The greater the amount of high-quality data you have, the better your machine learning model will be. This post looks at the challenges (and solutions) involved in creating and organizing a dataset when you’re starting from scratch.
Written by Kristina Pearkes, Firmware Engineer, in collaboration with Andreas Putz, Data Scientist at MistyWest
Introduction
Over the past decade, one of the hottest areas of innovation has been to apply machine learning to real-world applications. Google and Amazon are now using machine learning models to transcribe speech to text, interpret language, and analyze images and videos. However, to achieve a degree of high accuracy in these applications, training these state-of-the-art deep neural networks requires unfathomably large annotated datasets.
Access to large datasets is beneficial in the machine learning world, so it’s not surprising that the greater the amount of high-quality…
Following the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit, we look at what technological advances are helping agriculture’s role in improving earth’s ability to capture atmospheric carbon.
Written by Dan Millar, Business Developer at MistyWest
Why is agriculture such a big deal?
Agriculture is one of the most negatively impactful industries accelerating climate change — and the only industry that truly has the ability to replenish itself and serve as a climate change reversal agent. The agricultural industry and the technical innovations developed in agri-tech will play a critical role in creating a sustainably abundant future and achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030 — all of which are part of MistyWest’s mission and purpose.
Agriculture faces the pressing mission of improving earth’s ability to capture atmospheric carbon (alongside with reducing…
Written by Justin Lam, Software Engineer and former MistyWest employee
This past January, MistyWest hosted a Vancouver Hardware Meetup webinar on the future of IoT on the cloud, where I spoke on a panel with fellow experts and innovators in IoT. MistyWest cofounder Leigh Christie, lawyer and member of AIOT Canada Edona Vila, CEO of Wearable X Billie Whitehouse, and IoT division lead at QuEST Global Amar Balutkar and I talked about the growing trends in intelligent connected devices and the ongoing security challenges.
Developing a hardware product? Adopting a design thinking approach may be what you need in order to meet your customer’s expectations and keep your user story in sight.
Written by Denis Godin, Industrial Designer at MistyWest
Has your business spent time and money developing a hardware product that failed at the commercialization stage because it didn’t meet customer expectations? Have you wondered at what point in product development you lost sight of the user story? A design thinking methodology can help to address these common issues that product development teams face.
This International Women’s Day, we’re highlighting 5 women founded tech startups in BC that are sustainably focused and leveraging novel technologies to tackle some of the UN’S SDGs.
Written by Madison Reid, Content Creator at MistyWest
It’s the year 2021, and women only account for 15 to 20 percent of the tech workforce in British Columbia. Why is this?
Research suggests that influence from families, role models and cultural stereotypes impact women’s decisions to pursue education–and later, careers–in STEM. The existing lack of representation of women and BIPOC folks in high profile tech positions can compound these reservations, further exacerbating the homogeneity of Canada’s technology workforce.
However, not all hope is lost within BC’s gender imbalance in tech! In recognition of International Women’s Day on March 8, we…
Do you have an innovative concept for a connected device? Here’s why hardware prototyping is integral to the product development process and the success of your project.
Written by Madison Reid, Content Creator at MistyWest
What is Hardware Prototyping?
When MistyWest was approached by VodaSafe prior to developing the AquaEye, founder Carlyn Loncaric had a proof-of-concept (POC) and a goal: to develop a life-saving piece of technology that can quickly scan underwater to locate drowning victims. Through iterative prototyping, our engineering team was able to develop a hand-held device that made novel use of ultrasonic sensor technology in only a few months.
The purpose of hardware prototyping is to answer questions, ranging from technical unknowns to getting a better understanding of your end-users and/or market. In the case of VodaSafe, the…
Through optimized firmware, MistyWest improved the battery life of a Bluetooth low energy wearable device’s hardware from under 10 days to over 45. Here’s how.
Written by Justin Lam
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices have seen exponential growth over the past 5 years, and companies are constantly adding greater functionality to stay connected (such as adding machine learning to low power devices). When it comes to battery-powered devices like wearables, battery life will make-or-break your product for end-users. As devices become more complex, increasing in features, processing power, data rates, and range, the added functionality typically comes at a reduction in battery life.
In addition to a negative user experience, poor battery life also results in the need to have frequent charging, which impacts the…
MistyWest has experience rolling out architectures on both Azure and AWS platforms for our clients’ projects. We take a high-level look at what each has to offer to determine which is right for your connected devices.
Written by Justin Lam
The Internet of Things has seen extensive growth in the past few years, and the number of connected devices is projected to amount to 21.5 billion units worldwide by 2025. Choosing the right platform to connect your devices is no easy task, and weighing the advantages and disadvantages between them is crucial to making sure your system’s architecture is designed to meet the demands of your application. Nobody wants to select the wrong platform for their business, as it can be costly to develop a solution and learn halfway about a deal-breaking limitation. …
Each Westie has the right to veto a prospective project if they deem it unethical. Here’s how we apply our ethics policy to our company process and keep MistyWest’s mission, purpose and values at the front of our BD efforts.
Written by Dan Millar, Business Developer at MistyWest
Introduction
Recently, MistyWest hosted a webinar on the Dark Side of Technology where we talked about the ethical implications society is currently facing as new technologies are developed. The conversation touched on issues like data sovereignty, (un)biased machine learning, and the increase in civilian/private access to technology previously only available to the military.
A low powered wearable can pack a serious punch when it’s trained to individual users habits and capabilities using ST’s Machine Learning Core.
Written by Kevin Lockwood, Systems & Bluetooth Engineer
Introduction
Leveraging ML Components to Unlock Powerful Low Power Applications
Motion Sensors, or Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), in wearable connected devices have long been able to internally detect limited human interactions (such as tapping) and in some cases, very specific orientations (such as a wrist tilt) while using low power consumption. Detecting complex motions, like the orientation or travel of a wearable in sports applications (such as tennis, golf, or boxing) requires a lot of data analysis by a microcontroller. …
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