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Tracking Innovation Through Boxcars, Boxing, Bears and Automobiles

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I am fortunate to be able to work with people on the cutting edge of innovation. They often identify an answer before most of us even know there is a question.  The path followed by Jamyn Edis and his colleague, Brian Langel, offers a vivid illustration of the process of discovery that just may lead to a sea change in the way that we think about our cars.

Brian cut his teeth in technology working at Union Pacific Railroad. He was part of a team that developed a modern platform for inventory tracking to replace the antiquated system that had been built in the sixties. His goal was to track trains and cargo in real time with text or email alerts that could keep customers informed of a delay because of weather, a derailment, or any incident that effected the movement of their goods.

After successfully implementing a new train tracking system, Brian joined a research & development group at HBO that began as a skunk works project to develop the mobile application, HBO GO. As a result of the app's success, HBO’s CIO decided that he needed to bring in someone that didn't have specific operational responsibilities. He wanted a person who would think strategically two to four years out without being limited by the existing HBO business model and technology. Enter Jamyn as HBO’s VP of Emerging Technology Research & Development.

Jamyn recalls that soon after joining HBO he attended a technology conference at the MIT Media Lab. There he met several industrial engineers that were building mini-helicopters equipped with RFID scanners and artificial intelligence. The copters were able to navigate their way around a large warehouse, learn the layout, and automatically collect information. The idea was for this flying robot to replace the teams of people who were tasked with walking around massive warehouses scanning bar codes to manage inventory.

On the train back to New York Jamyn mulled over what he had seen and tried to connect it to his mission at HBO. And then it hit him – HBO Boxing. Jamyn had been a boxing fan growing up, religiously following the stars in its heyday such as Tommy Hearns, Marvin Hagler and Mike Tyson. While post-2000 era boxing was well past its prime it was still the biggest sports franchise on HBO. Yet it was a sport that hadn't kept pace with technology, relying instead on a crude analytical system that is now 25 years old called Compubox. This system measures how many punches are landed, and whether they are power punches or jabs, by a couple of guys hammering away on a keyboard at ringside.

So Jamyn united with Brian, the train tracker, and worked on Punch Zone, the first product in the sport to map in real-time the location of punches on a boxer’s body. It could essentially create a visual representation, or heat map, of the fighting predilection of a boxer and his performance in a particular fight. Punch Zone ignited fan passion for new boxing stats which  in turn spawned Punch Force which is expected to roll out next year, according to the Wall Street Journal. It utilizes a lightweight device, embedded in the boxing glove, to measure the speed and force of a boxer's punches. This information is transmitted real-time and can be presented as part of the live boxing telecast or through an online application.

Fate next pointed Brian in a new direction through a random party conversation with a scientist who specialized in tracking bears. The scientist was complaining that his team had to wait a year to get data from devices attached to the bears, and when they hunt down the animals to retrieve the devices, 40% are missing. The answer seemed obvious; make a collar that collects location data and transmits it back real-time so that you can see it as moving points on a map. It was easier said than done. Bears are powerful animals and they make it their mission to remove the collar. So not only does the collar have to withstand enormous force but it needs to contain a GPS device, a cell component for data transmission, and battery power for a full year. With his experience using specialized hardware to collect and transmit data, Brian helped the University of Wisconsin  push the boundaries on animal behavioral research by viewing information in real time.

Earlier this year, Jamyn and Brian reunited with the goal of combining their past experiences in developing hardware and software and collecting data to create a product for a large consumer market. They zeroed in on the automotive business. There are 230 million vehicles on the road in the U.S. alone. Innovation in Detroit is focused on hybrid and plug-in vehicles and updating traditional consumer experiences in navigation, communication and entertainment. No one is really thinking of cars as an intelligent mobile platform that at any moment in time has an enormous active user base. Jamyn and Brian founded a new company called Dash to unleash the potential of a network of smart cars.

It takes advantage of the generic sixteen pin On Board Diagnostics (OBD II) data port which has been mandated by the U.S. government since 1996. Typically located under the dashboard, auto technicians and insurance companies such as Progressive use it to access selected data, but no one has taken a big picture view of this significant resource. Dash is developing a  small device (sound familiar) to plug into the port that can be paired with a user’s cellphone via Bluetooth. Collected data is combined with smartphone sensors, driver social profile and ambient information from the trip. As both a hardware and software service, think of Dash as a next-generation, web-enabled OnStar or LoJack on steroids. Additional functionality will allow tracking of on-road performance, providing an Experian-like score on driver quality which can be leveraged by insurers. The longer term vision is to create a universal automotive data platform, for both consumers and businesses, to make the roads smarter, safer and more affordable.

Jamyn summed up the path to Dash by telling me, “one of the things that I've always been drawn to is a multidisciplinary approach - looking at psychology, at storytelling, at hardware and at data. And considering all of these different contexts - watching TV, using your phone, driving a car, whatever it may be.  Taking something from one context and applying it to another. Sometimes that paradigm shift is enough to jar you cognitively into getting up and saying, ‘Wow this would be really cool.’ That’s what we've done with Dash.”