InterDigital’s innovations enable new technologies and solutions that make connected ecosystems more immersive, while helping to establish a more seamless interface between physical, digital, and virtual worlds.

Enabling the Technology of Tomorrow

InterDigital Lab Director Gaël Seydoux explores the fine line between "Digital Human or Human Digital?" and the incredible potential for synthetic media in our connected future at the virtual Infinity Festival – Hollywood on January 6th, 2021.

Gaël Seydoux explores the fine line between "Digital Human or Human Digital?"

In concert with our efforts to compress and deliver high bandwidth video, InterDigital R&I’s Immersive Lab also demonstrated its innovative work to enhance immersive experiences that meet our interactive media demands.

Valérie Allié and Julian Fleureau’s demo on MPEG Metadata for Immersive Video outlined both the steps to create volumetric video and the requisite format for its distribution. Unlike flat 2D video experiences, volumetric video is much larger and cannot be streamed over traditional networks. In addition, volumetric video requires the capture of real video through camera rigs, the development of computer-generated content, the creation of a composite film sequence using VFX tools, and the interpolation of a video’s view to create a smooth, unbroken rendering of immersive content from the user’s point of view.

Volumetric video is hailed as the next generation of video content where users can feel the sensations of depth and parallax for more natural and immersive video experiences. As AR, VR, and 3D video become a more mainstream consumer demand, providers will require tools to deliver the metadata necessary to produce a fluid, immersive or mixed reality video experience from the perspective of each viewer. As a result, content providers may face challenges in maintaining high video quality while supporting user viewpoint adaptation and low latency.

Volumetric Video: the MPEG “Metadata for Immersive Video”

In concert with our efforts to compress and deliver high bandwidth video, InterDigital R&I’s Immersive Lab also demonstrated its innovative work to enhance immersive experiences that meet our interactive media demands. To give context to the importance of its technological contributions, Immersive Lab Technical Area Leader Valérie Allié delivered a presentation on the challenges and potential of volumetric video and the various applications in which it might be deployed.

Volumetric Overview

The InterDigital Imaging Science Lab’s demo on Point Cloud Compression, presented by Céline Guede and Ralf Schaefer, built upon the HEVC video coding standard to showcase the vital need for video compression mechanisms to enjoy increasingly immersive and interactive video experiences in VR, AR, and 3D imagery.

Point Clouds are sets of tiny “points” grouped together to make a 3D image. Point Cloud has become a popular method for AR and VR video composition, 3D cultural heritage and modeling, and geographic maps for autonomous cars. While this method has many benefits, it is important to remember that each Point Cloud video frame typically has 800,000 points, which translates to 1,5000 MBps uncompressed – a massive amount of video bandwidth. To address this challenge, our Imaging Science Lab has participated in the development of a Point Cloud Compression method being standardized in MPEG to support widespread industry adoption of the Point Cloud format for immersive video. InterDigital showcased its video-based Point Cloud Compression capabilities in a Point Cloud-created AR video demo streamed to a commercially available smartphone in real-time. This technique will support the crisp, low-latency deployment of immersive video experiences through existing network infrastructure and devices.

V- PCC: The First MPEG Codec for Point Cloud Compression

This video highlights InterDigital's involvement in the recent “Urban Hacking in 5G” event in Bristol. The event saw competing creative software teams use 5G technology, specifically mobile edge computing, to design and implement applications that deliver new media experiences within urban settings.

FLAME – Facility for Large-scale Adaptive Media Experimentation – a European H2020 project, seeks to transform the user experience by delivering faster access to media and new services through 5G.

InterDigital provided its Service-Based Architecture (SBA) solution at the heart of the FLAME platform. The SBA solution utilizes InterDigital’s FLIPS (Flexible IP Services) technology suite to combine multicast technology with content caching and enables HTTP requests to be flexibly routed on top of an SDN-based transport network. By using FLIPS, latency can be dramatically reduced and throughput increased, resulting in higher resource efficiency and speed of delivery for IP-based services. This SBA solution has recently been included as one of three possible deployment choices for 3GPP’s enhanced SBA in the current Release 16 specification.

The event was designed to create a sustainable Future Media Internet ecosystem through innovation embedded on the 5GUK Test Network infrastructure. Software teams were challenged to create inclusive, participative and entertainment experiences that could potentially be enjoyed by the public.

FLAME - Participation at "Urban Hacking in 5G 2019"

Gaël Seydoux, Research & Innovation Director at Technicolor, discusses Volumetric Technology live from the InterDigital booth at MWC19 in Barcelona.

MWC19: Volumetric Technology

See how InterDigital’s Service-based Architecture (SBA) platform is currently being deployed and evaluated in Bristol and Barcelona in multi-partner initiatives such as the Horizon2020 FLAME and the UK-funded Smart Tourism projects. The demo will show performance benefits across the network through Layer 2 multicast, as well as the terminal. These benefits include increasing the flexibility of network-wide service deployments as mobile applications install and facilitate dynamic mobile function offloading, which improves usability and user experience beyond current smartphone-centric applications.

MWC19: 5G Core Network Testbeds

Join Ravikumar Pragada, Senior Principal Engineer at InterDigital, as he discusses what’s happening in 5G Standards, and what's coming next for Beyond 5G technology.

MWC19: Beyond 5G Standards Evolution

Don Tian, Senior Principal Engineer at InterDigital, discusses the importance of video standards as it relates to 5G live from the InterDigital booth at MWC19 in Barcelona.

MWC19: 360° Video Standards

Join Alan Carlton, VP InterDigital Labs, as he discusses Edge Computing at MWC19.

MWC19: Edge Computing Interview

Volumetric content is the future generation of video that is generated by a set of multiple cameras, a Light Field Acquisition system. Join Arno Schubert, Project Manager at Technicolor Research and Innovation for a demonstration on image acquisition with a multi camera set-up, calculating a volumetric portrait that will be rendered on any smartphone for an immersive view experience. See how a volumetric video can lead to an immersive and interactive experience on a simple 2D screen, sensing depth and parallax, like watching a scene through a real window.

MWC19: Volumetric Photobooth

This demonstration hosted by Robert Gazda, Senior Director of Engineering at InterDigital, highlights the benefits of Edge Computing combined with 5G Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) – to realize a Mission Critical Automation application vertical. See how drones operate and interact autonomously in a dense urban environment, navigating obstructed views due to buildings by reporting telemetry and sensor information to an Edge-enabled Collaborative Collision Detection and Avoidance (DAA) service, deployed at the “extreme edge” of the network (e.g. point of access sites). Learn how InterDigital realized this application and others utilizing our AdvantEDGE platform, an agile mobile edge emulation environment.

5G Edge – Autonomous Drones on AdvantEDGE

MWC19: 5G Edge – Autonomous Drones on AdvantEDGE

This demonstration hosted by Charles Turyagyenda, Staff Engineer at InterDigital, highlights the benefits of micro-services based distributed computing at the extreme edge of the 5G network. Experience E2E 360 video streaming deployed cost-efficiently across three tiers of computing nodes (low, medium and high end) all under unified orchestration and control. The demo features two 360-degree cameras, each capturing a separate event happening in a different area of the booth, and users can view video streaming from either camera location, using a smartphone or oculus rift goggles while consuming only a fraction of the bandwidth.

5G-CORAL -- Virtual Reality Video Streaming

MWC19: 5G-CORAL - Virtual Reality Video Streaming

This joint demo of InterDigital Inc. and Technicolor Research & Innovation hosted by Jun Han, Principal Engineer at InterDigital, will showcase 360° video streaming from 13 pre-recorded camera views, each with 2kx2k color and depth, stored in HEVC video format in an MPEG-DASH server. Based on viewer position and orientation, seven camera views are adaptively streamed to the DASH client. Video streaming segments are decoded, views are synthesized and rendered to display in real time at 30fps. See how a Head Tracker tracks a human face, observe motion parallax, and use a joystick to track 360° video views.

360° Video Experience with Adaptive Streaming

MWC19: 360° Video Experience with Adaptive Streaming

Join Fred Schreider, Senior Director of Engineering at InterDigital as he discusses how mmWave is a continuing part of the 5G evolution, from testbeds to new standards initiatives. Take a remote look at live demonstrations from our labs in New York, which showcase our 28GHz NR development platform with beam management between UE and gNB. Get a firsthand view of our available research platforms including 60GHz Edgelink™, a NR Modem Processing Unit, and a 28GHz phased array Mast Head Unit.

MWC19: 5G Radio Access Testbeds

As part of the first 5G-CORAL trial, Nov. 2, 2018, UC3M and InterDigital demonstrate Edge Robotics: Synchronize Delivery and Cleaning Services. A series of demos, conducted by InterDigital and other members of the 5G-CORAL consortium took place at Global Mall Nangang Station Store in Taipei, Taiwan.

First 5G-CORAL Trial – Edge Robotics: Synchronize Delivery + Cleaning Services | UC3M and InterDigital

As part of the first 5G-CORAL trial, Nov. 2, 2018, Charles Turyagenya, Staff Engineer, InterDigital demonstrates virtual reality in the form of adaptive 360-degree video streaming over the 5G-CORAL solution. A series of demos, conducted by InterDigital and other members of the 5G-CORAL consortium, took place at Global Mall Nangang Station Store in Taipei, Taiwan.

First 5G-CORAL Trial – Virtual Reality InterDigital

Alain Mourad, Director, InterDigital Europe, provides an overview of the first 5G-CORAL trial, Nov. 2, 2018. A series of demos, conducted by InterDigital and other members of the 5G-CORAL consortium took place at Global Mall Nangang Station Store in Taipei, Taiwan.

First 5G–CORAL Trial Overview InterDigital

A fully functional ‘5G’ network will involve a wide variety of technologies and capabilities. In this video, InterDigital's Alan Carlton walks us through six key arguments that position the Edge as most important to 5G and the 5G business cases. This talk is a clip from the Mobile World Congress 2018 session titled, "Debate: Do 5G Business Cases Depend More on Core or Edge Upgrades?". If you would like to watch the full debate, 

Alan Carlton Debates Why 5G Business Cases Depend More on Edge Upgrades

In this MWC18 demonstration, InterDigital's Dirk Trossen and Sebastian Robitzsch showcase how our FLIPS platform provides a SW-based solution on top of proliferating 5G technologies (SDN and NFV).

MWC18: 5G Networks Demo

During MWC18, InterDigital's Yong He demonstrated an end-to-end 360 video live streaming platform with AR capabilities that is built upon a series of state-of-the-art video standards, including MPEG Ominidirectional Media Format (OMAF), the latest MPEG-Immersive standard, MPEG DASH, and the most efficient video compression standard H.265/HEVC.

MWC18: 5G Video Experience Demo

In this MWC18 demonstration, Chordant's Ryan Drummond shows the capability of the Chordant platform to interface with 3GPP Service Capability Exposure Function (SCEF).

MWC18: Chordant - SCEF Interface

In this MWC18 demonstration, InterDigital's Phil Leithead and Lisa Lam show some of the fundamental concepts enabling millimeter wave 5G integration with the existing LTE standard in nonstandalone mode.

MWC18: 5G Air Interface Demo

5G, more than any previous generation, promises to enable a diverse range of applications, services, and user experiences: from ultra-high definition video, fiber-quality mobile broadband, massive IoT, and mission critical automation (vehicles, drones, smart factories, etc.). To meet this challenge, new ways of architecting networks needs to be considered. Multi-Access (or Mobile) Edge Computing (MEC), where cloud and application resources are embedded within or alongside radio networks, is an evolutionary network architecture concept, which will help 5G live up to it’s potential as a “living network”. This MWC18 panel discusses how MEC enables several application verticals that are central to the 5G experience.

MWC18: Delivering the 5G Experience with Mobile Edge Services

MEC_Panel-mobile.mp4

In this MWC18 demonstration, Chordant's Steve Burr walks us through an airport use case where edge processing facilitates both machine vision and low latency critical decisions.

MWC18: Chordant - Edge Processing

5G is happening now, and the upcoming years will see many new testbeds and trial networks. The testbeds will lay and validate the foundation of 5G, but will also set opportunities for new research initiatives. This MWC18 panel looks at the breadth of international activities on-going with 5G testbeds and discusses differences in approaches and expectations.

MWC18: Research Directions for 5G (and Beyond) Testbeds

In this MWC18 interview, Robert "Bob" DiFazio gives The Mobile Network an inside look at the new technologies that InterDigital is trialling right now in operator test beds.

MWC18: Interview with TMN - At the Telco Innovation Interface

InterDigital's CCO Patrick Van de Wille takes us on a tour of the MWC 2018 InterDigital booth and provides insight into technology demonstrations, the InterDigital studio space, and other happenings that occurred at the show.

MWC18: InterDigital Booth Tour

Walkthrough-mobile.mp4

In this MWC18 interview with The Mobile Network, Dirk Trossen outlines why networks need an intelligent edge, and describes new routing technologies that can enable it. He also says that edge compute goes beyond the mobile network operator.

MWC18: Interview with TMN - Building the Intelligent 5G Edge

This MWC18 panel debate features industry leaders from China Telecom, Affirmed Networks, 3GPP, Qualcomm, ECI Telecom, ZTE and InterDigital discussing core versus edge; what evolution will be more important; just how intertwined will it be; and where will the greatest value be derived.

MWC18 Session "Debate: Do 5G Business Cases Depend More on Core or Edge Upgrades?

In 2009, Dr. George Smith received the Nobel Prize for Physics along with his partner William Boyle for their invention, the charge-coupled device (CCD). The CCD made digital imaging possible, from the earliest fax machines through modern cell phone cameras, changing the technology landscape forever. In this video, Dr. Smith sits down with one of our top innovators, Diana Pani, for a discussion on innovation.

Dr. George Smith: 2009 Nobel Prize Winner for Physics

So much has been achieved... and yet, the possibilities of mobile communications are perhaps just beginning to expand. Engineers glimpse into what the future might hold.

Future of Product Connectivity

In this video, Dirk Trossen, Senior Principal Engineer at InterDigital Europe, talks about the Next Generation Internet as an internet that can be made personal via an application. A human centric way to look at the internet.

Next Generation Internet with Dirk Trossen

Chordant™, an InterDigital business, is part of a global company passionate about innovation and a standards-based approach that stimulates thriving global ecosystems.

About Chordant

InterDigital's Ken Figueredo and Business Strategy Task Group's Jim Morrish sit down with the Industrial Internet Consortium to discuss each company's role in offering internet solutions and the importance of an industrial internet business strategy and innovation framework.

The Importance of an Industrial Internet Business Strategy & Innovation Framework

InterDigital's Mika Rasinkangas elaborates on InterDigital's role in providing horizontal software platforms across different industries, as well as InterDigital's work on the data marketplace, which brings together IoT data from multiple sources and offers it up to subscribers.

Mika Rasinkangas - Making IoT Technologies Available Through the Data Marketplace

IoT solutions need to offer immediate alleviation of key problem points, while offering a framework for continuous and cumulative solutions. Discover how the oneTRANSPORT initiative is doing just that with Watford.

oneTRANSPORT: Watford Case Study

InterDigital and HARMAN are working together towards interoperability of devices for smart buildings and smart cities. HARMAN offers gateway devices that offers multiple layers of interoperability with different devices and different types of connectivity. InterDigital provides the interoperability between different data sources. Together, we provide highly compelling IoT solution that enables faster time-to-market and revenue, and reduced complexity and lowered costs.

InterDigital & HARMAN - Delivering Interoperability to IoT Solutions

At NAB 2017, Ericsson demonstrated 8K 360-degree video experience utilizing InterDigital's 8K content. Check out the demo here!

NAB 2017: InterDigital and Ericsson Demo 8K 360-Degree Video

InterDigital IoT Solution's Director of Product Management, Vanja Subotic and Lead IoT Consultant Nadine Manjaro discuss InterDigital's IoT platform, the IoT automotive segment, and solving issues such as data and device management.

eIoT Summit: Dr. Vanja Subotic and Nadine Manjaro Discuss IoT Solutions

Light Reading's Ray Le Maistre discusses 5G and IoT with InterDigital's Alan Carlton at Mobile World Congress 2017.

MWC17: Light Reading Talks 5G and IoT with Alan Carlton

InterDigital's Nick Podias discusses the smart cities and smart building demonstrations in cooperation with partners, Harman Connected Services and Entrust Datacard, at Mobile World Congress 2017.

MWC17: Smart Cities & Smart Buildings

InterDigital's Yong He demonstrates a personalized virtual reality platform at Mobile World Congress 2017.

MWC17: Personalized Virtual Reality

InterDigital's Fred Schreider talks through a real-time 3D “Remote Surgery: 4G vs. 5G” game application and explains the technology powering the application, Crosshaul with InterDigital’s EdgeLink™ 60GHz Platform, at Mobile World Congress 2017.

MWC17: 5G-Crosshaul with EdgeLink™ Platform

InterDigital's Dirk Trossen and Sebastian Robitzsch demonstrate a next generation IP networking platform at Mobile World Congress 2017.

MWC17: Next Gen IP Networking

InterDigital and CA Technologies demonstrate a Utilities Meter Management and Data Collection solution which helps Utilities to optimize IT infrastructure through reduced cost, rapid notification and repair and improve customer experience as well as create new revenue stream through data as a service at Mobile World Congress 2017.

MWC17: Utilities Meter Management and Data Collection Solution

InterDigital's Innovation Partners and The Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC) demonstrate their Contextual Driving Platform at Mobile World Congress 2017.

MWC17: Contextual Driving Platform

InterDigital's CCO Patrick Van de Wille takes us on a tour of the MWC 2017 InterDigital booth and provides insight into the technology demonstrations presented at the show.

MWC17: InterDigital Booth Tour

In this RCR Wireless interview, InterDigital's Jim Nolan discusses the company's IoT solutions as well as IoT standards and its ecosystem and challenges, partnerships, vertical deployments, smart cities, and answers the question: Does business drive the tech or does tech drive the business.

MWC17: Interview with EVP, IoT Solutions, Jim Nolan

Can we make the Wild West of IoT secure and interoperable? TIA NOW convenes a panel of participants of the TIA CTO Council meeting to discuss. Joining TIA NOW is Chris Drake, CTO at iconectiv; Jim Nolan, EVP of IoT Solutions at InterDigital and Mihai Voicu, Chief Security Officer at Telit.

IoT Security and Interoperability at TIA's CTO Council Meeting

Get a quick view into InterDigital IoT in this brief overview video.

InterDigital IoT Overview

Get a quick view into InterDigital IoT Solutions in this brief overview video.

InterDigital IoT Solutions Overview

Learn how industrial structural health monitoring can facilitate cost-effective predictive and preventative maintenance for oil & gas and other industries.

Industrial Structural Health Monitoring

Check out this video to discover how smart buildings can provide automation and efficiencies to commerical real estate environments.

Smart Buildings

Discover how environmental monitoring can enable innovative smart cities applications that include air quality monitoring, water and waste management.

Environmental Monitoring

Check out this demonstration for the H2020 5GPPP 5G-Crosshaul consortium that integrates InterDigital's EdgeLink™ system into an integrated fronthaul and backhaul trial at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin.

5G Crosshaul: mmW Integrated Fronthaul and Backhaul

You might be wondering, “who is InterDigital?” What do we do, and how have we impacted the technology of today – and tomorrow? Check out this video to learn the answers and more!

InterDigital: Creating the Living Network

TIA NOW talks with InterDigital's Jim Nolan about joint ventures, new applications and commercial IoT Platforms based on oneM2M™ standards.

TIA NOW Talks IoT with InterDigital's Jim Nolan

Discover the oneTRANSPORT initiative that utilizes InterDigital's market leading oneM2M™ based IoT platform, oneMPOWER™ powered by wot.io™.

oneTRANSPORT - Open Marketplace for Data

At 5G World, InterDigital's Dirk Trossen demonstrates and explains our Next Generation Networks platform. The platform is a hybrid of pure ICN and IP, to leverage the best of both: re-introducing multicast, particularly for HTTP unicast scenarios, as a way to drive down bandwidth costs. Watch the video to learn more!

5G World: Dirk Trossen Talks Next Gen Networks

B.K. Yi, CTO at InterDigital, tells the TIA NOW audience what the milestones are for 5G technologies, from the point of view of network service providers at the TIA 2016 Network of the Future Conference, in Dallas, TX.

TIA 2016 - 5G: Milestones for Network Service Providers

High speed and low latency are expected to be cornerstone 5G requirements, particularly for the delivery of virtual reality and augmented reality. Discover how InterDigital utilized its EdgeHaulTM millimeter-wave mesh backhaul technology to deliver a live, functioning virtual reality telepresence use case at MWC ‘16.

MWC16: EdgeHaul & Future 5G research with Doug Castor

At MWC ’16, we utilized our millimeter wave 5G technology to live stream a tour guided by Patrick Van de Wille, Chief Communications Officer in which he interviewed some of our subject matter experts on the main topics and demonstrations within the InterDigital booth. 

MWC16: Tour of InterDigital Demos

InterDigital Europe's Dirk Trossen provides his view on the role of NFV and SDN in the 5G space in this episode of RCR Wireless' NFV/SDN Reality Check.

NFV and SDN in 5G - RCR Wireless' NFV/SDN Reality Check Episode 34

Packet losses due to fading and interference are often misinterpreted as indications of congestion, causing unnecessary decrease in the data sending rate due to congestion control at higher layer protocols. For delay-constrained applications such as video teleconferencing, packet losses can be seen and felt... This video introduces InterDigital Lab's congestion-aware MAC layer adaption that aims to improve video teleconferencing over Wi-Fi.

Congestion-aware MAC Layer Adaptation to Improve Video Teleconferencing over Wi-Fi

5G Technical Overview

Innovators Talking to Innovators - Dr. George Smith

Interviewer: I'm Diana Pani. I'm an engineer that works for Interdigital and tonight I'm with Dr. George Smith who is a Nobel Prize winner in physics for his work in engineering and the invention of the coupled charge devices. George Smith: Charged-coupled device. Interviewer: The charge-coupled device. Thank you for coming tonight. It's a pleasure and an honor to be here with you. George Smith: Oh, thank you. Interviewer: So, Dr. Smith, you developed the charge-coupled device technology while working on the semiconductor bubble memory. George Smith: The charge-coupled device is what we originally called the charge bubble device, but that only lasted about one week, when we also realized that its being an imaging device was much more important than being ethereal memory. It just so happened that I had the development of an imaging tube for the Picturephone at the time, so we were very much interested in a better imaging device than one of these old vacuum tubes. Interviewer: So, when you were doing this work with your partner, Willard Boyle, when did you realize the potential application of this invention? George Smith: Oh, about three microseconds after. Interviewer: So, it was right away. George Smith: Oh, yes. Interviewer: You felt it. You knew it. George Smith: Oh, yes. Interviewer: And when you came up with the idea, did you ever imagine the impact that it would have on society and the wide range of uses it would have, from medical imaging to social uses from digital cameras and so on? George Smith: Well, I do have to admit, it came out to be more than we expected, even though we did think that it was going to be a fairly big splash in the device world. But the way it took over and put Kodak out of business amazed us. Interviewer: It's an incredible achievement. I heard it was surprisingly fast for you to get from the first inkling of the CCD to the invention itself. What was this process like? George Smith: I'm going to attack that in my talk this evening, but if you want the details of the thought process, I haven't got a clue. Interviewer: That's how the best inventions come. George Smith: Things just happen, yeah. Well, you're an inventor yourself. Interviewer: Yes. George Smith: You know of that. Interviewer: They just come while brainstorming. George Smith: Yeah. Interviewer: For you, was it important to personally find and develop a commercial application to this invention, or was the invention itself rewarding enough and you were ready to move on to the next invention and you were okay with that? George Smith: Well, this was done when I worked for AT&T. Interviewer: Yes. George Smith: AT&T was not allowed to sell any products on the commercial market. They could only manufacture devices or anything that would be used in the Bell system. So, since we were working on the Picturephone, we thought ah ha. Interviewer: We can use it. George Smith: It's going to be great for Picturephones. Then they killed the Picturephone project. And there was no more work on CCD's because there was no application for it in the Bell system. Interviewer: So, do I understand correct? You actually started working on a commercial product for the imaging? George Smith: For the imaging. Interviewer: For the image - Picturephone? George Smith: For the Picturephone. Interviewer: Oh, wow. George Smith: We actually made a device and had it in trial production when they killed the project. Interviewer: Ah, that's a pity. So, the late 50's and the early 70's was an incredible period when Bell Labs, Shockley, Intel were developing a complete, entire new industry. We saw the first laser. We saw integrated circuits. We saw CCD's. We - and then the same time, there was the on-going Cold War, the Space program. What was it like for you to work during that time? George Smith: Oh, very exciting. This was in the beginning where the silicon integrated circuit business was just starting, okay? So, that it was a wide open field of things to do and it was easy picking. Interviewer: A lot of opportunities. George Smith: But nowadays, it's become more or less tweaking things, you know. Getting a little, little bit smaller and - Interviewer: Enhancing and optimizing. George Smith: Not very exciting any more. Interviewer: So, speaking about innovation, how would you define innovation? George Smith: You have to understand the motivation. Usually, there's some problem that you have to address or you get an idea. Gee, it would be nice to have something like this, okay? Then you go about thinking well, what can I think of that will do that or fix this, whatever? Sooner or later, it pops up. And the thought process that goes along with that? I haven't a clue what it is. It just happens, okay? Interviewer: When you find out, please let us know. George Smith: I'll write a book. Interviewer: Excellent. So, one of the challenges of innovation is that when you are very far ahead of the markets, then often times there is no market for your product. Was this an issue for you, that your innovation might not find its way into a product for a very long time? George Smith: AT&T, Bell Labs that I was working for, could only work on things that were for the Bell system at the time. The government broke up AT&T and that's no longer the case. So, it's a different story. But then, like I explained before, they killed the Picturephone. There was no reason whatsoever and why waste money trying to develop something that you can't use anyway. Interviewer: But you were confident that it was going to make it into a product sooner or later? George Smith: By that time, the whole world was confident that it would do something. Interviewer: So, and what do you think was essential in the environment and the people you were working for - with - that enabled and encouraged innovation? George Smith: I start out in the research area in Bell Labs. Published a lot of [00:07:39 unintelligible] papers and all that. And then, I got an offer, since as a researcher, I used to talk to people in the development areas and I even had a couple of patents while in the research area, which was unheard of. Not unheard of, but rare. So, I was given the job of starting a new department in the what we called exploratory development area that was called the device concepts department. And I was given just a couple of oddball people - oddball in that they were smart but they wouldn't follow the rules and enough money to hire a whole bunch of new people. So, I started off in that device concepts department trying to do that. Interviewer: Among your many awards, you've won the big one, the Nobel Prize. How did you learn about it and what was your first reaction when you found out about winning the Nobel Prize? George Smith: When you get a call at 5:00 in the morning and you roll over and say eh, I'm not going to worry about that. It calls again and I got up to answer it, but it was too late. But there was a message left. This is Sweden calling. We will call you back in a short while. And I thought this is the Nobel Prize time of the year. Ah ha! Interviewer: That's where it clicked? George Smith: It clicked. Interviewer: Were you expecting such a call? George Smith: Yeah. And then, five minutes later or something, a fellow who's also called Smith calls me up and announced that I had won the Nobel Prize. And I immediately went in and woke up Janet. Interviewer: Finally Dr. Smith, what made you want to come and speak to Interdigital team tonight? George Smith: Well, an old friend of mine, Gil Amelio, is on your Board of Directors and I hired him when he first got his PhD from Georgia Tech. So, I know him from way back. And he was also on the first experimental paper on the CCD and we were good friends. So, unfortunately he's not going to be here tonight because I wanted to see him again. But that was my major attraction. Interviewer: Well, it's an honor to have you here tonight and thank you again for taking the time to take this interview. Thank you. George Smith: My pleasure.

The Benefits of MPEG-DASH

V001_MPEG-DASH_Video_FINAL-mobile Male Voice: So, DASH is about two things. First thing is feature richness; second is openness. Feature richness comes from the fact that it's a revolutionary technology, and it builds upon the experiences from that previous proprietary [unintelligible 00:00:33] systems. And openness comes from the fact that it is an open standard. It relies on open standards. It's compatible with the current, existing infrastructure. And, lastly, it imposes a minimal amount of restrictions. For instance, it's agnostic to things like DRMs and codecs. So, streaming interpretability is about [inaudible 00:01:03] and about the stability. What you used to do is, you used to integrate for a specific deployment between several vendors or clients and several vendors or DRMs and so on. Now, what you can do is define an interpretability point, which is, essentially, a contract between a client/vendor and [accounting 00:01:28] publisher. They both are going to implement and to use a very well-defined, specific set of features. And what we did in DASH Industry Forum is, we published implementation guidelines and a list of such interpretability points. And we're [back at top 00:01:48] by having test content and verification. Feature richness and freedom - freedom, in terms of freedom from vendor locking - it's an open standard. It's developed through a transparent international process, and if you compare it to existing proprietary systems, it's the difference between a [rule by decree 00:02:23] of an enlightened monarch and a representative of democracy. There is by the industry and for the industry. So, this actually allows an operator to mix and match vendors of his choice without being locked in. If you look back two years ago, it was about [rising promise 00:02:53]. A year ago, it was about early adoption and venture endorsement. Now it's about deployments, and now is the time to deploy it. To recognize the promise of DASH at the stage when it was only a promise - and since then, we contributed to the standard development. A major contributor is an MPEG. On the more practical side, we are very active in DASH Industry Forum, and our user-adaptive video client also relies on MPEG-DASH. So, second edition was driven by early implementation experiences. So, firstly, it corrects errors and clarifies some of the ambiguities of the specification. And secondly, it brings a set of newer features that were mainly driven by 24/7 linear programming and by dynamic ad insertion. The most visible of these features is DASH events, which are essentially time clocks. They can be used for two different purposes. One is notifying a client of asynchronous events - for instance, that it needs to update. And second, conveying messages to the client - application-specific messages, such as information on upcoming ad breaks. So, there are two ways to implement DASH ad insertion. One is something that relies only on native tools, and we call it server-driven. All the ad server interaction is done only at the server side, and generic DASH tools, such as Periods and XLink - and some of the DASH events can be used to make this possible. Another architecture is app-driven. This is very similar to what we used to have in cable and IPTV systems. And you use DASH as a transport for [Q 00:05:12] messages, and you have advertisement client that interprets the messages, and communicates with the actual ad server. The same benefit as a general interpretability - so in order to make interpretable ad insertion possible, in DASH Industry Forum, we're working on guidelines for interpretable ad insertion on interpretability points and on test vectors for these. And we are going to publish a document this summer, and it will be backed by test content.

5G - What to Expect

In this Mobile World Congress (MWC) session, Alan Carlton, senior director of InterDigital Labs and head of InterDigital’s European office, hosts a discussion with IMEC program director for wireless communications, Dr. Liesbet Van der Perre, and University of Aveiro professor Dr. Rui Aguiar, a member of the Board of the 5G Public Partnership Project (5GPPP) , on the topic of 5G technologies. Alan: What do you both see as the key driving requirements for 5G that are emerging today? Rui: Good question. I believe the key word is freedom. We are witnessing a huge amount of discussion about what 5G is about, and we always have to ask, “What would be the added value?” Most of the time, if you ask what people want, it is the ability to be free to choose their operator, to choose their technology, free to be able to roam without being concerned if they are paying more and free to be able to actually lead their normal life without actually considering or thinking about technology. Liesbet: From the technology side, I like to hear that, but there are also reasons why we can't just fulfill all the future requirements that users and non-users, like machines and other devices, will ask of the technology and wireless capacity. We need to boost capacity because of the quality and variety of services. And maybe that's the freedom you're talking about as well, the variety of services needs to go up. The capacity needs to grow by a factor of 1,000, and with just more 4G, that will not work. We really need to rethink the systems and come up with some new solutions because services need to become better. More and more devices will be there; more applications will be there. We need another kind of solution, another kind of networking. Rui: Jumping on what you just said, this notion of 1,000 times more capacity is mostly the notion of bulk spectrum. One of the things that will differentiate 5G from what we have today is that this is the spectrum of the whole without any kind of intelligence. You mentioned machines and more advanced services. And all these things actually will start to explore, in an intelligent manner, the spectrum. So, we will need to revisit spectrum thinking as whole to deliver this 1,000 times. Liesbet: Yes, I didn’t say spectrum. I think capacity needs to grow; and it’s a better usage of the spectrum, which can also boost the capacity. Better use of the current spectrum, plus the potential exploration of new spectrum and usage of high frequencies like we see popping up today, will boost capacity. However, then we are probably going into what other technologies we need, rather than just asking what is needed for the new technologies. The MWC roundtable with Alan Carlton of InterDigital (left), Liesbet Van der Perre from IMEC (center), Rui Aguiar from the 5GPPP (right). Alan: Absolutely, and I would just add my two cents in terms of how we see the major driving requirements for 5G. It's really two major things. One is that the driving requirement of ultra-broadband, gigabit per second communications technology is the classic wireless roadmap of give me more, give me more now. And it's still not enough. Then there is the proverbial 50 billion Internet of Things devices; the whole body of new requirements, which didn’t need to be addressed by a mainstream wireless technology in the past. Alan: Moving on to the next question. What do you feel 5G is going to give us that 4G cannot? Liesbet: Today we can anticipate that 4G will not even be able to offer us the capacity that will be needed when the number of devices keeps increasing as it does currently. Even maintaining the service that we have today - with the increasing number of devices – will need more than 4G. Next to that, of course, we hope that there's going to be the opportunity to connect more things and people, and deliver higher services. Rui: I want to take a very common example and a very simple example. We are talking about machines, and we are not really paying attention to what that means. What that means may be that your heart controller is instantly connected to your physician in your town. 5G will give us the trust to actually believe that when we will need to send an emergency signal, we can rely on it because in some way, the emergency signal will reach your physician. I don't really believe that with 4G - at least I would hesitate putting the health of my heart in the capabilities 4G technology. Liesbet: Do you really think trusted networks are going to be extremely important? Rui: Trustable, reliable - of course. We can look at the high bit rate, which may exist. We even look at the virtual reality or something, which I prefer better, the augmented reality scenarios. I really believe it's not just the simple matter of spectrum and capacity. Liesbet: Yeah, of course. In order to be able to make sure your call always gets in, there will be a need to make sure that the capacity is there. In case there is an emergency and many people try to do the same thing; at least the network can support that. 5G needs to support all of that. Alan: I'd very much like to hear your opinion on what you're raising as challenges, like supporting technologies and augmented reality. I think that sort of technology is almost an embodiment of the type of service we'll see emerging in the 5G timeframe in a more mainstream sense. One of the requirements that has been identified in the 5G Public Partnership Project is the one millisecond latency requirement, which I think will be an amazing driver for a new radio system and a new technology, and an entire impact across the system and network and [the radio]. Think back through 2G, through 3G and 4G. There's been a gradual slow roll roadmap, where basically 2G was about voice, where all we needed was 100 milliseconds. 3G and 4G was about video support, which is about 10 to 20 milliseconds, which is a tolerable delay. When we start moving into the 5G timeframe, where we're really interacting as much with objects and devices, that one millisecond latency is going to be a very key requirement. Rui: As you know, I am involved on the steering board of the 5G PPP Association. I have to agree with you. The latency requirement is frightening because what we are talking about is having a multi-access network, multi-service network with latency performance metrics, which are equivalent as a dedicated system. I'm not sure if we'll be able to get much better than these kinds of requirements that we are putting to the latency. To be honest, I think it's a huge challenge that we will have in the upcoming years. Alan: What are the key technologies that you are seeing today that might be part of 5G? Rui: There are two dimensions to the challenge of 5G. One dimension is technology itself. Here, most people are concerned with the radio access, where we go to higher frequencies, to smaller devices, to smaller cells. The other challenge is from a different nature. And it's simply that we need to have a 5G network we can afford. Let's say - we all know that one of the biggest improvements in spectrum that exists in the last 20 years was simply, smaller cells. Now we are reaching a stage where if you go along that line, the number of cells that we are bringing is going to add a huge amount of challenges to the backbone of the system. Now power consumption and backbone is already becoming a problem and it's going to be an increasing problem in the future. We will have a balance regarding what we can do, and what we are able to pay for. There will be a couple of technologies like vocalization software working; software defined radio; energy aware optimizations; not just delay, but power minimization. There will be a couple of technologies that will appear, that at this moment, we have not yet fully explored. Liesbet: We've been working on some of this, and it's definitely not to the point where this research has ended. Commenting on the radio access, I do think next to the smaller cells, there are a couple of disruptive ideas, like for example massive MIMO systems. It looks to be very promising, in order to be able to reduce power consumption and boost the capacity using the current frequencies. Next to that, further deployment of millimeter waves beyond where we are looking today, in the backbone, but potentially also more into the access network, might be a solution because clearly there is a lot of bandwidth available. It might help to cope with the requirements we have there. Alan: Thank you, Liesbet. I agree with both of you. I would add to that, millimeter waves are certainly a critical technology. The move to small cell technology has been one that's been going on for many, many years, and millimeter wave hotspots are the natural next step for us. This is the right time for the embracement of spectrum sharing technologies — an area that has been of massive research over many years, but through initiatives like white space and license shared access. Some of the key enabling building blocks are being developed today that will likely be big enablers in the 5G timeframe.

DSA Interview with Angelo Cuffaro

Interviewer: This is Brian Dolby, reporting from the Mobile World Congress, where I'm with Angelo Cuffaro, of InterDigital - more importantly, in this case, a member of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance. Angelo, we're talking in that capacity today, but, obviously, your day job is very much with InterDigital. Tell us why it's so important to InterDigital to be members of the DSA. Angelo Cuffaro: We think it's extremely important to be members of the DSA, because we feel that it's very important that we use spectrum efficiently. And the DSA, their mission is to influence regulators, influence countries to make sure that spectrum is efficiently used. And as a company, we're developing technologies that try to do that - that try to develop new technologies that make spectrum more efficient - use new spectrum, use unlicensed spectrum - and basically develop technology that will make sure that the bandwidth crunch that's happening these days - and it's going to get worse, in terms of the video content - will be handled properly. Interviewer: Yeah, because it's absolutely critical, isn't it, that we get absolutely the most spectrum we can possibly get our hands on for broadband to spread? Angelo Cuffaro: Correct, yeah. I mean, you could see it with the 4K video that's already coming out - the larger TV sizes, the phones getting larger, phones getting faster. You know, the spectrum is running out. Of course, there's new spectrum that we're going higher and higher. We're going to 60 gigahertz, and higher and higher in spectrum, but then there's a lot of spectrum that's actually not very efficient. For example, TV whitespace. There's a lot of holes in the UHF spectrum that's not efficiently used. So, we feel that, you know, there's two fronts. You know, of course, getting new spectrum, develop new technologies that'll allow you to use the new spectrum - but, in addition, the existing spectrum - we should make sure that the existing spectrum we have, we use it very efficiently. Interviewer: Yes, now talking of the DSA - and it's got a very fast-growing membership - you have a major conference coming up in Akron, a few months' times. What are you hoping to get out of that? Angelo Cuffaro: We think it's really important to approach, you know, the new countries that are thinking of allocating new spectrum, for example. In this case, Ghana, for example, is looking at using TV whitespace spectrum. It's extremely important that they start on the right foot - and it's terms that they use the spectrum efficiently, you know, in the sharing of [unintelligible] approach, rather than doing the exclusive license use - which, in most cases, unless it's not, you know, properly handled - will lead to inefficient use of spectrum. So, to us, it's extremely important, from that perspective. Interviewer: So, there's a chance with developing countries to sort of get their act together on day one, rather than have to do a kind of a sticking plaster job later on. Angelo Cuffaro: Correct; exactly, yeah. I mean, and that's basically really important, from the DSA perspective. And in addition, I mean, also, the existing countries - you know, the countries that do have [unintelligible] spectrum - we still could develop some technologies that actually help share the spectrum. So, we could still go back. You've got the incumbents, you've got the TV whitespace model, you've got now the [unintelligible] model in the US, for example, that's using 3.5 gigahertz. So, you can still go back, and still try to fix it - but, yeah, definitely; if you can start from day one, get it right, then a much easier job later on. Interviewer: Tell us about InterDigital - because I know you guys are a globally, well-respected, you know, research company in your own right. Angelo Cuffaro: Correct, yeah. We've been actually in the wireless industry since the 1970s. We were actually one of the first companies to develop a fixed wireless solution for the developing countries. And, you know, based on that success, we've developed technologies, protocol stacks. In the cellular world, for example, we were one of the first stacks on the GSM side [unintelligible]. In addition, you know, we're a forward-looking company. We continue to develop technologies that are, like, light years ahead. For example, here, just behind me, we're looking at spectrum harvesting technology that uses TV whitespace. Next to me, we have millimeter WAV technologies. We're looking at the wireless back hall. We're also developing video solutions, as well, and we're also developing - we call it SAM - smart access manager - so, basically, an app on the phone that allows you to efficiently use both Wi-Fi and cellular at the same time. Interviewer: Okay. Well, thanks for talking to us. Angelo Cuffaro: Thank you. Interviewer: So, there we are. InterDigital, a globally-recognized company, recognizing the important work of the DSA.

5G Millimeter Wave Hotspots

Male Voice: InterDigital's Millimeter Wave Hotspots are the 5G solution for longer-term wireless capacity growth, enabling backhaul and access throughput beyond what’s available with the emerging small-cell and spectrum-sharing solutions. Demand for wireless capacity is growing at an unprecedented rate, doubling in each of the last five years, according to one operator. At this rate, we could need 100X improvements by the year 2020, exhausting advancements that are becoming available through current spectrum-sharing and small-cell initiatives. By 2023 and beyond, we need to consider how to provide more than 1000X growth. And more spectrum, through higher-frequency Millimeter Wave bands is the answer. These advancements must be realized without raising costs. Typical Millimeter Wave Hotspot deployments include lampposts, strand mounting, storefront, as well as large public spaces, such as airports and malls. The Millimeter Wave Hotspot architecture is built upon three key innovative elements: electrically-steerable, phased-array antennas, which provide multidirectional coverage with higher gain; wireless backhaul, for enabling a high-capacity mesh network of small cells; and, finally, Millimeter Wave Hotspot access links, enabling gigabit data to our mobile devices. Our analysis and experimentation shows that it is possible to meet the 1000X capacity demand of the next decade with Millimeter Wave Hotspots covering approximately 150 meter ranges. Douglas Castor: InterDigital’s wireless research is driven by looking at the needs of next-generation systems. And early on, we saw the need to utilize higher-frequency spectrum. There is a historical trend of wireless moving to higher frequencies, and we didn’t see this stopping for 5G. So, we built a comprehensive set of research tools that allow evaluation of our Millimeter Wave architecture envision. And this year, we are presenting our Millimeter Wave Hotspot concept, along with our evolving platform. Daniel Steinbach: What we will now demonstrate is a three-node mesh network, using InterDigital’s Millimeter Wave technology. What we see is that the nodes are in discovery mode, where they’re trying to form a mesh network. At this point, node one has connected to node two, and now node three has just connected to node one, as well. And as soon as nodes two and three form a link, we will send pseudorandom data through the system, where data will be passing through all three nodes. And then, at some point, we will then break the link between nodes two and three, which will then reroute the data around the mesh network. At this point, all three nodes are connected, and we see, through quick graphs, are streaming data through. What we see here is, we see a relatively consistent RSSI throughput and uplink throughput, as well. And now we’re going to break the link between nodes two and three, and we see that the link is down, and that the throughput has gone up between nodes two, one, and three, simply because it’s rerouting the data that used to pass between two and three. We now reestablish the link between node two and three, and the data has gone back to its initial state. Male Voice: Millimeter Wave Hotspots are one of the ways InterDigital is leading the way with 5G research. Our platforms and technologies will soon be available for integration within the 5G research and industry community.

Perceptual Pre-filtering Explained, MWC 2014

Bill Crean: It’s been an exciting week already at Mobile World Congress. We’ve had a lot of attention on our user-aware video solutions, especially our perceptual prefilter software product, which we’re demonstrating applied to 4K content. Indeed, 4K is a big deal. The key is, it’s here. You can buy the devices, and the content publishers - many of them - have announced that they’re going to deliver the content. So, today, video streaming is on the increase. And even with HD content, there’s a lot of bad user experience. We can all identify with the frustration of dealing with hesitations, hiccups, re-buffering, and reduced resolution when we’re streaming video. Well, 4K’s coming. 4K televisions like these, they have four times the number of pixels. So, even with advanced encoding techniques, there’s a lot more data to push across the content delivery networks. Luckily, our user-aware video products, like our perceptual prefilter, can help the situation. With our perceptual prefilter software product, we understand and utilize the science of the limits of the human visual acuity system. So, we understand that, under certain environmental viewing conditions, there are details in the content that we, as humans, cannot detect. So, what we do with our perceptual prefilter is, we filter out that information that we know will not be seen anyway. As a result, we have a reduced bit rate with no sacrifice of the perceived quality. That translates into better user experience when doing the content. Absolutely. What we’ve been demonstrating this week is our perceptual prefilter applied to 4K content. We’ve got a 33-megabit-per-second stream on one of these displays. And on the other, we’re showing what we’ve prefiltered that happens during the encoding process, and we’ve been able to reduce the bit rate by 40 percent, down to a 20-megabit-per-second stream for this particular content. So, what’s fun this week is seeing people look at the two beautiful displays, and try to guess which is the one - the original stream, and which is the one that’s a 40 percent lower bit rate. And people can’t do it. It’s fun to see people go back and forth, trying to decide, and not being able to make up their mind.

InterDigital, James Nolan, EVP, Research & Development

Rory Moore:Good afternoon, everyone. Here we are, at CES 2014. And we’re at the conference room at CES with InterDigital. They have come out here from Pennsylvania, but they also have facilities in San Diego, where we’re located - CommNexus - and we’re with Jim Nolan, Senior Vice President, InterDigital.

Though they’re not a household name, to the average person, in technology, their IP is everywhere, literally. In fact, about a year ago, they provided Intel with a significant patent portfolio in wireless, which is probably one of the reasons that Intel is now reenergized to enter the wireless space.

So, for the layman in the audience here, please tell us what InterDigital does.

James Nolan:Well, InterDigital has a legacy of creating the next-generation technology. So, if you look at InterDigital historically, we have been a digital wireless or digital mobile technology company from its inception.

So, we did 2G before there was a 2G, a 3G before a 3G, and then 4G, and now we look to do the next G; you have to develop the technology for that next generation.

So, we look at, what do we think the next-generation networks and devices will need, in terms of technology? And it tends to be the embedded technology that, as you said, most people don’t know of us. It doesn’t come to - you know, it’s not readily handy, or something that’s a branded type of technology.

But what InterDigital creates is the enabling technology that enables devices and networks to work.

Rory Moore:So, as the industry, especially wireless - video is overwhelming the network, and everyone wants a full 1080, they’re looking at 4k coming, et cetera, et cetera - what are you doing at InterDigital to enable that to occur?

James Nolan:Well, a couple of different things. And a lot of this, from the video perspective, is being run out of our San Diego office. Our neighbor’s CommNexus.

James Nolan:So, we look at it from two different perspectives. We look at it is that video is the main driver of the use of bandwidth. And we look at it is any way that you can save that bandwidth or, you know - both save bandwidth, in terms of saving cost and power reduction - the other is also user experience.

So, we look at it as, how can we optimize the user experience? So, we’ve done is we’ve created technologies that optimize the delivery of video, based on the context or how the user is using that device. So, we’ll actually adapt how much bandwidth is being used based on how close the device is to the user.

So, if the device is very close, it might be a hot HD. As I move it away, I can’t tell the difference, and it will actually reduce the bandwidth by half or more. And that actually reduces the traffic over the network, and it reduces the cost for the content delivery people through the CDN, and it also reduces the operator’s cost and bandwidth.

What we also do is we also provide Wi-Fi cellular handover technology. And what that does is that’s really the integration. People talk about HetNets; that’s really what enables devices to hand off seamlessly between networks, and to maintain the quality of service of largely the multimedia content, which is largely video.

So, our perspective is, any way we can save the bandwidth, and provide the best service to the user. That’s the way we look at it, as an underlying technology that we create.

James Nolan:Yes, it is. Great point. If you look at it historically, InterDigital had been a company that was more wireless and mobile to the device. These technologies from video and heterogeneous networks are both software-based, and they’re agnostic to the silicon.

They could target it on devices as part of clients - either as part of applications or as client devices that an operator or a handset OEM would load onto a device.

And from a network perspective, also, software would reside in a server, an operator’s network, or back in a content provider’s network.

Rory Moore:Let’s talk about some new sectors, beyond just mobile - which is obviously getting a lot of talk here. Let’s look at sectors that are growing like crazy.

The digital health area of the convention has never been bigger, growing almost exponentially, it looks like. I think it’s 1/3 of an entire floor now. You look at machine-to-machine, telematics. What areas are important for InterDigital NAT space?

James Nolan:Great, great point. From a machine-to-machine and really expanding out to an internet of things, a web of things - we really look at all of those applications - healthcare, telematics - as currently today are very siloed machine-to-machine implementations.

So, we are actually developing software platforms for the next-generation standards that actually create horizontal platforms that allow all the different verticals or these different applications to use a common software layer.

So, it’s a software layer that would sit in the cloud, or in a gateway, or on devices. And we’re developing that.

And we’re also working in a joint venture with Sony, where we’re developing that M2M technology collaboratively with them.

So, we see this as the next generation, where we really enable very low-cost machine-to-machine, internet of things, web of things, type of applications, where all of that software becomes simplified, and it just becomes web applications to end users. So, it’s much simpler for us to use those technologies.

Rory Moore:Going back to remote healthcare, wearables - you know, it’s one thing when your video is buffering, but if you’re sending an EKG or something that, you know, has to HIPAA-compliant, it has to be [5-9s], et cetera, et cetera - do you see that as occurring, that kind of reliability for remote healthcare on the network, what you’re building?

James Nolan:Well, yeah, I think that’s a great point. I think when you look at it, it really depends on the type of devices that are being used. So, there are certain devices for machine-to-machine that are best-effort internet-based, and there may be some delay in terms of how they’re used, and then there are certain applications in terms of healthcare where you really need to use wireless technology - in particular, cellular technology that can be more robust, and is not just simply best-effort.

I think that you can have more of a guarantee of service, of delivery, for different applications.

But, as you said, being wireless and mobile, even sometimes the best technology can’t be robust everywhere - or it may be more robust, but maybe not robust everywhere.

Rory Moore:So, if you look at another area, having to do with smart grid, energy, do you play in that area, as well?

James Nolan:Yeah, it’s the same for us. We look at it as a software-defined platform that we work on - a service delivery platform or an application-enabling platform - and it can support telematics, smart grid, lifestyle, and healthcare and fitness type of applications.

So, it’s essentially you would operate through at an SDK or an API level, at the web level, and then this would extract all of the different things that are in a network - security, authentication, data management - from the individual that was launching that service.

So, the person launching the service would just create a web-based application that connected through that, and it would extract all of those things that are done in a network, whether it was done through a cellular network, or whether it was done through ZigBee, or Z-Wave, or other technologies.

Rory Moore:Are you going to be involved with projects, much like Qualcomm does - they’ll create prototypes? They will not go into production, but they kind of seed the market, seed the industry with certain hardware prototypes. You do any of that?

James Nolan:Well, from a hardware prototype perspective, what we do is, we develop the technology through proof of concept on a hardware platform. But in most cases, what we’re developing is actually a software that runs on those platforms. So, for us, the hardware platform is a proof of concept, and that will deliver the software to customers.

And our customers, as you said earlier, it’s not as well-known, not a branded company. Our customers are customers that would integrate that software into other platforms.

So, for us, hardware platforms are proof of concept, get the customers up and running on that software very quickly, and we would help them migrate with services onto commercial platforms.

Rory Moore:Okay, last - give me an example of an InterDigital effort, technology that the average consumer touches every day.

James Nolan:Great question. One that we’ve done in our timeline, in terms of developing technology, is very long, but we developed software stacks for 3G and 3 1/2G solutions. So, InterDigital actually created software stacks that ran on a number of different companies’ chipsets.

So, there are a number of different, very popular handsets that ran InterDigital’s software, that actually ran the wireless modems.

So, those are technologies we developed, and we’re developing 3G and 3 1/2G technology. And that technology got embedded on chipsets and onto handsets - tens and hundreds of millions of chipsets and handsets.

But you would never hear of InterDigital, but InterDigital has been in some of the most popular handsets that are out there, from our actual software running on those handsets.

Rory Moore:That’s terrific. Well, that’s some great color on InterDigital. And thank you for joining us, and thank you for serving on the CommNexus Board of Directors.

James Nolan:Thank you. It’s my pleasure. Thank you, Rory.

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