Kwindla Kramer of Oblong Industries #289

Click here to stream the audio version of this episode.

Join our mailing list and be the first to learn about upcoming guests!

Today on This Week in Startups, Oblong Industries CEO Kwindla Kramer joined the program to discuss the future of computing interfaces. Oblong is the company that provided technology to the film Minority Report, and Kwindla discussed his thoughts on when these new ways of interacting with our devices will be coming to the masses.

1:00 Welcome everyone, we have an awesome interview today with Kwindla Kramer of Oblong Industries, pioneers in the field of UI.
1:45 Thank you to Hiscox for supporting the show! If you need small business insurance, go to hiscoxusa.com/smallbiz
3:15 Kwin, how are you today? Thanks for coming on.
4:00 Tell me about Oblong Industries--why did you start it?
4:15 Checking out a video featuring some of Oblong’s technology.
6:00 What’s the application for this kind of technology today?
9:00 What’s been the biggest interface leap since the mouse?
10:45 How does the depth map work?
11:45 Did the scenes in Minority Report feature functional interfaces?
13:30 Kwindla: What we care about is the multi-device computing future.
17:45 How soon before the average company has the multi-panel flat TV screens in the conference room? How much are they?
19:45 How has software changed in the past decade?
21:15 Thank you to Stamps.com! Everyone thank them @StampsCom!
24:15 Why do they say that the healthcare industry is the one that’s going to lead this change?
26:00 Does this make surgeries more accurate or does it drive the cost down or both?
27:30 What’s moved faster in the interface space than you thought it would?
30:00 Question from the chat: What should be patentable in gestures?
32:00 Should you only be able to hold a patent if you’re actively using the technology?
34:00 How long has Oblong been around? Are you funded?
35:00 What was it like working at the Media Lab?
36:45 What was your first day like there? Who were you working with?
38:30 How’s it been working with the Foundry Group?
43:45 Are you testing any of the Google Glasses prototypes?
45:00 Why haven’t voice interfaces ever become important?
48:00 What about eyeball tracking? Does that work yet?
50:00 How much of our sense of personal space affects how this will work?
51:00 How are people using your Mezzanine system?
54:00 What about schools?
57:00 What are the chances this will be consumer tech in the next 2 years?
59:30 Is augmented reality going to change everything?
1:05:15 I’m guessing you recruit really great people for this company? If someone wanted to apply, how should they do that?
1:06:00 Thank you to Hiscox and Stamps.com for supporting the show.
1:06:15 What’s the origin of your name, Kwindla?
1:07:00 What’s up with Africa?
1:07:45 What’s the biggest issue in Africa today?
1:10:00 Why are we not energy independent?
1:11:30 Kwindla, I wish you continued success. Thanks for watching, everyone.

Support This Week in Startups and independent media by joining the TWiST Producer Program at TwistList.co!

Want to support TWiST another way? Use bit.ly/twistamazon when you shop and a portion of your purchase will go toward helping keep independent media like TWiST on air!

Keep up with the latest from our sister company, LAUNCH:

• Google's Fiber "Proof of Concept" is Anything But
• Good to Great to Excellent: A Roadmap
• Building a Better Techmeme
• LAUNCH Looking for an Awesome Full Stack Engineer/Developer

FOLLOW ON TWITTER
Jason: @jason
Kwindla: @kwindla
Stamps.com: @stampscom
Hiscox: @hiscoxcomm

Special thanks to the members of the TWiST Backchannel Program!

Executive Producers

• Louis-Eric Simard
• Benjamin Gifford
• Jacek Artymiak
• Octavian Mihai
• Will Paoletto
• Geoffrey Clapp
• Jeff Hoffer
• Austin Miller
• Rashaun Sourles
• Robb Kunz
• Greg Berry
• Sean Lynch
• Mary Ann Halford
• Jim Joyce
• Morgan Howard
• Margaret Johns
• Kyle M. Brown
• Paul Cole
• Nick Duncan
• Magnus Ingvarsson
• Amir Ayalon
• Carlos Zaidenweber
• Avery Keitt
• Joshua Shipsey

Producers

• Eli Coler
• Ted Inoue
• Radek Rybicki
• Hunter Owens
• Ildar Khakimov
• Matti Hallanoro
• Rodrigo Dauster
• Rodrigo Fuentes
• Anthony Ortenzi
• Daniel de la Cruz
• Michael Hofmann
• John Meneses
• Mike Sunyich
• Sami Rageb
• Michael Lustig
• Alex Deli
• John Davies
• Mark Burcher
• Morgan Howard
• Jeffrey Yan

Associate Producers

• Brad Pineau
• Kat Ganesan
• Nicholas Christian
• Mau Frontier
• Kyle Braatz
• Serena Ehrlich
• JD
• Alex Lotoczko
• James Kennedy
• Benoit Curdy
• Asher Nevins
• Mike Kaltschnee
• William Doom
• David Lee
• Jake Kerber
• Sarp Coskun
• Giuseppe Taibi
• Tyrone Rubin
• Keno Vigil
• Paul Peters
• Jamal Waring
• Nick Ostroff
• Alex Binkley
• John MP Knox
• Bryan McCormick
• Marcos Trinidad
• Allen Cordrey
• Daniel Mich
• Joshua Rosen
• Grant Carlile
• James Smith
• Christopher Rill
• Elliot Myhre
• Nihon Giga
• Nathan Gielis
• Greg Meadows
• Rick Cartwright
• Jacques Struwig
• Robert Ward
• Adam Gering
• Shelley Gaskin
• Jim Shute

Supporters

• Ryan Hoover
• Michael Cranston
• Josiah Thomas
• João Fernandes
• Petrus Theron
• Michael Wild
• Dale Emmons
• Tim de Jardine
• Alejandro Vasquez
• Milan Babuskov
• Chris Rowe
• Nelson Melo
• James Dawson
• Toddy Mladenov
• Daniel Torres
• Chris Macke
• Piotr Zuralski
• Armand Konan
• Brian Vogel
• Paul D
• Jennifer Sun
• David Kolb
• Sue Marrone
• Eugene Granovksy
• Will Blackton
• Ryan Dodds
• Brett Arp
• Jason Cresswell
• Edwin Orange
• Daniel Bradley
• Shawn Daniel
• Priidu Kull
• Patrick Desroches
• Alex Lam
• Paul Secor
• Ryan Urabe
• Madhu R.
• Paul Ardeleanu
• Ian Thomas
• Manny Alarcon
• Charlie Osmond
• Christopher Smitley
• Roshan H.
• Barcy Cordrey
• Matt Beaubien
• Matthew Smith
• Oscar Bueno
• Tim Hoyt
  
• Ian Gerstel
• Taphon Maddison
• John Bradley
• Luigi Armogida
• Dave Ferrara
• Janus Lindau
• Chris Mancil
• TR Ludwig
• Giles Thomas
• Jason Cartwright
• Michael Del Borrello
• Joshua Rosen
• David Karlberg
• Marcus Schappi
• Justin Furniss
• Mike Hauck
• Jess Bachman
• Isaac Hill
• Robert Haydock
• Dan Sfera
• Flaviu Simihaian
• Kiko Cherman
• Chandra Siva
• Kasper Andkjaer
• Zach Woodward
• Chris Galasso
• Chad Olsen
• Michael Grabham
• John Shiple
• Gregory Hoffman
• Chris Rickard
• Eskil Steenberg
• Jay Moran
• Karim Sarkis
• Michael Davidovich
• Petru Marchidan
• Sam Drzymala