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Is it ALL Disruptive?

We have never been through times like these, as the novel corona virus (COVID-19) ravages populations and economies across the globe. Globally, the disease continues to spread, although it looks like China has gotten past their peak.  What many would view as draconian measures seem to be what it took for China to get past being the epicenter of the pandemic. The rest of the world has not reached the peak, so there is no end in sight for us in the Western world. There are many strategies, rules, policies, and protocols enacted to “flatten the peak” and each day, each hour, these rules get more stringent. We must escalate the fight to stop the spread of Covid-19 and return our lives to something we can call normal and cope with more easily.

The mission of TREND DISRUPTORS is to explore and monitor scientific and technical developments, looking for the brightest ideas; those that have the potential to “disrupt” a market sector. We publish relevant investment recommendations for our subscribers and publish blog articles discussing many new technology developments. To date we have focused on technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Quantum Computing, 5G, Blockchain, Autonomous vehicles, and Virtual Reality (VR). In the investment world today there is mostly chaos, with the DOW-JONES and S&P indexes tumbling into recession territory. As investors looking for “disruptive” opportunities we will seek out companies using technology to be useful and profitable in the new reality of this global pandemic. So, here are some general ideas that could lead to profitable investments, but as with all disruptors, these ideas are speculative and we advise caution and restraint.

Home Delivery: We all still need food and many other items, so in this time of isolation we will more than ever need items brought to us.  We can’t easily go out to stores, and we can’t eat in restaurants, or drink in our favourite establishments. There are companies that use technology in very innovative ways to bring us what we need, in a way that preserves social distancing and isolation. Consider the many companies that are participants in all facets of home delivery services.

Home Entertainment: Many of us are self-isolating in our homes and we need to have our sources of entertainment. Live sports on TV are just about all postponed, and children need to have alternative sources for education and entertainment. Streaming services and social media can offer a wide range of choices, such as learning programs for all ages, video gaming, and other traditional entertainment like movies and TV shows. Digital networks are becoming overburdened and 5G technology should offer a good solution. Consider all the companies that offer streaming services and social networking, as well as those providing 5G networks for increased performance.

Video Contact: Individuals and businesses need personal contact, but traditional forms such as meetings and family dinners are off the table. The technologies for video meetings and conferences are already with us and are being improved at a rapid pace. Video chatting with friends and family is also with us now, and is very important, especially for individuals self-isolating all alone. Consider all those technology companies that provide these services and are working to develop improvements. Again, 5G implementations should help to speed up these services.

Bio-medical Innovation: Perhaps the most pressing need right now is for the multitude of supplies and equipment required to deal with those who are sick. Also needed is the development and approval of new drugs to provide a cure for COVID-19 and provide a vaccination for ongoing immunity. Consider the companies that are at the forefront of new drug development, and those companies that are ramping up or retooling to produce the much needed supplies and equipment.

The other critical resource to consider is all the workers who are on the front line of our health care services. They need our support and the support of government at all levels.  Without these workers, and all the others who contribute to a solution, we would be in far worse shape – our present and our future would be a lot grimmer. We are all in this together as we continue to strive for good physical health and good financial health.

Trend Disruptors is monitoring new scientific developments and technologies, and will identify relevant investment opportunities, leading the well informed investor towards a healthy and prosperous future.  TD Premium subscribers can expect some new recommendation out in the next week or so.

Stay tuned …

An ongoing challenge to modern society is how best to identify who we are, and who are all those other people out there. We used to be able to carry a card in our wallet or purse that reliably identified who we are.  We could carry a birth certificate, a driver’s licence, a passport, or some other government issued identification that included a photo, to assure everyone that we are who we say we are. As technology progressed so did the ability of those with nefarious intent to replicate those card or document based forms of identification. Identity theft is on the rise and it is something we all need to be aware of and take steps to prevent. Even with secret PIN codes and CHIP card readers, bank cards (credit and debit) have been criminally duplicated, and phony automated teller machines (ATM’s) have been set up to capture user info, like account numbers and PIN codes. Today, the costs of identity theft are significant – for individuals and corporations. It is very telling that in the last four months of 2019 the number of users losing secure control of financial accounts was up by 330%.

Technologies are being developed and refined to reliably identify individuals, however, there are societal issues that have to be considered. The debate carries on, pitting the need to reliably identify a person against that person’s right to privacy.  With artificial intelligence (AI) technology there are many new and reliable ways to identify people.  Governments and financial services corporations make a strong case for deploying new identification technologies. Solving and preventing crimes is a benefit of these technologies, but is a reduction in, or security of, personal privacy too big a price to pay? As the debate continues, let’s have a brief look at the range of technologies that are available now or are being developed and refined in the lab.

Facial recognition: Using high resolution cameras and large databases, these systems can quickly and accurately identify individuals. These systems rely on the individual’s face being in a searchable database. Many of these systems are being tested for police work and screening at airports and public events. Its use is still controversial and it is relatively expensive, requiring high powered cameras and computer hardware.

Vein matching: This type of scanning is gaining in popularity as it does not rely on a scanner touching the body, as with fingerprinting, or a light beam being shone into a person’s eye, as with iris scanning. It was first developed in the 1980’s and has been steadily improved, striving to achieve a reliability level equal to fingerprinting. Typically this technology scans an individual’s hand or finger to look for a match to a known vein pattern.

Gait recognition: This technology relies on the uniqueness of a person’s walk, or gait. There may be only slight differences among us all, so the measurement technology needs to be very sophisticated and precise, to discern those differences. When gait recognition is used with one or more other biometric measures, it can provide an additional assurance of accurate identification.

Heart recognition: A low radiation Doppler radar device can identify your heart in two ways; one by the shape of your heart ( a static measurement ) and the other by the unique beat of your heart ( a dynamic measurement ). Tests have yielded accuracy rates above 98%, but there are no operational deployments just yet.

There are other well known biometric measures, such as fingerprinting and iris scanning, both of which have been deployed successfully for several years.  The advantage of biometric measures is that they are very difficult (impossible?) to replicate or spoof. However, we are all probably aware of novel and movie plots where fingers, thumbs, and eyeballs are removed from their owners just for the purpose of “fooling” a biometric scanner. The newer biometric measures strive to get beyond that, but the invasion of privacy and protection of privacy concerns are yet to be fully resolved.
To the person or corporation that has been victimized by identify theft it may be easy to say “bring it on – I need these new technologies”. To those who want to stay “off the grid” or those who have had their personal data stolen or compromised it may be easy to say “it has gone too far – there is too much data being collected to effectively protect”. Time will tell how or if these issues get resolved.

Trend Disruptors is monitoring these developments and technologies, and will identify relevant investment opportunities that lead the well informed investor to success.

Stay tuned!

The biomedical community has a lot to be excited about as the “cure” for cancer gets closer than ever.  It may now be in sight, with just a bit more testing, fine tuning, and approvals required.  The new treatments are achieving cure rates above 80%, and achieving it with patients who have not responded to more traditional treatments, like chemotherapy.  The concept of a “cure” in this case includes the use of modified cells working inside the body to actively hunt down and destroy cells they recognize as “not normal”.  These “not normal” cells are cancer cells.  Unlike chemotherapy, which destroys good and bad cells, these new treatments attack only the bad cells – the cancer cells.

Earlier treatment methods used synthetic antibodies, as they have the ability to flag bad cells, like cancer, and trigger the immune system to destroy them.  Antibodies are quite versatile and can be developed to bind to almost any target in the body, even crossing the blood-brain barrier to bind to targets in the brain.  Moving forward from synthetic antibody treatments, researchers are now using CRISPR cell editing technology to edit a patient’s white blood cells (T-cells) outside the body, grow millions of the edited T-cells, and then infuse them back into the patient’s body.  As the newly modified cells circulate in the body, they attack and destroy any cancer cells they run into.  This new immunotherapy is called “Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy, or, more simply, “CAR T-Cell Therapy”.  This therapy is expensive, as it is complex and highly personalized.  It also has some harsh side effects, and researchers are working hard to increase safety and reduce all risks.

The early test results are very promising, however, the cost of such complex and individualized treatments can be close to $.5 Million each, making us question if such an effective therapy can be brought into the realm of general affordability, thus making it the true breakthrough we have all been looking for.  There are several initiatives that could move us closer to the goal, such as:

• developing a universal donor CAR T-Cell, allowing for the treatment of multiple patients using the same modified T-cells manufactured in bulk
• increasing the survival rate and activity rate of CAR T-cells, and enhancing their ability to call in other cells to help with the destruction of cancer cells
• improving CRISPR technology to introduce more precise cell edits and accomplish multiple edits at once.

Given that progress will be made on these and other cost saving initiatives, the time may be very near when we can say that cancer has been conquered.  The ability to empower our own good cells, modified a touch, to do battle with our own bad cells is a huge step forward.  It certainly appears that we have the knowledge to finally implement an effective “cure” for cancer. The affordability issues are being worked on, and the future looks bright.

It is a big challenge for all the bio-tech firms involved, and they are competing hard to reach the finish line. These earthshaking improvements in cancer treatment are disruptive in nature and should present solid investment opportunities.

TREND DISRUPTORS is monitoring these developments and identifies investment opportunities that will lead to success for the well informed investor.

Stay tuned!

The fifth generation of mobile networks (5G) is ramping up at an increasing rate, with more live locations being added every few weeks all around the globe by all the major mobile network providers.  It won’t be long before we will be asking ourselves if it is now time to make our move to this advanced technology.  The dramatic increase in speed alone will be a major motivator, but there are other benefits, such as reduced power consumption and more reliable and responsive internet connections.  What is not so well known just yet is that 5G can be implemented in two different ways – Mobile 5G or Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) 5G, and here are some of the differences and why you might choose one over the other.

Mobile 5G:  This is the simplest implementation and requires only that you invest in a 5G mobile device (Smartphone) and a usage plan with a 5G mobile network provider.  The process is familiar, as it is the same as starting up with a new Smartphone.  What may be different is the cost, and costs could be impacted by the amount of data you will want when the speed is so fast.  Given all that speed, network providers will likely offer large or unlimited data plans.  The increased bandwidth and speed of 5G is the main reason it is being developed, and consumers are already lining up to get on board for these benefits, and for many consumers, cost is not a barrier.  Reliability of Mobile 5G will still depend on cell network coverage, the same as all other mobile networks, so choosing a mobile 5G network provider should include an awareness and analysis of the provider’s 5G network coverage.

Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) 5G:  This implementation of 5G is intended for a fixed location, typically your home (or business).  It requires some new hardware that will transform your home Wi-Fi network into a 5G network to be used by all Wi-Fi connected devices, which would typically and easily include your phone.  The required new hardware includes a modem and antenna to access the closest 5G cell tower and a 5G router.  The key to performance for an FWA setup is having a strong clear signal to your fixed location (home) from the 5G cell tower.  Fixed 5G may not be offered as prolifically as Mobile 5G, but it does have benefits that providers and consumers should consider carefully.  Of course, when you take your phone away from your fixed 5G network, it no longer has 5G access or capabilities.

The Hybrid Implementation:  We may not have to definitively choose one or the other of the above 5G implementations if we use some existing technology to get both.  Most Smartphones have a feature to set up a mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot, so you could acquire a 5G phone, set it up on a 5G mobile network plan, and then use that phone in your home as your Wi-Fi Hotspot.  It would work ok, but performance depends on there being a good clear cell signal in your home.  Whenever the phone or Hotspot is turned off, or the phone goes travelling outside the home, you are left with no Wi-Fi access in your home.  When the phone returns home, the Wi-Fi Hotspot needs to be turned on again, and all home devices have to reconnect to the Hotspot.  This has some inconvenience factors, but may be the right choice for some.

5G implementations are ramping up across the globe and we can all check with our local mobile network providers to see when they are going live with 5G, and whether they will be offering both Mobile and Fixed 5G implementations.  Things are looking to get a lot faster … SOON !!

TREND DISRUPTORS is monitoring these developments, and identifies investment opportunities that will lead to success for the well informed investor.

Stay tuned …

Some technologies start off as science-fiction, as they are often difficult to visualize and difficult to execute.  Space travel and rocket ships started out this way, like so many innovations over the past 100 years.  Medical technology also has made great strides that were unimaginable just a few years or decades ago.

One of the concepts trying to cross the line to reality is the ability to link the human brain to a digital computer, a concept that Elon Musk has termed the Brain-Computer Interface (BCI).  This radical concept has been around for almost 50 years, as research was conducted in the 1970’s at UCLA, funded by DARPA (US military) and The National Science Foundation.  This early research was conceptual, producing no working models.  Today we have relatively crude communication with the human brain via EEG’s, which sense and record brain wave patterns using an array of electrodes on the scalp.  The interesting observation is that the neurons of the human brain use the same power source as digital devices like computers – electricity.  So – why not develop ways for electro-fired neurons in the brain to communicate with electro-fired transistors in  digital devices?  We can now envision a BCI with some very useful applications, such as allowing amputees to have control over robotic arms and legs by just using their minds.

The technology is based on electrical impulses, as the brain sends and receives messages through the body’s nervous system.  Nerve cells (neurons) receive and pass along these electrochemical pulses back and forth throughout the body.  These cells operate on an all-or-nothing condition – they are either on or off, and this is eerily similar to the way transistors in a computer’s integrated circuit operate.  This comparison is very simplistic, and we cannot say that the brain uses conventional binary logic exactly like a computer, but neurons do rely on the all-or-nothing state to function.  Each and every sense, muscle movement, feeling, and thought is a result of the electro-firing of neurons in the body.

Capturing neuron activity, and doing so quickly and at a high resolution, is the key to getting the data required to eventually decode the true and complete messages the neurons are sending along.  Once we have the decoded messages we can pass them along to a digital device, such as a computer or robotic arm.  We are a long way from having a functioning, practical, and useful BCI, but there is progress being made by several technology companies to develop ways to better detect and capture neuron activity.  Currently, there are inventions being developed that will capture much more neuron activity than the external electrodes now in use, such as thin-layer implants that can insert an electrode “sheet” directly on the brain.  Imagine the day when we can simply think about waving a robot’s hand, and that brain wave will actually cause the robotic hand to wave.  This still sounds a bit like science fiction, but now we can visualize some of the very useful and helpful things that could be done.

Technologies like this bring about a number of ethical concerns and a question, as is the case with many of the new medical innovations, but the human mind is a very powerful thing, and also a very curious thing.  Who is to say where the boundaries of our curiosity should be set?  Can we now imagine all the experts, theologians, and politicians who will try to get it right – let’s give them all a wave.

Check out this video showing how a monkey was able to control a robotic arm with its brainwaves to eat marshmallows.

Trend Disruptors is monitoring these developments, and will recommend companies to invest in that will lead to success for the well informed investor.

Stay tuned!