Technology

Casio Chairman and CEO Kazuo Kashio passed on June 19, 2018 at the age of 89. The cause of death was pneumonia.

Kashio was the third eldest of the four brothers who founded Casio Computer in 1957. Their first product, the all-electric 14-A calculator, led to the release of the Casio Mini calculator in 1972, a product that brought electronic calculators into the mainstream.

Casiobiggest claim to fame was Kashioown idea. The CEO looked at quartz watches in the 1980s and saw that they were delicate and easy to break. With a little extra outer cladding and some internal shock resistance systems, however, he was able to create a watch that could truly stand up to heavy wear. The first G-Shock, released in 1983, paved the way for truly rugged watches and the company recently celebrated the 100 millionth G-Shock sold last August.

The company, Kashio Manufacturing, began in 1947 with a unique product: a cigarette clip that let users smoke the last bit of each butt. In the 1970s, the Kashio family saw the move to electronic counting machines and brought some of the first portable and pocket calculators to market alongside the ultra popular F-91W LCD watch and the Cassiopeia PDA. The company also created the first LCD digital camera, the QV-10 and the popular Casiotone keyboards.

He is survived by his son, Kazuhiro Kashio, who is the current Casio president.

I&ve been very lucky to have been in the animation industry since the mid-1980s, and I have lived through my share of big disruptions — most of them having to do with new technologies. Whatgoing on today is as significant as anything I&ve seen before, but itbeing driven by a whole new set of forces.

Herea quick survey of trends in the animation landscape that have me pretty optimistic about the future.

Technology is vanishing

By &vanishing,& I don&t mean going away; I mean disappearing from view. I&ve always said, &When technology can disappear, thatwhen creativity can really begin.&

For the past 20 years, feature-film animation in particular has been an arms race of studios like Pixar and DreamWorks trying to out-engineer each other to deliver high-end character performances and visual effects that no one had ever seen. As a result, studios spent tens of millions of dollars becoming, essentially, IT companies with teams of creators producing stories to demonstrate their latest breakthroughs. Now, thanks to simpler, more intuitive tools, technology is becoming less intrusive in the creative process and animators can finally get back to doing what they love: telling stories.

New distribution platforms are driving demand

The explosion of new outlets on cable, over-the-top and online, is creating unprecedented opportunities for animated content in a wide range of styles, genres and formats. Netflix has found an audience for all kinds of quirky original animated programs, and its competitors are following suit. Cable networks are pushing the envelope in all kinds of ways, as well.

These new channels are opening up the world to artists and studios. Now anyone can create a compelling story in their basement and the world will have a chance to see it. And if it finds its audience, it can be as big as any studio release. Never before has that been possible.

Digital imagery is invading the physical world

If you love animation and digital imagery, you&re no longer limited to watching it on a screen. Itspilling out into the world around us on mobile devices, augmented and virtual reality headsets, immersive smart spaces, holograms, giant flat panels and who knows whatnext

The thing is, most of those hardware innovations are still waiting for their &killer app& — that must-have content or experience that pulls audiences to the new ways of experiencing stories. I firmly believe that animation and visual storytelling is going to drive those killer apps, particularly in VR.

Globally distributed workflow is transforming teamwork

The idea of a global distributed workforce isn&t new to most businesses, but itsomewhat new for animation production. Sure, offshore outsourcing has been happening for years, but animation, at its best, is massively collaborative. Teams have to collaborate and share their ideas to help a story reach its full potential. Until recently, the connective technology hasn&t been up to the task. Now, at last, the cloud makes a lot of those limitations obsolete. It doesn&t matter if your teammate is sitting at the next desk or in Seoul, Dublin or Mexico City. And that means…

New voices are joining the conversation

All these trends are lowering the barriers and cost to entry for upstarts around the world. That means we&ll be hearing from lots of people and perspectives that haven&t been part of the animation industry before. In a world where creativity is the coin of the realm, that means we&re all going to be a whole lot richer.

Honk Technologies, a marketplace for towing services for consumers and insurance companies, has raised $18 million in a new round of funding a little over a year after inking a massive contract with the insurance company, Farmers.

The investment was led by Altpoint Ventures, with participation from existing investors Structure Capital and Venture 51.

The company said it would use the funds to build on its network of 75,000 tow truckers and roadside assisters, as well as add new services for insurers, fleet managers and manufacturers.

Company chief executive Corey Brundage declined to comment on the companyrevenue, path to profitability or valuation in an interview.

Honk basically applies to the towing business the same technology ride-hailing uses, making trucks more responsive and slashing the time that a customer waits to get help when they need it, according to Brundage.

As we wrote last year,roadside assistance is a huge, fragmented market. According to the market research firm, IBISWorld, customers spend roughly $6 billion on roadside assistance services.

Customers call for a tow directly from Honk via mobile web or the companyapp to find a nearby professional and track the location and estimated time of arrival of their tow truck in real time. Insurance companies, auto OEMs and fleets use the companytransparent platform to reduce wait times by over 50 percent, improve customer satisfaction, harness their roadside assistance data and receive industry leading net promoter scores, according to a statement.