This edition is packed with contributions from people across Endava, and covers many industries. It contains really cool, innovative projects that span robotics, business intelligence, security and payments. These projects are the cutting edge of the industry, and we often use these as inspiration for clients who are embarking on a Digital Transformation programme. Here are some highlights from the report: # Robotics # City-based Wifi # PC on a stick # The IoT infrastructure: Brillo, Thread and Weave # Video walls in retail

1. endava.com/endavalabs
Marketplace
Innovation
Q4 2015

2. About this report
Welcome to the latest edition of the Quarterly Innovation Reports.
This edition is packed with contributions from people across Endava,
and covers many industries. It contains really cool, innovative projects
that span robotics, business intelligence, security and payments.
These projects are the cutting edge of the industry, and we often
use these as inspiration for clients who are embarking on a Digital
Transformation programme.
If you would like to discuss any of these projects, please get in touch: @Endava on Twitter or via our
email addresses: Martin.Smith@Endava.com or Bradley.Howard@Endava.com
endava.com

3. Microsoft have released a preview of Power BI, which
allows users, including companies, to upload data or
connect to data sources, and create a customised,
comprehensive visualisation.
Once such visualisation at http://bit.ly/1JmjRMN shows
how developers are working with the now-open-source
.net core CLR project.
Power BI is part of a suite of off-the-shelf visualisation
tools helping provide some insight into large amounts
of data. The only drawback is opening up your data on
the cloud to make it all accessible from a single location
especially given the high profile security breaches
recently.
by Adrian Iuhas
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/
Power BI
endava.com

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Facebook PGP security
Facebook has announced that its users can
add an OpenPGP public key to their profile,
enabling Facebook to encrypt notification
e-mails, and for others to use the public
keys for encrypted communications.
Facebook is “gradually rolling out” this
experimental feature, which will be available
from your account's Contact and Basic Info
page. This could be the first step for one of
the big online organisations to move ahead
of HTTPS and start to take encryption of
private data very seriously.
by Daniel Ciocirlan
http://bit.ly/1FcyZRZ
endava.com

5. Double Robotics produces a ‘telepresence robot’
with a self-balancing wheel, telescopic vertical stand
and an iPad Air 2 holder at the top.
Users remotely connect to the robot and can drive
around a distant office, providing a nearly-real
experience.
The main feature over other teleconferencing tools is
that Double Robotics users can even interrupt other
robots and humans around water coolers and coffee
machines. Will we have an office full of robots rolling
around with us all working remotely. Who will
pick them up if they fall over?
by Stela Pripa
http://www.doublerobotics.com/
Robotics
endava.com

6. It’s another quarterly innovation report, and we’re
reviewing another new Virtual Reality headset. This time
it’s a crowdfunded device from Fove, which is the only
headset that can be operated solely from eye tracking.
Other devices require some finger operated controls.
Fove also increases the quality of the visual display by
rendering specifically where the user’s eye is focussed,
enabling a higher quality experience than other headsets
and also reducing the cost of production.
This headset has applications outside of gaming and
opens up investigations how users with Asperger’s and
Autism interact with each other.
by Martin Smith
http://bit.ly/1PmP47M
Another Virtual Reality Headset
endava.com

7. endava.com
Google have announced an initiative to
provide Wifi throughout cities by providing
Wifi hotspots through a project called
Sidewalk.
While sidewalk implies a pavement-based
hotspot, the website is unclear on what
form the technology will be rolled out –
whether it will be ground based or not
(remember Google satellites from a previous
Marketplace Innovation report?)
The overall aim is to address the 55 million
Americans who have an Internet device
without a data contract, and then roll out
globally.
by Martin Smith
http://www.sidewalkinc.com/
City based Wifi

8. Google has unveiled a USB stick which runs ChromeOS
called Chromebit.
The concept is that the USB stick can be plugged into
any display with an HDMI port, turning the display into
a fully-fledged computer.
The idea is that users can walk into a coffee shop, plug
in their Chromebit and begin working straight away. No
need to worry about battery life. However the interface
will require a keyboard and mouse.
Interesting concept, but needs some refinement –
perhaps a virtual laser keyboard display?
by Martin Smith
http://bit.ly/1QVLCSB
PC on a stick
endava.com

9. A number of wearable devices are already on the
market, and battery power is still a major concern for
users. For instance the Apple Watch is now a year old,
and still requires daily charging.
A lab at Arizona State University has used origami to
‘fold’ a battery into the device, rather than a single solid
slab in existing devices.
This will work particularly well embedded into a strap
on a wristwatch for example.
Anything which makes a device run longer without
more charging or adding additional weight gets a
thumbs up from us.
by Martin Smith
http://bit.ly/1KJwO8B
Folding batteries
endava.com

10. Terran Orbital provide governments and
companies with a low-orbit communications
network where there is no existing network.
This can also apply to disaster relief areas
where the existing network may have been
destroyed.
Terran Orbital demonstrates our total
reliance on communications networks,
and was originally conceived during 9/11
when there was a communications
blackout at Ground Zero.
by Martin Smith
http://terranorbital.com/
Nano satellites
endava.com

11. Across Asia, smartphone buyers are
purchasing ever larger devices, known as
phablets.
According to Flurry Analytics 50 percent
of smartphone sales in Taiwan and Hong
Kong involve devices with screen sizes of
five inches or more, versus a 20 percent
share worldwide.
Ecommerce companies explain “People
may not be able to afford a laptop or a
desktop computer”, but with a phablet
“they can have full and easy access to the
Web, and a phone as well.”
by Martin Smith
Bigger is Better
endava.com

12. Enigma is a decentralised cloud platform with
guaranteed privacy.
Personal data is stored, shared and analysed without
ever being fully revealed to any party. The technology
underpinning Enigma’s offering is secure multi-party
computation – where data is split up and encrypted in
different places, and Blockchain.
As one of Enigma’s founders, Guy Zyskind describes. “I
can take my age, this one piece of data, and split it into
pieces, and give it to ten people. If you ask each one of
those persons, they have only a random chunk.”
It’s good to see personal data getting the focus it needs
given the regular number of malicious attacks.
by Martin Smith
http://enigma.media.mit.edu/
Guaranteed data privacy
endava.com

13. Google have unveiled a list of technology platforms
which together provide an end to end infrastructure for
the Internet of Things (IoT).
Brillo is a minimum footprint version of the Android
Operating System for manufacturers to embed in
devices. Weave is the communications layer for devices
to communicate with each other and Thread is the
network protocol that joins this together.
We expect a number of big players emerging with IoT
platforms, but for IoT to fully work there needs to be an
agreed standard – Betamax or VHS?
by Usman Suhail
https://developers.google.com/brillo/
The IoT infrastructure:
Brillo, Thread and Weave
endava.com

14. The US Department of Defence’s Darpa
research unit have held an event during the
summer pitching the current generation of
robots against one another to see which
one completes the following list of tasks
the quickest.
Robots are required to use internal batteries,
and if the robot falls over, they need to pick
themselves up, dust themselves off and
return to work immediately.
The Darpa Robotics Challenge involves
eight quite daunting tasks:
• Driving a car
• Getting out of the car
• Climbing up steps
Rise of the Machines
• Opening a valve
• Opening and walking through a door
• Using a drill to cut a hole drawn onto
a wall
• Crossing a debris-filled terrain – either
by clearing a path for itself or walking
over the rubble
• A mystery event, that will only be
disclosed to the teams on the day
Google and a team from China both pulled
out of the 24 team competition from across
the globe.
by Sergiu Robu
http://www.theroboticschallenge.org/
endava.com

15. endava.com

16. YouTube now supports 360o
videos, blending the ever closing
gap between the real world and computer games.
One of our favourites is the Red Bull Formula 1 car video which
works particularly well on Google Cardboard or a touch screen
device. 360o
videos provide an enhanced viewing experience
with only one small problem – sometimes you can be facing
the wrong way and miss the action or the dialogue which the
director intended for you to watch.
by Peter Bienek
http://bit.ly/1QVLEKg
360o
videos on YouTube
endava.com

17. Exterion Media has announced that it has equipped
500 London buses with beacon technology.
As part of their Urban Activation Strategy, Exterion
trialled the beacon technology for six months on 110
buses in Norwich. 20 merchants participated in the
trial, which was the first time beacon technology has
been used on a bus network.
Exterion claim to have had a 30% CTR (Click Through
Rate) during the trial.
The 500 equipped London buses shuttle 300,000
people per day (according to Tfl) who make journeys
of approximately 17-19 minutes on average.
We agree with this type of hyper-localisation strategy to
provide a more personalised experience to customers.
by Martin Smith
Beacons on Buses
endava.com

18. Pirated video games
Pay attention to this one. A games
company has released a new title called
‘Game Dev Tycoon’ which enables players
to create and sell their own video game –
inside the game. As soon as the title was
finished, they uploaded a pirated version
of the game to some illegal torrent sites.
The pirated game had one difference –
the games that players produce inside the
game are more likely to be pirated.
Still keeping up? Players of the hacked
game started receiving notifications that
they were losing money in the game due
to piracy, and sought ironic refuge in ‘real’
online forums complaining that piracy
(inside the game) was ruining their
chances of success.
After 24 hours, over 3,000 people had
downloaded the cracked game compared
to 200 who paid the $7.99 for the genuine
version (i.e. 93% of users stole the game
via torrents). Hopefully, the people that
downloaded the cracked version have
learned a lesson!
by Martin Smith
http://bit.ly/1iu8oVD
endava.com

19. endava.com
A number of retailers are now providing
a video wall experience to consumers, to
merge the online and in-store experience.
The shop uses RFID sensors to recognise
what clothing the consumer has tried on,
and provide a personalised experience
through the video wall.
This looks like the natural direction of
retail shops, but probably only for high end
stores – otherwise there will be a queue to
use the video wall!
by Steve Bacall
http://bit.ly/1MnEL2H
Video walls

20. By placing large QR codes on fuel pumps in
Shell’s 1,000 UK based stations, drivers can
open their PayPal app and pay for fuel. The
rollout follows a successful pilot in 2013. Its
good to see new options how to pay.
We like this solution, although we’re
dubious about the advantage for consumers
“without having to leave their car” – after all,
how is the fuel going to get into the car?
by Martin Smith
http://bit.ly/1NQts6c
Shell offers drivers to pay
via PayPal from their car
endava.com

21. The latest flagship BMW contains a host
of James Bond-style features, including
self-parking (without the driver in the car),
head up display, hand gestures (rather than
touch screen), voice control and a tablet
app to control almost every feature of
the car.
Watch this 8 minute video which runs
through most of the technology features of
the car.
by Bogdan Nastasa
http://on.fb.me/1KwQfND
BMW 7 series
endava.com

22. The Netflix engineering team have redesigned the
technical architecture of their website, moving most of
the client rendering to Universal JavaScript rather than
a traditional server based architecture for individual
requests. This might sound quite technical, but this is
quite a big shift.
This makes server requests less intensive to compute
and provides much faster response time for users.
Netflix have historically improved technology stacks
and publicly shared their research, from their Amazon
hosting architecture (bearing in mind Amazon Prime is
a competitor to Netflix) to the latest web architecture.
by Peter Bienek
http://nflx.it/1ONdFEK
Making Netflix.com faster
endava.com

23. Endava is a well-established IT Services company, with over 2,250 full time
employees working across our delivery centres in Eastern Europe, London
headquarters and further offices in the US and Germany.
Endava focuses on the Banking & Payments, Insurance, Retail, Consumer Goods, Telecommunications & Travel and
Media, Tech & Publishing sectors where we design, implement and manage secure, high-volume, business-critical
systems and digital services for clients.
About Endava
endava.com

24. endava.com
Martin Smith
Head of Delivery, Digital Media
martin.smith@endava.com
Bradley Howard
Head of Digital Media
bradley.howard@endava.com
UK +44 20 7367 1000
USA +1 (212) 920 7240
Germany +49 69 999 9115 0