the product Ad and digital image converted.

Here in Houston, they have created a different approach to digital conversion and identification. A webcam captures a continuous video stream which is used to detect the face of an individual and converts the images captured to a unique identifier … just like a barcode on a keyfob.

It will only be a matter of time when one can step up in line at the supermarket and have ones loyalty points automatically accrue and discounts awarded through photographic digital conversion as symbology access to database information capture and update.

This from NetworkWorld -

Forget your PIN? Use your face
Submitted by Layer 8 on Wed, 08/01/2007 - 11:49am.

Face recognition as a unique biometric is growing slowly in certain corporate and consumer applications, but researchers at the University of Houston (UH) are trying to make the technology far more ubiquitous and secure: they want it to replace the dozens of personal identification numbers (PIN), passwords and credit card numbers everyone uses every day.

The UH designed and built a prototype field-deployable 3D face recognition system that consists of a 3dMDTM optical scanner using a 1-pod configuration, which is connected to a PC.

----

When the subject is facing the camera and remains relatively still for more than two seconds, the system triggers the optical scanner and the 3D data of the individual's face are captured. The system can either enroll the subject into the database, or perform a scenario-specific task. In an identification scenario, the system will display the closest 5 datasets to the operator. In a verification scenario, the system will determine whether the subject is who they claim to be, based on a preset distance threshold, UH says.

The system determines not only the characteristics of each face, but also whether the person is wearing glasses, allowing for a practical system which offers high accuracy. So far, face recognition methods have focused on appearance - capturing, representing, and matching facial characteristics as they appear on two-dimensional images in the visible spectrum. This is quite challenging to machine recognition because such characteristics vary with orientation, age, habits (beard etc)), and illumination. Instead, the UH system uses three-dimensional information.

The system was highly rated by The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in its annual Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) 2006 and the Iris Challenge Evaluation (ICE) 2006. NIST said the FRVT looks at face recognition from high-resolution still images and three-dimensional (3D) face images, and measures performance for still images taken under controlled and uncontrolled illumination. Face and iris are two biometrics that have been developed over the last 20 years. Face recognition is a vibrant area of biometrics with active research and commercial efforts.

----

"Remembering dozens of personal identification numbers and passwords is not the solution to identity theft. PINs and passwords are not only inconvenient to memorize, but also are impractical to safeguard. In essence, they merely tie two pieces of information together; once the secret is compromised, the rest follows. The solution is to be able to tie your private information to your person in a way that cannot be compromised," said Eckhard Pfeiffer Professor of Computer Science and director of the UH Computational Biomedicine Laboratory.

----

NIST last year released the Multimodal Biometric Application Resource Kit (MBARK), an open source middleware package that enables you to plug in biometric sensors from different manufacturers. The kit also contains templates and sample apps. All the details and the software can be downloaded from the NIST Web site.
Read All Here>>

RFID And "Speedpassing" Payment Hits The Slopes

Planet Snow Tools comes thru big time, installs over eleven rails and two jumps on Mainline Trail just above Main Lodge. Image Credit: Snö Mountain

RFID And "Speedpassing" Payment Hits The Slopes

Just when you thought "sketching" couldn't get any hotter, along comes a way you can hit the slopes without money or ID to get lost or stolen after pulling off a Stiffy air-Fakie in the half-pipe.

Wrist bands with RFID proximity antennas and memory allow you to be counted as a paid up member for the lifts and while you're at it, a contactless ATM/Credit Card for all of your incidentals.

Skiers at a Pennsylvania ski lodge won’t have to worry about carrying cash when they show up on the slopes. One wrist band will do the trick, providing entry to the ski lift as well as allowing them to make purchases. Image Credit: Precision Dynamics

So, with a wave of the wrist, I'll just pay for the Mountain Dew to go with that cheeseburger ... and while I'm at it, I'll buy those new Oakley, SHAUN WHITE SIGNATURE SERIES A FRAME goggles I've been meaning to get.

This from Contactless News -

Snö Mountain implements Precision Dynamics' RFID wristbands for ski lift passes and cashless purchases
Contactless News - Wednesday, January 24 2007

SAN FERNANDO, CA -- Precision Dynamics Corporation (PDC), a global leader in automatic wristband identification, announces the implementation of its Smart Band RFID Wristband System at the recently renovated Snö Mountain (formerly Montage Mountain) in the Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania. Snö Mountain, an alpine ski and multi-season recreation center, opened on January 12, 2007.

The RFID wristband system provides added conveniences to guests including automated ski lift tickets and cashless point-of-sale (POS). Purchasing food and beverages at the ski park is a breeze using Smart Band's contactless payment feature. Guests can load money onto their wristband at POS stations using cash, credit or debit cards. Smart Bands work well in any environment -- wet or dry -- making them a great addition to any ski resort.

"Implementing PDC's RFID system will allow us to focus on the customer's overall experience and added convenience, setting Snö Mountain apart from the competition," says Denis Carlson, President of Snö Mountain. "Also, having a cashless payment option will help increase spending at POS locations such as the Snö Grill."


Snö Mountain expects over 175,000 visitors to the ski park this winter season and approximately 500,000 visitors during the summer season at Snö Cove waterpark. The Pocono Mountains are a popular resort and vacation area for residents of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Maryland. This is PDC's second RFID implementation in this area, with Great Wolf Lodge being the first. For more information on Snö Mountain, visit www.snomtn.com.
Reference Here>>

Auto ID meets TIME Magazine’s Person Of The Year!

Time Magazine cover of December 25, 2006. Cover reads - "Yes you. You control the information age. Welcome to your world." Image Credit: Time Inc.

Auto ID meets TIME Magazine's Person Of The Year!

You.

As the Time Magazine cover says, "Yes You! ... but at ShopperTrak, it is not what you think.

When someone thinks of triggers for Auto ID and tracking, one instantly thinks of barcodes, or RFID tags, or even biometrics like fingerprints. At ShopperTrak, its you … your body moving through time and space in an "X", "Y" field.

At NRF's Big Show (this week in New York at the Jacob Javitz Center) ShopperTrak is a featured technology in the NRF X07 Ultimate Pop-Up Boutique located in Booth 2555. What this technology does with two tiny CCD cameras mounted at about ceiling height is unobtrusive and invalueable.

The most accurate and most popular customer traffic counter in the industry, ShopperTrak's Orbit utilizes an on-board video sensor with high speed processing components to unobtrusively track customers' movements. Image Credit: ecj

American Eagle Outfitters, Payless Shoes, and Chicago's O'Hare airport, have found that the ability to track a person's (body) movement through a space and the information that comes from analyzing these movements, returns great dividends to their business effort.

Excerpts from ShopperTrak –

SHOPPERTRAK NAMED EXCLUSIVE TRAFFIC COUNTING TECHNOLOGY PROVIDER FOR NATIONAL RETAIL FEDERATION'S X07 STORE OF THE FUTURE
Retail Intelligence Leader to Provide Real-Time Pedestrian Foot Traffic Count During State-of-the-Art Exhibit at NRF's 96th Annual Convention, January 14-17, in NYC
By ShopperTrack - January 8, 2007 - Chicago

ShopperTrak RCT, the world's leading provider of retail traffic intelligence solutions and services, will be the exclusive provider of traffic intelligence for the National Retail Federation's (NRF) X07 "Store of the Future" exhibit during the group's 96th Annual "Big Show," January 14-17, at New York's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

NRF's X07 is a state-of-the-art pop-up boutique that will feature the most innovative technologies and futuristic design elements aimed at captivating the ever elusive young adult shopper, as well as interactive kiosks and displays throughout the 11,000-square-foot exhibit. Featuring multiple vendors, X07 will resemble a miniature version of a future store - highlighting the newest technologies such as cell phone interaction, colorful and dynamic light displays, floating sound and theatre systems, digital wireless floor video displays, and RFID payment and self-checkout kiosks.

ShopperTrak (Booth #2405), will employ its Orbit retail intelligence system, which utilizes an on-board video sensor and multiple high-speed microprocessors to unobtrusively measure foot traffic, to track attendees entering and exiting the innovatively designed X07 exhibit . With the Orbit sensor positioned at the exhibit's entrance point, ShopperTrak will stream traffic data to a video display allowing show attendees and exhibitors alike to view the X07 traffic count in real time. Additionally, NRF will have the ability to effectively track head count throughout the lifespan of X07, allowing the organization to identify the most heavily-trafficked time spans throughout the two-day exhibit.

In a retail environment, ShopperTrak's Orbit technology provides the precise data needed to make key business decisions, telling managers how many shoppers enter the store, as well as allowing them to calculate their conversion rate, or how many of those shoppers are converted to sales. ShopperTrak's web-based Retail Traffic Analyzer seamlessly integrates extensive data from the Orbit sensor and delivers a series of user-friendly analysis tools, dashboards and reports to help store managers see their periods of peak traffic, or Power Hours™, and be able to plan for appropriate staffing to optimize conversions.

"As anticipated, the 2006 holiday season was very solid for retailers, with the bulk of this year's strength coming from Black Friday and both the Friday and Saturday before Christmas," noted Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak - pictured here in front of the display of the ShopperTrak read-out panels in the NRF X07 Ultimate Pop-Up Boutique. Image Credit: ecj

"ShopperTrak's participation in the most innovative exhibit of the industry's premier event is a great compliment to our position as a leader in retail intelligence and traffic-counting solutions," said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak. "The opportunity to present real-time traffic data for the X07 exhibit, will allow show attendees to experience a concept that has become a mainstay in retail environments throughout the country."
Reference Here>>

Software Company Captures Mobility Decode Patent

Microsoft's Don Dodge, Director of Business Development for Microsoft's Emerging Business Team Picks Scanbuy As A Company To Watch In 2007 (December 20, 2006). Image Credit: Scanbuy, Inc.

On January 2, 2007, the United Stated Patent Office issued a patent to Scanbuy, Inc. (New York, NY) for a "System and method for decoding and analyzing barcodes using a mobile device".

The method will be known commercially as "ScanZoom" software and will enable a user of a cellphone with a camera to achieve a connection to objects and their corresponding websites and/or database information contained within the symbology that is scanned. This ability to connect to objects through digital information and electronic devices is becoming known as "physical world connection" and the symbol or rfid trigger the electronic device decodes or gets information from - a "physical world hyperlink" or PWH.

Soon all objects will have a PWH so that one will be able to connect and know the information about any object anywhere.

Patent #7,156,311 was issued to Scanbuy, a company Microsoft identifies a primary physical world connection player, with the following information found at the United States Patent and Trademark Office website.

Excerpts from United States Patent and Trademark Office -

Abstract

The present invention discloses a system and method for decoding barcodes using mobile device. Generally, the barcode image is acquired via a digital camera attached to the mobile device. After the barcode image has been acquired, software located on the mobile device enhances the barcode image and subsequently decodes the barcode information. The barcode information is then transmitted to a server via a wireless network. The server processes the barcode information and transmits media content related to the barcode back to the mobile device.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a software application and system (hereinafter referred to as "ScanZoom") designed to successfully process and decode barcodes acquired via digital imaging techniques. ScanZoom software empowers a user to use a cell-phone or PDA equipped with a digital camera as a scanner of barcodes (one-dimensional and two-dimensional) or any other similar machine-readable code. It seamlessly integrates the barcode scanning technology with the digital camera (built-in or attached) of the cell phones/PDAs/Pocket PCs.

To utilize the ScanZoom software, a user downloads the ScanZoom onto his/her cell phone or PDA through wireless access protocol ("WAP"), infrared, or Bluetooth.RTM. connectivity. However, any protocol which allows a user to download a program to a mobile device may be utilized to download ScanZoom. Once the user has downloaded ScanZoom, the user launches the application. This causes ScanZoom to properly initialize the digital camera coupled to the mobile device to accept input. It starts the digital camera by calling its Application identification.

The user then takes a picture of the barcode using the digital camera. As soon as the barcode is captured, the ScanZoom software decodes the barcode utilizing a decoding engine integral to the ScanZoom software. Alternatively, the Scanzoom software may send the image of the barcode to a central server for decoding by sending a multimedia message service ("MMS") message to the server containing the barcode image.

If ScanZoom sends a MMS message to the server, it launches the MMS Application Id, composes the appropriate message on the fly, and then sends the message to the SMS/MMS server. On the server side, a global system for mobile communications ("GSM") modem connected to the server has the appropriate security identity module ("SIM") card and takes the services from any mobile service provider. The server fetches the MMS message from the GSM modem queue and performs appropriate action depending upon the message. The server can then send back a simple SMS message or can send back a multimedia message service ("MMS") message which can launch a WAP browser on the mobile device and direct it to the appropriate website, or send back information to the user through any other existing wireless protocol.

The location of the decoding depends entirely upon the processing capabilities of the mobile device utilized. For example, if the ScanZoom software is operating on a mobile device with lower system capabilities, such as a first generation camera phone, the mobile device will automatically send the digital image of the barcode to a server for decoding.

The barcode decoding engine continuously runs in a loop until it's able to decode the image taken by the digital camera into a barcode. If the barcode cannot be properly resolved, the user is prompted to take another picture of the desired barcode.

Additionally, the barcode decoding may also be performed in real time. The ScanZoom software accomplishes this by constantly capturing and processing the image of the barcode until it is correctly decoded. This eliminates the extra step of the user having to press a button to capture an image of the barcode.

After the barcode has been correctly resolved either by the mobile device or the server, the mobile device displays the appropriate media content to the user. The media content displayed to the user depends entirely on the barcode scanned. For example, if a user scans a barcode on a compact disc, the ScanZoom application may launch a WAP browser and direct the user to a site which allows the user to purchase the compact disc electronically. As another example, if a user scans a barcode located on a food item, the server may return a SMS message to the mobile device indicating the nutritional contents of the scanned item.

Current Product Description: SCANBUY Media allows content providers and advertisers to streamline the access to mobile content by assigning to a dedicated two-dimensional (2D) barcode one or several WAP destinations. Image Credit: Scanbuy, Inc.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a software application and system capable of accurately and reliably decoding barcodes and other machine-readable codes acquired via a digital camera connected to a mobile device.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a software application and system which allows for the decoding of barcodes in a wide range of conditions.

An additional object of the present invention is to provide a software application and system for decoding barcodes which is quick and responsive.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a software application and system for decoding barcodes which is robust under adverse lighting, imaging, and focusing conditions.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a software application and system for decoding multiple barcode formats.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a software application and system which does not adversely affect device performance, usability, or form factor.

Furthermore, an object of the present invention is to provide a software application and system for decoding barcodes which does not significantly impact device power consumption nor degrade general camera performance.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a barcode decoding system which requires minimal or no changes to the manufacturing process of the mobile devices.

An additional object of the present invention is to provide a barcode decoding system having a low incremental cost per device.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a highly reliable barcode decoding system requiring minimal user support.

These and other objects of the present will be made clearer with reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings.
Reference Here>>

Current Product Description: With SCANBUY Shopper, we now give consumers the power to become educated. Our ultimate mobile software allows them to compare retail prices with online prices right from their cell phone, and be sure they walk away with the best deal, wherever they are. Image Credit: Scanbuy, Inc.

As for Scanbuy, the company's mission statement states the following -

MISSION STATEMENT

SCANBUY enables camera phones to capture and immediately decode printed or electronically displayed barcodes. One scan to stream music, watch trailers, download ringtones, access information, and shop with your cell phone.

SCANBUY solutions are designed for handset manufacturers, wireless carriers, content providers and retailers.

SCANBUY integrates its products with an array of business platforms and provides SDK to be utilized with other proprietary solutions.
Reference Here>>

ht: The Pondering Primate