TECHNOLOGY REPORT

The Google-owned online video service Youtube gave this morning’s keynote here at CES 2012.  It wasn’t all that interesting except for one amazing statistic.   They’re serving five billion hours of video per month now.   This would amount to about an hour of video for every person on earth old enough to access youtube.   I want some verification because that number is hard to believe, but if true it represents a shift in consumer media consumption that is simply staggering.

We all knew things were moving from offline to online media, but this suggests that online video adoption and usage is happening faster and with more gusto than all but the most enthusiastic online evangelists would have predicted.   In fact YouTube’s  Robert Kyncl noted how they have been constantly revising projections based on higher use than expected.

How will this trend affect us?    Probably in some very dramatic ways.   Heavy capital TV networks may increasingly see advertisers shifting to highly targeted niche markets, lowering the quality of network productions as money dries up.   Meanwhile more and more user generated content is pouring online, diverting more  attention away from traditional media.   The end result in terms of the content landscape?   I’m guessing we’ll see even more of a ” race to the bottom” in terms of content, where low quality lowbrow content will push out the better stuff.  Yet “high quality TV” has always been something of an oxymoron anyway, so nobody should lose any sleep as we watch our watching habits shift from our favorite TV drama to our favorite online personality’s content channel.   In fact I’d predict that we’ll even see some great quality, low cost shows come out as the barriers to entry fall away and millions more clever content producers flood the online landscape with …. more stuff.

2012 International CES Press Kit

Below are links to some of the meatiest information at CES 2012 in Las Vegas.   This is from the press kit and offers several facts about the show as well as schedules, venue information, and maps.

If you are a first timer I’d recommend you do NOT try to plan out your day carefully – you can spend hours simply stumbling around trying to find vendors.   Better in my opinion is to start at the Las Vegas Convention center and walk somewhat systematically through the 3 main exhibit halls there – South, North/Hilton, and Central.    Stop at exhibits that interest you but don’t stay too long because there’s always something more interesting around the next corner.

2012  CES Fact Sheet

2012 CES Fun Facts

Pre-Press Events and Shuttle Service

2012 CES  Venues and Map

2012 CES Super Sessions

Greetings CES Attendees.  Here’s a list from CES of several of the official events happening during the conference.  Note that in addition to these there are many private parties, blogger events, and more.  Some of those are kept secret while some are listed at CESPartylist.com and, in a and soon at  the more comprehensive list we try to maintain here at Technology Report.

Most of those blogger, press, and special parties require invitations so it’s often best to contact folks before or during the conference to make sure you can get into an event.   Also note that some of the best events are “hospitality suites” held after “pitches” by the big players.  These large business sponsors will invite everyone attending their “pitch” event to enjoy drinks and food.

Generally, even if you *should* be allowed into an event you’ll have hassles if you are not on the pre-approved lists, but note that some of the events below appear to be open to all attendees such as the Tweetup and Tao wrap up CES party on Friday.

PDF of the following events at CES 2012 is HERE

PMDA Awards Ceremony and After Party
7:30 p.m. Monday, January 9
ARIA, Haze Nightclub

The PhotoImaging Manufacturers and Distributors Association (PMDA),
For information or tickets, contact Michelle Tramantano at michelle@pmda.com.

The 2012 CES Hot Stuff Awards
5 p.m. Tuesday, January 10
Winners Announced Online at www.Stuff.tv
10 most desirable, most exciting and most innovative products to launch at 2012 CES.  Stuff at Stuff.TV
about the 2012 CES Hot Stuff Awards.

Mark of Excellence Awards Reception
5-6 p.m. Tuesday January 10
LVCC, South Hall 1, CEPro@CES
The Mark of Excellence Supplier Awards are joining the International CES
Innovations Design and Engineering Awards program! This new and exciting
announcement allows you to increase your product’s exposure, recognition
and prestige. The Innovations Awards program recognizes the most
innovative consumer electronics products in the industry’s hottest product
categories and has become a hallmark for the best designed products in
consumer technology. The Mark of Excellence System Integrator Awards will
resume in 2012 and will culminate with the announcement of the winners
at the 2013 International CES in Las Vegas, but you don’t have to wait until
2013 to celebrate! There will be a reception in honor of the 2011 Mark of
Excellence System Integrator fi nalists and winners during the 2012 CES.

SportsNation
2 p.m. Wednesday, January 11
LVCC, Central Hall, ESPN 3D Booth #13632
Watch Emmy Award-winning SportsNation live as it becomes ESPN’s first

studio program to be telecast in 3D! The show provides an off-beat look
at sports, doesn’t take itself too seriously, and weaves pop culture into a
fast-paced hour like no other.

CES Tweet Up
4-7 p.m. Wednesday, January 11
Las Vegas Hilton, SpaceQuest Lounge
Twitter followers and friends are invited to meet the CES Social Media Team
and other members of our online community at the Offi cial CES Tweet Up.
Meet social media mavens, talk tech and enjoy drink specials. Follow at @
intlCES for more information.

The 2012 What HI-FI?
Sound and Vision Stars of CES
5 p.m. Winners Announced
Wednesday, January 11
The Venetian, Tower Suite 29-326
The 2012 CES sees the launch of Stars of CES – a new Awards scheme
from the world’s leading home entertainment buyer’s guide, showcasing
the music- and movie-boosting heroes – of the world’s greatest tech show.
Centered on the audio exhibits in The Venetian, Stars of CES will highlight
the show’s most impressive debuts – from the latest high-tech streaming
solutions to the very best in traditional hi-fi and AV. Potential Stars of CES
winners don’t need a big booth to impress our expert judges – just a superb
new product launched at The Venetian Tower of the 2012 International
CES, which our global readership of enthusiasts is waiting to be excited by.
Leaders in Technology Dinner
6:30 p.m. Wednesday, January 11
Wynn Las Vegas, Lafite Ballroom
By Invitation Only
The most distinguished event at CES, the Leaders in Technology (LIT)
Dinner attracts 500 of the most influential industry leaders, including
executive-level government representatives and policy makers.

MashBash
7 p.m. Wednesday, January 11
Mirage, 1 0AK Night Club
The MashBash at CES will be celebrating the best of digital – from the
Mashable Awards winners to the trends and companies joining Mashable
at CES.The MashBash will bring together the Mashable community,
industry leaders and digital infl uencers from the biggest technology and
consumer electronic brands.
From awards programs to tweet ups and everything in between, CES has something for everyone.
Take a look at the awards

Developer University at CES

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday, January 12
LVCC, South Hall Connector, Room S228
Want to know what’s happening in the app world? Attend the first ever
Developer University at CES event brought to you by the Consumer Electronics
Association (CEA)®. Hear directly from product manufacturers and
developers about their platforms, developer tools, sdks, APIs and developer
programs. Sessions will be broken down topically by TV apps, device APIs,
third-party API, web apps, desktop apps, mobile apps and more. Registration
is free but you must RSVP by December 30 in order to secure your
space. Learn more about the event and presenting companies at www.
CESweb.org/events/devu.asp.
Last Gadget Standing
10:30 a.m. Thursday, January 12
LVCC, North Hall, Room N255
A perennial attendee favorite, Last Gadget Standing challenges contenders to
give the product demo of their lives. At stake: bragging rights as the product
“most likely to change the face of technology.” See all the winners strut their
stuff in this inventive, fast-paced competition. Guest emcees Gary Dell’Abate
and Jon Hein from the Howard Stern Show will host the event.

CNET Best of CES Awards
11 a.m. Winners Announced, Thursday, January 12
LVCC, South Hall 3 Lobby
CNET hosts the official Best of CES Awards live on the show floor. A team
of expert editors scour the International CES to find the most buzz-worthy,
category-defining, innovative, and promising products at the show.

Mobile Apps Showdown
12:30 p.m. Thursday, January 12
LVCC, North Hall, Room N255
Are you ready for a showdown? Pit your mobile app against the competition
during the Mobile Apps Showdown at 2012 CES! Apps producers will have
two minutes to demo their app, and an applause-o-meter will measure audience
enthusiasm to determine the winners. Judges will select 10 finalists
for the apps competition, which will take place live at the 2012 CES and
online. Two winners will be selected, one based on a live vote at the 2012
CES and the other based on online voters at the site.

CES Edition of Friday Night Fights
1:30 p.m. Thursday, January 12
LVCC, Central Hall, ESPN 3D Booth #13632
Let’s get ready to rumble! Join ESPN 3D for the best seat in the house during
Top Rank boxing matches staged live on the show floor. This event will
also be telecast live on ESPN 3D.

IAWTV Awards
6-8 p.m. Thursday, January 12
The Venetian, Level 2, Venetian Showroom
The International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) will hold its inaugural
IAWTV Awards at the 2012 International CES. The Awards will serve as an
annual event, and will be the first award show within the industry to be
presented by content creators for content creators. For its inaugural gala,
the IAWTV Awards will consist of 33 categories honoring web series and
talent, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.

Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards
6:30 p.m. Reception; 7:30 p.m. Dinner
Thursday, January 12
The Venetian, Level 4, Delfino 4101
Launched in 1948, The Technology and Engineering Emmy® Awards honor
development and innovation in broadcast technology and recognize companies,
organizations and individuals for breakthroughs in technology that
have a significant effect on television engineering. The Emmy Awards will
be presented at the International CES for the sixth year in a row. For ticket
and sponsorship information, contact Lauren Saverine at 212-484-9440 or
by email at lsaverine@emmyonline.tv.
TAO: The Official CES Closing Party
10-11 p.m. Friday, January 13
The Venetian, TAO Nightclub*
Join us at one of Vegas’ hottest nightclubs, TAO, for the Official CES Closing
Party on the last night of CES, Friday, January 13. Enjoy expedited access
into the night club and an exclusive wristband for service to their well open
bar from 10-11 p.m. For bottle service/table reservations in advance, email
Bob.Shindelar@taogroup.com.
* All guests must be 21+ w/ ID and compliant with dress code for admission.

SyNAPSE Project AI Neuromorphic Chip

IBM’s Aug 18th Press Release announced another significant milestone for the DARPA SyNAPSE project, the world’s best funded and arguably the “most likely to succeed” approach to creating a general artificial intelligence.

The release notes that the new chips represent a departure from traditional models of computing:

…. cognitive computers are expected to learn through experiences, find correlations, create hypotheses, and remember – and learn from – the outcomes, mimicking the brains structural and synaptic plasticity.

To do this, IBM is combining principles from nanoscience, neuroscience and supercomputing as part of a multi-year cognitive computing initiative. The company and its university collaborators also announced they have been awarded approximately $21 million in new funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for Phase 2 of the Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) project.

As we’ve noted here many times, another remarkable project is the Blue Brain Project in Europe spearheaded by Dr. Henry Markram.     That team has joined with many others and is in the process of applying to the European Union for substantial funding – perhaps as much as 1.6 billion dollars.    Although Blue Brain tends to shy away from stating that their objective is a general artificial intelligence,  I would argue that they should have that goal and also that they are much more likely to be funded by stating that goal in no uncertain terms.

Unfortunately there remain many both in and outside of technology circles who believe the search for a general artificial intelligence is either dangerous or a waste of time and money.   Both these scenarios are possible but unlikely.   Sure, intelligence can be dangerous but given human history compared to technology history it seems odd to argue that we are more likely to create a Frankenstein than a helpful machine process.    Computers don’t kill people, people kill people.

In terms of a waste of time and money, clearly we humans have overrated our intelligence for some time – probably since the beginning of self-awareness.   There are few rational reasons to reject the idea that we cannot duplicate processes that are similar to our own thinking in a machine.   The advantages of machine based intelligence are likely to be  substantial – probably on the order of a new human age with vastly improved resource efficiency, poverty reduction, and more.  Thus the costs – currently measured in the low tens of millions – pale in comparison to almost all other government projects – many with massively dubious and negative ROIs.

We were sorry to miss CES 2011 which wrapped up today. Encouraging was the high attendance of 140,000. I think this was not a record but it was close, and higher attendance than during the economic doldrums of the past few years. I consider technology to be a high quality and leading economic indicator – if Tech is doing well then the future is looking brighter for the global economy. Unlike some “regional specific” industries, Technology is critical in the developed world where the global economy is in many ways “directed” but also critical in the developing world where much of the production activity takes place and an increasing amount of innovation and services as well.

—– CES 2011 Post Show Press Release ——-

2011 INTERNATIONAL CES WOWS WORLD WITH INNOVATION AND OPTIMISM

Record-breaking 30,000 Overseas Visitors Experience World’s Largest Consumer Technology Tradeshow

January 9, 2011, Las Vegas – More than 2,700 technology companies across global industries dazzled attendees at the 2011 International CES®, with the ground-breaking event energizing the technology world. The 2011 CES set several new records, including 30,000 international attendees and 22 top CEOs participating in keynotes. Owned and produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)®, the 2011 CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, concluded today in Las Vegas.

“The 2011 International CES was a phenomenal worldwide event that spanned global industries including technology, automotive and entertainment markets,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CEA. “This global technology gathering featured more innovation, more news, more social media buzz and more international attendance than any other show in CES history.”

Preliminary attendance figures indicate more than 140,000 industry professionals attended the 2011 International CES. More than 30,000 attendees came from outside the United States, with the show attracting more than 80 international delegations. CEA conducts an independent audit of attendance at the International CES and final verified figures will be available in the spring.

Major technology trends emerged from the CES show floor including the launch of more than 80 tablets, wireless 4G LTE, connected TV technologies, smart appliances – featured for the first time in show history – and electric vehicles. Ford’s Alan Mulally unveiled the company’s first electric car at the 2011 International CES with its Ford Focus Electric.

The 2011 CES brought top CEOs to the CES stage including Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, Verizon’s Ivan Seidenberg, Audi’s Rupert Stadler, Samsung’s Boo-Keun Yoon, Ford’s Alan Mulally, Netflix’s Reed Hastings, Cisco’s John Chambers, Xerox’s Ursula Burns and GE’s Jeffrey Immelt. These executives were joined onstage by leaders spanning various industries including Comcast’s Brian Roberts, Time Warner Cable’s Glenn Britt, Dreamworks Animation’s Jeffrey Katzenberg and Hulu’s Jason Kilar. The 2011 International CES conference program consisted of 250 sessions featuring 900 speakers.

As the relationship between technology and the content community grows in significance, the 2011 CES featured a new program, Entertainment Matters, designed for the Hollywood community. As part of the program, the 2011 CES featured the first-ever Entertainment Matters keynote panel with leaders from Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Akamai Technologies, Interpublic Group and WPP.

The 2011 International CES featured government leaders from the U.S. and around the world including United States Trade Representative Ambassador Ron Kirk, United States Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, along with Commissioners Meredith Attwell Baker, Mignon Clyburn and Robert M. McDowell.

The 2011 CES created phenomenal buzz in the social media world with more than 158,000 CES-related tweets since Monday, January 3, and more than 11,000 page views on CEA’s Digital Dialogue blog.

For more news on the 2011 International CES, visit CESweb.org. The International CES will return to Las Vegas next January 10-13, 2012.

About CEA:
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $186 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry. More than 2,000 companies enjoy the benefits of CEA membership, including legislative advocacy, market research, technical training and education, industry promotion, standards development and the fostering of business and strategic relationships. CEA also sponsors and manages the International CES – The Global Stage for Innovation. All profits from CES are reinvested into CEA’s industry services. Find CEA online at CE.org.

UPCOMING EVENTS

CEA Economic Retreat
March 1-4, 2011, Snowmass Village, CO
CES on the Hill/Digital Patriots Dinner
May 10-11, 2011, Washington, DC
CEA Line Shows
June 2011, New York, NY
CEO Summit and Board Retreat
October 1-3, 2011, Stresa, Lake Maggiore, Italy
CEA Industry Forum
October 2011
CES New York Press Preview featuring CES Unveiled @ NY
November 2011, New York, NY

Contacts: Tara Dunion e-mail: tdunion@CE.org
www.CE.org

Sarah Myers smyers@CE.org
www.CESweb.org

One of the highest stakes games in technology is playing out right now as Google decides whether it will continue to maintain major Google China operations or retreat to the USA where the rules regarding censorship and government control over content are considerably more … progressive.

Reuters Reports on the latest Google v China cyber conflict

Today the Chinese Government actually warned Google about conducting itself in ways favorable to China policy *even if they leave the country* in what presumably is a threat to block Google search, effectively ceding almost all China searches to Baidu, China’s search giant which very ironically has a far more capitalistic bent than Google search.    On Baidu, companies can buy their search presence without Google’s higher levels of separation of advertising and natural search results.

The opportunity here for Baidu, and perhaps Microsoft Bing, may be extraordinary as Google’s search presence has been unassailable in the USA where it now appears they may throw in the towel in China, leaving the world’s largest and most potentially lucrative search market up for grabs even though it should be noted that currently gaming is a much bigger online market than search in Asia.   Also that Asia search portals are not nearly as lucrative as in the USA.     However this is likely to change as China’s newfound influence and affluence blossoms.

ASUS at CES

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

There are more different types, sizes, and brands of computers at CES than you can shake a stick at, though Apple is always conspicuously absent. In fact the Apple Tablet somewhat overshadowed much of the innovations of the Las Vegas show because clearly the Apple Tablet is going to be the “one to beat”, especially given the lack of any clearly “superb” tablet offering at CES.

Although I have not done enough research to generalize much about the best new PCs I think it’s clear that the mainsteam trend is towards smaller laptops and netbooks with robust features. Costs are going down – features that would have been unheard of at any cost 5 years ago are now standard on even a modest PC. Battery life is impressive and getting better – one of the ASUS PCs shown here had a battery that lasted something like 10 hours.

ASUS also has a new interesting line of *very large* laptops with high quality speakers built into the sides of the chassis to the left and right of the screen. Although heavy, these will offer huge power and a “desktop” feel for your mobile computing. Still, I think weight is the key factor driving down PC size and predict it’ll be the netbooks that dominate the market for the next few years.

Ford CEO Allan Mulally will again keynote this year’s CES.    Last year Mulally’s keynote was exceptional both in content and innovation as well as how passionately Mulally seemed to feel about Ford’s prospects in the very troubled times of the auto industry.   With a background in Aerospace Engineering, Mulally seemed the right man at the right time to face the difficult challenges ahead for Ford.

After the talk I had a chance to ask him if Ford would need auto industry bailout money and he said “no”.    Although Ford has enjoyed some loans from the US Energy Department I do not believe they’ve requested bailout funding, and it really appears that under Mulally’s  leadership Ford will emerge successfully and eventually profitably from the near collapse of the US Auto industry.

Photo by Technology Report – OK to use with attribution.

Editors Note:   We’re hoping for more information from Dr. Modha who is also welcome to a Guest post here at Technology Report.

——   Guest Post by Dr. Henry Markram of the Blue Brain Project —-

IBM’s claim is a HOAX.

This is a mega public relations stunt – a clear case of scientific deception of the public. These simulations do not even come close to the complexity of an ant, let alone that of a cat. IBM allows Mohda to mislead the public into believing that they have simulated a brain with the complexity of a cat – sheer nonsense.

Here are the scientific reasons why this is a hoax and misleading PR stunt:

How complex is their model?
They claim to have simulated over a billion neurons interacting. Their so called “neurons” are the tiniest of points you can imagine, a microscopic dot. Over 98% of the volume of a neuron is branches (like a tree). They just cut off all the branches and roots and took a point in the middle of the trunk to represent a entire neuron. In real life, each segment of the branches of a neuron contains dozens of ion channels that powerfully controls the information processing in a neuron. They have none of that. Neurons contain 10′s of thousands of proteins that form a network with 10′s of millions of interactions. These interactions are incredibly complex and will require solving millions of differential equations. They have none of that. Neurons contain around 20’000 genes that produce products called mRNA, which builds the proteins. The way neurons build proteins and transport them to all the corners of the neuron where they are needed is an even more complex process which also controls what a neuron is, its memories and how it will process information. They have none of that. They use an alpha function (up fast down slow) to simulate a synaptic event. This is a completely inaccurate representation of a synapse. There are at least 6 types of synapses that are highly non-linear in their transmission (i.e. that transform inputs and not only transmit inputs). In fact you would need a 10′s of thousands of differential equations to simulate one synapse. Synapses are also extremely complex molecular machines that would themselves require thousands of differential equations to simulate just one. They simulated none of this. There are complex differential equations that must be solved to simulate the ionic flow in the branches, to simulate the ion channels biophysics, the protein-protein interactions, as well as the complete biochemical and genetic machinery as well as the synaptic transmission between neurons. 100′s of thousands of more differential equations. They have none of this. Then there are glia – 10 times more than neurons..And the blood supply…and more and more. These “points” they simulated and the synapses that they use for communication are literally millions of times simpler than a real cat brain. So they have not even simulated a cat’s brain at more than one millionth of it’s complexity.

Is it nonetheless the biggest point neuron simulation ever run?
No. These people simulated 1 billion points interacting. They used a formulation to model the summing up and threshold spiking of the “points” called the Izhikevik Formulation (an extremely simple equation). Eugene Izhikevik himself already in 2005 ran a simulation with 100 billion such points interacting just for the fun of it: (over 60 times larger than Modha’s simulation). This simulation ran on a cluster of desktop PCs and which every graduate student can run This is no technical achievement and certainly not even a record number of point neurons. That model exhibited oscillations, but that always happens so even simulating 100 Billion such points interacting is light years away from a brain.
see: http://www.izhikevich.org/human_brain_simulation/Blue_Brain.htm#Simulation%20of%20Large-Scale%20Brain%20Models

Is the simulator they built a big step?
Not even close. There are numerous proprietary and peer-reviewed neurosimulators (e.g., NCS, pNEURON, SPLIT, NEST) out there that can handle very large parallel models that are essentially only bound by the available memory. The bigger the machine you have available, the more neurons you can simulate. All these simulators apply optimizations for the particular platform in order to make optimal use of the available hardware. Without any comparison to existing simulators, their publication is a non-peer reviewed claim.

Did they learn anything about the brain?
They got very excited because they saw oscillations. Oscillations are an obligatory artifact that one always gets when many points interact. These findings that they claim on the neuroscience side may excite engineers, but not neuroscientists.

Why did they get the Gordon Bell Prize?
They submitted a non-peer reviewed paper to the Gordon Bell Committee and were awarded the prize almost instantly after they made their press release. They seem to have been very successful in influencing the committee with their claim, which technically is not peer-reviewed by the respective community and is neuroscientifically outrageous.

But is there any innovation here?
The only innovation here is that IBM has built a large supercomputer – which is irrelevant to the press release.

Why did IBM let Mohda make such a deceptive claim to the public?
I don’t know. Perhaps this is a publicity stunt to promote their supercompter. The supercomputer industry is suffering from the financial crisis and they probably are desperate to boost their sales. It is so disappointing to see this truly great company allow the deception of the public on such a grand scale.

But have you not said you can simulate the Human brain in 10 years?
I am a biologist and neuroscientist that has studied the brain for 30 years.  I know how complex it is. I believe that with the right resources and the right strategy it is possible. We have so far only simulated a small part of the brain at the cellular level of a rodent and I have always been clear about that.

Would other neuroscientists agree with you?
There is no neuroscientist on earth that would agree that they came even close to simulating the cat’s brain – or any brain.

But did Mohda not collaborate with neuroscientists?
I would be very surprised if any neuroscientists that he may have had in his DARPA consortium realized he was going to make such an outrages claim. I can’t imagine that that the San Fransisco neuroscientists knew he was going to make such a stupid claim. Modha himself is a software engineer with no knowledge of the brain.

But did you not collaborate with IBM?
I was collaborating with IBM on the Blue Brain Project at the very beginning because they had the best available technology to faithfully allow us to integrate the diversity and complexity found in brain tissue into a model. This for me is a major endeavor to advance our insights into the brain and drug development. Two years ago, when the same Dharmendra Mhoda claimed the “mouse-scale simulations”, I cut all neuroscience collaboration with IBM because this is an unethical claim and it deceives the public.

What IBM allowed Modha to do here is not only wrong, but outrageous. They deceived millions of people.

Henry Markram
Blue Brain Project