Company:Neonode

Neonode

File:Neonode.png
Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: NEON
Founded	Sweden (2001 (2001))
Founders	Magnus Goertz and Thomas Eriksson
Headquarters	Stockholm, Sweden
Area served	Worldwide
Products	N1, N1m, N2, Airbar
Website	neonode.com

Neonode started out as a company producing mobile phones, founded in Sweden by Magnus Goertz and Thomas Eriksson. Currently Neonode Inc (NASDAQ: NEON), the parent company, focuses solely on the development, licensing and selling of the company's patented optical touch technology. The technology uses a web of light beams and was named zForce (zero force). It is used for mobile phones, tablets, e-readers and other devices featuring touch screens. The company operates from Stockholm, Sweden with offices in San Jose, Detroit, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei.

History

Childhood friends Magnus Goertz and Thomas Eriksson founded Neonode in 2001 with the intent of creating a brand new type of mobile phone.

The first prototype was launched at the German IT-fair CeBit in March 2002 and yielded quite a bit of attention. Around Christmas the same year, a press conference was held at Fryshuset in Stockholm. The massive attention they received resulted in 20.000 mobile phones being pre-ordered. Using their two patented technologies, zForce and Neno, Neonode AB had developed three mobile phone models: N1, N1m and N2. They all shared a similar design, featuring a large optic touch screen in color.

Neonode AB was responsible for the development and marketing of the mobile phones. The company had about 30 employees and was situated on Biblioteksgatan, close to Stureplan in Stockholm. Production of the phones took place in Malaysia.

In November 2008, the company attempted issue equity, but failed. On December 9, 2008, Neonode declared bankruptcy. The company was immediately started up again by Thomas Eriksson. The business of the parent company Neonode Inc and Neonode Technologies AB, located in Sweden, which is the R&D headquarters, has since been the licensing of the zForce technology.

In 2009, the company released an updated version of the touch-technology zForce (zero force).

In 2010 two new product concepts ClearTouch and SAT (Selected Area Touch) were introduced, both based on an update of zForce. The same year, Sony launched their e-reader based on the zForce technology.

In 2010, zForce was awarded the title "Best New Technology of the Year" by the magazine Mobil.

In 2010 and 2011 the company has signed some global customers in the e-reader segment. The technology has since developed and is now implemented into a variety of touch devices such as tablets and automotive appliances.

Year	units sold	Turnover (M $)	Net results (M $)
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006		1.64	-5.2
2007	31 000	3.13	-49.6
2008	20 000
2009	0	0
2010		2.64

AirBar

AirBar is a computer accessory which projects light on to a laptop screen, allowing the device to recognize touch input. The black bar is attached with magnets onto the bottom of a screen and plugs into a standard USB port. The device is compatible with Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Chrome OS.

Technology

Neonode zForce NN1001

zForce: The technology is based on light fields. As the light is interrupted by fingers or objects, the system notes the position. Other objects than fingers are therefore possible to use, since the screen responds to any type of material.´

NN1001: On January 3rd 2012, Neonode announced a new optical touch controller dubbed NN1001, developed in cooperation with TI, that tracks any high-speed multi-touch gesture with any object (finger, gloved finger and passive pen). NN1001 connects to any microcontroller or application processor with a high-speed SPI interface. zForce® (zero force) is the name for Neonode’s patented optical sensing technology built on infrared light, invisible to the human eye.

Neonode’s zForce optical sensing technology adds value and provides the highest performance for a multitude of devices. We strive to provide the highest level of functionality by adding unique features that only optical technology can realize.

zForce technology offers a variety of competitive and original features that sense any type of object, determine its size, its pressure on a surface, its depth (3D), its velocity and even its proximity to any type of surface.

zForce technology consists of a set of light emitters and detectors, an optical light guide with lenses and a controller IC that is connected to a host. The host runs Neonode´s proprietary embedded software stack and is connected to the controller. The controller IC regulates the light emitters, that emit short pulses of light in an intended sensing/interactive plane. The controller continuously monitors the light that is collected by the detectors and checks the ambient light in order to calibrate the system to work in all light conditions. Objects in the light path of the sensor cause intensity shifts in the received light. This information is used to initiate tracking of the objects. The size and position of each object is reported back to the host. By combining the measured value from a number of detectors, the position and object size are calculated. Compensations are also made for dust and other small particles on the optical surfaces, as well as for variations in component quality.

Being light based means that zForce technology is robust to electrical noise and other electrically conducted interferences and to strong RF sources. Our controller ICs use sophisticated hardware filtering in combination with optical and software filtering to achieve a system that is highly robust to ambient light and other strong light sources.

zForce technology has high scanning frequency, low latency and high accuracy, and operates in a wide temperature range, making it ideal for applications intended for harsh environments.

zForce technology consists of two platforms.

Optical Reflective Platform zForce optical reflective platform is based on light reflection technology, integrating optics and electronics in a thin strip along one side of an intended interactive area, creating a 2-dimensional interactive plane.

Through its innovative use of infrared light, invisible to the human eye, zForce optical reflective technology interacts with the position and movement of any reflective object within its range. It enables touch interaction on any display or surface, mid-air interaction ranging from sweeping hand motions to multi-finger gesturing, as well as dynamic sensing of any object or environment.

Neonode has a new line of embedded sensor modules incorporating its optical reflective technology.

With Neonode sensor modules you enjoy complete freedom of design, ease of integration and cost-efficient production.

Optical Blocking Platform zForce optical blocking platform is based on light blocking technology and provide multi-touch interaction with a minimum of components and the lowest possible cost. It is tailored for ultra low latency and power consumption and can be customized to fit any resolution, speed, power consumption or robustness in any application or environment.

zForce optical blocking technology is for high volume applications that can be licensed. Custom design solutions are scalable to any touch area and size and work on any surface and with any touch object.

Former products

Neno Neno was Neonodes custom graphical user interface (GUI) controlling the Microsoft Windows CE operating system. Neonode devices ran Neno from a removable Secure Digital card.

N2

The Neonode N2 mobile phone

• Operating system: Windows CE 6.0 Pro
• Display: 176 × 220 Pixels (Width × Height), 16-bit Colour TFT
• Audio: Stereo 48 kHz playback
• Memory Storage: miniSD / miniSDHC
• Connectivity: GSM Quad band: GSM850,GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900 MHz, Bluetooth, GPRS
• Size: 47×77×14,7 mm (W×H×T)
• Weight: 70g
• Battery: 820mAh
• Imaging: 2 Megapixel Fixed Focus Camera, Still pictures, Video play-back (MPEG, WMV), Video Recording (MPEG-4) (not yet, but planned in further updates)
• Messaging: SMS, Support for long SMS, MMS, Predictive text input, T9 (English, Swedish, German, Dutch, Spanish, Norwegian, French and Greek), Call history (dialed, received and missed calls)
• Audio: Audio player (MP3, WAV, WMA), stereo 48 kHz playback, Custom ring tones (MP3, WAV, WMA), Alarm application
• Entertainment: Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer (web browser), 2 integrated games.
• Third-party software.
• Software development environment.

N1m

• Launched: Q1 2005
• Operating system: Windows CE 5.0 and 4.2
• Display: 176 × 220 Pixels (Width × Height), 16-bit Colour TFT
• Audio: Stereo 48 kHz playback
• Memory storage: SD card up to 2 GB
• Connectivity: GSM Triband: GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900 MHz), USB 1.1
• Size: 88 × 52 × 21 (H × W × D)
• Weight: 94g
• Imaging: Megapixel Camera (1024x1024), Imageviewer, Videoplayer (MPEG 1, MPEG 4, WMV)
• Messaging: Short message service, Support for long SMS, Multimedia Messaging Service, Predictive text input, T9 (English, Swedish, German, Spanish, French and Russian), Call history (dialed, received and missed calls)
• Audio: Audio player (MP3, WAV, WMA), stereo 48 kHz playback, Custom ring tones (MP3, WAV, WMA), Alarm application
• Entertainment: Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer (web browser), Games, third-party software downloadable
• Organiser: Calendar, Tasks, Phonebook with storage capacity of 1000 contacts, Add an individual picture for each contact, Synchronize with your PC using ActiveSync (requires extra software free of charge from Microsoft)
• Miscellaneous: Large touch-screen, On-screen keyboard, Screen saver, Vibrator, Calculator, Updates available at the Neonode website, USB memory functionality, use N1 as portable storage device. A generic positive gesture (slide left to right) and negative gesture (slide right to left) were used consistently through the interface to unlock, go back to home screen, etc.

External links

1. Official web site
2. Unofficial forum for neonode users
3. Unofficial German fanpage for neonode users
4. Unofficial German forum for neonode users
5. Site to download and upload themes, wallpapers, videos and ringtones for neonode phones
6. Neonode optical touch controller Announcement