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Day: July 14, 2017

Perfect Pizza with Robots – Zume Takes Off

Posted on by Staff Writer

From the healthcare industry to medicine, robots are creating a stir. In the latest food news, they are now invading restaurants. Even the pizzeria is not safe. Zume developed a new robot to make the perfect pizza.

We have fewer people, but we pay them much higher rates with full benefits as opposed to having a proliferation of lower-skilled workers.

Robots have slowly been invading the world of food prep for some time now, but the complications of working with ingredients that vary in size and shape, such as onions or bell peppers which vary in size, have prevented them from truly taking off. Now Zume has created a robot that spreads and flattens the dough, as well as tops it and bakes the pizza.

Food News: Zume’s Robot Chef

Zume is a food delivery startup company based in Mountain View, California. With the large margins earned by competitors in the pizza business, Zume saw an opportunity to expand on their volume with the use of a robot chef team.  Specifically, the company uses automated machines for the different stages of pizza production.

Zume opened its doors last year. It has started strong but kitchen staff discovered a problem, causing them a big headache; some of the pizzas being processed had holes or tear in them.

A small gap between two conveyor belts where the pizzas go through was the root cause of the problem. It was not because of the robots, nor the kitchen staff. If both conveyors kept moving in perfect timing then the pizza would come out perfect. The problem was fixed and Zume is now producing far higher volumes than other restaurants with staff of similar size.

Challenges In Using Robots

The demand for technology is rising every day. In jobs that can be automated, robots offer a huge productivity boost. But it is often a challenge to fit robots into the messy world of human beings.A picture of a robot hand and a human hand, making pizza.

RobotWorx describes three challenges that manufacturers face when using robots.

  1. There is often be a large initial investment.
  2. The company’s specific needs must be identified.
  3. Workers must be trained to use the new technology.

These are universal challenges that always must be considered in automation and robotics.

In the case of Zume, they had identified particular tasks that the robot could do well, such as forming the pizza dough and adding toppings, and of course the conveyor belt oven. Humans still do the prepping like chopping vegetables.

Josh Goldberg, the Chief Technology Officer of the Mountain View, California, sent months observing the pizza prep process, to perfect the machine that would make the exact motion of a human and produce a perfect crust every time.

Of course, nothing is quite as easy as it sounds with new tech because just as Goldberg adjusted the process with the conveyor belts, the robots needed to be recalibrated as well. The robotics actually require a lot of highly trained staff to keep it all running smoothly.

Zume has a group of 20 software engineers because they want to be prepared for any changes and updates in preparing and delivering their pizza. It is also important that their kitchen staff are knowledgeable about the technology that they’re using.

The whole culinary team at Zume is up to speed in both Kanban and Jira, which are project management tools more often found in a programming environment than in a typical pizzeria. The business’ line cooks and delivery drivers are being trained in data science.

According to Stephanie Hammerworld, Co-owner of Hammerworld & Publishing, “The implementation of new technology can bring a lot of headaches. That is why it is essential to have a plan in place to train and support employees as they learn and adapt to new technology.”

Zume does not plan to eliminate their staff just because robots have been doing pretty well in the kitchen. There are still things that humans do better than robots like making the sauce, creating recipes, preparing ingredients, and evaluating if the pie is really good to go.

Julia Collins, the Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive of Zume, said, “We have fewer people, but we pay them much higher rates with full benefits as opposed to having a proliferation of lower-skilled workers.”

The company’s investors want Zume to create more pizzas, predict what people want, take on the huge pizza chains of pizzeria. SignalFire is a venture capital firm that invests in startup companies. It has put more than $23 million into Zume.

Robot Workers on the March

30 companies that have replaced human workers with robots. Within the next 30 years, robots might overtake different industries. The following companies have automated and robotized much of their operations,

  • AmazonBread factory with automated robotics
  • DHL
  • Cambridge Industries Group
  • Uber
  • Tesla
  • Capita
  • Best Buy
  • Target
  • Lowe’s
  • Macy’s
  • Adidas
  • Walmart
  • Carrier
  • Nestle
  • SNCF
  • Mastercard
  • Pizza Hut
  • Shiseido
  • Ocado
  • Foxconn
  • Just Eat
  • Marriot Hotels
  • ING Group
  • DHL
  • Nissan
  • Chipotle
  • Erwin Precision Technology
  • Fidelity Investments
  • ZARA
  • Crowne Plaza Hotels

In addition to the kitchen-robots, Zume has created oven-equipped trucks. It is all part of their continuous drive to innovation.

Zume is a new player in the ‘better pizza’ movement, but because of the people working behind its success, there’s every chance that soon, your pizza may be made by robots.

Orion Engineered Carbons, Big Three in Carbon Black

Posted on by Staff Writer

Carbon Black is an industrial material that most people have never heard of, but it is found everywhere. It is strong, dense, and very light. This high tech product is found in products from tires to clothing to plastic. It is used to color products, as well as to make them stronger and longer lasting. In our interview with Jack Clem, he explained how they are making an impact with this bold idea of using carbon black technology in producing lithium batteries.

In this exclusive video, Jack Clem discusses the business side of carbon black. As one of the world’s leaders in carbon black production, one of the big three, Clem is perfectly situated to explain how carbon black is finding its way into more products every day.

Carbon Black is Highly Profitable

The traditional carbon black market is Orion Engineered Carbon’s biggest contributor to its bottom line, comprising 62.5% of the company’s $1.18 billion revenue. However, the remaining 37.5% of sales comes from specialty carbon black products, which contributed 61.4% of Orion’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). The difference arises from the comfortable profit margins for specialty products, an area which Orion has been actively pursuing. Specialty product sales contribute profit margins of 35.4%, which is more than 2.5 times the margins in the traditional rubber tire business.

As a whole, Orion leads the industry with a 26% market share by sales volume.

Barron’s named Orion Engineered Carbons as a global leader in the growing Carbon Black industry, currently worth $16 billion.

It’s improving conductivity without creating impurities that spoils the life of the battery.

The company, run by veteran entrepreneur Jack Clem, has expanded worldwide mainly due to the wide range of products it is offering. In most cases, it is the only supplier for these specialty products. The volume and variety allows it to charge premium prices. The growth in specialty products was 13% year over year for 2016. Besides polymers, paints and pigments, these included battery related products, which are used in the manufacture of lead acid batteries as well as lithium batteries.

Orion earned 80.2 million euros in 2016, an amount which is estimated to increase by 11% in 2017. The estimated revenue growth is around 14.6%. The company has gone public, with around 58% of the shares still in the hands of private-equity owners. This has resulted in a less volatile stock price, but with less liquidity, than most other new IPOs. The forecast for both the short-term and long-term stock prospect is bullish.

Expanding Markets, Increasing Profits

A representation of carbon molecules.
Carbon Black Molecules form strong bonds.

Besides tires, Orion Engineered Carbons has partnered with clothing manufacturers as well as various businesses across different industries. However, a bold application of carbon black technology is in the production of lithium batteries.

“It’s a great application. The challenge of all battery suppliers today is to make battery life last longer. Smaller batteries, longer life. It always requires some conductive material in the battery for that to occur. The conductive material that we supply is a particular kind of carbon black – it requires a special purity which we can do. It requires a special structure and size and shape of the particle of the aggregate that we can do,” Clem explained in his BOLD BUSINESS interview.

The Luxembourg-based company has worked directly with battery manufacturers as well as the suppliers of components to the batteries.  He adds that the aim was to  improve the dynamics of the physics of the carbon black particle to improve the conductivity which is critical to battery life.

Carbon, the element itself, is non-conductive. Orion’s Carbon Black is 95% to 99% carbon. However, with the right purity levels, manufacturing process and the addition of other elements, Carbon Black can have the very conductive properties which are uniquely required in batteries. This improves the performance of batteries, as well as the dynamics of how the battery works.

Traditional lead acid batteries have evolved over time. At one time, a car battery had to start an engine and store electricity; these days, far more is demanded. Many cars now have a quick start feature in which the engine turns off at stop lights, in order to save fuel. But that means the battery has to crank the engine to life again when the light changes, it saves money, but drains batteries. Plus anti-theft devices and other components drain charge from car batteries at higher rates than in the past.

With the use of Carbon Black in the manufacturing process, modern lead acid batteries can be designed to handle the additional load without undue stress. The new process, and a specific formulation for Carbon Black, has enabled batteries to be used longer even with the stress of start-stop operations and 24 hour devices.

“It’s always about conductivity,” Clem stressed. He added, “It’s improving conductivity without creating impurities that spoils the life of the battery. We work hard to make sure we’ve got that rock-type of a composition to accomplish that.”

Batteries are a source of growth for Carbon Black products which is not usually seen by the public. With technology improvements in batteries directly attributable to Carbon Black, any growth in battery use and manufacturing volume and demand also results in demand and volume for Carbon Black.

A visionary and bold thinker, Clem is looking at expanding the world-class capabilities of Carbon Black and driving growth at Orion Engineered Carbons.

 

 

Neulion, Disrupting Entertainment with VR and AR

Posted on by Staff Writer

Roy Reichbach, in an exclusive interview with Bold Business, shares the inside scoop on the exciting VR and AR industries. These new technologies are poised to change the way we view and interact with the world, from diving in the Cayman Islands (virtually) to shopping for furniture at home with AR. It’s disruptive technology that changes industries like training and education, as well as entertainment and work.

Riechbach’s company, NeuLion, is based in Plainview, NY. The 13 year old company has a modest footprint, but big and bold plans.  The latest quarterly financial figures showed $23.9 million revenue, of which a significant $15.6 million came from their NeuLion Digital Platform. The company has expanded abroad and snatched up some prime properties and opportunities. Almost one-third of their 2015 revenue was from the overseas market. Financial analysts estimate that by 2018, two-thirds of its projected earnings of more than $262 million will be from Europe and Asia.

The major disruptions in today’s technology gave rise to digital video streaming that resulted in traditional broadcast television and cable losing viewers and subscribers in record numbers. A TiVo study has confirmed that the number of consumers dropping traditional cable and satellite television has increased by about 20% in Q4 of 2016 alone.  The cord cutting is an offshoot as customers migrate to the internet, including mobile devices for entertainment and sports events. This is considered by many to be a less expensive solution and allows users to have more programming choices.

Investors are riding the crest of this trend’s wave, with stocks reaping the benefits including players such as Netflix, Amazon, and Facebook. NeuLion with a revenue of $99.8 million in 2016, is valued at Canadian dollar 0.68 per share at the close of trading on July 17, 2017. But the company is regarded as poised for growth as it captures market share and increases penetration on a global scale.

The company is getting unusual attention from investors because of its broad customer base, which includes some titans in the pro-sports such as the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), as well as several hockey leagues in Canada, and football leagues in Europe.

NeuLion works with the world’s biggest brands in creating immersive entertainment experiences. It is a leader specializing in digital video broadcasting, and distribution, delivering on-demand and live content to Internet-enabled devices.

For VR, it’s placing yourself in a virtually real situation. The example of the Disney ride. It would be you being in an actual environment that exists.

The NeuLion Digital Platform allows companies to integrate their internet video distribution. It includes coding, marketing, streaming and monetization in a self-contained package.

Another technology in which they are highly immersed in is 4K video streaming. They have partnered with Sony, Samsung and LG for their HDTV for 4K live streaming. They also have a separate package for 360 degree video, which is already in use with Nokia’s OZO camera.

Exploring VR and AR to the Fullest

Besides video streaming, content delivery and ownership, NeuLion is investing heavily on Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. “Virtual reality and augmented reality are both bold initiatives on a worldwide basis,” Reichbach said, adding, “What we’re seeing is substantial investment by a lot of different companies to take the next step in getting AR and VR to the mainstream.”

Admittedly, the biggest hurdle that any AR or VR company faces is monetizing the activity. Reichbach explained their strategy, “What NeuLion does that’s bold is it enables monetization so than any company that has content and wants to utilize that content in a VR or AR form has the ability to find a way to create revenue from that content. An example would be if you want to sell your furniture, and you want to sell that to as broad an audience as possible without having them come to your showroom. So you could, through an augmented reality situation, take your home or my home and place your company’s furniture inside that home; reposition it, see how it works. Be able to sell it.”

The Difference Between AR and VR

A visual of room planning and AR.

Virtual Reality is when a whole environment is created from scratch like a set on a computer game. Users wear VR gear in order to view the artificial environment and interact with the objects in it. NeuLion is working with Nokia on their OZO 360 camera to enable it to be used in conjunction with VR. With a VR headset, viewers would be able to see full 360 degree videos of sporting events as if they were at the stadium itself.

Augmented Reality, on the other hand, takes real objects as we see them, and either superimposes backgrounds while a person appears on the foreground, or creates an imaginary or CGI character as a foreground of a real landscape or set. There is no need for any other equipment except the screen or monitor to view AR.

“For VR, it’s placing yourself in a virtually real situation. The example of the Disney ride. It would be you being in an actual environment that exists. With augmented reality, it’s taking your existing location and then placing non-existing items into it. So you would have your home and the entire lot of your home, and then you would have furniture that doesn’t exist in reality augmented into your home,” Reichbach explained.

NeuLion was founded in 2004 as a privately held company. In October 2008, NeuLion merged with JumpTV, an Internet streaming company to combine the two companys’ technology and client partnerships in the field of sports, variety, and international programming.  The combined companies changed their name to NeuLion in July 2009. Using the new name and new symbol NLN, the company continued trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. NeuLion has more than 500 employees worldwide as it works with aggregators and content providers. Nancy Li is NeuLion’s Executive Chair and Roy E. Reichbach is President and CEO.

Before being appointed the President and CEO of NeuLion, Reichbach was the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.  Before working with NeuLion, he was the General Counsel of the New York Islanders, which is a member of the National Hockey League, and also the Vice President for Legal Affairs of Computer Associates. He holds a J.D from the Fordham University School of Law.

In November 2009, NeuLion acquired Interactive Netcasting System, INSINC, a Vancouver based webcasting company that held many other properties including eight North American based hockey leagues. The following year, the company completed its acquisition of TransVideo International, a Chinese-based company that provides IPTV technology and a manufacturer of set top boxes.

NeuLion continued with its acquisition spree by acquiring in DivX, Inc., which provides digital video solutions, in February 2015. The company further acquired in June 2016 a UK-based company that builds multi-platform digital video services for entertainment delivered over-the-top to Internet connected devices, Saffron Digital.

NeuLion is staking its future on the success and consumer adaptation of VR and AR content.

Flying Taxis Take Off for the Future

Posted on by Staff Writer

The idea of flying cars has been a long-held dream. Designs and concepts have already been put on the table, but most prototypes look like a small vehicle. Now, with the rising popularity of flying cars, numerous companies are revolutionizing and expanding their horizons to flying taxis.

The aircraft we’re building doesn’t need a runway, it is self-piloted, and can automatically detect and avoid obstacles and other aircraft.

Drone Car companies from around the globe are grabbing the future rather than waiting for it. They are innovating flying cars and turning them into a point-to-point passenger vehicle service, also known as flying taxis. These companies are boldly changing urban transportation.

This bold move isn’t easy. There are many challenges like perfecting the design concepts and regulations that remain to be written. Despite these hindrances, flying taxis are already being developed and tested. Forward looking companies are betting that their prototypes will be flying in the next few years.

Airbus Races to Develop Flying Taxis

Airbus, an aerospace manufacturer in Europe, has developed Vahana. Started in early 2016, Vahana is a flying taxi that is electric and driverless. It promises to shorten travel times.

A3 is a new technology accelerator that was formed by Airbus in order to develop Vahana. Robin Lyasoff is the Chief Executive of A3. The prototype consists of a single seat, a lifting canopy, eight propellers, and wings. Vahana can drop off and pick up passengers without the need for a runway.

A taxi flying over the city, with a ride hailing app.

According to Airbus, “The aircraft we’re building doesn’t need a runway, it is self-piloted, and can automatically detect and avoid obstacles and other aircraft.”

Zach Lovering is the Project Executive for Vahana. He claims that the propellers are driven by electric motors. The vehicle has a range of about 31 miles and plans to start service around 2021.

The primary goal of Airbus is to establish an airborne ride-hailing service.

E-Volo Releases the Volocopter

E-Volo, a company located in Germany is the developer and designer of Volocopter. The vehicle is environmentally friendly and emission-free private helicopter model.

With the investment by Intel venture-capital arm, Volocopter consists of two seats, a joystick, and 18 rotors. It was tested in 2013. Like the Vahana, this vehicle does not require a runway to land or take off. Volocopter has a flight-time duration of 20 to 30 minutes.

Alexander Zosel, the CEO of E-Volo, said that “We’re assembling a new electronic flight-control system and a new battery system.” He plans to sell the Volocopters for about $340,000.

Urban Aeronautics & the Cormorant Flying Taxi

Urban Aeronautics Ltd, an Israeli company developed Cormorant. The vehicle was formerly known as AirMule. Cormorant is completely autonomous and has the ability to carry as much as 1,100 pounds up to 30 miles.

Cormorant aims to aid disaster relief events and respond to war zones where dangerous extractions are required. ZME Science mentioned that in December 2015, Urban Aeronautics placed Cormorant’s rotor inside instead of outside.

The vehicle is equipped with two laser altimeters, inertial sensors, a radar altimeter, and an electro-optic payload camera.

Janina Frankel-Yoeli, the Vice President for Marketing, said that “We started working on this long before everyone got into urban mobility.”

Because Urban Aeronautics does not want to be left behind when it comes to the more experimental field of flying vehicles, its subsidiary, Metro Skyways, jumped into the fray with CityHawk. The vehicle has four seats, is hydrogen-powered, and has the same design as the Cormorant.

Dubai’s EHANG 184

Dubai is all-in with flying cars thanks to the EHANG 184. They are pushing to have flying taxis in the skies as early as fall 2017.

The Roads and Transportation Authority in Dubai are already testing EHANG 184, a single-passenger autonomous drone, to carry passengers far above the city’s notorious traffic jams. EHANG, a Chinese drone-maker that is the leader when it comes to UAV technology innovation, is the developer.

EHANG 184 has the ability to travel 62 mph at a height of 984 feet. It has eight propellers and its recharge time is a scant two hours. The vehicle is designed to survive the punishing summer days and cold nights of Dubai.

The bold idea of flying taxis is considered by many companies to be a gold mine. How they will disrupt the transportation and even city planning, industries remains to be seen.

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