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News Roundup – July 11, 2017

By Innovate Pasadena Staff — July 12, 2017

Big money for tech companies, new partnerships and acquisitions, Hackaday Supercon, and more!

In Case You Missed It!

AROUND TOWN

Beyond Limits Adds $20 million in June

Beyond Limits, a Pasadena-based artificial intelligence and cognitive computing startup, has secured $20 million from BP Ventures. The company develops industrial-grade AI software that allows entities like NASA to combine human knowledge with machine learning to do things like, you know, explore outer space. READ MORE

Pasadena-based Miso Robotics Gets $3.1 Million Capital Investment

Miso Robotics is revolutionizing the restaurant and prepared food industries with innovative robotics and AI solutions. Miso’s “Flippy” employs machine learning and computer vision to identify patties on a grill, track them as they cook, flip and then place them on a bun when they’re done. READ MORE

UberMedia Acquires Cintric, Boosts Always-On First-Party Data Pool

Pasadena-based UberMedia today announced the acquisition of Cintric, a location intelligence and analytics company for mobile app publishers. Cintric’s lightweight mobile SDK accurately measures the location signals of millions of users to provide powerful app user behavioral patterns, affinity grouping, and location intelligence. READ MORE

DESIGN

ArtCenter College of Design Alum Chris Finley’s New Exhibit at Chimento Contemporary

At once unsettling and engaging — ugly and beautiful — Finley’s pictures bring us face to face with weightlifters as they do some real heavy lifting. READ MORE

SCIENCE

CalTech Engineers Develop New Light Detector

Engineers at Caltech have for the first time developed a light detector that combines two disparate technologies—nanophotonics, which manipulates light at the nanoscale, and thermoelectrics, which translates temperature differences directly into electron voltage—to distinguish different wavelengths of light, including both visible and infrared wavelengths, at high resolution. READ MORE

CalTech Professor Discovers Neural Relationship Between Light and Sleep

Why do we tend to wake up if the lights are flipped on in the middle of the night? Why does darkness make us sleepy? Caltech researchers in the laboratory of Professor of Biology David Prober say they have discovered at least part of the answer: a specific protein in the brain that responds to light and darkness to set the correct balance between sleep and wakefulness. READ MORE

Hidden Stars May Make Planets Appear Smaller

"Our understanding of how many planets are small like Earth, and how many are big like Jupiter, may change as we gain more information about the stars they orbit," Elise Furlan of Caltech/IPAC-NExScI said. "You really have to know the star well to get a good handle on the properties of its planets." READ MORE

TECHNOLOGY

ObEN announces joint venture with SM Entertainment to create virtual copies of celebrities using AI

Pasadena-based artificial intelligence startup, Oben is reaching out to Hollywood talent agencies with an eye toward creating digital "copies" of actors and celebrities for a variety of uses. For instance, Siri’s voice could be replaced by that of a famous actor or actress. Or a digital version of a popular comedian could greet you on your mobile — or appear in some iteration of virtual, augmented or mixed reality. READ MORE

New Matter and Challenger Center Announce Selection of Scobee Education Center as First Recipient of MOD-t 3D Printers in New Partnership

Challenger Center, a leading science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education organization, and New Matter, a leading desktop 3D printing company and operating company of Idealab, announced that Challenger Learning Center at the Scobee Education Center has been chosen as the first to receive MOD-t 3D printers as part of the initial phase of their partnership. READ MORE

Supplyframe DesignLab Hackaday Superconference

The Supplyframe DesignLab is once again opening their doors for Supercon the greatest gathering of hardware hackers, builders, engineers and enthusiasts on the planet. LEARN MORE

UberMedia Launches Vista for a Complete Diagnostic View of Your Business

Pasadena-based UberMedia added a critical new component to its mobile location product line with the launch of Vista, a suite of diagnostic intelligence tools for businesses to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses through the lens of real-world foot traffic analysis, shopping patterns, and customer insights. READ MORE

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