The plastic waste problem gets plenty of attention, and for good reason: If we continue mismanaging this material as usual, there could be 7.7 gigatons of the stuff cluttering landfills, waterways and oceans, or being incinerated by 2040.
Just as stunning: Plastic isn't the fastest growing waste stream the world needs to deal with.
According to research released over the past 18 months by the International Telecommunications Union, that honor actually goes to various forms of electronics — ranging from mobile phones to appliances such as vacuum cleaners (the biggest part of the e-waste stream today) to refrigerators, air conditioners and other heat-exchange systems (the fastest growing part of the e-waste universe). That trend is the motivation for a "significant strategic investment" this week — the amount isn’t being disclosed — by investment firm Closed Loop Partners in ERI, the largest IT recycling and refurbishment company in the United States.
More details in a moment. First, consider the problem. "Each year, approximately 50 million tonnes of electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) are produced, equivalent in weight to all commercial aircraft ever built; only 20 percent is formally recycled," write the authors of a report published by the World Economic Forum in 2019. "If nothing is done, the amount of waste will more than double by 2050, to 120 million tonnes annually."
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Some key moments. In March, a group of organizations — including representatives of manufacturers and technology service providers such as Accenture, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Google and Microsoft — came together to create the Circular Electronics Partnership, focused on co-defining solutions for applying circular business practices to electronic devices, including the terminology used to describe them and trace them. The alliance has six founding members: GeSi; Global Electronics Council; Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy; Responsible Business Alliance; World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD); and World Economic Forum (WEF). Several months later, France’s Back Market, the world’s largest recommerce marketplace for refurbished electronics with more than 5 million customers, raised $335 million to expand its services. The new funding makes Back Market a triple unicorn, valued at $3.2 billion.
Macnica ATD Europe and Prophesee SA have announced an agreement that will see Macnica serve as an authorized distribution partner for Prophesee’s Metavision® event-based sensor platform throughout Europe.
Prophesee’s patented Event-Based Vision sensor technology and intelligence software enables machine system developers to reduce energy consumption and computational power requirements whilst using AI-based processing based on the human retina.
“We are thrilled to start a partnership with this highly innovative company that has many synergies with our business ecosystem and customer base, including collaboration with our long-term partner Sony. Prophesee’s ground-breaking event-based technology offers valuable benefits to machine vision system developers with the capability to reduce power consumption and processing requirements while improving overall performance.
“The solution has been production-proven and the Prophesee Metavision platform is now conquering significant industry applications. Macnica ATD Europe is happy to pave that way for event-based vision in the industry”, said Antoine Hide, General Director of Macnica ATD Europe.
The Metavision platform is built on Prophesee’s Event-Based Vision, which uses neuromorphic sensing and computing techniques to mimic the human eye and brain. With each pixel activating itself if it senses a change in the scene, Prophesee’s proprietary Event-Based approach allows for reductions of power, latency and data processing requirements imposed by traditional vision systems.
Between April and June, 136 startups crossed the billion-dollar valuation mark for the first time, according to CB Insights, which released its quarterly report on venture capital trends this week.
Synaptics CEO Michael Hurlston discussed his multi-year effort to reignite the semiconductor business, whose shares have climbed steadily under his tenure.
Prophesee, the world’s leading developer of neuromorphic vision solutions, has entered into a strategic partnership and investment by leading tech venture capital firm Sinovation Ventures. Further support comes from new corporate investor Xiaomi, one of the top three mobile device suppliers in the world, and Inno-Chip, an investment firm that has obtained investment and support from Will Semiconductor, owner of OmniVision.
Most executives we talk to about internet of things (IoT) security emphasize similar points: the need for a strong root of trust, proper authentication mechanisms, and resilience. However, there are many different ways of enabling the various aspects of this security. One company focused on physical unclonable function (PUF) based security intellectual property is Intrinsic ID.
Most executives we talk to about internet of things (IoT) security emphasize similar points: the need for a strong root of trust, proper authentication mechanisms, and resilience. However, there are many different ways of enabling the various aspects of this security. One company focused on physical unclonable function (PUF) based security intellectual property is Intrinsic ID.
We caught up with CEO and a founder of Intrinsic ID, Pim Tuyls, to understand more about the world of PUF security, the challenges for IoT security as technology scales, and how to deal with the potential impact of other threats including quantum computing.
Pim Tuyls co-founded the company in 2008 as a spinout from Philips Research. While working as a principal scientist managing the cryptography cluster at Philips, he initiated the original work on physical PUFs that forms the basis of the Intrinsic ID core technology. As a result of over 20 years working on semiconductors and security, Pim is widely recognized for his work in the field of SRAM PUFs and security for embedded applications.
The backing for Prophesee comes from smartphone maker Xiaomi as well as Inno-Chip, an investment firm backed by Will Semiconductor, owner of camera sensor maker OmniVision and Sinovation Ventures. This is the first deal for Chinese investor Sinovation in a European startup.
Neuromorphic vision provider, Prophesee, has announced investment from tech venture capital firm Sinovation Ventures to strengthen its presence in China.
Mobile phone supplier Xiaomi is also a new corporate investor, as is Inno-Chip, an investment firm which has obtained investment and support from Will Semiconductor, owner of OmniVision.
The involvement by Sinovation and its founder Dr Kai-Fu Lee represents a significant endorsement from an expert in AI technology and venture capital, Prophesee said.
Sinovation has more than $2.5 billion assets under management, and this is the first investment by the fund in a Europe-based company as it primarily invests in the China market.
The strategic involvement of Xiaomi and Inno-Chip provides additional reach into the mobile and semiconductor segments.
Neuromorphic vision, or event-based imaging, is so called because the technology operates more in line with how biological vision works. Rather than capturing everything in a scene with each frame, event-based sensors only register changes in a scene. This means low power, latency and data processing requirements compared to traditional frame-based sensors.
Synaptics Incorporated announced that its Rio family of OLED touch controllers is being used to support LTPO-enabled OLED displays in new flagship mobile phones from Oppo and One Plus.
LTPO displays improve power efficiency by adapting their refresh rate to the content being played while also being sensitive to interference from touch controllers that do not properly support constantly shifting refresh rates. The Synaptics Rio family dynamically adapts to the LTPO panel refresh rate, enabling a smooth touch experience without interfering with the display performance.
The Synaptics Rio touch controller enables a best-in-class touch experience on LTPO display in the Oppo Find X3/X3Pro and OnePlus 9/9Pro devices.
Low temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) thin film transistor technology is increasing in popularity as it allows the OLED display to dynamically lower its refresh rate depending on the use case, which results in higher power efficiency. Rio controllers adapt to different display refresh rates from 1-120 Hz while maintaining optimum touch performance and avoiding any interference with LTPO displays.
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