(upbeat music) >> Hey welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. I wish I could give you my best John Miller impersonation but I'm just not that good. But we are at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. We haven't really done a show here since 2014, so we're excited to be back. Pretty unique event, it's called Sports Tech Tokyo World Demo Day. About 25 companies representing about 100 different companies really demonstrating a bunch of cool technology that's used for sports as well as beyond sports, so we're excited to have one of the companies here who's demoing their software today, or their solution I should say. It's Albert Ng, he's the founder and CEO of Misapplied Sciences. Albert, great to see you. >> Great to see you, thank you for having me. >> So Misapplied Sciences. Now I want to hear about the debates on that name. So how did that come about? >> Yeah, so I used to work part time for Microsoft, at Microsoft Research, and one of the groups I worked for was called the Applied Sciences group. And so it was a little bit of a spin on that and it conveys the way that we come up with innovations at our company. We're a little bit more whimsical as a company that we take technologies that weren't intended for the ways that we apply them and so we misapply those technologies to create new innovations. >> Okay, so you're here today, you're showing a demo. So what is it? What is your technology all about? And what is the application in sports, and then we'll talk about beyond sports. >> Yeah, so Misapplied Sciences, we came up with a new display technology. Think like LED video wall, digital signage, that sort of display. But what's unique about our displays, is you can have a crowd of people, all looking at the same display at the same time, yet every single person sees something completely different. You don't need to have any special glasses or anything like that. You look at your displays with your naked eyes, except everyone gets their own personalized experience. >> Interesting. So how is that achieved? Obviously, we've all been on airplanes and we know privacy filters that people put on laptops so we know there's definitely some changes based on angle. Is it based on the angles that you're watching it? How do you accomplish that and is it completely different, or I just see a little bit of difference here, there, and in other places? >> Sure, so at the risk of sounding a little too technical, it's in the pixel technology that we developed itself. So each of our pixels can control the color of light that it sends in many different directions. So one time a single pixel can emit green light towards you, whereas red light towards the person sitting right next to you, so you perceive green, whereas the person right next to you perceives red at the same time. We can do that at a massive scale. So our pixels can control the color of light that they send between tens of thousands, up to a million different angles. So using our software, our processors on our back end, we can control what each of our pixels looks like from up to a million different angles. >> So how does it have an edge between a million points of a compass? That's got to be, obviously it's your secret sauce, but what's going on in layman's terms? >> Yeah, so it's a very sophisticated technology. It's a full stack technology, as we call it. So it's everything from new optics to new high performance computing. We had to develop our own custom processor to drive this. Computer vision, software user interfaces, everything. And so this is an innovation we can up with after four and a half years in stealth mode. So we started the company in late 2014, and we were all the way completely in stealth mode until middle of last year. So about four years just hardcore doing the development work, because the technology's very sophisticated. And I know when I say this, it does sound a little impossible, a little bit like science fiction, so we knew that. So now we have our first product coming on the market, our first public installation later next year and it's going to be really exciting. >> Great. So, obviously you're not going to have a million different feeds, 'cuz you have to have a different feed I would imagine, for each different view, 'cuz you designate this is the view from point A. This is the view from point B. Use feed A, use feed B. I assume you use something like that 'cuz obviously the controller's a big piece of the display. >> Exactly, so a lot of the technology underneath the hood is to reduce the calculations, or the rendering required from a normal computer, so you can actually drive our big displays that can control hundreds of different views using a normal PC, just using our platform. >> So what's the application. You know obviously it's cute and it's fun and I told you it's a dog, no it's a cat as you said, but what are some of the applications that you see in sports? What are you going to do in your first demo that you're putting out? >> Yeah, so what the technology enables is finally having personalized experiences when in a public environment, like a stadium, like an airport, like a shopping mall. So let me give an airport example. So imagine you go up to the giant flight board and instead of a list of a hundred flights, you see only your own flight information in big letters so you can see it from 50 feet away. You can have arrows that light your path towards your particular gate. The displays could let you know exactly how many minutes you have to board, and suggest places for you to eat and shop that are convenient for you. So the environment can be tailored just for you and you're not looking down at a smart phone, you're not wearing any special glasses to see everything that you want to see. So that ability to personalize a venue stretch, is to every single public venue, even in the stadium here, imagine the stadium knowing whether you're a home team fan or away team fan or your fantasy players. You can see it all on the jumbotron or any of the displays that are in the interstitial areas. We can have the entire stadium come alive just for you and personalize it. >> Except you're not going to have 10,000 different feeds, so is there going to be some subset of infinite that people are driving in terms of the content side? >> Mhmm. >> So on your first one, you're first installation, what's that installation going to be all about? >> The first installation is going to be at an airport, I can't see right now publicly where it's going to be or when it's going to be or what partner. But the idea is to be able to have a giant flight board that you only see your own flight information, navigating you to your particular gate. You know when you're at an airport, or any other public venue like a stadium, a lot of times you feel like cow in a herd, right? And it's not tailored for you in any way. You don't have as good of an experience. So we can personalize that for you. >> All right, Misapplied Sciences. Oh I'll come down and take a look at the booth a little bit later. And thanks for taking a few minutes. Good luck on the adventure. I look forward to watching it unfold. >> Appreciate it, thank you so much. >> All right, he's Albert I'm Jeff. You're watching theCUBE. We're at Oracle Park, on the shores of McCovey Cove. Thanks for watching, we'll see ya next time. >> Thank you. (upbeat music)

(upbeat music) >> Welcome back, everybody, Jeff Frick here with theCube. We are at Oracle Park, formerly AT&T Park, recently named Oracle Park. Right on the shores of McCovey Cove, in downtown San Francisco. We haven't been here since Sport's Data, I think 2014. I can't believe it's been five years. So maybe now the Giants' situation will turn as we make a run for the pennant. We're here at a really interesting event, it's called Sports Tech Tokyo World Demo Day. And we're here with kind of the master of ceremonies, if you will, he's Mike Proman, the Managing Director of Scrum Ventures. Mike, great to see you. >> Great to be here. Thanks again for the time. >> Absolutely. So what is this day all about? Give us the low down. >> Yeah so, start up frenzy, right? Sports tech community's just in it's infancy right now. There's a lot of fragmentation though, in this world. And how do we best connect start ups to best-in-class companies, right? Japanese companies, there's a lot of excitement in Japan right now. We have Rugby World Cup coming up next month, we have the Olympics next year. How do we enable the start up community to realize those opportunities from a partnership perspective? So, we set out on this journey about a year ago. Bringing together companies of all different stages, all different geographic regions, and all different areas of focus within sports tech. And our job was to connect them to opportunities in Japan. What we kind of uncovered along the journey right, is that this is a community. And that we're building a platform here that transcends Asia, right. We want to help this community, and whether it's connecting them with the venture audience, or otherwise, we feel this is a great reflection of innovation coming in to this industry. >> Now you took kind of an interesting tact. You've called them, before we turned the cameras on, kind of a cohort, kind of an incubator, not really an incubator. So how is this thing structured, how do people get involved? What are some of the benefits of being part of this group versus out there slogging it on your own? >> Well, absolutely, and I think everyone's first reaction is, oh, this is just another accelerator, right? And we've really made a point of not identifying ourselves as an accelerator, for a variety of reasons. Number one, it's a stage-agnostic cohorts, right. So a lot of the companies that are representative here today, the 159 in our cohort, they've raised 10, 20, 30, $40 million. In many respects, they're all grows up, right. They don't need a quote unquote, a traditional accelerator. But our reality is, everybody needs acceleration. And particularly in Asia, Japan in particular, right? You need allies, you need advocates, you need facilitators. And people who are going to help revenue optimization, as well as just breaking the door in some cases. There's a lot of high profile content coming to that region, and if we can help people, it all comes back to us, long term. >> Right, right. And then the other piece, obviously, is the investment piece. 'Cause you work with a number of Japanese investment firms, so that's really kind of part of the, you know, we're sitting in San Franscisco, the event's called Tokyo, the Olympics are a year way, and you're from the Mid-West. So, you're kind of bringing it all together here in San Franscisco. >> You know, sport is the great unifier, right. So this is a great opportunity for us to speak to other industries, and bring the venture community into this conversation. Because, as you know, it's about top-line growth for a lot of these startups, but in many cases, they need capital to be able to accelerate into that growth. And so, you know, it's a very exciting time, and we're here to help support everybody. Our DNA, we're investors, right. We're a venture capital firm. But at the end of the day, what ends up happening is, these companies needs advocacy and connections, and that's what we're here to provide. >> Right, so, you said 100 plus companies in cohort. So, there's a lot of things going on in sports tech, but what are some of the really oddball ones that you're seeing a little further out than maybe most people aren't thinking about. >> Yeah, you know, the trends to me that I'm really excited about personally, are those opportunities that transcend the industry, right. Where is there opportunity for us to democratize things, from just a lead athletes, right, into things that you and I both need. So look at athlete performance. Look at recovery health, as an industry focus, right. Hydration, you look at mental health, sleep health, dietary health, you know. Players of the Giants, they need that, right? But you and I need that too. So where are those technologies that are innovators or thought leaders and leading the way in those spaces? The nice thing about Sports Tech Tokyo is we focus in athlete performance, stadium experience, and fan engagement, right. And there are 13 sub-categories, so it's a very broad based cohort, a lot of different areas of expertise. But bringing them all together is what's most rewarding. >> What's your favorite piece of it? I mean, it's hard to pick your favorite kid, but a couple of interesting companies in the portfolio that you'd like to highlight. >> Everyone's always saying, oh, you put me on the spot. No, absolutely not, Jeff. But in reality, my background is, I've been an entrepreneur for 10 plus years before this. And I've worked with brands like Coca Cola, and the NBA. What excites me most-- >> So we framed you up with a Coke bottle, by the way. >> Thank you very much. That was a nice product placement there. The nice thing is, I'm seeing technology today that didn't fundamentally exist a year or two ago. So I could tell you my favorite right now, in 2 weeks that might be entirely different, right. You're going to meet somebody from Misapplied Sciences, and they are doing some of the most breakthrough, cutting edge tech that, it's mind boggling, in terms of what they can do. And what's great about a company like Misapplied, is that they're doing it in sports, but they're also doing it in retail, and other high-dense environments. And so to me, those are the winners in this cohort. The ones that can transcend sport, and add value to so many other places. >> Right, so, before I let you go, you got a busy day ahead. What's the run of the day, what should people expect who are coming through the gates here at Oracle today? >> Well I said this is not your traditional accelerator. Well, this is not your traditional demo day, by any means, right. Traditionally, demo day is a bunch of company pitches, and then there's maybe some conversation afterwards. To us, this is a celebration of a broader cohort, right. Our 100 plus mentors that make up the Sports Tech Tokyo community. And we wanted to celebrate those individuals, right. The 100 mentors, the 400 plus attendees we have here today. So, think of it as an extended cocktail party, right. We want people to connect, and connect at scale. And so that's the back half of the day. The front half of the day is more content oriented. We have a lot of industry experts, again, common theme is transcending the vertical. Looking at opportunities to bring the venture community into the conversation. >> All right, well Mike, good luck and have a great and very busy day. >> Yeah, thank you so much. Appreciate it Jeff. >> He's Mike, I'm Jeff, you're watching theCube. We're at Oracle Park in San Francisco on the shores of McCovey Cove, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. (upbeat digital music)