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BY SEMCON #2 2015

EVERYTHING GETS CONNECTED

3DTHE BREAKTHROUGH

IS CLOSE FOR 3D MANUFACTURING

GUIDE: SUCCEEDING

WITH UX

LIGHTWEIGHT: FROM GRANITE TO COMPOSITES

AUGMENTED REALITY WILL IMPROVE THE WORLD

THE EXPERT: BUILD YOUR BRAND

WITH GAMIFICATION

HAND-MADE QUALITY THAT

PAYS OFF

25 billion connected devices in five years will provide endless opportunities and advantages – for those who are prepared

2  FUTURE BY SEMCON

30GamificationCan you play your way to

a stronger brand and better products?

Contents#2/2015

This is Future

Noted 4

The connected world 6

The guide 15

The solution 16

Lightweight material 18

Augmented reality 20

Trends 24

Q&A: Mario Herger 30

How Oculus Rift works 34

Semcon Brains 36

What happened next? 41

For and against 42

The list: Future connectivity 44

BY SEMCON

ISSUED BYSemcon

WEBSITEsemcon.com

LETTERSFuture by Semcon

Semcon AB, 417 80 Göteborg, Sweden

CHANGE OF ADDRESSfuture@semcon.com

SEMCON PROJECT MANAGERMadeleine Andersson +46 (0)76 569 83 31

madeleine.andersson@semcon.com

TRANSLATIONCannon Språkkonsult AB

EDITORIAL PRODUCTIONSpoon, spoon.se

EDITORBjörn Jansson

ART DIRECTORMathias Lövström

REPROSpoon

PRINTINGTrydells Tryckeri, Laholm

ISSN1650-9072

Creating the future

VIRTUAL REALITY

THAT MIGHT BECOME REALITY

Is Oculus Rift the device that mankind has been

dreaming about, or will it be just another reality-

machine flop?

34 40“LIGHT-WEIGHT IS MORE THAN JUST WEIGHT” Semcon’s lightweight expert Fredrik Stig wants to raise the discussion from just talking about weight – there are also functional gains to be made.

6ARE WE READY FOR THE INTERNET OF THINGS? What’s going to happen, and who’s going to win, when all our gadgets are connected and talking to each other?

SCOUTING FOR FUTURE technical innovations is often very difficult – and sometimes even ridiculous. Bill Gates said in 1981 that nobody will ever need any more than 640 kb of RAM memory. Ordinary office computers now have at least 3,000 times as much.

With that said, it feels good that the future is, in some ways, already here. Technology that just a few years ago seemed like technological utopia, such as 3D printers, augmented reality and

the internet of things, are all becoming reality. Three examples of technology that will affect our lives, and how we at Semcon do business. For a company like Semcon it’s not enough just to keep up with developments. We always need to be at least one step ahead in order to stay in front of our competition, but mainly to deliver added value to our customers.

In the future, the one that isn’t here yet, it might be an everyday occurrence to print an IKEA screw that’s missing, of

the exact length, diameter, angle of thread and material strength. We might even be able to project an image onto your spectacles of where on the item of furniture the screw needs to be.

Or will that be just another ridiculous future idea that people will have a good laugh about? ✖

Editorial

The future is becoming reality

Markus GranlundCEO

Semcon

FUTURE BY SEMCON  3

Noted

THE AIMMIT User Expe-rience project is currently underway, which is a collaboration between Semcon, Chalmers, the Viktoriainstitutet and Volvo Cars. The project’s goal is to develop and improve drivers’ user experience, specifically the interfaces that drivers come in to contact with.

Jan Nilsson, UX designer

at Semcon, is the skills manager and involved in the project.

“AIMMIT’s goal is to add multimodality into drivers’ surroundings, involving various senses, such as hearing and sight. Or that drivers get haptic respons-es, which are via touch.”

The project offers the opportunity of trying out and developing thoughts

and ideas that can later filter out into fully-func-tioning innovations.

“A user-friendly system should not only be usable,” says Jan. “It should be desirable, a good expe-rience. And that’s when design spans the entire experience, not only the product but also the entire ecosystem of peripheral services.” ✖

USER EXPERIENCE

A new project is exploring the environment in cars of the future

BUSINESS

SEMCON AND A premium custom-er from the automotive industry have agreed on an 18-month long project for developing the interiors of two new car models. Semcon’s offices in Germany, Sweden, India and the UK will be involved, with Semcon and the customer agreed on forming a long-term partner-ship for engineering services for future car models.

Major development contract in Germany

The Sri Venketeswara national park and nature reserve is one of the places that SOS Children’s Villages will visit.

4  FUTURE BY SEMCON

BEFORE CHRISTMAS LAST YEAR Semcon’s employees from around the world collected donations for SOS Children’s Villages. The dona-tions will give the children of SOS Children’s Villages in Bangalore, Tiru pati and Puducherry the opportunity of going on excursions in 2015.

In Bangalore it will be a trip to the Wonderla Amusement Park, and to two technical museums, something that will hopefully lead to more Indian engineers in the future.

In Puducherry the children will be taken on a study trip to an ashram, The Sri Aurobindo. An ashram is a secluded place, often for Hindus, where one can spend time meditating. Some people choose to live a life of asceticism in an ashram.

The children of Tirupati will be taken to the Sri Venkateswara na-tional park and nature reserve, in Andhra Pradesh. The park is known for its many waterfalls and rare flora and fauna. ✖

Christmas presents for outings

CSR

EMPLOYEES

NEW ADDITION TO GROUP MANAGEMENT PER NILSSON IS the new communications and marketing director at Semcon. He joins the company from Volvo Trucks, where he was the global PR manager.

“It feels wonderfully inspiring. Semcon is an exciting company with skilled and innovative peo-ple. I’m looking forward to working with them in creating relevant, committed communication for lifting the brand further,” he says.

Per Nilsson will take up his position in August and he will also be part of the company’s group management.

SOS Children’s Villages renovations improving quality of life

CSR

RENOVATION WORK AND equipping SOS Children’s Villages began last year in Bhimtal in northern India, which is a village sponsored partly by Semcon.

Family homes in Bhimtal have not been renovated or repaired since being built back in 1984, and because heavy rain is common in the area many of the houses have leaky roofs, damaged walls and windows. The sewage and drainage system was also in need of improving as it often got blocked during the rainy season.

Residents now have the opportunity of being involved in the renovation work to get the details right and colour schemes they want. So far eight families have moved into the newly renovated, repainted houses and the remaining four houses are expected to be completely renovated in 2015.

SERVICE COMPANIES LIKE Semcon are taking on an increasingly important role in societal development. A concentrated effort is therefore underway at a national level for service innovation, initiated by Swedish Almega and Teknikföretagen.

Semcon has been heavily involved in strategy groups through CEO Markus Granlund and technical director Anders Sundin, who took part in discussions with trade and industry, the public sector and the government.

The initiative will concentrate on four service inno-vation perspectives: customer value, management and organization, processes and business models, plus service offers in systems.

STRATEGY

Concentrated effort for service innovation

FUTURE BY SEMCON  5

25 billion devices will be connected to the internet within five years. Connectivity is the major technology shift that is creating new markets and business oppor­tunities. The challenge is to act before it is too late. TEXT MARCUS OLSSON

vehicles to sensors and robotics. All industries are being affected by this change. The manufacturing in-dustry, life science, energy and the automotive sector are just a few of the areas,” says Mikael Eriksson Björling.

HE IS A STRATEGIC marketing manager at Ericsson, and com-pares today’s technology shift with the growth of industrialization.

“There have been five major technology shifts over the past 250 years, which are general technol-ogies that have come to dominate. Steam, rail and electricity are a few. Each time investments in these technologies were made over a 20-40 year timespan, with infra-structure built up around them,” he says and continues:

“Electricity networks for exam-ple were built for one application. Electric lighting would replace gas lamps, which also meant reducing the risk of fires in major cities. Electric engines soon followed, re-placing steam engines as drivelines in factories, which was long before we had electricity sockets in our homes. That was another turning

HE LAMP ON the bottle lights up. The sound given off at the same time sounds similar to when receiving a

text message on a mobile phone. Time to take your medication. Each time the lid is opened a wireless signal is sent to the care provider, who can ensure that the patient is taking the medication regularly. Just one press of a button and a repeat prescription is issued.

Vitality’s interactive GlowCap medicine bottle is just one of many examples of connected products that have created a whole new market.

Ambient makes an umbrella that keeps track of the weather. With the

TThe connected medicine bottle improves pa-tient safety – and care providers can ensure

that medication is being taken regularly.

The connected umbrella checks weather forecasts and notifies the user if it is needed

for the day’s walk.

help of data from Accuweather.com and a wifi receiver the user is told if the umbrella is needed. The handle’s LED lights indicate the risk of rain.

There is a major technology shift underway right now. It’s about connectivity, the ability to wire-lessly connect devices. And it’s not just everyday products for the man on the street.

There is a whole universe for things that work hidden out of sight. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network where machines talk to one another. The biggest change is not that people are getting connected, but rather that more devices are.

Accountancy firm Deloitte’s report “The Internet of Things Ecosystem: Unlocking the Business Value of Connected Devices,” states that 60 per cent of all wireless IoT, or connectivity devices, will be bought or used by companies and industries. According to Deloitte more than 90 per cent of all new revenues will be corporate, not from private individual consumers.

“All research and innovation is affected by connectivity. From new

8  FUTURE BY SEMCON

point. With the spread of the elec-tricity network we could start mak-ing other things like electric ovens and heaters. Technology spread far beyond its original application, that of switching on the lights.”

For mobile networks, broadband technology, cloud services and general connectivity, often called just Information and Communica-tion Technology (ICT), the equiva-lent process has been ongoing for

the last 30 years.“The infrastructure is in place

and an entire generation has grown up using this technology. Suddenly we can do lots of things that we couldn’t do in the first phase. This technology will now be the foundation of everything we do in society. We will, in princi-ple, not be able to do our weekly shopping without being connected, or get production underway in 7

our factories. If we switch it off then society will not function. The major industrialization project is still underway in automating and streamlining the production of things. But we are on the verge of changing our societal form, leaving industrialization behind us and entering The Networked Society,” says Björling.

ACCORDING TO MANY analysts there will be as many as five billion connectivity devices networked globally in 2015. Revenues are growing by 20 per cent annually, while the same figures for various apps and services linked to these devices is as much as 50 per cent. Meanwhile there will be 715 million homes with broadband by the year-end.

By 2020 there might be as many as 25-75 billion connected devices, depending on which analysts you believe.

Some industries stick out as early frontrunners. The automated vehicle and infotainment systems are well known examples. John Hagel sees more. He is chairman of Deloitte’s Centre for the Edge and

Mikael Eriksson Björling works as strategic market-ing manager at Ericsson.

Thomas Edison invented the world’s first usable lightbulb, which was the start of the expansion of the electric-ity network. As soon as this was done people also started using it for other things. The same thing is happening today with internet connection.

Mikael Eriksson Björling works as strategic market-ing manager at Ericsson.

FUTURE BY SEMCON  9

one of the authors of the compa-ny’s report on connectivity.

“Industries like retail and the manufacturing sectors soon took up this new technology. They often have large facilities where they need to maximize production efficiency. Many companies in these industries want to do all they can to better manage maintenance, stock control and equipment,” he says.

In future General Electric’s aircraft engines look like be-ing equipped with microscopic wireless sensors placed in hard-to-reach areas in the form of an ink-like substance. This will in turn send information from critical ar-eas and engine parts. The engine’s performance will be checked down to the last millimetre. This will improve safety procedures and will in future lead to new engines and pricing models.

GENERAL ELECTRIC IS at the research stage of this new sensor technology, but has used sensors in the past that do the same job – but not with the precision that the new technology will give.

Last year GE’s income from software and hardware linked to IoT was USD 1.1 billion. The money comes from 1.4 million units for the healthcare industry and 28,000 of the company’s aircraft engines. GE gathers data every day from a total of ten million sensors in equipment worth around USD 1 billion.

Caterpillar is another company that has reviewed its products and services. Its new equipment measures information showing

how the customer uses the heavy equipment, enabling it to help avoid production stoppages.

Paul Sallomi, US head of tech-nology, media and telecoms at Deloitte says:

“In the energy sector there are many value-driven applications and smart measuring devices. There are companies that have installed millions of smart devices and built up platforms with user interfaces where individual con-sumers can see what they are using and act accordingly to be more energy efficient.”

But studies show that a mere ten per cent of all customers have logged in, and only one per cent

7

Paul Sallomi works at Deloitte as US head of technology, media and telecoms.

John Hagel, Chair-man of Deloitte’s Center for the Edge, sees retail and the manufac-turing industry as early advocates of connected units.

have done so more than once.Energy companies can also

better monitor and predict require-ments. They avoid having too many staff working on fault-finding. Quality is improved, cutting oper-ational disruption to a minimum. In the end it means they better utilize their investments and plant facilities.

“OTHER INDUSTRIES ARE seeing the same upside from investments in mobile solutions,” according to Emily Nagle Green, author of “Anywhere: How Global Connec-tivity is Revolutionizing the Way We Do Business” and former CEO of research firm Yankee Group. She

10  FUTURE BY SEMCON

7

interviewed sixty top executives from many of the world’s biggest technology companies before writing the book.

“The technology shift is advanc-ing rapidly every week in com-panies presenting revolutionary solutions. Maybe not all will be spectacular, but they are tiny vic-tories that over the long term will mean major profits,” she says. For the retail trade mobile payment technology is on its way to replace paper currency and credit cards. “I believe that stock tracing and tagging, using radio frequency identification (RFID) will take over completely in the manufacturing industry. A number of airlines

In the future aircraft engines equipped with microscopic wireless sensors, in difficult to reach areas, will be able to send information to pilots in real time.

Future connectivity

1”Mind sharing”. New communication methods are popping up all the time.

Some believe that by 2020 it will be the norm to communicate by the power of thought, working in harmony with wireless equipment.

2Smart citizens and cities. A catalyst for development is users’ behaviour and how

companies grasp change. Studies show that most of the interviewees expect traffic patterns, energy con-sumption and water quality checks real time to be common apps in 2020.

3Information sharing. 47 per cent of the interview-ees want to be able to pay

electronically, but without personal information automatically shared. 56 per cent want all internet use to be encrypted.

ERICSSON CONSUMER­LAB’S ANNUAL REPORT LISTED HOT TRENDS FOR 2015 AND THE COMING YEARS. THE INTERVIEWEES STATISTICALLY REPRE SEN­TED 85 MILLION PEOPLE AGED 15 TO 69.

Emily Nagle Green wrote the book “Anywhere: How Global Connectiv-ity is Revolutioniz-ing the Way We Do Business”.

FUTURE BY SEMCON  11

7

have linked their food handling to similar systems where they can follow where the food is, how fresh it is and that it’s heading for the right place.”

EXPERTS AGREE THAT one of the biggest changes is the emergence of new business and payment models. They will not only reshape companies but also entire indus-tries.

Manufacturers and sellers of products are being transformed into service companies where the hardware has a key role, but where the software that monitors everything is the most central component. Paul Sallomi at Deloitte:

“Take aircraft engines for exam-ple. General Electric has already developed outcome-based pay-ment models that will be further developed. Instead of selling the engine they sell the expected num-ber of hours and the performance that the customer will get out of the product. This is a transformation, where the products become ser-vices. Major changes are expected in retail.”

“Look at your mobile phone as an IoT product. Imagine a smart

store that knows when you have stepped through the door,” says Sallomi. “The store also knows what you have bought in the past and can predict what you might be interested in buying and will therefore offer campaign prices customized just for you. If you’re going to by a pair of training shoes you might be offered a treadmill, clothes and other fitness training equipment.”

The contact-free payment systems are on the increase. NFC equipped mobile phones (near-field communication) can register purchases with the help of Bluetooth, via QR readers or with just the press of a few buttons and authorization via your mobile phone.

Mikael Björling Eriksson believes he knows what this will lead to.

“Cash handling will be com-pletely obsolete in the future. In store transactions will disappear altogether. You’ll just pick up the goods you want and walk out. “Service” as such will disappear in many areas. It will redefine mar-kets, what products are and how they are used. Foodstuffs/victuals as a service are not far from taking the next step. In future we will

“IN THE AUTO MOTIVE AND TRANSPORT SECTORS THE AUTO-NOMOUS VEHICLE WILL TURN THE OLD MARKET ON ITS HEAD. IT MIGHT EVEN BE A CAR WITHOUT A STEERING WHEEL.” MIKAEL BJÖRLING ERIKSSON, STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGER, ERICSSON

probably not visit our supermar-kets but will get everything deliv-ered to our door. In the automotive and transport sectors the autono-mous vehicle as a service will turn the old market on its head. It might even be a car without a steering wheel. We’re then talking about a completely new kind of vehicle manufactured in a completely new way – from early innovation stage to finished product.”

JOHN HAGEL’S VISION of the future contains new corporate structures in pyramid or umbrella form.

“We are on the verge of finding new business models and invent-ing new interactivity with custom-ers. We are moving from a purely transaction-based relationship to relationships where companies work with customers in com-pletely new ways,” he says. In brief you need to improve customer experiences with the help of oth-ers, rather than doing everything yourself. A key is to mobilize many third parties that using their prod-ucts, applications and services, add value to customers being served. Capturing those values is the key. This means less and fewer investments in manufacturing and

In the future shops will know everything about you as soon as you walk through the door. Based on your buying patterns you will be given customized offers and campaign prices.

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in-house structure, giving more powerful growth potential than today’s models.

THERE ARE MANY possibilities. “But there are also lots of pitfalls that companies must avoid so they don’t end up too far behind the competi-tion. One of them is not to wait too long,” says Emily Nagle Green.

“The mobile expansion is rem-iniscent of when the internet was new. Similarly, it has taken time for many companies to become mobile, create apps and a mobile presence,” she says. “When the internet was new many compa-nies delayed far too long before creating a website. In my book I predicted a number of scenarios around the world, depending on expansion and access to broad-band and wireless internet. India is a huge country where things pro-gress more slowly than I or other people expect. 3G and 4G have taken far too long to get a real foot-hold. Bureaucracy and corruption are problems, especially in such expansive economies like India.”

Paul Sallomi claims that the biggest challenges are understand-ing technology and working out how it will affect business. Whether 7

26That’s how many connected devices that IT firm Gartner believe will exist in 2020.

billion

FUTURE BY SEMCON  13

Readmore! If you want to learn more

about connectivity, you can read “7 Ways to

connect for the future” at the back of the

magazine.

around them. IT bosses’ roles have changed from being about mainte-nance and cost-cutting to, with the help of new technologies, finding new sales channels and sources of income. It is also crucial to un-derstand that you need to educate staff and dare to shake up the corporate structure.”

THE QUESTION IS how connected can we be?

“Integrity and security are things that can scupper devel-opment but never make it stop entirely,” says Paul Sallomi. “It all depends on how much we as indi-viduals are ready to share. There can be vast differences between cultures. Younger generations are willing to share, because they are used to sharing their personal information – especially if there is a value in doing so. But different societies have different ways of looking at this subject.

When Emily Nagle Green looks into her crystal ball she doesn’t see

any end to the possibilities waiting for brave companies of all sizes.

“It’s common to overestimate changes over the short-term and to underestimate the more long-term

changes. We become easily blinded by progress

made over the short-term, changes that are happening now. We then risk missing future potential. I be-

lieve we have under-estimated all the changes

that this will lead to,” she says and continues:

“There are no limits to how con-nected we, and everything around us can be. Wireless technology is limitless compared with physical wires. In the future people will see connectivity as a human right. The same way as we consider food, healthcare and education today. Connectivity will be a means of how to reach everything. We will take for granted that we are always connected. In the end everyone will have that right.” ✖

it’s cost-cutting or new sources of income, companies must “under-stand what’s possible and make the invisible, visible.” It’s about daring to see more than one step at a time.

“There are no limits to how con-nected we, and everything around us can be. Wireless technology is limitless compared with physical wires,” says Emily Nagle Green.

“This ecosystem is growing rap-idly and we are seeing an increas-ing number of successful examples. Companies really need to be aware of what connectivity can mean for them,” says Sallomi.

“It’s a matter of seeing it as an “art form where everything is pos-sible”. The questions they must ask are: How can we use this and what will the consequences be if we don’t adapt and be part of the connec-tivity sphere? It’s up to companies to find their place. To be market leaders you need to run with new developments. Companies IT boss-es will therefore be more important in future. They are uniquely quali-fied to see and understand changes

7

“There are no limits to how connected we, and everything around us can be. Wireless technol-ogy is limitless compared with physical wires,” says writer Emily Nagle Green.

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The guideUser experience

10 steps to the ultimate user experience

9PROTOTYPES, PROTOTYPES,

PROTOTYPES. It’s only when the design is tangible and you

can touch it that it’s possible to evaluate the experience and finely tune it towards the end result. Our advice is to start early. Forget perfection and just make simple paper models and 3D printouts. You can never produce too many prototypes.

4WHAT’S THE BUSINESS?

Product development is business development. The

user is also a customer, and with insight on how the product can create value designers can create an experience that generates both money and satisfied users. All design provides an experience, the question is which one do we want to achieve?

THE MORE THINGS AND TECHNOLOGY THAT WE SURROUND OURSELVES WITH EVERY DAY AND AT WORK, THE MORE IMPORTANT DESIGN BECOMES. UX IS THE DESIGN DISCIPLINE THAT COMPLETELY FOCUSES ON THE USERS’ EXPERIENCE. FOLLOW OUR GUIDE AND IMPROVE THE EXPERIENCE. TEXT JOHAN JARNEVING IMAGES  BLOOMUA

1INVOLVE THE USER. Good design begins and ends with the users’ experience. Designers

need to imagine situations where the product is used and actively understand the need. Remember that direct ques-tions don’t always provide the whole answer. Ethnographic methods and shadowing provide a better guide in that case.

DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN. A successful design process is nimble, dares to try and

moves forwards by taking small steps. An iterative work meth-od that moves forward, follows responses and improves. Over and over again. The catchword in soft-ware design is agile, meaning rapid, flexible and nimble.

3

FIND THE EXPERTISE. Users are naturally central to everything, but how do you put

together a team to create the expe-rience? Here we need to have both client and practitioner organizations and structure the task at hand to succeed.

6

2COME UP WITH A VISION. What purpose does the product have? What will

the user experience when using it? If everyone has a clear vision for the project then everyone works in harmony, providing a story to tell. Also set measurable objectives on route.

8HOLISTIC APPROACH. In what context should the design be seen? Are there

numerous generations? Is it part of a larger series? Does it have a physical form and digital functions? To optimize the experience you need to have an eye on every component part.

7DON’T FORGET MARKETING. For the design to reach the cus-tomer and user it must go hand

in hand with marketing and involve the marketing department at an early stage. They have a wealth of knowledge and understanding about users.

5MORE COORDINATION. Design is more than just colour and shape. To achieve the required

experience of a new car, a revolutionary new app or an innovative medical aid, needs teamwork and coordination of specialist expertise.

DESIGN THE DELIVERY.

Presenting and delivering the finished design is part of the

user experience. Don’t forget to adapt your proposals for target groups in your solution. For recipients it might be crucial that it’s in the right format and with the right argument.

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FUTURE BY SEMCON  15

Nurses helped by smart phones

The solutionHow Semcon solved the customer’s problem

TEXT EMELIE CARLSSON PHOTOS ASCOM

THE ASSIGNMENT: Together with Ascom to create a specially built smart phone

customized to nurses’ demanding workload. By simplifying communication options the aim was to make everyday work as easy and more efficient as possible. Semcon helped design a hand-held unit that was as user-friendly as possible.

THE SOLUTION: A robust, but simple design makes the product easy to handle. A display

on the top side of the unit means that the user can easily see the information without having to pick it up. The prod-uct also comes with a large main display and a clip that makes it easy to fix to clothing. Batteries are easy to re-move and replace to make it easy for shift workers at the end of their working day. The unit is more robust than other smart phones and can withstand water and being dropped.

THE RESULT: Semcon’s design, combined with Ascom’s technical solution makes nurses’

jobs more efficient and simple. Nurses can now easily read the information required to do their job with more time spent with patients. The finished product, the Ascom Myco, has received positive response from the market. The prod-uct was given an honorary mention for its product design in the Red Dot Award 2015.

16  FUTURE BY SEMCON

EASY TO READ DISPLAYNurses can quickly get an overview of the most serious alarms by looking at the dis-play situated on the top of the unit without needing to pick it up.

BARCODE READER ALLOWS ACCESS TO PRESCRIPTIONS The product comes with a barcode reader that is linked to the healthcare facility’s IT system. This can be used to scan barcodes, providing information about prescriptions and medication.

CLEAR ALARM MANAGEMENTApart from the top display giving information about the most serious alarms users can read from the main display to see the status of all the alarms coming in, allowing them to prioritize by accepting, rejecting or forwarding alarms.

KEY APPS PRIORITIZEDTo stop notifications and reminders from apps disturbing work the unit comes equipped with a function that allows key apps to be prioritized. If these apps require updating then this will be done automatically. Less important apps are automat-ically not selected to allow the most important apps to be as high performing as possible.

CUSTOMIZED DESIGNThe handheld unit is more robust than oth-er smart phones and made to withstand liquids such as disinfectants and being dropped. It is ergonomically shaped and designed to be used one-handed. It comes with a specially designed carry clip so it can be simply attached to clothing.

FUTURE BY SEMCON  17

THERE’S A LOT of talk about the future and magic molecules, but lightweight materials are not new. Since Stone Age man created rudimentary cutting and crushing tools from granite (2,691 kg/m3) 2.4 million years ago mankind has been in search of lighter and better materials. People who built rowing boats in the 16th century use the same logic as people building lunar modules today.

Take cedar and elm. Two kinds of wood suitable for small boats. They float well and are very suitable for their ability to withstand rotting. People building with

elm will need to brace themselves for a sweaty building process and even sweat-ier rowing. Elm is tough and difficult to work with and a density of 690 kg/m3. Cedar is significantly easier to form and a whole 35 per cent lighter, weighing a mere 450 kg/m3. NASA has the same considerations to take into account when considering advanced aluminium alloys and carbon fibre.

Between WW1 and WW2 the use of aluminium increased, due to it saving up to 30 per cent weight compared with steel. Especially in the aviation and auto-

motive industries. In recent decades the interest in carbon fibre and new plastics has exploded.

Remember that it’s not just saving weight that’s key. Durability, rigidity, stress resistance and thermal stabil-ity will decide whether the materials become successful. Aerogel for example has the lowest density of anything at just 160 g / m3. What makes this interest-ing is the combination of its insulating properties.

Despite huge advances over the past 50 years we are on the verge of a revolution. In 2010, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov received the Nobel Prize in physics for their experiment with the two-dimensional material “Graphene” – a “mat” of carbon atoms, just one atom thick, and with outstanding properties. Graphene weighs 0.77 mg/m2. ✖

From Stone Age granite to today’slightweight materials

WHAT DO FIGHTER AIRCRAFT, F1 CARS AND SPACESHIPS HAVE IN COMMON? THEY ARE FULL OF ADVANCED LIGHTWEIGHT MATERIALS OF COURSE. BUT DID YOU KNOW THAT LIGHTWEIGHT MATERIALS CAN JUST AS WELL BE USED IN ROWING BOATS AS WELL AS LUNAR MODULES? OR THAT CARBON FIBRE IS LIKE A LUMP OF LEAD COMPARED TO THE LATEST LIGHTWEIGHT MATERIALS AROUND THE WORLD?TEXT FREDRIK HULDTH

The revolution Lightweight materials

BEST POWER TO WEIGHT RATIO IN A CAR475 kg without any liquids and 575 hp. Estimated from its dry weight, the British Caparo T1, with the help of F1 engineer Gordon Murray, has the best power to weight ratio of any car.

WORLD’S LIGHTEST HOMELaser Photon Elite is the world’s lightest tent that you can buy over the counter. A one-man tent with outer and inner tent, aluminium and carbon fibre poles, plus the necessary bags and lines and weigh-ing in at just 587.9 g.

WORLD’S LIGHTEST BICYCLEThe world’s lightest racing bike was built by professional cyclist Günter Mai. He created a fully functional road racer out of carbon fibre that weighs just 2.7 kg complete. The frame weighs 642.5 g and the front forks just 185.9 g.

IT’S THE EXTREMES THAT ARE PUSHING DEVELOPMENTS FORWARD. HERE ARE SOME OF THE WORLD’S LIGHTEST, MOST FACSINATING INVENTIONS.

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KNITTED METALScientists are not just on the lookout for new substances, they are also focusing on developing existing materials. “Knitted metal”, developed for the aviation, auto-motive and healthcare industries, is a thin metal wire that is knitted into a weave. It is lightweight, uses less material and is highly formable. When used in sandwich material the knitted metal can save up to 50 per cent of the weight compared with metal sheeting.

GRAPHENEThe 2010 Nobel Prize was awarded for a two-dimensional material, only one atom thick. It is like a mat of carbon atoms formed in a hexagonal honeycomb pattern. Completely pliable, see-through and superbly conductive for electricity and heat. Impermeable to gas and liquids and 200 times stronger than steel.

CARBON FIBRE COMPOSITESComposites are compound materials, where two or more materials, each with different properties, combine to form a construction material with new properties. Carbon fibre is the basis of a number of composite materials, which is extremely light and extremely strong. Composite fibres do not decompose but are sensitive to impact. Delamination between layers is not uncommon. Used extensively in the automotive, aviation and aerospace industries. A total of USD 20 billion is spent on carbon fibre every year.

FROM PLASTICS TO COMPOSITES

ALUMINIUMThe third most abundant element on earth (after oxygen and silicon). Used frequently by the aviation and automotive industries for its excellent properties in relation to its weight and resistance to rust. Mainly in the form of alloys for greater strength and reduced material fatigue and thermal sen-sitivity. The automotive industry calculates a 24 per cent weight saving in cars when compared with steel.

AEROGELOne of the lightest materials on earth. A polymer-based gel (often silicon dioxide) whose liquid is depleted by adding carbon dioxide that converts from liquid form to a gas. Very porous and extremely low density. It feels solid to the touch. It is also a highly effective insulation material.

MAGNESIUMMagnesium is the third most abundant metal on earth, after iron and aluminium. The German armed forces were pioneers in using magnesium in their aircraft. In recent years the aviation, automotive and mobile industries have discovered magnesium’s positive properties such as its light weight and durability. Magnesium is a soft metal, mainly used in alloys.

PLASTICSPlastics are our most commonly used light-weight materials. With limitless formability, durability and low manufacturing costs. Modern research has developed plastics that are extremely durable to chemicals and high temperatures with significant-ly improved load capacity per kilo. New plastics have proven to have more effective protection against radiation compared with metals. Plastic works well with other light-weight materials such as carbon fibre.

FACTS WHAT ARE LIGHTWEIGHT MATERIALS?Lightweight materials are new substances and technologies that allow engineers to create lighter replacements for existing products. Plaster and light metals in walls instead of concrete. Aluminium hulls on boats instead of steel. Or a cross-country ski pole made from carbon fibre instead of fibreglass. Lightweight and high durability are saving the world’s resources with lighter vehicles and vessels using less fuel, thus cutting carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Lightweight materials are also reducing the risk of repetitive strain injurys at the workplace.

FUTURE BY SEMCON  19

SubjectAugmented reality

20  FUTURE BY SEMCON

YOU SIGH DEEPLY and your sweaty palms give away your panic as you jog through the massive multi-storey car park and into the city’s new shopping centre. This is a hyper-market with thousands of goods stacked in endless isles on thousands of shelves. You are a parent who now has 15 minutes to do the weekly shop. In 30 minutes you need to collect your 3 year-old from daycare.

You would have usually fiddled with your mobile phone or a shopping list from your pocket and started scratching your head. Not today. Today you are shopping with AR – augmented reality.

Nappies, children’s food, salmon, milk … Suddenly a colourful digital line appears in front of the trolley that guides you on the shortest route around the store. Little red arrows a little further on show you which of all the dozens of washing powders are on special offer.

The shelf with children’s food only shows you the organic options without added colourings - because you pre-chose this. Want to know what a product contains? You could look at the packet’s label, but that would be very last year! Instead you ask your AR system how many carbs and fibre the item contains. Of course! If you now want a bit of human interaction then the system will point out the till with the shortest queue. Otherwise you can check out by blinking to your headset without needing to stop. Wait – where on earth did you park the car? The computer knows. Nightmare over.

Augmented reality is technology that offers users computer-generated infor-

mation in addition to our ordinary visual stimulants. Sound, images, video, or other interactive information is laid over reality, giving users qualified knowhow in real time, which is becoming increasingly important in a world with ruthless technical advances.

“Consumer products are becoming increasingly complex every day and thereby more difficult to fully utilize,” says Andrew Head, responsible for business develop-ment at Semcon Product Information in the UK.

“For a new product to have a major impact it shouldn’t be too fiddly to use. AR provides access. You avoid having to leaf through large manuals and instead we create AR apps that show you everything a product can do. It’s about getting help and getting more out of all the advanced gadgets we now surround ourselves with.”

THE CORNERSTONES OF the technology include powerful compact computers, customized software, advanced display concepts, exact coordinates, cameras and sensors, plus all the information that the systems need to help users with.

There is an extensive range of display technology. At the more advanced end of the spectrum is Virtual Retinal Display, which are like spectacles that project media directly at the retina. Eyetap is a more advanced Terminator-like example. A beam-splitter splits the light on route to the eye and sends a copy of what’s seen to a camera that digitalizes the reflected light. A computer then processes the image and adds information before the image returns to the eye via a projector. There are also contact lenses in the research stage with microscopic diodes that show the informa-

Welcome to a better reality!

AUGMENTED REALITY HONES PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION TO THE MAX. A NEW GENERATION OF AR APPS WILL REVOLUTIONIZE HOW SURGEONS OPERATE, HOW WE SHOP, PLAY COMPUTER GAMES, TAKE HOLIDAYS AND SAVE PEOPLE LOST IN THE MOUNTAINS.

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TEXT FREDRIK HULDT PHOTO MIKKEL WILLIAM

FUTURE BY SEMCON  21

SubjectAugmented reality

tion we want to see against the cornea. The trick is the wireless communication in the lens that manages to relay all the data.

AR doesn’t just exist in symbiosis with groundbreaking and experimental tech-nology. Our tablets and mobile phones have everything we need: screen, camera, microphone and speakers.

“The automotive industry is a good ex-ample. Cars today have an average of 50 computers! If we look at our dashboards there are vast amounts of advanced sys-tems right there. The time when we could just jump in and drive are long gone,” says Andrew.

“If we want to get the most out of our investments then we have to either go on a course, or get help from an AR app. Hold your phone over your dashboard and it simply shows how all the sys-tems work. AR creates value by making complicated things easy and accessible. This is going to be really huge, and it’s happening right now.”

THE HIGH HOPES for augmented reality that have been with us for some time are finally being realized. The technology will be one of our most important as comput-ers become really portable. Eventually the technology will help to simplify our lives instead of the other way around, and it gives us the opportunity of inspiring oth-ers by letting them see what has only thus far existed in people’s imaginations.

Imagine a group of archaeologists on a Stone Age dig who can actually see buildings and entire villages as they would have looked in their natural surroundings. Surgeons performing ad-vanced operations no longer need to look away from the scalpel to check patients’ pulse, breathing, blood pressure etc. AR technology will arrive with a bang and the potential is almost unlimited. ✖

THE SYSTEM, KNOWN AS Aug-mented Vision, provides the same type of information that has been available in BMW’s HUD system for some time, such as speed, speed limits, RPM, gears and navigational data. Instead of projecting graphic information on the base of the window, which has been common practice until now, the information is displayed in the glasses, directly in the driver’s field of vision.

If you need help navigating, you program your destination using an app on your phone or by using voice activation before departure. During your journey something called contact-analogue naviga-tion is used. The system shows the direction of travel by “painting” arrows directly on the ground. Other exciting things pointed out to the driver include vacant park-ing spaces.

If the user gets a TEXT while driving then an icon appears in the

glasses. It can be then be read out by the car without the driver need-ing to look away from the road.

The most ambitious function is X-Ray View, which makes some parts of the car see-through with the help of fixed cameras around the car. Accidents between car and pedestrian or between car and cyclist, which today happen due to drivers’ vision being impaired by the car’s A frame, would then be completely avoided. The doors also become see-through when using the Augmented Parking function, which facilitates parking by sharp kerbs. The driver sees the wheels and kerb through the door.

The system is currently just in the concept phase, but was intro-duced to the world’s press at the car show in Shanghai in April. Mini is BMW’s experimental workshop for new exciting concepts and is known for quickly delivering what it says it will. ✖

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AUGMENTED REALITY WILL PROVIDE MAJOR OPPORTUNITIES FOR MAKING INFORMATION MORE ACCESSIBLE. HERE ARE THREE EXAMPLES OF HOW THE TECHNOLOGY CAN BE USED.

1. GLASSES HELP MINI DRIVERS ON THE ROAD

Mini’s Augmented Vision system displays information in the driver’s glasses.

BMW-owned Mini has extremely exiting AR applications underway. Together with Qualcomm they have developed glasses for drivers that act a little like Google Glass, but which look like something out of an Elvis Presley sunglasses collec-tion at Graceland.

22  FUTURE BY SEMCON

Why can’t using a computer feel completely natural? This question is being asked by Magic Leap, one of Google’s shyest, yet most rumoured concern.

THE COMPANY WAS founded just four years ago and is (for the lack of con-crete information and own products) most well known for getting investors to risk USD 542 million in venture capital. So what do they have up their sleeve? They are promising revolu-tionary augmented reality applica-tions, and cross that promise with its basic thesis that all technology today is obsolete. Founder Rony Abovitz comes from a company that makes robots for orthopaedic surgery.

The company has developed some-thing it calls Digital Lightfield, or Dy-

namic Digitized Lightfield Signal. The work is done by processors, sensors, hardware and software and something else that “must remain a secret”. The result is said to be unique, unexpected and “never been seen before” so that it can only be described as magic.

AR mixes the world we live in with 3D images. Digital Lightfield copies

biological processes that help the brain accept the images projected straight onto the retina as real. The subject’s surroundings are scanned using infrared cameras, making it possible for Lightfield objects to move around physical objects.

Under the title “Just another day at the office at Magic Leap …” the com-pany invited us all for a taste of how their technology will change the way we play computer games. The feeling is almost like climbing into the sci-fi classic Men in Black. Everything looks normal at the office until a monster appears from right to left, which is ob-viously brought to heel by using a cool laser gun. Magic and revolutionary? Is the video a real game simulator or just a film of special effects? The wild rumour carousel surrounding Magic Leap has gathered momentum. ✖

Semcon developed an app for JCB that simplifies the service technicians’ working day. An iPad now lets them know what the machines look like inside.

YOU ARE STANDING in the middle of a huge construction site with vast loaders driving here, there, and every-where. An intense environment where workers’ safety and huge financial investment depend on all machines working and driven properly by well-trained drivers. If something breaks then the problem must be solved quickly.

It’s the perfect challenge for JCB’s AR app, developed by Semcon. Using an iPhone or iPad, the app’s software lets service technicians see a part that’s of interest how it’s working and where in the vehicle it’s located, as well as all other relevant information.

You quite simply stand by the ma-chine and point your AR camera at the part of the machine marked with AR con-tent. The display will show the machine as a cross-section and the parts of interest in detail. If technicians require more in-depth infor-mation then Semcon builds in hot-spot links where you can gather more advanced instruc-tions.

If the construction work can be made more effective by getting a new kind of loading vehicle, then drivers and service personnel need to quickly get information about how the new equipment works. The AR app once again provides x-ray vision

and informative data about how the advanced hydraulic system deep

in the machine is linked and how it works. When

implementing a new generation of engine we can study, in de-tail, the combustion process in the cylin-ders and the gas flow

in the exhaust system at different RPM.The value of AR here

is about quickly un-derstanding a product without needing to

read reams of complicated text – an instructive tool that saves resources, time and money. It’s also fun. People like to see the invisible and to intui-tively understand how things work. The instruction manual-free society is just a few years away. ✖

2. NEW WAY OF USING COMPUTERS?

3. APP GIVING SERVICE TECHNICIANS X-RAY VISION

Magic Leap introduces itself usinga little flying elephant. What’s all thatabout?

Using JCB’s app service technicians can see the

inside of a machine.

FUTURE BY SEMCON  23

TrendsAdditive manufacturing

What do you

want to print today?

24  FUTURE BY SEMCON

3D manufacturing technology is becoming

a force to reckon with in industry. Part of the

explanation is that it’s cheaper, better and

much quicker. 3D printers are also playing

a crucial role in digital eco-systems of the

future. Future accompanies film robots

and researchers to see the new customized

manufacturing in action.

TEXT JOHAN JARNEVING

FUTURE BY SEMCON  25

T’S 24 YEARS ago that Terminator 2 was being shown in the cinemas. This is a cult film that not only taught the world to say “hasta la vista, baby”, in an Austrian accent,

but also inspired science and the technological development of 3D printers.

The T-1000 robot, which makes life difficult for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ageing T-800, has the ability to withstand ma-chine-gun fire, petrol bombs and head-on collisions. The T-1000 is reduced to liquid form and the droplets reconverge. The robot then rises from the liquid and assumes human form. Eureka, thought the US chemist Joseph DeSimone. The same principle must be possible to apply in digital manufacturing.

He calls the technology CLIP, and earlier this year he appeared at the influential TED conference (Tech-nology, Economy, Design) in Van-couver to demonstrate his break-through under the heading: What if 3D printing was 100x faster?

The dream of 3D printers’ pos-sibilities are just as old as another sci-fi classic. In Star Trek there is a machine called the Replictor, which can make anything, preferably a piping hot cup of Earl Grey tea. We aren’t quite there yet, but after lots of setbacks 3D printing is finally on its way to turning visions into reality – and with other dream

Iapplications than a cup of tea. A key contribution in this development comes from Joseph DeSimone and his Carbon 3D.

ONE OF THE PROBLEMS that 3D-printing – or additive manufac-turing as it’s known in the industry – is fighting is speed. It quite simply takes too long to print a component or product to be financially viable for industrial use.

“There are mushrooms that grow faster than 3D printed parts,” says DeSimone. During his 15-minute presentation describing his inno-vation a 3D ball is being made. It’s completed before the end of the presentation, which he picks up to throw into the crowd.

So what’s the secret? DeSimone’s 3D printer doesn’t add layer to layer. It controls light and oxygen in a process that gets components to grow and harden from liquid plastic.

What we perceive as 3D manu-facturing is, according to DeSimone, a misconception: earlier techniques are layered 2D manufacturing. Apart from faster results, his 3D machine’s components have a smoother surface that better utilizes the material’s elasticity, meaning improved material properties. We are now waiting for the commercial launch and more raw materials to work with.

ON THE OTHER SIDE of the earth, at SP Sweden’s technical research institute in Borås, Joakim Karlsson

is tackling questions. He recently completed a doctorate in material sciences and has spent the last five years refining additive manufactur-ing of small components.

He started his 3D career at Arcam – a Swedish company developing industrial solutions for additive manufacturing or things like pros-thetic hips and aircraft components – and then went on to research.

“At Arcam I worked on turbines for jet engines, which is a complex product that is only manufactured in small numbers, making it per-fectly suited to additive manufac-turing. The turbine is made from a heat-resistant titanium alloy, which is extremely sensitive. It’s brittle and reacts to oxygen and nitro-

Joseph DeSimoneProfession: Chemistry professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, inventor and CEO of Carbon 3D. Trend scouting: Speed has got in the way of 3D manu facturing’s industrial break- through. DeSimone’s discovery makes the process 25–100 times faster than ordinary layer-on-layer printing.

26  FUTURE BY SEMCON

7

gen in the atmosphere and other materials often used for things like casting, making titanium alloys dif-ficult to work with in the traditional sense,” he says.

“Using 3D technology we make components in a vacuum envi-ronment with fewer chemical reactions. In the past when casting turbines we had to throw away 90 per cent of the manufacturing process material. We have now got this down to 10 per cent. A com-plete turnaround and huge profits in production.”

The 3D technology Joakim worked with at Arcam works very well for larger components like or-thopaedic hips and parts for aircraft engines.

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Joakim KarlssonProfession: Spe-cializes in material application re-search for additive manufacturing at SP Sweden’s technical research institute. Trend scouting: Precision is improving and we can now affect the products’ every detail much more. Using 3D scanning and faster additive manufacturing we can, for example, make new dentures that are better than the original teeth.

“IN THE PAST WHEN CASTING TURBINES WE HAD TO THROW AWAY 90 PER CENT OF THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS MATERIAL. WE HAVE NOW GOT THIS DOWN TO 10 PER CENT.”

“The challenge is parts that are smaller than 1 cm in any dimen-sion. This changes the prerequisite for material strength and surface structure. A result of the research project I worked on is finer surfaces and greater precision. We have, for example, succeeded in improving the richness of detail for 3D manu-factured dentures so that they look more like real teeth.”

HIPS, TEETH AND hearing aids are examples of products that have advanced furthest using 3D tech-nology. More than 95 per cent of all hearing aids are manufactured additively. It’s mainly the ability to perfectly customize the product that has pushed developments.

“But the 3D printable hips also get a different surface that fixes better, meaning fewer post-op complications.”

In just the last 5–10 years there has been extraordinary advance-ments in what people call 3D print-ing. Joakim considers what might have ignited the spark.”

“The technology itself isn’t revolutionary but it’s been honed and improved a lot over the past ten years. In the 90s 3D printers were only good enough to print out poor prototypes. We are now making high-grade industrial compo-nents and finished products. The consumer market boom is largely due to old patents expiring, making the technology cheaper. You can

Using CLIP technology components are manufactured up to 100 times faster than with conventional 3D technology, which often involves layers put on top of layers.

FUTURE BY SEMCON  27

AVI REICHENTAL BELIEVES THAT WE WILL SOON BE SURROUNDING OURSELVES WITH 3D PRINTERS THAT WILL BE ABLE TO MAKE MOST THINGS. FROM YOUR FAVOURITE BREAKFAST CEREAL, TO THE CLOTHES YOU WEAR TO SUIT THE WEATHER.

get a perfectly adequate 3D printer for home use now for under SEK 10,000.”

AVI REICHENTAL IS a pioneer and great visionary in the field of 3D manufacturing. He believes that we will soon be surrounding ourselves with 3D printers – not just one per household, but one in every room, each with its own job, which will be able to make most things. From your favourite breakfast cereals, to the clothes you wear to suit the weather. Even Star Trek’s dream of making the perfect cup of tea might be possible.

He sees 3D manufacturing as part of a future digital ecosystem. The physical manifestation of our ideas and the tool that will allow all of our products to be completely customized according to personal taste and needs.

The buzzword in the industry is mass customization. Avi and his company, 3D Systems, is also taking part in Google’s and Motorola’s Ara

project, which is a customer-de-signed mobile phone that the user uses to print modules and assemble themselves. A DIY mobile from design to manufacture.

Avi’s vision is for everyone to be designers, tradesmen and indus-trial manufacturers at home in

the shed. His father was a cobbler, and although he never learned the profession he can make his own customized shoes using his 3D printer.

A LOT ABOUT 3D-printing is still only a vision, but one thing that is

Avi ReichentalProfession: Innovator and CEO of 3D Systems, which is behind companies like ChefJet, which prints chocolate and sugar.Trend scouting: Look at 3D printers like a part of the internet of things and expect to have one in each room so we can print out what we want according to our preferences, on demand.

1 GOOGLE PROJECT ARA

The future of the mobile phone is modular. A mobile phone made from interchangeable modules that give users the free-dom to design, upgrade and assemble their own smartphone.

Ahead of the game is Google with its Ara project. Together with Ari Reichental’s 3D Systems and its high-speed 3D printer they are close to solving real, on-demand manufacturing. You decide the look and components in Google’s webshop. 3D Systems printer produced the parts, which are then sent to you for assembly.

The first-generation Ara phones are expected to be launched in Q3 2015. You can follow the project’s progress at: projectara.com.

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3ON-SITE MANUFACTURING IN OUTER SPACE

When equipment fails on the international space station, ISS, the last thing you want to do is wait for parts to arrive from earth. A 3D printer that can produce tools and components in a zero-gravity environment is on its way to solving this problem. The printer is called Zero G, developed by Made in Space, to-gether with NASA to manage the extreme conditions of space. Initial testing saw the printer manage to print a ring spanner and a number of components.

The company’s motto “The Sky is No Longer the Limit for 3D Printing” not only describes the advances of the technology itself, but also summarizes everything happening in additive manufacturing right now.

2A HUMAN KIDNEY

A patient is admitted to hospital in acute need of a new kidney. There is no donor available, but the surgeon uses the patient’s own cells in the hospital’s 3D printer. A few hours later the transplant is complete. This is a future scenario that’s fast approaching. Experiments using human cells as 3D printer ma-terial is becoming more advanced. Chalmers in Göteborg has already tried out a bio-printer, which produced ears and is now working on cartilage for arthritis patients.

More complex organs, like kidneys and hearts, lay ahead. How-ever, a number of researchers believe that printed organs should be able to be transplanted into humans within the next decade.

Three 3D manufactured products of the future

28  FUTURE BY SEMCON

clear is that it’s taken a giant leap forwards.

“Some in the industry believe that 3D printing will take over completely, but a closer look at developments reveals that it’s a complementary technology. The advantages will be incredible in some areas, while in others tradi-tional forms of manufacture are far superior, not least from a cost perspective,” says Joakim Karlsson at SP.

He uses aviation and med-tech as examples of industries where additive manufacturing has already made a breakthrough. He

believes that 3D printers in the automotive industry will continue playing an important role in proto-type production and for individual stages.

“Automotive manufacturers will probably be pinning their hopes on 3D printing, but they produce such high volumes that there is no real incentive for large-scale 3D activities.”

Joakim also points out that 3D printing is aimed just as much at consumers as to industry. Home printers are becoming sufficiently good and cheap that we will soon be able to print out things like new

mobile phone shells and spare parts from home.

MANY DEVELOPMENT ENGINEERS are now starting to experiment using new materials. Plastics and all sorts of metals are most common, but med-tech researchers are also starting to try out biological material with the aim of developing organs for transplant. Success-ful trials using artificial urinary bladders have already been done, and it’s now only a question of time before 3D manufacturing uses stem cells to solve the world’s human organ shortage. ✖

Med-tech is one of the industries where additive manufacturing has already broken ground. Fully customizing an object is a factor that has driven developments.

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FUTURE BY SEMCON  29

Q&AMario Herger on gamification

If your company works with GPS navigation then one of the fundamental aspects is that users can trust that the proposed roads actually exist and are drivable. You can either solve this by actually

spending a huge amount of resources driving and inspecting the road network, which is an almost impossible task if you want to provide global coverage. Or you can follow the users and see what roads they drive. If their cars get to their desti-

nations then others will too.The problem is that some roads are

used less than others, and the question is then how to get car owners to take the less travelled route that you want to verify. You can either ask them, or do like Waze, the world’s biggest joint-based traffic and navigation app.

Waze’s solution is to make the map into a game and set out small virtual rewards at the locations you want to check.

If you drive the long way round, there-by verifying that the street actually exists 7

At work we work. You can have fun in your spare time. Or? Gaming guru Mario Herger says that gaming mechanisms used correctly can build brands, improve products and increase internal efficiency.TEXT KARIN AASE PHOTO ERIC MILLETTE

30  FUTURE BY SEMCON

Mario Herger

Works as: Gamification consultant. Lives in: Originally from Vienna,

but has lived in San José, California for many years. Hobbies: Collecting

French and Belgian comics, collecting books, drawing satirical art, playing

folk music. “I’ve actually created the world’s largest website

devoted to folkdance.”

FUTURE BY SEMCON  31

and is drivable then your app will make a sound, determining that you have been awarded a virtual sweet.

And best of all – it works. Grown up people with cars and driving licences drive the long way around to get small digital rewards. The method is known as gamification and is becoming increas-ingly popular, according to gamification consultant Mario Herger.

“Gamification doesn’t always mean creating a game, but use mechanisms from computer and online games to solve problems and to involve people,” he says. “By creating something fun and creating a value for the user you affect his or her be-haviour so that it in turn creates value for your company. And those who understand these principles and incorporate them into their business will have a lot to gain.”

How can companies use gamification to strengthen their brand?

“Look in your wallet – you’ve probably got a few customer cards linked to some kind of loyalty scheme. Most people don’t think about it, but this is also a form of competition. I had a customer card with United Airlines for many years, which is a really bad airline. But because I had that card where every journey gave me points,

which raised my customer level, gave me the option of swapping points for things or free trips, then I still chose to travel with United. And they are not alone, you see these schemes everywhere, from the grocery store to the petrol station and also children’s clothing. They all make sure that you tie yourself in to the brand by using gaming mechanisms where you amass points, get to new levels and get rewards.”

How can I use gamification for internal purposes?

“Most companies, in some way or another, want to control their employees’ behaviour, such as getting them to fill in their time cards on time or make more sales calls. Using gaming techniques then is one of the simplest ways of motivating them to actually do it. A few years ago I came in contact with a consultancy firm in Vienna, full of clever, high-performing, serious people. Its problem was that only 30 per cent of the consultants filled in their time cards on time, which negatively affected the company’s cash flow. The company then introduced a system where employees got a smiley when they filled in their report. The earlier they did it the happier the character, and if they were

1Identify your problem. Find out if it’s a matter of

behaviour, such as employees often getting to work late (can be solved using gamification) or something else, such as the wrong hardware (cannot be solved with gamification).

2Learn about gamification. The mistake many make

is thinking “how hard can it be?” and they start some kind of competition built around competing against one another, but that won’t necessarily provide them with the results they are looking for. Using knowl-edge you can make the processes more effective and thereby improve the chances of achieving your aims.

3Design your game. Remember, it doesn’t necessarily

have to be digital. I know a company that boosted sales radically by giving salesmen pieces of Lego for every new deal they signed. The salesmen began competing to see who could build the best-looking Lego construction and they started selling like madmen to get the pieces of Lego they needed.

4Follow up! Make a note of how employees react and

modify the design if it isn’t working as you had hoped. You can also develop the game in line with employ-ees developing and more taking part in the game.

Q&AMario Herger on gamification

Gamification – step by step

late then they got a sad face. After that 90 per cent of consultants filled in their time cards on time.”

What makes this work? “It’s about motivation. Most people

have some work duties that are boring, routine or even that they simply don’t like doing, such as filling in reports or calling new customers. When you introduce gaming mechanisms into these tasks then you change them. Games, such as Angry Birds, might be repetitive, but they are never boring. You get constant feed-back, while at work you might only get feedback once a year. But it’s also about looking at things differently, such as pro-motion or failure.”

What do you mean by that?“In a game you never expect to beat

a boss at the first attempt, but try again and again until you have become good enough to do it. There is no shame in fail-ing at the first attempt. In reality on the other hand we find it very difficult getting back up after failing on the first attempt. Like with sales for example. Many people find it terribly difficult contacting cus-tomers and use a “no” as a reason for not trying again. But there are also companies

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“GAMES CAN BE REPETITIVE, BUT THEY ARE NEVER BORING. YOU GET CONSTANT FEED-BACK, WHILE AT WORK YOU MIGHT ONLY GET FEEDBACK ONCE A YEAR.”that have built up sales games where their

employees sell to fictitious customers. And that’s where advancement comes in.”

How do games tie in with clear career paths?

“A typical computer game will start at level one with simple commands and tasks so you learn how it works and quickly notice that you’re advancing. It’s clear to you what and how you do things and you don’t need a manual to under-stand what’s expected of you and you get immediate feedback, which means you see it as fun. It’s also very clear to you what you need to do to advance to the next level, while at most places of work it is not so clear what is expected of you to advance in your career.”

Is it such a good idea to increase competition between employees by introducing gaming mechanisms?

“This is a common misconception.

Gaming is not actually about competition but about cooperation. A survey showed four types of personality among gamers: people who wanted to win at any cost, people who wanted status symbols, peo-ple who wanted to explore and people who just wanted to have fun with their friends. Most people believe that people who just “want to win” are the most com-mon type, but they constituted a mere 1 per cent of players. Most, 80 per cent, played for social reasons.”

Are there occasions where you shouldn’t use gamification?

“Like any method it can be misused. You need to know your employees very well and know what motivates them to get good results. There was a hotel com-

plex here in California for example that, a few years ago, decided to improve the efficiency of its cleaning staff by setting up a TV screen in staff rooms where everyone could see how quickly they worked. The company thought it had cre-ated a competition that would stimulate them, but it had the opposite effect. These women were not interested in a career, they were only interested in working so they could put food on the table for their children. When management started this competition the cleaning staff became worried, thought they would lose their jobs, didn’t dare take breaks to go to the toilet and overall became so stressed and frustrated. The company didn’t under-stand what motivated its staff, created competition and a poor working atmos-phere. You need to remember that games are only effective as long as people think its fun. Used in the right way you can really affect people’s behaviour for the better.” ✖

FUTURE BY SEMCON  33

How it worksOculus Rift

OCULUS RIFT was introduced on the crowd-funding site, Kickstarter in August 2012. 24 hours later it passed the collection goal of USD 250,000. The end figure was ten times that, USD 2.4 million, and the hype was explosive. The company was bought by Facebook in 2014 for an unbelievable USD 2 billion dollars – despite there not even being a finished product.

So what is Oculus Rift? Since the birth of the PC and computer games, software and pro-cessor speeds have skyrocketed. But how we integrate with computers and the environments they create has hardly changed at all. Screen, keyboard, mouse, joystick… It’s here in the borderland between computers and man that Rift is expected to rewrite the map with a vast spectrum of applications.

Virtual reality (VR) has been a hot topic since the 90s, but technology hasn’t quite been ma-ture enough. Oculus VR has focused on creating a broader field of vision, and, most importantly, less of a delay in visual feedback, through better screens with reduced response times and better tracking of main movements. Faster, more exact head-tracking reactions and razor sharp images are crucial for the VR experience to feel

real and for the notorious “travelsickness” to disappear.

Exactly what performance the hardware will deliver is not yet clear. The latest devel-opment kit has OLED screens and relatively low 960 x 1080 pixel definition per eye, an update frequency of up to 75 Hz and a response time of 2 ms. The screens deliver a 100 degree field of vision and a powerful stereoscopic 3D experience with depth, scale and parallax (the difference in experience of an object depending on where you observe it) that no other product has been close to earlier in a commercial VR headset. The crucial positioning and measuring of head movements takes place with the help of gyroscopes, accelerometers and magnetometers with an update frequency of 1000 hz.

The finished version is expected to hone this performance even further, and the combination of the broader field of vision, fast head tracking and stereoscopic 3D from lightning fast screens will offer the ability to transform second-hand information into first-hand information.

Oculus Rift has been dubbed the holy grail of gaming, and the time that we seriously take the step into computer games is close. ✖

MANY HAVE TRIED, NONE HAVE SUCCEEDED – SO FAR. VIRTUAL REALITY HAS BEEN A DEVELOPER’S DREAM FOR MANY YEARS. CAN OCULUS RIFT BE THE INVENTION THAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO ENTER OTHER WORLDS? TEXT FREDRIK HULDT PHOTO GETTY IMAGES ILLUSTRATION SPOON

VIRTUAL REALITY IS ALMOST HERE

34  FUTURE BY SEMCON

1

2

3

Why Oculus Rift worksWhen the Rift is launched enthusiasts the world over are hoping that Oculus VR has created a new “iPhone”, that is to say a revolutionary product that revitalizes a stagnant area of technology, just like Apple did in 2007. Doubters say that Rift looks just like any other out-dat-ed VR headset project. Like a pair of overgrown skiing goggles. The difference is in the performance of the hardware and how it’s designed.

1. SENSORS”Low latency head-tracking” is the big thing about the Rift. Previous VR headsets have caused users to feel very travelsick because the virtual world shown on the screens reacted too slowly to users’ head movements. Rift has lots of sensors – gyroscopes, accelerometers and magnetometers – that measure head movements

and update positioning data 1000 times a second. This gives Rift faster, more exact head-tracking

than ever before.

2. SCREENSPoor screens are a major contribu-

tory factor why people experience simulator sickness. Rift’s (DK2)

most recent development kit has OLED screens instead of old

LCD. The updating frequency is 75 Hz (as opposed to 60 Hz in

DK1) and the user gets a 100 degree field of vision. But

the biggest difference is the extremely low pixel

response time of 2 ms, which minimizes motion blurredness on screen. Definition

is still relatively low, 960 x 1080 pixels per eye,

but is expected to improve in the finished version.

3. SOFTWAREClear improvement in hard-ware performance throughout will open major potential for program developers. They are currently working around the clock in software labs around the world to create virtual reality experiences that use Oculus Rift’s properties to the full.

Bigger field of vision and depth, improved image speed,

razor sharp images, unparal-leled precision and a minimum

of motion blurredness. The condi-tions for a real quantum

leap for the wonderful world of computer games. Count on gaming

experiences that nobody has ever seen the like of before.

FUTURE BY SEMCON  35

Semcon BrainsTEXT OLLE RÅDE, JOHAN JARNEVING & ULRICH W. SCHAMARIPHOTOS FREDDY BILLQVIST, LARS BECH, MATTIAS BARDÅ & CHRISTIAN SCHMIDT

36  FUTURE BY SEMCON

PERNILLA DAWS IS a project leader at Semcon’s front office for product information in Lund, Sweden and has a passion for intercultural communication. This is a quality she uses when working with the back office in Budapest, Hunga-ry, where Lynda Herczeg leads her team

for a customer in the pharmaceutical industry. We met up for a chat about how they work together using the FOBO mod-el, which means the assignment is carried out where Semcon has the best expertise and available resources. The back office carries out most of the work and the front office takes responsibility for project co-ordination and customer interaction.

How does Semcon’s FOBO solu-tion benefit customers?

“It’s cost-effective, flexible and ensures the work top quality. It also helps that we work with people from different backgrounds, naturally providing many different perspectives.”

What areas do you work in? “At the Lund office we are working with

a major pharmaceutical company and a company in the packaging industry. We

help them understand what they need in order to achieve the objectives they have for their information products.”

“Our back office in Hungary provides expertise in areas such as illustration, e-learning, and schematics and works with a number of Semcon’s front offices around the world.”

What’s it like working together like this?

“Both work processes and work teams are constantly developing and grow-ing. When we started working with the customer in Lund four years ago our assignment was a simple one, but over time we have built up trust and now have more, larger assignments, as well as working faster. It’s a good sign that we’ve succeeded in becoming more efficient at what we do.” ✖

Collaboration expertsSemcon Sweden

+ Semcon Hungary

FUTURE BY SEMCON  37

Semcon Brains

Plastics expertMorten Nielsen,

Semcon Sweden

MORTEN NIELSEN IS a technical engineer and plas-tics specialist. He develops products for everything from cars to hospital equipment and is motivated by finding solutions that neither he, nor the customer, thought possible

How do customers benefit from your work?

“Plastic is a very inno-vative material. If you use its full potential then it’s possible to develop excel-lent quality prod-ucts at a reasonable cost. It’s a tough challenge, and with my ex-pertise I guarantee attractive solutions, both from a tech-nical and financial aspect.”

What industries do you work with?

“Just about all. There are lots of growth industries at the moment and industries are in need of the innovative use of plastics. This includes the automotive industry, pharmaceutical industry, en-ergy sector and the security industry.

What characterizes a good plastics expert?

“It’s about being able to provide something of value for the customer. Someone might have come up with a way of making plastic electrically conductive for instance. It’s my job then to see how our customers can benefit from that new technology. Another example might be

helping an automotive manufacturer reduce the weight of a car by 5 per cent by swapping certain components for plastic ones. This saves a lot of money for manu-facturers and the customer is kept happy.”

How eco-friendly is plastic? “The environmental aspect should

not be underestimated, especially as

CSR is becoming more important for our customers. Many plastic components nowadays are easy to recycle and there are many interesting possibilities. It’s also possible to create plastic products from non-fossil fuel based materials, which has become more common in recent years.” ✖

38  FUTURE BY SEMCON

THE EXACT TERM for the job Beate Bätge was trained for is a “vehicle saddler”. But that says little about what she actually does at Semcon. What she does do is develop and designs proto-types for vehicles’ interior components for companies like Daimler, BMW, Porsche, Audi, VW and other leading manufacturers.

What does your job involve? “When developing a seat for instance, I work

off sketches and drawings to make the seat padding. I fabricate foam parts for seats and backrests and come up with cutting patterns. Carpeting the floorwell, sills and boot is also one of my jobs, as is the covering for support ele-ments, such as pillar trim, dashboard, central console and the door cards.”

Describe your work process?“I consult with my Semcon team leader

about what assignments I’ve been allocat-ed. I’m given the scope to make my own decisions as to how exactly to complete the assignment. For a vehicle seat for instance I often just get design spec-ifications, and then I have to think it all out myself, such as how the seat will be assembled, how the different components fit together and what profiles and fastenings to choose.”

What do you like most about your job?

“Because we work for different automotive manufacturers my work duties vary tremendously. I can therefore make full use of my skills when creating something. I find that my expertise is very much appreciated, and working as part of a team is a lot of fun.” ✖

Seat-expert

Beate Bätge, Semcon Germany

FUTURE BY SEMCON  39

Lightweight expert

Fredrik Stig, Semcon Sweden

THE IMPORTANCE OF losing weight should not be underestimated,

especially as automotive manufac-turers around the world need to cut

fuel consumption – without compro-mising on safety and strength. Semcon

is helping with this, and has designated Light as one of its four prioritized inno-

vation areas. Fredrik Stig is the calcula-tions engineer leading this endeavour.

“Lightweight is more than just shedding weight, it’s about how much performance

you can exploit from a material in relation to its weight. If you can also add more

functions to a unit you can also make the construction lighter, much like when the

smartphone replaced the mobile phone, mp3 player, wallet and watch,” he says.

He has been at Semcon since 2012 and prior to that was taking his doctorate at KTH’s

department for lightweight constructions.How will composite materials influence

vehicles in the future? “A great deal. If we look at the aviation industry

for example, they were early pioneers in the use of lightweight materials, quite simply because they

can afford the cost of losing weight, around EUR 500 per kg saved. The Automotive industry spends

a maximum of EUR 7 per kg saved, but governments are introducing stricter emissions regulations, which is

shifting the limit of when saving weight becomes prof-itable, meaning investments in performance enhancing

materials is increasing. The market for composites is growing by 10-20 per cent every year.”

How long will it be before composite cars are commonplace?

“BMW has its i3, which is already in production and the entire automotive industry is working tirelessly to cut prices

and increase productivity. A figure that keeps cropping up is that production cycles must be cut to 90 seconds before

composites can seriously make inroads.”What other industries are using your solutions?

“Anyone wanting extreme strength and rigidity in relation to weight. Everything that moves in other words, but we are

also working with other industries, like the medtech industry. An increasing number of application areas are discovering the

benefits of high-performance lightweight constructions.” ✖

Semcon Brains

40  FUTURE BY SEMCON

TWO YEARS AGO Future by Semcon wrote about the Tripbuddy, a caravan developed by British engineer Bill Davies. He had really been looking forward to a camping holiday, but because his children had vehemently protested that caravans weren’t cool enough he decided to do something about it. If the children didn’t want to go camping in the caravans that were available on the market then he would have to build one that was cool enough, even for the most hard to please teenagers.

He developed a prototype, which was a composite body with a window shaped like a pair of sunglasses and a rear end

that was one large fold-down door. Three young engineers from Semcon helped Bill work out the details, and the concept was launched in October 2012.

The Tripbuddy is now available on three continents and in three different versions, and so far around 100 hand-built Tripbuddies have been supplied, all with their exclusive features.

“We have a wide range of customers. What they all have in common is that they like the fact that we offer the option of getting their Tripbuddy customized to their exact needs,” says Bill.

“We have however had to change our prices somewhat because we found that

customers were expecting to pay much more for this type of handmade quality.”

But it’s not just customers that like Tripbuddy. The popular British TV program Gadget Man voted the product “the caravan for the 21st century” and camping magazines from South Korea, Poland and the US have written a number of articles about it too.

“The plan now is to try and break the speed record for a towed vehicle, some-thing we are planning to do next year. We will then expand and develop the concept with more versions, including developing a campervan version of the Tripbuddy,” he says. ✖

What happened next?Future following up

34 FUTURE BY SEMCON 1.2013

FUTURE BY SEMCON 1.2013 35

Inspired by racing cars, aeroplanes and luxury yachts, the entrepreneur Bill Davis has developed his version of a dream caravan – the prize-winning Tripbuddy. Three young engineers from Semcon assisted him.TEXT GITTAN CEDERVALL PHOTO TRIPBUDDY & CHRIS GLOAG

T he journey towards the prize-winning caravan Tripbuddy started when Bill Davis tried to tempt his family on a camping holiday.“They were less than enthusiastic about the prospect of living in a ‘beige box’! Cries of ‘uncool’ could be heard reverberating about the house every time I mentioned the word ‘caravan’.”Instead of feeling defeated, Bill decided to see it as a challenge to redefine the entire caravan concept – from construction and living area to design and image. How could the caravan concept attract new target groups and get more to take to the roads? Bill Davis has a background as an en-gineer in the automotive industry and it was a natural starting point to start using methods and tools nor-mally used to develop cars, boats and aeroplanes.“The one piece composite body, the ergo-nomic details, the aerodynamics and the whole vehicle dynamics have been devel-oped using the latest computer-aided technologies, such as CATIA, MSc

Patran, Nastran and ADAMS. We used scale models and wind tunnel tests to develop the aerodynamics and ensured that Tripbuddy met all the caravan safety standards and requirements,” explains Bill.THE INSPIRATION FOR the design, both for the exterior and interior, was drawn from iconic products includ-ing 1960’s campers and luxury modern yachts. The glazing is produced by a company more accustomed to

producing glazing systems for racing cars and aeroplanes, and the whole interior with its hard-wearing, functional design and its teak floor comes from a luxury yacht. One of the most unique functions of the Tripbuddy is the easily-accessible back door, which also acts as a roof to the inbuilt awning.The plan was to launch the Tripbuddy at the 2012 British Motorhome and Caravan Show. Beforehand it was voted “Best Camping Trailer of 2012” in the USA, but it had fallen behind schedule

A CARAVAN OF THE FUTURE

Bill DavisFounder and CEO, Tripbuddy

IN 2012 SEMCON HELPED ENGINEER BILL DAVIES TO DEVELOP HIS DREAM, A CARAVAN LIKE NO OTHER. TODAY, THREE YEARS ON, THE COMPANY’S BIGGEST PROBLEM IS THAT CUSTOMERS THINK THE PRODUCT IS TOO CHEAP. TEXT KARIN AASE PHOTO CHRIS GLOAG

The caravan for the 21st century – with quality that pays

Article in Future issue 1/2013.

FUTURE BY SEMCON  41

Does the name Linus Thorvalds sound familiar? If not then his creation, Linux, might. Despite the Finland-Swedish program-mer playing in the same league as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, he is somewhat of a hidden talent to most people. In technical cir-cles and the open-source movement he is however legendary.

TO TEACH HIMSELF programming he created his own operative system at the start of the 90s. He linked himself to what was known as the GNU project for open-source coding. Linux soon became the favourite with many technology nerds, with increasing numbers of people con-tributing to its development. Thorvalds now only represents a few per cent of the system’s core, symptomatic of open source coding. He does however own the brand name and works for his creation, but development is in the hands of the users.

And there are many of them. Goog-le’s Android is built on Linux, and even large chunks of Apple’s operative system has used codes and functions from the project. Linus Thorvalds is convinced that more companies will realize that open source coding is the way forward.

Linux and other open software have many followers, and it’s far from just un-derground developers that have realized its greatness. Apart from Google Android, there are a range of major corporations and authorities that believe in openness. The White House’s website was built using Drupal’s open environment.

The price is obviously a contributory factor. The cost of licence-free software is naturally less than for protected software. But there are many commercial open-source code players, and it’s the dynam-ics and possibilities that are attractive.

One of the main advantages of free, open software is security. To many it might sound a bit contradictory that it’s safer to let every Tom, Dick and Harry fiddle with the software than closing it off to just the company’s experts. But just like

our Finnish friend has demonstrated with his “Linus Law”: the more eyes that check and test, the quicker and safer bugs can be fixed. With a visible code you can also see and safeguard functions yourself.

Other visible benefits of open source coding include freedom, flexibility and compatibility.

Users can govern themselves and cus-tomize software according to their own needs. We often don’t need to rewrite software from the ground up, but just access it to make simple modifications, enabling the company to get its own optimal system. Do that with a licenced program and see what happens.

Freedom also means you get every specialized forum on the internet in support – you won’t find more dedicated help than that. It’s not just anybody that’s getting involved with open programming. When computer scientists from Lund analysed Android’s core it discovered that many of the improvements were made by developers at Apple.

Are there any drawbacks with open source coding then? That probably de-pends on who you ask. But openness in itself means that everyone is able to see and decide. The drawback possibly is that you need a certain level of skill to feel at home with the freedom of options offered by the programs. ✖

For and againstSource code

Open vs closed source code – the way forward?IS THE ROAD TO THE FUTURE OPEN OR IS IT TRAVELLING THROUGH A WELL­PROTECTED TUNNEL? THE BATTLE BETWEEN OPEN SOURCE CODES AND CLOSED DEVELOPMENT DATES BACK TO THE 60S, BUT THE LANDSCAPE HAS CHANGED. FUTURE HAS TESTED BOTH PHILOSOPHIES AND ANALYZED THE FORS AND AGAINSTS. TEXT JOHAN JARNEVING

“THERE ARE MANY COMMERCIAL OPEN-SOURCE CODE PLAY-ERS, AND IT’S THE DYNAMICS AND POS-SIBILITIES THAT ARE ATTRACTIVE.”

Open source – freedom to develop

42  FUTURE BY SEMCON

Why would we mere mor-tal users enter into the inner workings of the pro-grams and jeopardize and destroy vital information and major investments? Better to buy our way out. Pay for the programs that the company needs, get a telephone number in the event of any problems and a counterparty to blame if things go terribly wrong.

OPEN-SOURCE CODES for us are like tinkering with our cars. It’s nothing we want to do or even can do. A hotrod might look cool and deliver performance, but for most of us a brand new Volvo is a safer bet.

Choosing licenced, commercial soft-ware with closed source coding is an obvious choice for many companies and consumers, with good reason.

One is assurance. Software represents the majority of any company’s IT invest-ments, and they then want a counter-party to be there to provide customized support.

Another is pure convenience. You choose packaged software because you

don’t want to fix bugs yourself – or be in a debt of gratitude to an internet forum because you never contribute.

User-friendliness is another reason for choosing commercial software. They are developed with amateurs in mind, while open software is developed by experts for experts. The interface is easy for them, but not that obvious for people who want to just surf the internet, write or make a presentation.

There are of course more highly devel-oped options with open source coding, but among the common office programs

Microsoft Office is the global standard. Most people can work in them and they facilitate cooperation between organi-zations.

In many cases the commercial soft-ware is tied in with the hardware, with Apple as the torchbearer. The programs are developed to work not just with a computer, but in a number of units: smartphone, tablet and watch. If you mix in open programs then you will dis-turb the flow, at your own risk.

As an increasing number of users now work using cloud services and subscribe to programs as a service instead of installing a product in their computers, it looks as though closed source coding is becoming the most popular choice. Even programs open for downloading pull down the curtain for their inner workings when in a cloud.

The wall between open and closed has begun to crack. Android is open but commercial with Google as a supplier. Apple is expert at locking in users into its systems, but their programmers make mutual use of the open development environment. Many advocates for open source coding work on Mac computers and are showing that the way forward is two-way and the central line is mostly not an unbroken line. ✖

“SOFTWARE REPRESENTS THE MAJORITY OF ANY COMPANY’S IT INVESTMENTS, AND THEY THEN WANT A COUNTERPARTY TO BE THERE TO PROVIDE CUSTOMIZED SUPPORT.”

“Everything in the world is speeding up and it is impossible, or at least very dif-ficult, to be good at everything and find time to develop products at this lightning speed. Open development is the way forward,” says Johan Kristensson, who is leading the SMART & Embedded Network research at Semcon.

By being open to influences and

integrating with the world around us we become part of a dynamic environment. It’s give and take. When you no longer singlehandedly look after development you get a leverage effect and can reach levels that you would not otherwise achieve alone.

It’s a balancing act. In direct customer projects the development is often more

closed, mainly due to confidentiality reasons. But open development flows as a driving force in all projects. ✖

EXPERT’S OPINION

“Open development is the way forward”

Closed source – simplicity for common users

Johan Kristensson, Semcon.

FUTURE BY SEMCON  43

THE INTERNET OF THINGS

THE INTERNET OF THINGS is entering society at lightening speed. Within 5 years 25 billion units will be connected. IBM is investing USD 3 billion in starting a department solely for the Internet of Things (IoT). The internet in itself can grow to a thousand times its current size. Vinnova in Sweden has formulated a national agenda for safeguarding the country’s competitive strength when the internet changes everything again.

The current distinction between a digital and physical reality will be history. Microscopic sensors and computers are being integrated into industrial robots, vehicles, training shoes, milk cartons, fridges, pillows, clothes, pets and us. Everything around us can be connected and managed in the virtual world. The milk carton example that sends a signal to the shop when its time to refill has been tried before, but it might now be reality. Just like autonomous cars and

automatic diagnostics tools. Getting things to talk to each other and exchange

information was one of the basic concepts of the real internet pioneers. The IoT is a natural develop-ment and that this breakthrough is happening now is because processors are becoming more energy efficient. Microprocessors and mobile connectivity are the technical prerequisites for IoT, but for the technology to become reality requires many players, companies and authorities to start cooperating and agreeing on standards.

Will IoT mean that our gadgets get their own consciousness? Not really, but they will act as if they are aware of their existence, their surroundings and their task. They will be able to help us do things that we find difficult remembering, like watering the plants, looking in blind spots or going to our doctor’s appointment.

THE INTERNET IS MOVING INTO ALL OUR GADGETS. THOSE

WHO KEEP UP AND EXPLOIT THE OPPORTUNITIES WILL HAVE

AN ADVANTAGE OVER THE COMPETITION.

CONNECTIVITY IS MAKING AN IMPACT ON SOCIETY. A COMPUTER IN EVERY

HOME BECAME A MORE ADVANCED COMPUTER IN EVERY HAND, AND IS

NOW A TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER IN EVERYTHING WE SEE. WE ARE

BECOMING MORE MOBILE, ALWAYS CONNECTED. FUTURE LISTS SEVEN

NODES IN THE CONNECTED FUTURE. TEXT JOHAN JARNEVING ILLUSTRATION STUART KINLOUGH

7 WAYS TO CONNECT FOR THE FUTURE

The listConnectivity

44  FUTURE BY SEMCON

FUTURE BY SEMCON  45

PERSONAL INTEGRITYA DANGER WITH THE INTERNET OF THINGS IS THAT OUR LIVES WILL BE MAPPED OUT MORE. IT WILL BE IMPORTANT TO CONSIDER HOW TO SAFEGUARD USERS’ INTEGRITY.

“PRIVACY IS DEAD, get over it” was a much-repeated statement from the early internet. If we leave traces behind us through the use of web readers in our com-puters, GPS in our cars and smart phones in our hand, what data will we leave behind us when the internet is em-bedded in everything?The risk increases with more data, but it’s not clear if personal integrity will be lost with the internet of things. One of the points of integrated micro-computers is the possibility of personal settings. Your smart fridge will be programmed according to your eating habits and household budget. Technology is embedded and can be used to safeguard privacy from the start.

3PORTABLE HEALTH

A BRACELET THAT measures the number of steps you take and your heart rate, which keeps a diary of your blood pressure, sleep and exercise habits. The first products with close-contact technology are noth-ing new, but they are far more than just a fad. The potential is huge, with most interest being shown by the health service. Early diagnoses and preventative healthcare mean doctors can do wonders for public health. And you don’t need to wear a bracelet like you did in 2014, the technology will be inside you.

46  FUTURE BY SEMCON

4 PRODUCTS WILL BE SERVICES

A FEW YEARS AGO, Adobe, the software developer behind Photoshop, stopped supplying its software as products. No more CDs. Instead users pay monthly and work in clouds. Picture editing is a service, not a product. A direct result of faster and cheaper con-nectivity and a development that affects the entire industry. Revenues will be in services in the connected future.

5ALTERED ECOSYSTEM

FOR BILLIONS OF CONNECTED things to work symbi-otically they need a common ecosystem in the form of a software interface. APIs that can combine data from different sources and interpret between units. For development to really get going, and at a reasona-ble cost, the industry needs to find a standard.

6THE ART OF GETTING PAID

THAT THE CONNECTED world will provide untold op-portunities for smarter traffic, more efficient health-care and virtual entertainment is obvious. But where is the shop in the Internet of Things? Constructing and running the infrastructure is a source of income. At the application level it is all about doing something with all the data and creating a benefit for users by com-bining information and technology.

7CHEAPER TECHNOLOGY

THE CONNECTED WORLD will really take off when technology that ties in products with each other drop in price and can save energy. This task now looks pos-sible with updated Bluetooth with additional Smart. Modern Bluetooth can handle mesh networks and is the last value-for-money link for global connectivity.

FUTURE BY SEMCON  47