Bright Idea
Bright Idea: Formula Generator
Seattle startup provides one-stop shopping for algorithms.
Computers are getting more intelligent because of algorithms those sets of instructions that enable devices to better handle complex tasks such as understanding and interpreting images and language. Few of these algorithms end up being used outside academia, so Algorithmia, a Seattle startup, is creating a sort of algorithm marketplace, which it curates through partnerships…
Bright Idea: Getting Real
Envelop VR is pushing into new tech worlds.
Bob Berry and Jon Mavor moved to Seattle to work on video game technology. We knew we wanted to do something beyond games but we werent sure what, says Berry. The answer came in 2014 when Berry tested an early virtual-reality system at Valve Corporation, the Bellevue video game giant. There was a hand-built headset…
Bright Idea: Have You Heard?
Ear infections are conundrums for doctors. Failure to properly treat otitis media infection of the middle ear can lead to a permanent loss of hearing. That chilling possibility and the difficulty in making a correct diagnosis often leads doctors to overprescribe antibiotics, which can contribute to drug resistance. Seattles OtoNexus Medical Technologies has developed a…
Bright Idea: Not a Dry Eye
There is no cure for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss among older people and an affliction expected to affect some 20 million people in the United States by 2020. But Seattle-based LumiThera may have found a way to slow eye deterioration and improve vision. The companys device uses LED…
Bright Idea: It Takes a (Virtual) Village
Taking care of an elderly adult living at home is a challenge. Increasingly, those duties fall to a number of people, including home-care workers, doctors, therapists and relatives. Is Grandma eating right? Is she taking her pills? Whos taking her to the dentist? How do you coordinate all those activities while ensuring nothing is forgotten?…
Bright Idea: Fired Up
Conventional air-emission-control systems attack the problem at the smokestack with filters and scrubbers. ClearSign Combustion Corp. aims its emission-control technology at a much earlier point in the process, where those emissions are first created: at the flame. The Tukwila company is developing two approaches to reducing pollutants by controlling the flame used in industrial boilers,…
Bright Idea: Loss Leaders
Ever find yourself losing things? Two local companies are offering solutions. Kirkland-based Pebblebee has a $25 tracking device called Honey thats the size of a poker chip and can be attached to things like keys, pet collars and TV remotes so they can be tracked down easily. Founded by longtime friends and former Boeing engineers…
Bright Idea: A New Dimension
Seattle startup Glowforge is developing a desktop laser device that can create three-dimensional objects from wood, leather, acrylic and other material. Unlike 3D printers, which build items by extruding a filament of plastic to create a three-dimensional model, Glowforges device is subtractive. It can cut three-dimensional objects from wood or metal, and cut sheets of…
Bright Idea: Qumulo Makes Data Storage Smarter
In this age of big data, more information is created in days than in all the centuries that went before. Whether its online retailers, cancer researchers or oil companies, every field is rushing to collect as much data as possible. As the methods of analyzing this raw information advance, however, the buckets in which the…
Bright Idea: Keeping Tabs on Your Credit Card’s Whereabouts
With fraud so rampant, its no wonder credit card companies are quick to freeze purchases when they spot a departure from routine by, say, noting a credit card was used hundreds of miles from home. Bellevue-based Finsphere has found a way around that inconvenience. Visa recently announced that it licensed Finsphere technology to offer what…
Bright Idea: Steal Trap
As the number of devices connected to the internet explodes analysts estimate there will be more than 30 billion within the next five years so open many more doors through which hackers can penetrate corporate networks. The hackers who stole 40 million credit and debit card numbers from Target used information from a heating and…
Bright Idea: Why Not Hydrogen?
Hydrogen has been the holy grail of energy for decades because it can be produced relatively simply using electricity and water and creates only water as a byproduct when used. Unfortunately, the high cost of liquefying and storing the gas has made it uneconomical for all but a few specialized applications. So while Honda, Toyota…
Bright Idea: Growing Concern
Farmers who can raise crop yields while responding to issues like climate change and water scarcity have a significant advantage. Toward that end, a Pullman firm launched in 2012 by scientists at Washington State University sells hardy plantlets it grows in a lab using secret sauces of nutrients. Think of [plants in] a jar with…