Blog articles from 02/2017

Parks Associates held its eighth-annual Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer this week at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, Texas. The annual conference included research presentations from the firm’s analysts, with industry leaders examining the expanding market for energy solutions and home controls and its impact on utilities, service providers, retailers, manufacturers, and consumers. During the event, Parks Associates held several contests for attendees and would like...

Parks Associates is supporting the Saudi Smart Cities Conference, which will take place May 16-18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The event will explore how to create successful collaboration between public and private sectors, the monetization opportunities that will help boost infrastructure, increase investment, make cities sustainable and improve quality of life for all. With the economic diversification plans in place, key government authorities are focused on providing the best...

Alton Martin, Chief Evangelist at Trusource Labs, provided insight on several key industry trends for Parks Associates’  eighth-annual Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer , which was held February 20-22 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, Texas: What do you think is the most challenging issue for your company as it relates to the residential energy management market? As a supplier to the providers of residential power, the biggest impact we see is the...

Many autonomous car developers use multiple sensors in their test cars—optical sensors, radars, LiDAR, and ultrasonic sensors. Each sensor has advantages over others. Optical sensors can detect lane markings and changing traffic lights. Radar can travel under vehicles in order to detect objects that would be obscured by other cars, and radar performs well in rain and complete darkness. LiDAR can, more accurately than other sensors, detect the presence of objects to create a 3D map with...

On February 8th, Verizon moved to introduce its new—and first—smart watch, the Wear24 . The Wear24 is one of the first Android Wear 2.0 devices. Its standout feature is that it offers LTE connectivity, and is capable of making and receiving calls and texts without being paired to a nearby smartphone. (You still need to have a phone on Verizon's network, though.) Like the LG Watch Sport—another Wear 2.0 device, developed by LG in partnership with Google—the Wear24 offers...

Major appliances have always offered convenience, reduction of labor, and better results over formerly manual tasks, such as washing clothes in the river or cooking over an open fire. International research firm Parks Associates will join Appliance Design to host the webinar “ Advancing Ease of Use through Sensors and Appliance Automation ,” which will examine how today’s smart appliances are leveraging innovative sensor technologies to evaluate appliance task status,...

Almost everyone in the autonomous car industry thinks autonomous cars will make us safer. Those who present on autonomous cars repeat the stats: 1.2 million people worldwide die every year in car collisions, and in America alone there are 33,000 collision-caused deaths each year. 94% of those collisions involve human error. Autonomous cars can eliminate a significant number of those fatalities. Even after a Florida driver was involved in a fatal Tesla crash while using the car’s...

The sharing economy is a phenomenon describing new business models built on the proliferation of smartphone and app use that are supported by shared resources from device owners. These business models are augmented by real-time data including location, instant gratification, on-demand pricing, and easy payment options. From sharing reviews through Yelp to sharing car rides using Uber, smartphone owners and app users have become suppliers of resources and participants of new business use...