A bit more on VEE, DPO, ORMIT, QuickLogic and Notion Ink

In this post I dig around a bit on this new VEE, DPO, ORMIT and QuickLogic, and summarize what find. I think you should read it even if it's long.

My thinking was simple. This is being pimped on NI's blog so I need to know what this technology is, how proven it is, who else had adopted it, who makes it, what independent reviews say about it and how good the company/ies behind it is/are. And here's a short journey.

Preamble

See this paragraph from the latest post on Adam 2 design

". It is a sophisticated method of dynamic range compression which differs from. …[snip]…  different viewing conditions. ORMIT was developed as a result into biological visual systems, with particular emphasis on the humans."

Guess what? It’s almost a cut-paste from here - the original paragraph from this 2008 / 10 Quicklogic whitepaper reads as follows

"It is a sophisticated method of dynamic range compression (DRC), which differs from conventional methods such as gamma correction in that it applies different tonal and color transformations to every pixel in an image. These algorithms implement a model of human perception, which results in a displayed image that retains detail, color and vitality even under difficult viewing conditions. VEE technology specifically addresses the problem of the low contrast ratio of mobile displays to bring a more television-like viewing experience to mobile devices. (Later in the paper)... ORMIT was developed as a result of research into biological visual systems, with particular emphasis on the human."

It's kind of funny that he cut-pastes the paragraph and then makes some mistakes CEO style. See the bolded words for differences - they're subtle. Hey Rohan, at least link or mention the source when you copy things almost verbatim from your "partner's" whitepaper.

So, with that behind us, I looked into a bit more about VEE/DPO. Just like the cheerleading chicks on the blog, I too thought perhaps this is some great tech that a company like NI could rely on because of a proven background etc (you know, important given the history of incompetence, you'd think they would choose tech and partners wisely). But then I'm not too sure anymore because this is what I found.

1. The whitepaper was first written in 2008 with an update in 2010. So it's at least 4 years old  (see last page of whitepaper). The algorithms and discussions are since 2006

2. I did some searches to understand who else uses it, who is talking about it, what independent reviews say etc. considering the white paper is 4 years old, and here's what I found

·           VEE Visual Enhancement Engine - and hmm... first 2 links are Quicklogic's own promo material. And the 3rd link is Notion Ink's blog post?!

·         Now try VEE DPO for the last 1 year and my blog is the second link?!! WHAT?!

·         Now try ORMIT retina and a student paper is 1st, Notion Ink blog is the second link?! The more worrying aspect is that a search for ORMIT with its full expansion “Orthogonal Retina-Morphic Image Transform"  gives us only 13 unique results, a few of which are quicklogic and Notion Ink, and the oldest dates to 2006.

What did I miss? Why am I not seeing a bunch of articles, examples, reference designs - it's either Quicklogic promo or this and that, nothing specifically exciting or demonstrative? And NI's blog and my blog are on the first page for even basic searches? That can't be good!

So now I’m trying to find a proper reference and a review. And I find two products that appear to have VEE and DPO – and that’s Kyocera’s DIGNO mobile and Pantech South Korea’s Vega 5 Tablet Phone. Heard of either product? Neither had I. So I dig a bit more.

It seems in Oct 2011 Kyocera released its DIGNO mobile with VEE/DPO which sounds exactly like what Rohan Shravan has been talking about. First of all - Kyocera? Meh. That's it? Dig around QuickLogic's press releases and that's all you will find relevant in the last 1 1/2 years.

Alright, fine, Kyocera's DIGNO is our first real reference, so what can I find about DIGNO? You can do your google searches and it's all pretty disappointing really. Mostly press releases and re-blogs and barely any fresh independent review of the phone - which isn't unusual for a phone limited to one market (Japan), and is just a middle-rate phone.

·         It was released only for the Japanese market in Dec 2011. Not available anywhere else

·         I can't find one full independent review of the device, and more specifically one which says how its display (which is AMOLED) is much better because of VEE

·         I found 1 thread talking about it and the guy says "Not top of the line at all, but it'll hold me over for now."

Phone looks like crap though, but that irrelevant to the discussion. There's nothing in the thread talking about quality of display. I mean, it's a me-too, also-ran, kind-of-in-the-middle forgotten-already phone created by a meh smartphone company. Not inspiring.

Then I move on to Pantech Co's tablet phone, which is apparently the first high volume order - and this is from July 2011 (10 months ago) and it has VEE and DPO, the same tech that NI's Adam 2 will sport 1 year from now (if at all)

OK, what about Pantech? Can we find something about Pantech's tablet phone? Did it wow the critics? Is it a blockbuster? Is the display a killer feature? And here’s what I find after some painful searching.

It seems that the phone-tablet with VEE and DPO is the Pantech Vega 5 released in South Korea. And I can't find a single full-fledged post-release review of the device. But here is a pre-release review  and here's another review, but says nothing about whether the display is anything worth writing about. Search for it, and you hit more Quicklogic PR's and some pre-release garbage. It's probably a hit...nowhere. Sure some people in South Korea purchased it, I guess.

By now I’m bummed, this is all pretty lame if you ask me, so I try to get more data out of Pantech’s website, but good luck with that. It's a horrid site and searching for Vega 5 gave me 0 results and I can't find it in the product list. If you can, let me know.

So, the round-up? Two barely heard of devices from two "yeah whatever" companies (As far as the tablet market goes), neither from US or Europe, with barely a review of the display capabilities. Now that sure stirs up confidence. Deja vu? All the pre-release hype of PQi and camera capabilities and batter capabilities of Adam 1?

OK, so I’ve spent time trying to get a background on the tech and who else uses it. It was time then to move on to the company that Notion Ink is calling it’s “partner”

Quicklogic. 

This is a ~$21 M (revenue) company, a quick latest coverage is here - revenues down 40% YoY, Net profit margin -72% (Q1 2012), known # of employees 81 (they're smaller than NI if you believe Rohan Shravan's story about having 100+ employees *smirk*)

Now here's a quote from a Bloomberg report - "“They are in Kyocera and Pantech, but it’s all non-U.S.,” Khorsand said. “They are looking for any kind of win.” Is Notion Ink "any kind of win?"

Here’s something more interesting – in this 2010 article we hear that QuickLogic has 10 reference designs with VEE/DPO. The author also says that in the future VEE/DPO will be a standard etc. etc. And yet fast forward three years to 2012, we only know of two barely heard of products and VEE/DPO is nowhere near standard. Ask why? If this gave such a dramatic competitive advantage, why hasn’t anyone else used it? Why? You can also read that back in 2008 the QuickLogic CEO stated that Nokia is interested in VEE. This was four years ago! Why hasn’t it widely been adopted then?

When something isn’t adopted for that long in a booming market with many, many entrants and existing players, it is usually not a good sign.

So here’s what I’m thinking at this point.

A company that failed in its first execution is now relying on a technology that is hardly proven and marketed by a small, kinda struggling company that has been trying to sell it for years, not very successfully, and adopted by two products that are barely known and not even available outside Korea and Japan. Yes, gentlemen and cheerleaders, that’s what it is. Don’t spin it in any other way. Does it mean QuickLogic's technology is crap or a failure? No, it doesn't mean that. It means it's still not widely adopted after years and that's something to be very cautious about. We don't know "why" because if something could extend battery life, give better viewing conditions, one would think it would be grabbed by now.

I would do a turnaround if I could only find one really proven, blockbuster product that used this tech, and I can't.

And guess why Quicklogic is “partnering” with Notion Ink? The same reason Pixel Qi probably did. They need someone to carry their tech so they can talk about it.

Now consider that Adam 2 probably won’t be out until the end of this year, assuming whoever is "intelligent" enough to keep funding them, and it will have an unproven technology on a lower res screen, and will face a market already pampered by beautiful displays. I just don’t get it. And if it doesn’t work, hey let’s blame QuickLogic now. Like blaming Pixel Qi.

Finally, in his blog post, the CEO of Notion Ink says “Once ready, I will share videos on this, comparing the best know devices around."  I am really, really looking forward to seeing this in real working situations.

What should you ask on Notion Ink's blog after their next post? Ask who else is using it, and for independent reviews of those devices. Maybe I missed some, who knows? If QuickLogic is really a "partner" surely they can share more with Notion Ink.