Nex-tech classifieds

Arm introduces new automotive image signal processor
https://www.arm.com/company/news/2022/02/arm-adds-new-isp-to-advance-adoption-of-adas-and-automation-technologies?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2022_automotive_mk12_arm_na_na_awa&utm_content=newsroom
Drivers increasingly depend on ADAS applications such as collision avoidance, lane departure warnings and automated emergency braking, and vehicles increasingly rely on cameras positioned around the car to enable many of these features.
As the number and sophistication of vehicle cameras increases, so does the compute power needed to translate the high throughput of image data – efficiently and safely – into outputs that meet the varying requirements for machine and human vision
Mali-C78AE is designed specifically to address both human and machine vision safety applications, and is able to process data from up to four real-time or 16 virtual cameras.
Mali-C78AE employs advanced noise reduction technology and dynamic range management to ensure each frame is clear and properly exposed by adjusting overly dark or bright areas of a frame.
A strong vision pipeline is increasingly important to powering the next phase of mass market ADAS deployment.
Some features of Mali-C78AE that make you think ALIIS??

• Image quality enhancements for display, providing high-quality outputs from sensors developed for machine vision applications.
• Real-time hardware safety features for ADAS and HMI applications, with every pixel tagged for reliability.

​
https://preview.redd.it/ggpwujku4lj81.png?width=1940&format=png&auto=webp&s=380f17e4d67aa598543b01df3a843a2dd12db635
This might be a good time to re-visit a NexOptic featured article from ARM and have another listen to the Arm Webinar from April 2021. See links below...
Intelligent Imaging at the Edge and Endpoint - Arm Blueprint
Performing complex deep learning in endpoint devices comes at significant computational cost. And that’s where a lot of NexOptic’s work in optimization is happening—through software optimizations such as model compression and distillation, network quantization and mixed precision, and massive architecture searches to find efficient and accurate deep learning models.
Software and hardware techniques have propelled deep learning to the edge and endpoint in a very short amount of time, presenting an opportunity for low powered, high performance intelligent imaging solutions in devices without the need for cloud-based processing.
The NexOptic AI team draws on the numerous advances and techniques developed in the field to deliver a simplified intelligent imaging entry point at the edge and endpoint. Importantly, NexOptic has partnered with Arm to ensure customers are able to leverage the most from their hardware of choice.
NexOptic Joins ARM AI Partner Program – NexOptic
For example, specialized NPU technology like that found in Arm’s Ethos processors will help deliver the highest throughput and most efficient processing for ML inference in endpoint devices. Coupled with the robust and adaptable Arm “AE” image signal processing IP, end customers are able to truly build the AI powered imaging systems of the future.
​
https://preview.redd.it/a8vyow735lj81.png?width=1940&format=png&auto=webp&s=16c33143800a9d03cc0826bf7501d333efadfe58
Arm Webinar link...
Computer Vision at the Edge (brighttalk.com)
(Note: You may need to register in order to watch webinar)
A few notes and highlights from the webinar to give a brief summary:
· More edge and endpoint devices generate images and video than ever before.
· Processing at edge has advantage of better privacy and security for our data.
· Arm can run algorithms on the edge with dedicated AI processors (Ethos NPUs, SVE2, etc)
· ALIIS is a suite of intelligent imaging solutions designed to enhance imaging applications, it’s a set of learning based computer vision algorithms that use convolutional neural networks
· ALIIS transforms an input image into a completely new image, algorithms are designed and optimized to enhance each image pixel by pixel. Processing at the edge allows access to uncompressed raw data, and because we are at the edge all these benefits cascade downstream.
· ALIIS is designed to enhance downstream applications, it’s basically AI for AI.
· Able to achieve 10X data compression by removing image noise, so you can expect clear and sharper images, and a smaller overall energy footprint due to easier data compression.
· Have been able to achieve 400% increase in classifier performance
· OEMs can pair with ALIIS to get the most out of their products, clear sharp images, efficient performance, and cascading downstream benefits.
· ALIIS well suited for Industrial automation – conveyor belt speed would result in less light being taken in thus fast frame rates would be required, faster shutter speed required.
· Pristine Surgical, we are a good fit with them, they are the first adopter of ALIIS, and we expect a lot more to adopt ALIIS in the coming months.
· Question - When will ALIIS be available on Arm chips commercially, Answer is NOW!
· Question - What attracted Rich to NXO – Said he was totally impressed, tech is at cutting edge employing neural network technologies. Rich commented that Pristine surgical will probably explode with these single use endoscopes because this is where these things are headed, and that this is just the tip of the iceberg for ALIIS. There are multiple market segments where ALIIS will shine from military, drones, mobile phones, robotics, etc. Nexoptic has been working with several potential customers, very large fleet management company, and many others. He’s VERY VERY excited about the future of this company. ALIIS will provide a foundation platform for a variety of market segments, it’s VERY exciting!
· Arm is everywhere, huge customer base and ALIIS is available commercially now on these Arm devices.
· Vehicle license recognition – noise affects that performance, ALIIS great application for this.
· Nexoptic has an internal SDK, can use for partner evaluations, this SDK may become public at some point
· Korean office was opened to work with potential mobile customers
· Question - How does Nexoptic's AI compare to other AI out there - It's better because we are at the edge, work with raw data, a lot of other companies do this type of image enhancement but are doing it for process media, RGB media, etc. ALIIS can remove noise before it gets baked into H265 stream, once in there very difficult to get out. Could see 10X more bandwidth if not taking the noise out (for example zoom calls), end up using more bandwidth. A lot of AI solutions are focused on the object recognition and detection, segmentation. Nexoptic has chosen to focus on the low light, noise reduction, a more fundamental imaging property so that we can help all these downstream processes, and adding more functionality to be AI for AI.
· Anti-glare conceived for the automotive use case, tunable artifact removal algorithm. Well suited to these applications.
· Double size of AI team over next couple of months, plus lots of people to draw on from our Korean team who are well connected in the AI space.
· A lot of ongoing conversations right now with multiple companies.
​
From what we know about our relationship with Arm it would certainly seem probable that ALIIS is being or has been implemented into various Arm devices. When will we get more details on what this means for NexOptic revenue? Who knows?
I think we can say wth confidence that revenue is just around the corner, but there are a lot of corners!! LOL
PATIENCE!

Arm introduces new automotive image signal processor
https://www.arm.com/company/news/2022/02/arm-adds-new-isp-to-advance-adoption-of-adas-and-automation-technologies?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2022_automotive_mk12_arm_na_na_awa&utm_content=newsroom
Drivers increasingly depend on ADAS applications such as collision avoidance, lane departure warnings and automated emergency braking, and vehicles increasingly rely on cameras positioned around the car to enable many of these features.
As the number and sophistication of vehicle cameras increases, so does the compute power needed to translate the high throughput of image data – efficiently and safely – into outputs that meet the varying requirements for machine and human vision
Mali-C78AE is designed specifically to address both human and machine vision safety applications, and is able to process data from up to four real-time or 16 virtual cameras.
Mali-C78AE employs advanced noise reduction technology and dynamic range management to ensure each frame is clear and properly exposed by adjusting overly dark or bright areas of a frame.
A strong vision pipeline is increasingly important to powering the next phase of mass market ADAS deployment.
Some features of Mali-C78AE that make you think ALIIS??

• Image quality enhancements for display, providing high-quality outputs from sensors developed for machine vision applications.
• Real-time hardware safety features for ADAS and HMI applications, with every pixel tagged for reliability.

​
https://preview.redd.it/ggpwujku4lj81.png?width=1940&format=png&auto=webp&s=380f17e4d67aa598543b01df3a843a2dd12db635
This might be a good time to re-visit a NexOptic featured article from ARM and have another listen to the Arm Webinar from April 2021. See links below...
Intelligent Imaging at the Edge and Endpoint - Arm Blueprint
Performing complex deep learning in endpoint devices comes at significant computational cost. And that’s where a lot of NexOptic’s work in optimization is happening—through software optimizations such as model compression and distillation, network quantization and mixed precision, and massive architecture searches to find efficient and accurate deep learning models.
Software and hardware techniques have propelled deep learning to the edge and endpoint in a very short amount of time, presenting an opportunity for low powered, high performance intelligent imaging solutions in devices without the need for cloud-based processing.
The NexOptic AI team draws on the numerous advances and techniques developed in the field to deliver a simplified intelligent imaging entry point at the edge and endpoint. Importantly, NexOptic has partnered with Arm to ensure customers are able to leverage the most from their hardware of choice.
NexOptic Joins ARM AI Partner Program – NexOptic
For example, specialized NPU technology like that found in Arm’s Ethos processors will help deliver the highest throughput and most efficient processing for ML inference in endpoint devices. Coupled with the robust and adaptable Arm “AE” image signal processing IP, end customers are able to truly build the AI powered imaging systems of the future.
​
https://preview.redd.it/a8vyow735lj81.png?width=1940&format=png&auto=webp&s=16c33143800a9d03cc0826bf7501d333efadfe58
Arm Webinar link...
Computer Vision at the Edge (brighttalk.com)
(Note: You may need to register in order to watch webinar)
A few notes and highlights from the webinar to give a brief summary:
· More edge and endpoint devices generate images and video than ever before.
· Processing at edge has advantage of better privacy and security for our data.
· Arm can run algorithms on the edge with dedicated AI processors (Ethos NPUs, SVE2, etc)
· ALIIS is a suite of intelligent imaging solutions designed to enhance imaging applications, it’s a set of learning based computer vision algorithms that use convolutional neural networks
· ALIIS transforms an input image into a completely new image, algorithms are designed and optimized to enhance each image pixel by pixel. Processing at the edge allows access to uncompressed raw data, and because we are at the edge all these benefits cascade downstream.
· ALIIS is designed to enhance downstream applications, it’s basically AI for AI.
· Able to achieve 10X data compression by removing image noise, so you can expect clear and sharper images, and a smaller overall energy footprint due to easier data compression.
· Have been able to achieve 400% increase in classifier performance
· OEMs can pair with ALIIS to get the most out of their products, clear sharp images, efficient performance, and cascading downstream benefits.
· ALIIS well suited for Industrial automation – conveyor belt speed would result in less light being taken in thus fast frame rates would be required, faster shutter speed required.
· Pristine Surgical, we are a good fit with them, they are the first adopter of ALIIS, and we expect a lot more to adopt ALIIS in the coming months.
· Question - When will ALIIS be available on Arm chips commercially, Answer is NOW!
· Question - What attracted Rich to NXO – Said he was totally impressed, tech is at cutting edge employing neural network technologies. Rich commented that Pristine surgical will probably explode with these single use endoscopes because this is where these things are headed, and that this is just the tip of the iceberg for ALIIS. There are multiple market segments where ALIIS will shine from military, drones, mobile phones, robotics, etc. Nexoptic has been working with several potential customers, very large fleet management company, and many others. He’s VERY VERY excited about the future of this company. ALIIS will provide a foundation platform for a variety of market segments, it’s VERY exciting!
· Arm is everywhere, huge customer base and ALIIS is available commercially now on these Arm devices.
· Vehicle license recognition – noise affects that performance, ALIIS great application for this.
· Nexoptic has an internal SDK, can use for partner evaluations, this SDK may become public at some point
· Korean office was opened to work with potential mobile customers
· Question - How does Nexoptic's AI compare to other AI out there - It's better because we are at the edge, work with raw data, a lot of other companies do this type of image enhancement but are doing it for process media, RGB media, etc. ALIIS can remove noise before it gets baked into H265 stream, once in there very difficult to get out. Could see 10X more bandwidth if not taking the noise out (for example zoom calls), end up using more bandwidth. A lot of AI solutions are focused on the object recognition and detection, segmentation. Nexoptic has chosen to focus on the low light, noise reduction, a more fundamental imaging property so that we can help all these downstream processes, and adding more functionality to be AI for AI.
· Anti-glare conceived for the automotive use case, tunable artifact removal algorithm. Well suited to these applications.
· Double size of AI team over next couple of months, plus lots of people to draw on from our Korean team who are well connected in the AI space.
· A lot of ongoing conversations right now with multiple companies.
​
From what we know about our relationship with Arm it would certainly seem probable that ALIIS is being or has been implemented into various Arm devices. When will we get more details on what this means for NexOptic revenue? Who knows?
I think we can say wth confidence that revenue is just around the corner, but there are a lot of corners!! LOL
PATIENCE!

Arm introduces new automotive image signal processor
https://www.arm.com/company/news/2022/02/arm-adds-new-isp-to-advance-adoption-of-adas-and-automation-technologies?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2022_automotive_mk12_arm_na_na_awa&utm_content=newsroom
Drivers increasingly depend on ADAS applications such as collision avoidance, lane departure warnings and automated emergency braking, and vehicles increasingly rely on cameras positioned around the car to enable many of these features.
As the number and sophistication of vehicle cameras increases, so does the compute power needed to translate the high throughput of image data – efficiently and safely – into outputs that meet the varying requirements for machine and human vision
Mali-C78AE is designed specifically to address both human and machine vision safety applications, and is able to process data from up to four real-time or 16 virtual cameras.
Mali-C78AE employs advanced noise reduction technology and dynamic range management to ensure each frame is clear and properly exposed by adjusting overly dark or bright areas of a frame.
A strong vision pipeline is increasingly important to powering the next phase of mass market ADAS deployment.
Some features of Mali-C78AE that make you think ALIIS??

• Image quality enhancements for display, providing high-quality outputs from sensors developed for machine vision applications.
• Real-time hardware safety features for ADAS and HMI applications, with every pixel tagged for reliability.

​
https://preview.redd.it/ggpwujku4lj81.png?width=1940&format=png&auto=webp&s=380f17e4d67aa598543b01df3a843a2dd12db635
This might be a good time to re-visit a NexOptic featured article from ARM and have another listen to the Arm Webinar from April 2021. See links below...
Intelligent Imaging at the Edge and Endpoint - Arm Blueprint
Performing complex deep learning in endpoint devices comes at significant computational cost. And that’s where a lot of NexOptic’s work in optimization is happening—through software optimizations such as model compression and distillation, network quantization and mixed precision, and massive architecture searches to find efficient and accurate deep learning models.
Software and hardware techniques have propelled deep learning to the edge and endpoint in a very short amount of time, presenting an opportunity for low powered, high performance intelligent imaging solutions in devices without the need for cloud-based processing.
The NexOptic AI team draws on the numerous advances and techniques developed in the field to deliver a simplified intelligent imaging entry point at the edge and endpoint. Importantly, NexOptic has partnered with Arm to ensure customers are able to leverage the most from their hardware of choice.
NexOptic Joins ARM AI Partner Program – NexOptic
For example, specialized NPU technology like that found in Arm’s Ethos processors will help deliver the highest throughput and most efficient processing for ML inference in endpoint devices. Coupled with the robust and adaptable Arm “AE” image signal processing IP, end customers are able to truly build the AI powered imaging systems of the future.
​
https://preview.redd.it/a8vyow735lj81.png?width=1940&format=png&auto=webp&s=16c33143800a9d03cc0826bf7501d333efadfe58
Arm Webinar link...
Computer Vision at the Edge (brighttalk.com)
(Note: You may need to register in order to watch webinar)
A few notes and highlights from the webinar to give a brief summary:
· More edge and endpoint devices generate images and video than ever before.
· Processing at edge has advantage of better privacy and security for our data.
· Arm can run algorithms on the edge with dedicated AI processors (Ethos NPUs, SVE2, etc)
· ALIIS is a suite of intelligent imaging solutions designed to enhance imaging applications, it’s a set of learning based computer vision algorithms that use convolutional neural networks
· ALIIS transforms an input image into a completely new image, algorithms are designed and optimized to enhance each image pixel by pixel. Processing at the edge allows access to uncompressed raw data, and because we are at the edge all these benefits cascade downstream.
· ALIIS is designed to enhance downstream applications, it’s basically AI for AI.
· Able to achieve 10X data compression by removing image noise, so you can expect clear and sharper images, and a smaller overall energy footprint due to easier data compression.
· Have been able to achieve 400% increase in classifier performance
· OEMs can pair with ALIIS to get the most out of their products, clear sharp images, efficient performance, and cascading downstream benefits.
· ALIIS well suited for Industrial automation – conveyor belt speed would result in less light being taken in thus fast frame rates would be required, faster shutter speed required.
· Pristine Surgical, we are a good fit with them, they are the first adopter of ALIIS, and we expect a lot more to adopt ALIIS in the coming months.
· Question - When will ALIIS be available on Arm chips commercially, Answer is NOW!
· Question - What attracted Rich to NXO – Said he was totally impressed, tech is at cutting edge employing neural network technologies. Rich commented that Pristine surgical will probably explode with these single use endoscopes because this is where these things are headed, and that this is just the tip of the iceberg for ALIIS. There are multiple market segments where ALIIS will shine from military, drones, mobile phones, robotics, etc. Nexoptic has been working with several potential customers, very large fleet management company, and many others. He’s VERY VERY excited about the future of this company. ALIIS will provide a foundation platform for a variety of market segments, it’s VERY exciting!
· Arm is everywhere, huge customer base and ALIIS is available commercially now on these Arm devices.
· Vehicle license recognition – noise affects that performance, ALIIS great application for this.
· Nexoptic has an internal SDK, can use for partner evaluations, this SDK may become public at some point
· Korean office was opened to work with potential mobile customers
· Question - How does Nexoptic's AI compare to other AI out there - It's better because we are at the edge, work with raw data, a lot of other companies do this type of image enhancement but are doing it for process media, RGB media, etc. ALIIS can remove noise before it gets baked into H265 stream, once in there very difficult to get out. Could see 10X more bandwidth if not taking the noise out (for example zoom calls), end up using more bandwidth. A lot of AI solutions are focused on the object recognition and detection, segmentation. Nexoptic has chosen to focus on the low light, noise reduction, a more fundamental imaging property so that we can help all these downstream processes, and adding more functionality to be AI for AI.
· Anti-glare conceived for the automotive use case, tunable artifact removal algorithm. Well suited to these applications.
· Double size of AI team over next couple of months, plus lots of people to draw on from our Korean team who are well connected in the AI space.
· A lot of ongoing conversations right now with multiple companies.
​
From what we know about our relationship with Arm it would certainly seem probable that ALIIS is being or has been implemented into various Arm devices. When will we get more details on what this means for NexOptic revenue? Who knows?
I think we can say wth confidence that revenue is just around the corner, but there are a lot of corners!! LOL
PATIENCE!

Computer Vision for Smart Cameras
Arm Enables Secure Computer Vision for Smart Cameras - Arm Blueprint
Computer vision is quickly becoming one of the most important ways to capture and act on real-world data within the Internet of Things (IoT).
Smart cameras now use computer vision in a range of business and industrial applications, from counting cars in parking lots to monitoring footfall in retail stores or spotting defects on a production line.
It is estimated that for surveillance alone, there are approximately one billion cameras across the world. That number of installations is expected to double by 2024.
The combination of image sensor technology and endpoint AI is enabling smart cameras to infer increasingly complex insights from the vast amounts of computer vision data they capture. New machine learning capabilities within smart camera devices meet a diverse range of use cases – such as detecting individual people or animals, recognizing specific objects and reading license plates. All of these applications for computer vision require ML algorithms running on the endpoint device itself, rather than sending data to the cloud for inference. It’s all about moving compute closer to data.
Endpoint AI - The business of implementing intelligent functionality at the edge of the network.
Endpoint AI for IoT Devices – Arm®
Kevin Gordon, VP of AI at Arm partner NexOptic, explains how new advancements in deep learning technologies are propelling intelligent imaging to the edge and endpoint
Intelligent Imaging at the Edge and Endpoint - Arm Blueprint
NexOptic Technologies, we’ve developed a suite of intelligent imaging solutions called Aliis. Aliis provides OEMs, system integrators, and software developers access to the rapidly evolving field of intelligent imaging through patent-pending algorithms that have been engineered to deliver a sharper, clearer view to products and machines.
NexOptic has partnered with Arm to ensure customers are able to leverage the most from their hardware of choice. For example, specialized NPU technology like that found in Arm’s Ethos processors will help deliver the highest throughput and most efficient processing for ML inference in endpoint devices. Coupled with the robust and adaptable Arm “AE” image signal processing IP, end customers are able to truly build the AI-powered imaging systems of the future.
Arm is at the forefront of the IOT expansion, half the 200 billion Arm-based chips shipped to date were deployed over the last five years and one-in-eight left the production line during 2020 alone. This remarkable acceleration is a huge testament to the ambition, ingenuity, and the support of Arm's partners. We expect numbers to keep trending upwards due to the insatiable demand for advanced compute across all markets – especially given the broadening influence of the three new technology superpowers: AI, 5G and the IoT.
IoT on Arm: It’s Time to Build - YouTube
Arm Dev Summit just recently held from Oct 19-21, watch the Keynote speech from Arm CEO, Simon Segars...
#ArmDevSummit Keynote 2021: Arm CEO, Simon Segars - YouTube
NexOptic is in good company with Arm as the implementation of IOT accelerates, join Mary Bennion, Manager of AI Ecosystem at Arm, Kevin Gordon, VP of AI Technologies and Colin D’Amore, Machine Learning Engineer, for a replay of the eye-opening webinar on Computer Vision at the Edge.
Events – NexOptic
Some of the notes from the Arm webinar showcasing Aliis:
· ALIIS is a suite of intelligent imaging solutions designed to enhance imaging applications, it’s a set of learning based computer vision algorithms that use convolutional neural networks
· ALIIS transforms an input image into a completely new image, algorithms are designed and optimized to enhance each image pixel by pixel. Processing at the edge allows access to uncompressed raw data, and because we are at the edge all these benefits cascade downstream.
· ALIIS is designed to enhance downstream applications, it’s basically AI for AI.
· Able to achieve 10X data compression by removing image noise, so you can expect clear and sharper images, and a smaller overall energy footprint due to easier data compression.
· Have been able to achieve 400% increase in classifier performance
· OEMs can pair with ALIIS to get the most out of their products, clear sharp images, efficient performance, and cascading downstream benefits.
· ALIIS well suited for Industrial automation – conveyor belt speed would result in less light being taken in thus fast frame rates would be required, faster shutter speed required.
· Pristine Surgical, we are a good fit with them, they are the first adopter of ALIIS, and we expect a lot more to adopt ALIIS in the coming months.
· Question - When will ALIIS be available on Arm chips commercially, Answer is NOW!
· Question - What attracted Rich to NXO – Said he was totally impressed, tech is at cutting edge employing neural network technologies. Rich commented that Pristine surgical will probably explode with these single use endoscopes because this is where these things are headed, and that this is just the tip of the iceberg for ALIIS. There are multiple market segments where ALIIS will shine from military, drones, mobile phones, robotics, etc. Nexoptic has been working with several potential customers, very large fleet management company, and many others. He’s VERY VERY excited about the future of this company. ALIIS will provide a foundation platform for a variety of market segments, it’s VERY exciting!
· Arm is everywhere, huge customer base and ALIIS is available commercially now on these Arm devices.
· Vehicle license recognition – noise affects that performance, ALIIS great application for this.
What exactly is ALIIS??

• It's intelligent imaging and deep learning at the edge
• It's a combination of neural network architectures, mathematical models and vast training data
• Provides super resolution, upscale images by 1.5x, 2.0x, 3.0x, enhance distance features, and recover resolution loss from small apertures
• Has an Anti-Glare feature that removes artifacts from lens flare, water droplets, fog/haze, etc.
• Has a neural ISP that executes on AI accelerators, allows for raw sensor input to AI accelerator - no ISP required
• Can run on any hardware CPU, GPU, NPU, etc.
• Provides reduces storage and streaming requirements

Slideshow overview of ALIIS...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s_Msl_vsNI
Keep up to date with new developments from NexOptic...
News – NexOptic

Arm Enables Secure Computer Vision for Smart Cameras - Arm Blueprint
Computer vision is quickly becoming one of the most important ways to capture and act on real-world data within the Internet of Things (IoT).
Smart cameras now use computer vision in a range of business and industrial applications, from counting cars in parking lots to monitoring footfall in retail stores or spotting defects on a production line.
It is estimated that for surveillance alone, there are approximately one billion cameras across the world. That number of installations is expected to double by 2024.
The combination of image sensor technology and endpoint AI is enabling smart cameras to infer increasingly complex insights from the vast amounts of computer vision data they capture. New machine learning capabilities within smart camera devices meet a diverse range of use cases – such as detecting individual people or animals, recognizing specific objects and reading license plates. All of these applications for computer vision require ML algorithms running on the endpoint device itself, rather than sending data to the cloud for inference. It’s all about moving compute closer to data.
Endpoint AI - The business of implementing intelligent functionality at the edge of the network.
Endpoint AI for IoT Devices – Arm®
Kevin Gordon, VP of AI at Arm partner NexOptic, explains how new advancements in deep learning technologies are propelling intelligent imaging to the edge and endpoint
Intelligent Imaging at the Edge and Endpoint - Arm Blueprint
NexOptic Technologies, we’ve developed a suite of intelligent imaging solutions called Aliis. Aliis provides OEMs, system integrators, and software developers access to the rapidly evolving field of intelligent imaging through patent-pending algorithms that have been engineered to deliver a sharper, clearer view to products and machines.
NexOptic has partnered with Arm to ensure customers are able to leverage the most from their hardware of choice. For example, specialized NPU technology like that found in Arm’s Ethos processors will help deliver the highest throughput and most efficient processing for ML inference in endpoint devices. Coupled with the robust and adaptable Arm “AE” image signal processing IP, end customers are able to truly build the AI-powered imaging systems of the future.
Arm is at the forefront of the IOT expansion, half the 200 billion Arm-based chips shipped to date were deployed over the last five years and one-in-eight left the production line during 2020 alone. This remarkable acceleration is a huge testament to the ambition, ingenuity, and the support of Arm's partners. We expect numbers to keep trending upwards due to the insatiable demand for advanced compute across all markets – especially given the broadening influence of the three new technology superpowers: AI, 5G and the IoT.
IoT on Arm: It’s Time to Build - YouTube
Arm Dev Summit just recently held from Oct 19-21, watch the Keynote speech from Arm CEO, Simon Segars...
#ArmDevSummit Keynote 2021: Arm CEO, Simon Segars - YouTube
NexOptic is in good company with Arm as the implementation of IOT accelerates, join Mary Bennion, Manager of AI Ecosystem at Arm, Kevin Gordon, VP of AI Technologies and Colin D’Amore, Machine Learning Engineer, for a replay of the eye-opening webinar on Computer Vision at the Edge.
Events – NexOptic
Some of the notes from the Arm webinar showcasing Aliis:
· ALIIS is a suite of intelligent imaging solutions designed to enhance imaging applications, it’s a set of learning based computer vision algorithms that use convolutional neural networks
· ALIIS transforms an input image into a completely new image, algorithms are designed and optimized to enhance each image pixel by pixel. Processing at the edge allows access to uncompressed raw data, and because we are at the edge all these benefits cascade downstream.
· ALIIS is designed to enhance downstream applications, it’s basically AI for AI.
· Able to achieve 10X data compression by removing image noise, so you can expect clear and sharper images, and a smaller overall energy footprint due to easier data compression.
· Have been able to achieve 400% increase in classifier performance
· OEMs can pair with ALIIS to get the most out of their products, clear sharp images, efficient performance, and cascading downstream benefits.
· ALIIS well suited for Industrial automation – conveyor belt speed would result in less light being taken in thus fast frame rates would be required, faster shutter speed required.
· Pristine Surgical, we are a good fit with them, they are the first adopter of ALIIS, and we expect a lot more to adopt ALIIS in the coming months.
· Question - When will ALIIS be available on Arm chips commercially, Answer is NOW!
· Question - What attracted Rich to NXO – Said he was totally impressed, tech is at cutting edge employing neural network technologies. Rich commented that Pristine surgical will probably explode with these single use endoscopes because this is where these things are headed, and that this is just the tip of the iceberg for ALIIS. There are multiple market segments where ALIIS will shine from military, drones, mobile phones, robotics, etc. Nexoptic has been working with several potential customers, very large fleet management company, and many others. He’s VERY VERY excited about the future of this company. ALIIS will provide a foundation platform for a variety of market segments, it’s VERY exciting!
· Arm is everywhere, huge customer base and ALIIS is available commercially now on these Arm devices.
· Vehicle license recognition – noise affects that performance, ALIIS great application for this.
What exactly is ALIIS??

• It's intelligent imaging and deep learning at the edge
• It's a combination of neural network architectures, mathematical models and vast training data
• Provides super resolution, upscale images by 1.5x, 2.0x, 3.0x, enhance distance features, and recover resolution loss from small apertures
• Has an Anti-Glare feature that removes artifacts from lens flare, water droplets, fog/haze, etc.
• Has a neural ISP that executes on AI accelerators, allows for raw sensor input to AI accelerator - no ISP required
• Can run on any hardware CPU, GPU, NPU, etc.
• Provides reduces storage and streaming requirements

Slideshow overview of ALIIS...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s_Msl_vsNI
Keep up to date with new developments from NexOptic...
News – NexOptic

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E_6RcecVIAQ6bo0?format=jpg&name=small
​
https://nexoptic.com/news/richard-geruson-nexoptic-chairman-reports-aliis-shows-superior-performance-in-vehicle-recognition-tests/
NexOptic just announced that its ALIIS™ technology significantly improved downstream AI performance during an extensive benchmarking process that utilized a leading vehicle recognition API.
The number of camera systems leveraging the power of AI to provide video intelligence is growing at an exponential rate, enabling them to perform tasks such as object detection, localization, classification, and recognition.
These systems often fail to perform at their optimal level, causing mistakes that lead to false positives and missed opportunities. This is where Aliis can be the game changer.
NexOptic’s Aliis image enhancement and transformation suite of AI solutions dramatically alleviates such problems, broadly extending the operating envelope of these systems and boosting their performance by providing a foundational “adapter” between the camera and downstream AI systems.
Aliis increased the number of plates detected in low light more than tenfold and increased the number of correctly recognized license plate numbers by a factor of 100. The benefits to end customers are obvious: Video Analytics work better with Aliis inside, explains Chairman Rich Geruson.
The Global Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) System Market size is expected to reach $3.6 billion by 2023, rising at a market growth of 9.6% CAGR during the forecast period.
https://www.kbvresearch.com/automatic-number-plate-recognition-system-market/
“Thanks to best-in-class platforms available to us through our esteemed partnerships, like the NVIDIA Jetson Partner Ecosystem, we’re able to fully participate in the rapidly evolving intelligent video analytics sector and bring Aliis to the mainstream,” said Paul McKenzie, Co-Founder and CEO of NexOptic.
Veritone is a company that has a partnership with Nvidia and could benefit from NexOptic's technology, or maybe they have already??
License Plate Recognition engines in the Veritone cognitive engine ecosystem detect license plates and extract text strings off these license plates in images or videos to extract time-saving, actionable insights from large data volumes. Applications include law enforcement, government and insurance, to name a few.
https://www.veritone.com/aiware/engines/license-plate-recognition/
The benchmark is the second such test that confirms Aliis’ “AI for AI” benefits. Similarly, in previous testing Aliis boosted the performance of a leading commercial object classifier by over 400%.
​
Some of the notes from the Arm webinar showcasing Aliis:
· ALIIS is a suite of intelligent imaging solutions designed to enhance imaging applications, it’s a set of learning based computer vision algorithms that use convolutional neural networks
· ALIIS transforms an input image into a completely new image, algorithms are designed and optimized to enhance each image pixel by pixel. Processing at the edge allows access to uncompressed raw data, and because we are at the edge all these benefits cascade downstream.
· ALIIS is designed to enhance downstream applications, it’s basically AI for AI.
· Able to achieve 10X data compression by removing image noise, so you can expect clear and sharper images, and a smaller overall energy footprint due to easier data compression.
· Have been able to achieve 400% increase in classifier performance
· OEMs can pair with ALIIS to get the most out of their products, clear sharp images, efficient performance, and cascading downstream benefits.
· ALIIS well suited for Industrial automation – conveyor belt speed would result in less light being taken in thus fast frame rates would be required, faster shutter speed required.
· Pristine Surgical, we are a good fit with them, they are the first adopter of ALIIS, and we expect a lot more to adopt ALIIS in the coming months.
· Question - When will ALIIS be available on Arm chips commercially, Answer is NOW!
· Question - What attracted Rich to NXO – Said he was totally impressed, tech is at cutting edge employing neural network technologies. Rich commented that Pristine surgical will probably explode with these single use endoscopes because this is where these things are headed, and that this is just the tip of the iceberg for ALIIS. There are multiple market segments where ALIIS will shine from military, drones, mobile phones, robotics, etc. Nexoptic has been working with several potential customers, very large fleet management company, and many others. He’s VERY VERY excited about the future of this company. ALIIS will provide a foundation platform for a variety of market segments, it’s VERY exciting!
· Arm is everywhere, huge customer base and ALIIS is available commercially now on these Arm devices.
· Vehicle license recognition – noise affects that performance, ALIIS great application for this.
What exactly is ALIIS??

• It's intelligent imaging and deep learning at the edge
• It's a combination of neural network architectures, mathematical models and vast training data
• Provides super resolution, upscale images by 1.5x, 2.0x, 3.0x, enhance distance features, and recover resolution loss from small apertures
• Has an Anti-Glare feature that removes artifacts from lens flare, water droplets, fog/haze, etc.
• Has a neural ISP that executes on AI accelerators, allows for raw sensor input to AI accelerator - no ISP required
• Can run on any hardware CPU, GPU, NPU, etc.
• Provides reduces storage and streaming requirements

Slideshow overview of ALIIS...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s_Msl_vsNI
​
Medical images are extremely valuable for the diagnosis of a disease. Some times these scans don’t help due to resolution limitations.
In April of this year NexOptic announced that they have entered into an exclusive partnership to deploy NexOptic’s artificial intelligence (AI) powered imaging technology in Pristine’s single-use endoscopic visualization platform. These devices will be hitting the market any day now, visit their webpage and watch their video's at https://pristinesurgical.com/
https://nexoptic.com/news/pristine-surgical-adopts-aliis/
​
Curious about Super Resolution and what it means for many different segments? Visit these web links to learn more...
https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/super-resolution-and-its-recent-advances-in-deep-learning-part-1-c6d927914d32
https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/super-resolution-and-its-recent-advances-in-deep-learning-part-2-5868965f89e5
​
NexOptic's plan seems to be evolving very systematically....

• Align with large semiconductor players, from the September 2019 news release... The most efficient way for NexOptic to gain a major foothold in the optics industry is to integrate and distribute ALLIS through semiconductor sales. “ALLIS’s increased efficiencies have allowed us to become highly selective in whose semiconductors we will be supporting going forward.” said Rich Geruson, Chairman of NexOptic. “These options should enable NexOptic to receive better industry-wide acceptance of ALLIS.”
• In 2020 partnership's established with Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Arm, the only ecosystem partner common to all 3 companies!
• Secure patents, done!
• Get rid of old management and have them unload all the 40 million shares they were given, done!
• Once selling pressure from 3DB selling their 40 million shares is done, provide regular updates on proven success of their AI technology, in progress!
• Announce revenue contracts... STAY TUNED!!

​
https://nexoptic.com/at-a-glance/

https://www.arm.com/company/news/2021/09/new-arm-technologies-to-transform-the-software-defined-future-for-the-automotive-industry
Arm, in collaboration with leaders across the automotive supply chain announced it is delivering a new software architecture and reference implementation, Scalable Open Architecture for Embedded Edge (SOAFEE), and two new reference hardware platforms to accelerate the software-defined future of automotive.
Based on the success of Project Cassini and SystemReady from Arm, which enable a standards-based cloud-native experience at the edge, SOAFEE now builds on these initiatives to enable cloud concepts like container orchestration with automotive functional safety and in real-time – a first in the industry. An initial release of the SOAFEE collateral and reference implementation is available to download now here.
As vehicle architectures and capabilities evolve, automotive developers today are challenged by the increasing code complexity needed to deliver Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), In-vehicle Infotainment systems (IVI), electrified powertrains, and autonomy.
Arm already plays a critical role in delivering ADAS systems, yet challenges in mass deployment remain.
“The automotive sector is at a critical inflection point and the supply chain – from IP design to carmakers – is being re-examined and redefined,” said Chet Babla, vice president of automotive, Automotive and IoT Line of Business at Arm. “The industry has asked Arm and its ecosystem to accelerate the vision for a software-defined future. By virtue of Arm’s unique position in the supply chain, we’re leading a collaborative effort that is delivering the standards, software, developer resources and specialized processing platforms designed for the safety and real-time needs of automotive applications.”
Every day, new algorithms and techniques are being developed that enable computers to make sense of image data without human involvement. We call this ‘intelligent imaging’, and it’s now found in a wide range of applications, from Internet of Things (IoT) devices to medical imaging, robotics and vehicle autonomy.
Edge computing has caught fire because companies understand that they can take advantage of a number of things, chief among them:
· Faster decision-making thanks to lower latency
· Increased security and privacy
· Reduced infrastructure and operational costs
Intelligent Imaging at the Edge and Endpoint - Arm Blueprint
Performing complex deep learning in endpoint devices comes at significant computational cost. And that’s where a lot of NexOptic’s work in optimization is happening—through software optimizations such as model compression and distillation, network quantization and mixed precision, and massive architecture searches to find efficient and accurate deep learning models.
The NexOptic AI team draws on the numerous advances and techniques developed in the field to deliver a simplified intelligent imaging entry point at the edge and endpoint. Importantly, NexOptic has partnered with Arm to ensure customers are able to leverage the most from their hardware of choice.
Might be a good time to revisit the ARM Webinar from a few months ago to understand the areas where ALIIS will be deployed in the coming months and years ahead.
Computer Vision at the Edge (brighttalk.com)
(Note: You may need to register in order to watch webinar)
A few notes and highlights from the webinar to give a brief summary:
· More edge and endpoint devices generate images and video than ever before.
· Processing at edge has advantage of better privacy and security for our data.
· Arm can run algorithms on the edge with dedicated AI processors (Ethos NPUs, SVE2, etc)
· ALIIS is a suite of intelligent imaging solutions designed to enhance imaging applications, it’s a set of learning based computer vision algorithms that use convolutional neural networks
· ALIIS transforms an input image into a completely new image, algorithms are designed and optimized to enhance each image pixel by pixel. Processing at the edge allows access to uncompressed raw data, and because we are at the edge all these benefits cascade downstream.
· ALIIS is designed to enhance downstream applications, it’s basically AI for AI.
· Able to achieve 10X data compression by removing image noise, so you can expect clear and sharper images, and a smaller overall energy footprint due to easier data compression.
· Have been able to achieve 400% increase in classifier performance
· OEMs can pair with ALIIS to get the most out of their products, clear sharp images, efficient performance, and cascading downstream benefits.
· ALIIS well suited for Industrial automation – conveyor belt speed would result in less light being taken in thus fast frame rates would be required, faster shutter speed required.
· Pristine Surgical, we are a good fit with them, they are the first adopter of ALIIS, and we expect a lot more to adopt ALIIS in the coming months.
· Question - When will ALIIS be available on Arm chips commercially, Answer is NOW!
· Question - What attracted Rich to NXO – Said he was totally impressed, tech is at cutting edge employing neural network technologies. Rich commented that Pristine surgical will probably explode with these single use endoscopes because this is where these things are headed, and that this is just the tip of the iceberg for ALIIS. There are multiple market segments where ALIIS will shine from military, drones, mobile phones, robotics, etc. Nexoptic has been working with several potential customers, very large fleet management company, and many others. He’s VERY VERY excited about the future of this company. ALIIS will provide a foundation platform for a variety of market segments, it’s VERY exciting!
· Arm is everywhere, huge customer base and ALIIS is available commercially now on these Arm devices.
· Vehicle license recognition – noise affects that performance, ALIIS great application for this.
· Nexoptic has an internal SDK, can use for partner evaluations, this SDK may become public at some point
· Korean office was opened to work with potential mobile customers
· Question - How does Nexoptic's AI compare to other AI out there - It's better because we are at the edge, work with raw data, a lot of other companies do this type of image enhancement but are doing it for process media, RGB media, etc. ALIIS can remove noise before it gets baked into H265 stream, once in there very difficult to get out. Could see 10X more bandwidth if not taking the noise out (for example zoom calls), end up using more bandwidth. A lot of AI solutions are focused on the object recognition and detection, segmentation. Nexoptic has chosen to focus on the low light, noise reduction, a more fundamental imaging property so that we can help all these downstream processes, and adding more functionality to be AI for AI.
· Anti-glare conceived for the automotive use case, tunable artifact removal algorithm. Well suited to these applications.
· Double size of AI team over next couple of months, plus lots of people to draw on from our Korean team who are well connected in the AI space.
· A lot of ongoing conversations right now with multiple companies.
https://nexoptic.com/

You can find the full news release at https://pro.ceo.ca/@nasdaq/pyrogenesis-announces-q2-2021-results-revenues-83mm

PyroGenesis Announces Q2 2021 Results Revenues $8.3MM; Gross Margin 59.6%; Current Backlog $32.1MM

MONTREAL, Aug. 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PyroGenesis Canada Inc. (http://pyrogenesis.com) (NASDAQ: PYR) (TSX: PYR) (FRA: 8PY), a high-tech Company (hereinafter referred to as the “Company” or “PyroGenesis”), that designs, develops, manufactures and commercializes advanced plasma processes and sustainable solutions to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG), is pleased to announce today its financial and operational results for the second quarter ended June 30th, 2021.
“We are happy to be announcing financial results for Q2 2021 and, once again, they are historical. As can be seen from the table below, net income from operations (not including share-based expenses) was profitable at $850K, on record quarterly revenues of $8.3MM (a 32% increase Q1 over Q2 2021). This is the fourth quarter in a row that PyroGenesis has posted more revenues in each quarter than for all of 2019, and the Company is on track to exceed the record revenues of 2020,” said Mr. P. Peter Pascali, CEO and Chair of PyroGenesis. “Not only is PyroGenesis posting record revenues, with an overall gross margin of 59.6%, but the Company’s backlog of signed contracts is increasing at the same time, which bodes well for the future. We expect this trend to continue.”
Three months ended June 30, % Change Six months ended June 30, % Change 2021 2020 2021vs2020 2021 2020 2021vs2020Revenues$8,280,572$2,128,454 289%$14,545,075 $2,847,362 411%Cost of sales and services 3,347,091 861,862 288% 7,468,584 1,313,356 469%Gross margin 4,933,481 1,266,592 290% 7,076,491 1,534,006 361% Expenses Selling, general and administrative (not including share-based expenses) 3,371,888 1,641,336 105% 6,174,984 2,847,061 117%Research and development 710,734 (3,867)18,479% 997,041 19,221 5,087% Total expenses (not including share-based expenses) 4,082,622 1,637,469 149% 7,172,025 2,866,282 150% Net income from operations (not including share-based expenses) 850,859 (370,879)329% (95,534) (1,332,278) -93%
Q2 2021 results reflect the following highlights:

• Revenues of $8,280,572, an increase of 289% from $2,128,454 in Q2 2020,
• Gross margin profit of $4,933,481 an increase of 290% from $1,266,592 in Q2 2020,
• Net income from operations (not including share-based expenses) of $850,859, an increase of 329% as compared to Q2 2020,
• Modified EBITDA gain of $1,090,915 compared to a loss of $265,804 in Q2 2020,
• Cash and cash equivalents at June 30, 2021 of $18,076,539 (December 31, 2020: $18,104,899),
• Backlog of signed contracts, at August 16, 2021, of $32.1MM,

OUTLOOK
PyroGenesis continues to be well positioned, with a clean balance sheet, to execute on all its organic growth strategies as well as to continue actively pursuing growth through synergistic mergers & acquisitions.
The Company has recently focused its offerings to highlight their greenhouse gases (“GHG”) emissions reduction benefits. Most of PyroGenesis’ product lines do not depend on environmental incentives (tax credits GHG certificates, environmental subsidies, etc.) to be economically viable.
We consider this strategy to be timely as many governments are stimulating their respective economies by promoting and funding both environmental technologies and infrastructure projects. As such, although management expects that this will be a tailwind into an already strong pipeline (which would further increase revenues and add directly to shareholder value), there may be some delays before the full effect is recognized as companies will likely take additional time to submit the necessary government paperwork to qualify for such incentives.
The Company is not immune to the negative impact Covid-19 has had on businesses, specifically related to the work force and, more importantly, the supply chain. Management believes that the Company is better situated than most and is doing everything to mitigate these challenges. It does not expect any improvements from the impact of Covid-19 before Q2 2022.
A. ORGANIC GROWTH
Organic growth will be spurred on by (i) the natural growth of our existing offerings which can now be accelerated given our strong balance sheet and (ii) leveraging off our “Golden Ticket” advantage.
We have described in the past our Golden Ticket advantage as one which occurs when one sells directly, or is engaged directly, with the end user and, as a result, is “inside the fence”. A Golden Ticket affords the opportunity to either, (i) cross sell other products or (ii) identify new areas of concern that can be addressed uniquely by PyroGenesis. We call the latter our Coffee and Donuts strategy (if you are selling coffee you could generate additional revenues, with little additional effort, by adding on donuts).
Over the past several years, PyroGenesis has successfully positioned each of its business lines for rapid growth by strategically partnering with multi-billion-dollar entities. These entities have identified PyroGenesis’ offerings to be unique, in demand, and of such a commercial nature as to warrant such unique relationships. We expect that these relationships are now positioned to transition into significant revenue streams particularly in iron ore pelletization & DROSRITE™ (short term) and 3D printing (mid to long term).
1. DROSRITE™
Within the DROSRITE™ offering, the Company continues to aggressively explore horizontal growth opportunities. The Company is currently bidding on an up-stream opportunity valued at approximately $40MM. This process is plasma based, and not only reduces GHG, but seems to be cheaper than alternate technologies. This project is located in the Middle East and is currently experiencing delays to allow the processing of government documentation to catch up with the bidding process. Management notes that it has been very successful in the selection process to date and continues to believe that it has a better than average probability of success. Building on this development the Company is also in discussions with a second opportunity to provide a similar upstream process for approximately the same consideration. Both opportunities are examples of the success the Company is having with this strategy.
2. Additive Manufacturing
With respect to additive manufacturing, we continue to expect to see significant year over year improvements in our 3D metal powders offering as our NexGen™ facility, which incorporates all the previously disclosed benefits (increased production rates, lower capex, lower opex), is now on-line.
There are major top tier aerospace companies and OEMs, in both Europe and North America, eagerly awaiting powders from this new state-of-the-art production line, and we are currently in the process of supplying sample powders to them for analysis. Of note, a major tier one global aerospace company entered into an agreement with the Company to qualify its powder, at considerable expense to the global aerospace company, with a view towards having the Company become a supplier. The Company expects that such developments will continue and will translate into significant improvements in contributions to revenue by this segment in the mid-long term.
3. Plasma Torches
With respect to the Company’s plasma torch offerings, we expect this offering to be significantly impacted by continued developments in the iron ore pelletization industry, where serious consideration is being given to replacing the fossil fuel burners, currently being used throughout the industry, with PyroGenesis’ proprietary plasma torches, in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint.
To date, everything is proceeding as expected. Initial discussions have evolved into confirmation stages which typically consist of a computer simulation followed by a small torch order. These confirmation stages are expected, if successful, to result with a roll-out program to replace fossil fuel burners with PyroGenesis’ plasma torches in the iron ore pelletization industry, in which PyroGenesis is patent protected.
PyroGenesis expects that the previously mentioned government initiatives, geared to stimulating their respective economies by promoting and funding environmental technologies and infrastructure projects, will only serve to increase interest in PyroGenesis’ plasma torch offerings. However, this could delay the onset of contracts as potential clients seek government support for large initiatives.
To date, all computer simulations have been successful, and Client A has ordered 1 torch and has requested a cost estimate for 36 more. We expect that in short order a long overdue torch order for between 1-5 torches from Client B will be forthcoming with strong visibility on the next series of torch orders from them. All indications to date are that the iron ore pelletization industry will be a large user of PyroGenesis plasma torches.
PyroGenesis is proactively targeting other industries which are experiencing significant pressure to reduce GHGs, and which utilize fossil fuel burners as well.
Separately, the Company also offers plasma torches to niche markets where there is a high probability of on-going sales from successful implementation. One such example is the previously announced contract with a very small company to produce a plasma torch ideal for tunneling. PyroGenesis has reason to believe that the real plasma-based tunneling opportunity may lie outside of the scope of the current agreement. PyroGenesis is in discussion with the client to determine the best way to terminate this arrangement. For all intents and purposes, from the readers perspective, this project with the client has ended. PyroGenesis is evaluating, and intends to pursue, plasma based tunneling opportunities, specifically those identified to be outside of the scope of the current agreement.
Another niche market where the Company is offering its plasma torch, and where there is a high probability of on-going sales is in land-based waste destruction applications, and more specifically medical waste. The Company is currently in discussions for a small contract to provide plasma torches to destroy medical waste in Southeast Asia. If successful, this could usher in another interesting application of our plasma expertise to a rather large market with an unaddressed need.
As sales of PyroGenesis’ plasma torches increase, the Company will also benefit from providing proprietary spare parts from which the Company expects to generate significant recurring revenue, thus complementing the Company’s long-term strategy to build upon a recuring revenue model.
4. HPQ/PUREVAP™
With respect to HPQ, the goal is to continue to expand our role as HPQ’s technology provider for the game changing family of silicon processes which we are developing exclusively for HPQ and its wholly owned subsidiaries HPQ Nano Silicon Powders Inc and HPQ Silica Polvere Inc., namely:

• The PUREVAP™ “Quartz Reduction Reactors” (QRR), an innovative process (patent pending), which should permit the one step transformation of lower purity quartz (SiO2) than any traditional processes can handle into a silicon (Si) of a higher purity level (2N-4N) that can be produced by any traditional smelter, at reduced costs, energy input, and carbon footprint. The unique capabilities of this process could position HPQ as a leading provider of the specialized silicon material needed to propagate its considerable renewable energy potential; and
  
• The PUREVAP™ Nano Silicon Reactor (NSiR), which, if successful, could position itself as a new proprietary low-cost process that can transform the silicon (Si) made by the PUREVAP™ QRR into the nano-silicon materials (silicon powders and silicon nanowires) sought after by energy storage, batteries, electric vehicle manufactures and clean hydrogen sectors participants. The aim of the ongoing work is to position HPQ NANO as the first to market with a commercial scale low-cost nanoparticle production system.
  
• A new plasma-based process that could convert Silica (Quartz, SiO2) into fumed silica (Pyrogenic Silica) in one step. This new process could be a low-cost and environmentally friendly option that combines HPQ Silicon High Purity Quartz initiatives with PyroGenesis’ industry leading know-how in the development of commercial plasma processes. It is envisioned that the process will eliminate harmful chemicals presently generated by traditional methods. This new process could revolutionize the manufacturing of fumed silica, while repatriating production back to North America.
  

Government participation in a $5.3MM funding of the fumed silica project confirms our expectation that 2021 should be a year in which significant developments occur on all these fronts.
5. Land Based Units/Environmental
Until this writing, plasma land-based/environmental solutions were not aggressively targeted by the Company in favor of lower-hanging fruit represented by the Company’s other offerings, such as iron ore pelletization & DROSRITE™.
The Company took an opportunistic approach to these opportunities and there now seems to be significant early interest in the Company’s capabilities in this arena. Besides the interest in niche torch applications mentioned above (ex. medical waste) PyroGenesis’ plasma-based solutions have generated interest in processing a waste stream that has recently been classified as hazardous. Management believes that, in a current bidding process, its solution is the technology of choice. If successful, this will represent a significant positioning of PyroGenesis plasma-based solutions not only for this specific product line but, when taken in conjunction with the historic success with its offering on US Aircraft carriers, the land based/environmental segment in general.
B. GROWTH TRHOUGH SYNERGESTIC MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS:
As previously disclosed, the Company is conservatively considering synergistic M&A strategies to augment its growth, and the Company has been very actively involved in pursuing several opportunities in support of this strategy. In so doing, the focus has been on private companies exclusively which (i) primarily leverage the Company’s Golden Ticket advantage/Coffee & Donut strategy or (ii) could uniquely benefit from the Company’s engineering advantage and/or international relationships.
PyroGenesis recently announced the acquisition of AirScience Technologies Inc. (“AST”), a company with experience in biogas upgrading, for an amended cash purchase price of $4.4MM. PyroGenesis believes that AST’s experience in biogas upgrading, combined with PyroGenesis’ engineering and multidisciplinary skills, as well as its proven record of meeting the exacting demands of multibillion-dollar companies and the US military, positions the combination well to address the opportunities arising from this growing need to generate renewable natural gas.
The acquisition of AirScience also provides potential synergies with PyroGenesis’ land-based waste destruction offerings which, if successful, will significantly increase their value to the market. AST’s technology complements PyroGenesis’ existing offerings and further strengthens PyroGenesis’ position as an emerging leader in GHG solutions for sustainable long-term growth.
Our expectation is to, over the next 12-18 months, strengthen AST’s operations and quality control systems, while at the same time increasing the backlog of signed contracts and successfully delivering on existing contracts thus positioning AST as a significant and credible player in the marketplace. Once established, we will evaluate our options to accelerate the rollout of these solutions.
Separately, the Company has been evaluating the following opportunities:
1. DROSRITE™
After experiencing some unforeseen last minute contract clarifications/interpretations the Company expects to be able to announce, within the next few weeks, the conclusion of a joint venture relationship with an existing and proven technology provider. The technology is geared to uniquely handle the residues resulting from the processing of dross in the aluminum industry. We had previously announced our intention to secure this technology and, if concluded, would not only make our traditional DROSRITE™ offering more appealing but could also be offered as a stand-alone product. We believe that valorizing the residues and producing high end products will further define us as the go-to company for all dross related processing. This is a prime example of our Coffee & Donuts strategy in play. For further clarity, the joint venture will only relate to the new technology and, as such, PyroGenesis will not have to vet in any assets, or IP (specifically not the DROSRITE™ technology).
2. Plasma Torches
PyroGenesis often considers opportunities to leverage its plasma expertise and they continue to review torch technologies which could complement existing offerings and leverage off of their unique relationships. There is nothing currently being discussed that, at this time, has a material probability of being concluded.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, PyroGenesis is well positioned in 2021 to take advantage of its unique position in its four main business offerings to accelerate growth in each, with a particular emphasis on offerings geared to aggressively reducing GHG emissions. Furthermore, we do not expect at this point in time, given our strong balance sheet, a need to raise capital to execute on our growth strategy over the foreseeable future.
Financial Summary
Revenues
PyroGenesis recorded revenue of $8,280,572 in the second quarter of 2021 (“Q2, 2021”), representing an increase of 289% compared with $2,128,454 recorded in the second quarter of 2020 (“Q2, 2020”), Revenue for the six months of fiscal 2021 was $14,545,075 an increase of 411% over revenue of $2,847,362 during the same period in 2020.
Revenues recorded in the three and six months ended June 30, 2021 were generated from:
(i)DROSRITE™ related sales of $1,648,882, $4,389,606 (2020 Q2 - $1,319,904, $1,794,336) (ii)PUREVAP™ related sales of $3,896,453, $4,521,539 (2020 Q2 - $25,093, $43,058) (iii)torch related sales of $557,613, $752,835 (2020 - $617,077, $705,022) (iv)support services related to PAWDS-Marine systems supplied to the US Navy $2,133,187, $4,719,208 (2020 - $37,143, $61,039) (v)other sales and services of $44,437, $161,887 (2020 - $129,237, $243,907)
Cost of Sales and Services and Gross Margins
Cost of sales and services before amortization of intangible assets was $3,340,312 in Q2 2021, representing an increase of 291% compared with $855,049 in Q2 2020, primarily due to an increase in employee compensation $544,725 (Q2 2020 - $103,957), direct materials $2,547,913 (Q2 2020 - $528,584) and manufacturing overhead and other $246,770 (Q2 2020 - $95,667).
In Q2 2021, subcontracting, and foreign exchange charge on materials decreased to $37,219 (Q2 2020 - $145,599). The gross margin for Q2 2021 was $4,933,481 or 59.6% of revenue compared to a gross margin of $1,266,592 or 59.5% of revenue for Q2 2020. As a result of the type of contracts being executed, the nature of the project activity, as well as the composition of the cost of sales and services, as the mix between labour, materials and subcontracts may be significantly different.
Investment tax credits related to qualifying projects from the provincial government against cost of sales were $36,315 (2020 - $18,758) and $Nil (2020 $1,058,017) of investment tax credits earned in prior years that met the criteria for recognition. The Company also recorded for the six months ended June 30, 2021 $37,498 (2020 - $18,420) of the investment tax credits against cost of sales and services, $23,880 (2020 - $1,141,468) against research and development expenses and $15,979 (2020 - $30,000) against selling general and administrative expenses.
The amortization of intangible assets of $6,779 in Q2 2021 and $6,813 for Q2 2020 relates to patents and deferred development costs. Of note, these expenses are non-cash items and will be amortized over the duration of the patent lives.
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses
Included within Selling, General and Administrative expenses (“SG&A”) are costs associated with corporate administration, business development, project proposals, operations administration, investor relations and employee training.
SG&A expenses for Q2 2021 excluding the costs associated with share-based compensation (a non-cash item in which options vest principally over a four-year period), were $3,371,888 representing an increase of 105% compared with $1,641,338 reported for Q2 2020. On a year-to-date basis, SG&A expenses before share-based expenses were $6,174,984 compared with $2,847,063 in the same period in 2020.
The increase in SG&A expenses in Q2 2021 over the same period in 2020 is mainly attributable to the net effect of:

• an increase of 19% in employee compensation due primarily to additional head count,
• an increase of 164% for professional fees, primarily due to an increase in accounting fees, legal fees, and listing fees.
• an increase of 31% in office and general expenses, is due to an increase in office and computer related expenses,
• travel costs decreased by 79%, due to a decrease in travel abroad,
• depreciation on property and equipment increased by 736% due to higher amounts of property and equipment being depreciated,
• depreciation on right of use assets increased by 69% due to higher amounts of right of use assets being depreciated,
• Investment tax credits decreased by 74% due to a decrease in qualifying projects,
• government grants decreased by 50% due to lower levels of activities supported by such grants,
• other expenses increased by 1,186%, primarily due to an increase in D&O insurance expenses.

Separately, share based payments increased by 13,813% in Q2 2021 over the same period in 2020 as a result of the stock options granted in 2020 and 2021. This was directly impacted by the vesting structure of the stock option plan with options vesting between 25% and 100% on the grant date requiring an immediate recognition of that cost.
Research and Development (“R&D”) Costs
The Company incurred $710,734 of R&D costs, net of government grants, on internal projects in Q2 2021, an increase of 18,479% as compared with ($3,867) in Q2 2020. The increase in Q2 2020 is primarily related to an increase in employee compensation, subcontracting, materials and equipment and other expenses, $786,978 compared with $55,777 reported in Q2 2020. During the first six months of fiscal 2021, net spending on internal R&D was 997,041 as compared to $19,221 in 2020, primarily due to an increase in R&D activities performed in the six months ending June 30, 2021.
In addition to internally funded R&D projects, the Company also incurred R&D expenditures during the execution of client funded projects. These expenses are eligible for Scientific Research and experimental Development (“SR&ED”) tax credits. SR&ED tax credits on client funded projects are applied against cost of sales and services (see “Cost of Sales” above).
Net Finance Costs
Finance costs for Q2 2021 totaled $40,086 as compared with $276,928 for Q2 2020, representing a decrease of 86% year-over-year. The decrease in finance costs in Q2 2020, is primarily attributable to lower interest and accretion on lower amounts of debt.
Strategic Investments
The adjustment to the fair market value of strategic investments for Q2 2021 resulted in a loss of $17,884,293 compared to a gain in the amount of $5,899,465 in Q2 2020. The decrease is primarily attributable to the decreased market share value of common shares and warrants owned by the Company of HPQ Silicon Resources Inc.
Net (Loss) Income and Comprehensive (Loss) Income
The net comprehensive loss for Q2 2021 of $20,362,205 compared to a gain of $5,228,020, in Q2 2020, represents a decrease of 489% year-over-year. The decrease in income of $25,590,226 in the comprehensive loss in Q2 2021 is primarily attributable to the factors described above, which have been summarized as follows:

• an increase in product and service-related revenue of $6,152,118 arising in Q2 2021,
• an increase in cost of sales and services of $2,485,231, primarily due to an increase in employee compensation, direct materials, manufacturing overhead & other, investment tax credits and a decrease in subcontracting, foreign exchange charge on materials, and amortization of intangible assets,
• an increase in SG&A expenses of $1,730,552 arising in Q2 2021 primarily due to an increase in employee compensation, professional fees, office and general, depreciation in property and equipment, depreciation ROU assets, other expenses and share based expenses, and a decrease in travel, investment tax credits and government grants, an increase in R&D expenses of $714,601 primarily due to an increase in employee compensation, subcontracting, material and equipment, other expenses and government grants and a decrease in investment tax credits.
• a decrease in net finance costs of $236,841 in Q2 2021 primarily due to lower interest and accretion on lower amounts of debt and an increase of $64,329 in accretion of royalty receivable,
• a decrease in fair value adjustment of strategic investments of $23,546,916 in Q2 2021.

EBITDA
The EBITDA loss in Q2 2021 was $20,082,063 compared with an EBITDA gain of $5,610,023 for Q2 2020, representing a decrease of 458% year-over-year. The $25,692,086 decrease in the EBITDA loss in Q2 2021 compared with Q2 2020 is due to the decrease in comprehensive income of $25,590,225, an increase in depreciation on property and equipment of $74,004, an increase in depreciation ROU assets of $61,013, offset by a decrease in amortization of intangible assets of $34 and a decrease in finance charges of $236,843.
Adjusted EBITDA loss in Q2 2021 was $16,793,378 compared with an Adjusted EBITDA gain of $5,633,661 for Q2 2020. The decrease of $22,427,039 in the Adjusted EBITDA loss in Q2 2021 is attributable to a decrease in EBITDA loss of $25,692,086 and by an increase of $3,265,047 in share-based payments.
The Modified EBITDA gain in Q2 2021 was $1,090,915 compared with a Modified EBITDA loss of $265,804 for Q2 2020, representing an increase of 510%. The increase of $1,356,719 in the Modified EBITDA gain in Q2 2021 is attributable to the decrease as mentioned above in the Adjusted EBITDA of $22,427,039 and a decrease in the change of fair value of strategic investments of $23,783,758.
Liquidity
As at June 30, 2021, the Company has cash and cash equivalents of $18,076,539. In addition, the accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $4,206,974 are payable within 12 months. The Company expects that its cash position will be able to finance its operations for the foreseeable future.
About PyroGenesis Canada Inc.
PyroGenesis Canada Inc., a high-tech company, is a leader in the design, development, manufacture and commercialization of advanced plasma processes and sustainable solutions which reduce greenhouse gases (GHG), and are economically attractive alternatives to conventional “dirty” processes. PyroGenesis has created proprietary, patented and advanced plasma technologies that are being vetted and adopted by multiple multibillion dollar industry leaders in four massive markets: iron ore pelletization, aluminum, waste management, and additive manufacturing. With a team of experienced engineers, scientists and technicians working out of its Montreal office, and its 3,800 m2 and 2,940 m2 manufacturing facilities, PyroGenesis maintains its competitive advantage by remaining at the forefront of technology development and commercialization. The operations are ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D certified, having been ISO certified since 1997. For more information, please visit: www.pyrogenesis.com.
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words "may", "plan", "will", "estimate", "continue", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "in the process" and other similar expressions which constitute "forward- looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements reflect the Corporation's current expectation and assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, our expectations regarding the acceptance of our products by the market, our strategy to develop new products and enhance the capabilities of existing products, our strategy with respect to research and development, the impact of competitive products and pricing, new product development, and uncertainties related to the regulatory approval process. Such statements reflect the current views of the Corporation with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and other risks detailed from time-to-time in the Corporation's ongoing filings with the securities regulatory authorities, which filings can be found at www.sedar.com, or at www.sec.gov. Actual results, events, and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward- looking statements either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange, its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange) nor the NASDAQ Stock Market, LLC accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Additional information relating to Company and its business, including the 2020 Financial Statements, the Annual Information Form and other filings that the Company has made and may make in the future with applicable securities authorities, may be found on or through SEDAR at www.sedar.com, EDGAR at www.sec.gov, or the Company’s website at www.pyrogenesis.com.
Additional information, including directors’ and officers’ remuneration and indebtedness, principal holders of the Company’s securities and securities authorized for issuance under equity compensation plans, is also contained in the Company’s most recent management information circular for the most recent annual meeting of shareholders of the Company.
SOURCE PyroGenesis Canada Inc.
For further information please contact: Rodayna Kafal, Vice President, IComms. and Strategic Business Development Phone: (514) 937-0002, E-mail: [email protected]
RELATED LINK: http://www.pyrogenesis.com/
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You can find the full news release at https://pro.ceo.ca/@nasdaq/pyrogenesis-announces-q2-2021-results-revenues-83mm

PyroGenesis Announces Q2 2021 Results Revenues $8.3MM; Gross Margin 59.6%; Current Backlog $32.1MM

MONTREAL, Aug. 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PyroGenesis Canada Inc. (http://pyrogenesis.com) (NASDAQ: PYR) (TSX: PYR) (FRA: 8PY), a high-tech Company (hereinafter referred to as the “Company” or “PyroGenesis”), that designs, develops, manufactures and commercializes advanced plasma processes and sustainable solutions to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG), is pleased to announce today its financial and operational results for the second quarter ended June 30th, 2021.
“We are happy to be announcing financial results for Q2 2021 and, once again, they are historical. As can be seen from the table below, net income from operations (not including share-based expenses) was profitable at $850K, on record quarterly revenues of $8.3MM (a 32% increase Q1 over Q2 2021). This is the fourth quarter in a row that PyroGenesis has posted more revenues in each quarter than for all of 2019, and the Company is on track to exceed the record revenues of 2020,” said Mr. P. Peter Pascali, CEO and Chair of PyroGenesis. “Not only is PyroGenesis posting record revenues, with an overall gross margin of 59.6%, but the Company’s backlog of signed contracts is increasing at the same time, which bodes well for the future. We expect this trend to continue.”
Three months ended June 30, % Change Six months ended June 30, % Change 2021 2020 2021vs2020 2021 2020 2021vs2020Revenues$8,280,572$2,128,454 289%$14,545,075 $2,847,362 411%Cost of sales and services 3,347,091 861,862 288% 7,468,584 1,313,356 469%Gross margin 4,933,481 1,266,592 290% 7,076,491 1,534,006 361% Expenses Selling, general and administrative (not including share-based expenses) 3,371,888 1,641,336 105% 6,174,984 2,847,061 117%Research and development 710,734 (3,867)18,479% 997,041 19,221 5,087% Total expenses (not including share-based expenses) 4,082,622 1,637,469 149% 7,172,025 2,866,282 150% Net income from operations (not including share-based expenses) 850,859 (370,879)329% (95,534) (1,332,278) -93%
Q2 2021 results reflect the following highlights:

• Revenues of $8,280,572, an increase of 289% from $2,128,454 in Q2 2020,
• Gross margin profit of $4,933,481 an increase of 290% from $1,266,592 in Q2 2020,
• Net income from operations (not including share-based expenses) of $850,859, an increase of 329% as compared to Q2 2020,
• Modified EBITDA gain of $1,090,915 compared to a loss of $265,804 in Q2 2020,
• Cash and cash equivalents at June 30, 2021 of $18,076,539 (December 31, 2020: $18,104,899),
• Backlog of signed contracts, at August 16, 2021, of $32.1MM,

OUTLOOK
PyroGenesis continues to be well positioned, with a clean balance sheet, to execute on all its organic growth strategies as well as to continue actively pursuing growth through synergistic mergers & acquisitions.
The Company has recently focused its offerings to highlight their greenhouse gases (“GHG”) emissions reduction benefits. Most of PyroGenesis’ product lines do not depend on environmental incentives (tax credits GHG certificates, environmental subsidies, etc.) to be economically viable.
We consider this strategy to be timely as many governments are stimulating their respective economies by promoting and funding both environmental technologies and infrastructure projects. As such, although management expects that this will be a tailwind into an already strong pipeline (which would further increase revenues and add directly to shareholder value), there may be some delays before the full effect is recognized as companies will likely take additional time to submit the necessary government paperwork to qualify for such incentives.
The Company is not immune to the negative impact Covid-19 has had on businesses, specifically related to the work force and, more importantly, the supply chain. Management believes that the Company is better situated than most and is doing everything to mitigate these challenges. It does not expect any improvements from the impact of Covid-19 before Q2 2022.
A. ORGANIC GROWTH
Organic growth will be spurred on by (i) the natural growth of our existing offerings which can now be accelerated given our strong balance sheet and (ii) leveraging off our “Golden Ticket” advantage.
We have described in the past our Golden Ticket advantage as one which occurs when one sells directly, or is engaged directly, with the end user and, as a result, is “inside the fence”. A Golden Ticket affords the opportunity to either, (i) cross sell other products or (ii) identify new areas of concern that can be addressed uniquely by PyroGenesis. We call the latter our Coffee and Donuts strategy (if you are selling coffee you could generate additional revenues, with little additional effort, by adding on donuts).
Over the past several years, PyroGenesis has successfully positioned each of its business lines for rapid growth by strategically partnering with multi-billion-dollar entities. These entities have identified PyroGenesis’ offerings to be unique, in demand, and of such a commercial nature as to warrant such unique relationships. We expect that these relationships are now positioned to transition into significant revenue streams particularly in iron ore pelletization & DROSRITE™ (short term) and 3D printing (mid to long term).
1. DROSRITE™
Within the DROSRITE™ offering, the Company continues to aggressively explore horizontal growth opportunities. The Company is currently bidding on an up-stream opportunity valued at approximately $40MM. This process is plasma based, and not only reduces GHG, but seems to be cheaper than alternate technologies. This project is located in the Middle East and is currently experiencing delays to allow the processing of government documentation to catch up with the bidding process. Management notes that it has been very successful in the selection process to date and continues to believe that it has a better than average probability of success. Building on this development the Company is also in discussions with a second opportunity to provide a similar upstream process for approximately the same consideration. Both opportunities are examples of the success the Company is having with this strategy.
2. Additive Manufacturing
With respect to additive manufacturing, we continue to expect to see significant year over year improvements in our 3D metal powders offering as our NexGen™ facility, which incorporates all the previously disclosed benefits (increased production rates, lower capex, lower opex), is now on-line.
There are major top tier aerospace companies and OEMs, in both Europe and North America, eagerly awaiting powders from this new state-of-the-art production line, and we are currently in the process of supplying sample powders to them for analysis. Of note, a major tier one global aerospace company entered into an agreement with the Company to qualify its powder, at considerable expense to the global aerospace company, with a view towards having the Company become a supplier. The Company expects that such developments will continue and will translate into significant improvements in contributions to revenue by this segment in the mid-long term.
3. Plasma Torches
With respect to the Company’s plasma torch offerings, we expect this offering to be significantly impacted by continued developments in the iron ore pelletization industry, where serious consideration is being given to replacing the fossil fuel burners, currently being used throughout the industry, with PyroGenesis’ proprietary plasma torches, in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint.
To date, everything is proceeding as expected. Initial discussions have evolved into confirmation stages which typically consist of a computer simulation followed by a small torch order. These confirmation stages are expected, if successful, to result with a roll-out program to replace fossil fuel burners with PyroGenesis’ plasma torches in the iron ore pelletization industry, in which PyroGenesis is patent protected.
PyroGenesis expects that the previously mentioned government initiatives, geared to stimulating their respective economies by promoting and funding environmental technologies and infrastructure projects, will only serve to increase interest in PyroGenesis’ plasma torch offerings. However, this could delay the onset of contracts as potential clients seek government support for large initiatives.
To date, all computer simulations have been successful, and Client A has ordered 1 torch and has requested a cost estimate for 36 more. We expect that in short order a long overdue torch order for between 1-5 torches from Client B will be forthcoming with strong visibility on the next series of torch orders from them. All indications to date are that the iron ore pelletization industry will be a large user of PyroGenesis plasma torches.
PyroGenesis is proactively targeting other industries which are experiencing significant pressure to reduce GHGs, and which utilize fossil fuel burners as well.
Separately, the Company also offers plasma torches to niche markets where there is a high probability of on-going sales from successful implementation. One such example is the previously announced contract with a very small company to produce a plasma torch ideal for tunneling. PyroGenesis has reason to believe that the real plasma-based tunneling opportunity may lie outside of the scope of the current agreement. PyroGenesis is in discussion with the client to determine the best way to terminate this arrangement. For all intents and purposes, from the readers perspective, this project with the client has ended. PyroGenesis is evaluating, and intends to pursue, plasma based tunneling opportunities, specifically those identified to be outside of the scope of the current agreement.
Another niche market where the Company is offering its plasma torch, and where there is a high probability of on-going sales is in land-based waste destruction applications, and more specifically medical waste. The Company is currently in discussions for a small contract to provide plasma torches to destroy medical waste in Southeast Asia. If successful, this could usher in another interesting application of our plasma expertise to a rather large market with an unaddressed need.
As sales of PyroGenesis’ plasma torches increase, the Company will also benefit from providing proprietary spare parts from which the Company expects to generate significant recurring revenue, thus complementing the Company’s long-term strategy to build upon a recuring revenue model.
4. HPQ/PUREVAP™
With respect to HPQ, the goal is to continue to expand our role as HPQ’s technology provider for the game changing family of silicon processes which we are developing exclusively for HPQ and its wholly owned subsidiaries HPQ Nano Silicon Powders Inc and HPQ Silica Polvere Inc., namely:

• The PUREVAP™ “Quartz Reduction Reactors” (QRR), an innovative process (patent pending), which should permit the one step transformation of lower purity quartz (SiO2) than any traditional processes can handle into a silicon (Si) of a higher purity level (2N-4N) that can be produced by any traditional smelter, at reduced costs, energy input, and carbon footprint. The unique capabilities of this process could position HPQ as a leading provider of the specialized silicon material needed to propagate its considerable renewable energy potential; and
  
• The PUREVAP™ Nano Silicon Reactor (NSiR), which, if successful, could position itself as a new proprietary low-cost process that can transform the silicon (Si) made by the PUREVAP™ QRR into the nano-silicon materials (silicon powders and silicon nanowires) sought after by energy storage, batteries, electric vehicle manufactures and clean hydrogen sectors participants. The aim of the ongoing work is to position HPQ NANO as the first to market with a commercial scale low-cost nanoparticle production system.
  
• A new plasma-based process that could convert Silica (Quartz, SiO2) into fumed silica (Pyrogenic Silica) in one step. This new process could be a low-cost and environmentally friendly option that combines HPQ Silicon High Purity Quartz initiatives with PyroGenesis’ industry leading know-how in the development of commercial plasma processes. It is envisioned that the process will eliminate harmful chemicals presently generated by traditional methods. This new process could revolutionize the manufacturing of fumed silica, while repatriating production back to North America.
  

Government participation in a $5.3MM funding of the fumed silica project confirms our expectation that 2021 should be a year in which significant developments occur on all these fronts.
5. Land Based Units/Environmental
Until this writing, plasma land-based/environmental solutions were not aggressively targeted by the Company in favor of lower-hanging fruit represented by the Company’s other offerings, such as iron ore pelletization & DROSRITE™.
The Company took an opportunistic approach to these opportunities and there now seems to be significant early interest in the Company’s capabilities in this arena. Besides the interest in niche torch applications mentioned above (ex. medical waste) PyroGenesis’ plasma-based solutions have generated interest in processing a waste stream that has recently been classified as hazardous. Management believes that, in a current bidding process, its solution is the technology of choice. If successful, this will represent a significant positioning of PyroGenesis plasma-based solutions not only for this specific product line but, when taken in conjunction with the historic success with its offering on US Aircraft carriers, the land based/environmental segment in general.
B. GROWTH TRHOUGH SYNERGESTIC MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS:
As previously disclosed, the Company is conservatively considering synergistic M&A strategies to augment its growth, and the Company has been very actively involved in pursuing several opportunities in support of this strategy. In so doing, the focus has been on private companies exclusively which (i) primarily leverage the Company’s Golden Ticket advantage/Coffee & Donut strategy or (ii) could uniquely benefit from the Company’s engineering advantage and/or international relationships.
PyroGenesis recently announced the acquisition of AirScience Technologies Inc. (“AST”), a company with experience in biogas upgrading, for an amended cash purchase price of $4.4MM. PyroGenesis believes that AST’s experience in biogas upgrading, combined with PyroGenesis’ engineering and multidisciplinary skills, as well as its proven record of meeting the exacting demands of multibillion-dollar companies and the US military, positions the combination well to address the opportunities arising from this growing need to generate renewable natural gas.
The acquisition of AirScience also provides potential synergies with PyroGenesis’ land-based waste destruction offerings which, if successful, will significantly increase their value to the market. AST’s technology complements PyroGenesis’ existing offerings and further strengthens PyroGenesis’ position as an emerging leader in GHG solutions for sustainable long-term growth.
Our expectation is to, over the next 12-18 months, strengthen AST’s operations and quality control systems, while at the same time increasing the backlog of signed contracts and successfully delivering on existing contracts thus positioning AST as a significant and credible player in the marketplace. Once established, we will evaluate our options to accelerate the rollout of these solutions.
Separately, the Company has been evaluating the following opportunities:
1. DROSRITE™
After experiencing some unforeseen last minute contract clarifications/interpretations the Company expects to be able to announce, within the next few weeks, the conclusion of a joint venture relationship with an existing and proven technology provider. The technology is geared to uniquely handle the residues resulting from the processing of dross in the aluminum industry. We had previously announced our intention to secure this technology and, if concluded, would not only make our traditional DROSRITE™ offering more appealing but could also be offered as a stand-alone product. We believe that valorizing the residues and producing high end products will further define us as the go-to company for all dross related processing. This is a prime example of our Coffee & Donuts strategy in play. For further clarity, the joint venture will only relate to the new technology and, as such, PyroGenesis will not have to vet in any assets, or IP (specifically not the DROSRITE™ technology).
2. Plasma Torches
PyroGenesis often considers opportunities to leverage its plasma expertise and they continue to review torch technologies which could complement existing offerings and leverage off of their unique relationships. There is nothing currently being discussed that, at this time, has a material probability of being concluded.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, PyroGenesis is well positioned in 2021 to take advantage of its unique position in its four main business offerings to accelerate growth in each, with a particular emphasis on offerings geared to aggressively reducing GHG emissions. Furthermore, we do not expect at this point in time, given our strong balance sheet, a need to raise capital to execute on our growth strategy over the foreseeable future.
Financial Summary
Revenues
PyroGenesis recorded revenue of $8,280,572 in the second quarter of 2021 (“Q2, 2021”), representing an increase of 289% compared with $2,128,454 recorded in the second quarter of 2020 (“Q2, 2020”), Revenue for the six months of fiscal 2021 was $14,545,075 an increase of 411% over revenue of $2,847,362 during the same period in 2020.
Revenues recorded in the three and six months ended June 30, 2021 were generated from:
(i)DROSRITE™ related sales of $1,648,882, $4,389,606 (2020 Q2 - $1,319,904, $1,794,336) (ii)PUREVAP™ related sales of $3,896,453, $4,521,539 (2020 Q2 - $25,093, $43,058) (iii)torch related sales of $557,613, $752,835 (2020 - $617,077, $705,022) (iv)support services related to PAWDS-Marine systems supplied to the US Navy $2,133,187, $4,719,208 (2020 - $37,143, $61,039) (v)other sales and services of $44,437, $161,887 (2020 - $129,237, $243,907)
Cost of Sales and Services and Gross Margins
Cost of sales and services before amortization of intangible assets was $3,340,312 in Q2 2021, representing an increase of 291% compared with $855,049 in Q2 2020, primarily due to an increase in employee compensation $544,725 (Q2 2020 - $103,957), direct materials $2,547,913 (Q2 2020 - $528,584) and manufacturing overhead and other $246,770 (Q2 2020 - $95,667).
In Q2 2021, subcontracting, and foreign exchange charge on materials decreased to $37,219 (Q2 2020 - $145,599). The gross margin for Q2 2021 was $4,933,481 or 59.6% of revenue compared to a gross margin of $1,266,592 or 59.5% of revenue for Q2 2020. As a result of the type of contracts being executed, the nature of the project activity, as well as the composition of the cost of sales and services, as the mix between labour, materials and subcontracts may be significantly different.
Investment tax credits related to qualifying projects from the provincial government against cost of sales were $36,315 (2020 - $18,758) and $Nil (2020 $1,058,017) of investment tax credits earned in prior years that met the criteria for recognition. The Company also recorded for the six months ended June 30, 2021 $37,498 (2020 - $18,420) of the investment tax credits against cost of sales and services, $23,880 (2020 - $1,141,468) against research and development expenses and $15,979 (2020 - $30,000) against selling general and administrative expenses.
The amortization of intangible assets of $6,779 in Q2 2021 and $6,813 for Q2 2020 relates to patents and deferred development costs. Of note, these expenses are non-cash items and will be amortized over the duration of the patent lives.
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses
Included within Selling, General and Administrative expenses (“SG&A”) are costs associated with corporate administration, business development, project proposals, operations administration, investor relations and employee training.
SG&A expenses for Q2 2021 excluding the costs associated with share-based compensation (a non-cash item in which options vest principally over a four-year period), were $3,371,888 representing an increase of 105% compared with $1,641,338 reported for Q2 2020. On a year-to-date basis, SG&A expenses before share-based expenses were $6,174,984 compared with $2,847,063 in the same period in 2020.
The increase in SG&A expenses in Q2 2021 over the same period in 2020 is mainly attributable to the net effect of:

• an increase of 19% in employee compensation due primarily to additional head count,
• an increase of 164% for professional fees, primarily due to an increase in accounting fees, legal fees, and listing fees.
• an increase of 31% in office and general expenses, is due to an increase in office and computer related expenses,
• travel costs decreased by 79%, due to a decrease in travel abroad,
• depreciation on property and equipment increased by 736% due to higher amounts of property and equipment being depreciated,
• depreciation on right of use assets increased by 69% due to higher amounts of right of use assets being depreciated,
• Investment tax credits decreased by 74% due to a decrease in qualifying projects,
• government grants decreased by 50% due to lower levels of activities supported by such grants,
• other expenses increased by 1,186%, primarily due to an increase in D&O insurance expenses.

Separately, share based payments increased by 13,813% in Q2 2021 over the same period in 2020 as a result of the stock options granted in 2020 and 2021. This was directly impacted by the vesting structure of the stock option plan with options vesting between 25% and 100% on the grant date requiring an immediate recognition of that cost.
Research and Development (“R&D”) Costs
The Company incurred $710,734 of R&D costs, net of government grants, on internal projects in Q2 2021, an increase of 18,479% as compared with ($3,867) in Q2 2020. The increase in Q2 2020 is primarily related to an increase in employee compensation, subcontracting, materials and equipment and other expenses, $786,978 compared with $55,777 reported in Q2 2020. During the first six months of fiscal 2021, net spending on internal R&D was 997,041 as compared to $19,221 in 2020, primarily due to an increase in R&D activities performed in the six months ending June 30, 2021.
In addition to internally funded R&D projects, the Company also incurred R&D expenditures during the execution of client funded projects. These expenses are eligible for Scientific Research and experimental Development (“SR&ED”) tax credits. SR&ED tax credits on client funded projects are applied against cost of sales and services (see “Cost of Sales” above).
Net Finance Costs
Finance costs for Q2 2021 totaled $40,086 as compared with $276,928 for Q2 2020, representing a decrease of 86% year-over-year. The decrease in finance costs in Q2 2020, is primarily attributable to lower interest and accretion on lower amounts of debt.
Strategic Investments
The adjustment to the fair market value of strategic investments for Q2 2021 resulted in a loss of $17,884,293 compared to a gain in the amount of $5,899,465 in Q2 2020. The decrease is primarily attributable to the decreased market share value of common shares and warrants owned by the Company of HPQ Silicon Resources Inc.
Net (Loss) Income and Comprehensive (Loss) Income
The net comprehensive loss for Q2 2021 of $20,362,205 compared to a gain of $5,228,020, in Q2 2020, represents a decrease of 489% year-over-year. The decrease in income of $25,590,226 in the comprehensive loss in Q2 2021 is primarily attributable to the factors described above, which have been summarized as follows:

• an increase in product and service-related revenue of $6,152,118 arising in Q2 2021,
• an increase in cost of sales and services of $2,485,231, primarily due to an increase in employee compensation, direct materials, manufacturing overhead & other, investment tax credits and a decrease in subcontracting, foreign exchange charge on materials, and amortization of intangible assets,
• an increase in SG&A expenses of $1,730,552 arising in Q2 2021 primarily due to an increase in employee compensation, professional fees, office and general, depreciation in property and equipment, depreciation ROU assets, other expenses and share based expenses, and a decrease in travel, investment tax credits and government grants, an increase in R&D expenses of $714,601 primarily due to an increase in employee compensation, subcontracting, material and equipment, other expenses and government grants and a decrease in investment tax credits.
• a decrease in net finance costs of $236,841 in Q2 2021 primarily due to lower interest and accretion on lower amounts of debt and an increase of $64,329 in accretion of royalty receivable,
• a decrease in fair value adjustment of strategic investments of $23,546,916 in Q2 2021.

EBITDA
The EBITDA loss in Q2 2021 was $20,082,063 compared with an EBITDA gain of $5,610,023 for Q2 2020, representing a decrease of 458% year-over-year. The $25,692,086 decrease in the EBITDA loss in Q2 2021 compared with Q2 2020 is due to the decrease in comprehensive income of $25,590,225, an increase in depreciation on property and equipment of $74,004, an increase in depreciation ROU assets of $61,013, offset by a decrease in amortization of intangible assets of $34 and a decrease in finance charges of $236,843.
Adjusted EBITDA loss in Q2 2021 was $16,793,378 compared with an Adjusted EBITDA gain of $5,633,661 for Q2 2020. The decrease of $22,427,039 in the Adjusted EBITDA loss in Q2 2021 is attributable to a decrease in EBITDA loss of $25,692,086 and by an increase of $3,265,047 in share-based payments.
The Modified EBITDA gain in Q2 2021 was $1,090,915 compared with a Modified EBITDA loss of $265,804 for Q2 2020, representing an increase of 510%. The increase of $1,356,719 in the Modified EBITDA gain in Q2 2021 is attributable to the decrease as mentioned above in the Adjusted EBITDA of $22,427,039 and a decrease in the change of fair value of strategic investments of $23,783,758.
Liquidity
As at June 30, 2021, the Company has cash and cash equivalents of $18,076,539. In addition, the accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $4,206,974 are payable within 12 months. The Company expects that its cash position will be able to finance its operations for the foreseeable future.
About PyroGenesis Canada Inc.
PyroGenesis Canada Inc., a high-tech company, is a leader in the design, development, manufacture and commercialization of advanced plasma processes and sustainable solutions which reduce greenhouse gases (GHG), and are economically attractive alternatives to conventional “dirty” processes. PyroGenesis has created proprietary, patented and advanced plasma technologies that are being vetted and adopted by multiple multibillion dollar industry leaders in four massive markets: iron ore pelletization, aluminum, waste management, and additive manufacturing. With a team of experienced engineers, scientists and technicians working out of its Montreal office, and its 3,800 m2 and 2,940 m2 manufacturing facilities, PyroGenesis maintains its competitive advantage by remaining at the forefront of technology development and commercialization. The operations are ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D certified, having been ISO certified since 1997. For more information, please visit: www.pyrogenesis.com.
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words "may", "plan", "will", "estimate", "continue", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "in the process" and other similar expressions which constitute "forward- looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements reflect the Corporation's current expectation and assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, our expectations regarding the acceptance of our products by the market, our strategy to develop new products and enhance the capabilities of existing products, our strategy with respect to research and development, the impact of competitive products and pricing, new product development, and uncertainties related to the regulatory approval process. Such statements reflect the current views of the Corporation with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and other risks detailed from time-to-time in the Corporation's ongoing filings with the securities regulatory authorities, which filings can be found at www.sedar.com, or at www.sec.gov. Actual results, events, and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward- looking statements either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange, its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange) nor the NASDAQ Stock Market, LLC accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Additional information relating to Company and its business, including the 2020 Financial Statements, the Annual Information Form and other filings that the Company has made and may make in the future with applicable securities authorities, may be found on or through SEDAR at www.sedar.com, EDGAR at www.sec.gov, or the Company’s website at www.pyrogenesis.com.
Additional information, including directors’ and officers’ remuneration and indebtedness, principal holders of the Company’s securities and securities authorized for issuance under equity compensation plans, is also contained in the Company’s most recent management information circular for the most recent annual meeting of shareholders of the Company.
SOURCE PyroGenesis Canada Inc.
For further information please contact: Rodayna Kafal, Vice President, IComms. and Strategic Business Development Phone: (514) 937-0002, E-mail: [email protected]
RELATED LINK: http://www.pyrogenesis.com/
📷

Removing the Roadblocks to Mass ADAS Adoption - Arm Blueprint
Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) may have begun as premium features in executive cars but growing interest from both consumers and safety regulators is driving a surge in adoption across all vehicle classes.
Arm already plays a critical role in delivering ADAS systems, yet challenges in mass deployment remain. Strategy Analytics identifies three key concerns in the mass deployment of ADAS that the automotive industry must address: cost (particularly in low-end systems and cheaper vehicles), the leveraging of learning from autonomous vehicles and how to manage ADAS within the software-defined vehicle.
Cameras are the base sensor required for ADAS. Vision, therefore, is a logical place to start looking for efficiencies and is a rich area for innovation for Arm.
Every day, new algorithms and techniques are being developed that enable computers to make sense of image data without human involvement. We call this ‘intelligent imaging’, and it’s now found in a wide range of applications, from Internet of Things (IoT) devices to medical imaging, robotics and vehicle autonomy.
Edge computing has caught fire because companies understand that they can take advantage of a number of things, chief among them:

• Faster decision-making thanks to lower latency
• Increased security and privacy
• Reduced infrastructure and operational costs

​
Intelligent Imaging at the Edge and Endpoint - Arm Blueprint
Performing complex deep learning in endpoint devices comes at significant computational cost. And that’s where a lot of NexOptic’s work in optimization is happening—through software optimizations such as model compression and distillation, network quantization and mixed precision, and massive architecture searches to find efficient and accurate deep learning models.
Software and hardware techniques have propelled deep learning to the edge and endpoint in a very short amount of time, presenting an opportunity for low powered, high performance intelligent imaging solutions in devices without the need for cloud-based processing.
The NexOptic AI team draws on the numerous advances and techniques developed in the field to deliver a simplified intelligent imaging entry point at the edge and endpoint. Importantly, NexOptic has partnered with Arm to ensure customers are able to leverage the most from their hardware of choice.
NexOptic Joins ARM AI Partner Program – NexOptic
For example, specialized NPU technology like that found in Arm’s Ethos processors will help deliver the highest throughput and most efficient processing for ML inference in endpoint devices. Coupled with the robust and adaptable Arm “AE” image signal processing IP, end customers are able to truly build the AI powered imaging systems of the future.
​
Might be a good time to revisit the ARM Webinar from a few months ago to understand the areas where ALIIS will be deployed in the coming months and years ahead.
Computer Vision at the Edge (brighttalk.com)
(Note: You may need to register in order to watch webinar)
A few notes and highlights from the webinar to give a brief summary:
· More edge and endpoint devices generate images and video than ever before.
· Processing at edge has advantage of better privacy and security for our data.
· Arm can run algorithms on the edge with dedicated AI processors (Ethos NPUs, SVE2, etc)
· ALIIS is a suite of intelligent imaging solutions designed to enhance imaging applications, it’s a set of learning based computer vision algorithms that use convolutional neural networks
· ALIIS transforms an input image into a completely new image, algorithms are designed and optimized to enhance each image pixel by pixel. Processing at the edge allows access to uncompressed raw data, and because we are at the edge all these benefits cascade downstream.
· ALIIS is designed to enhance downstream applications, it’s basically AI for AI.
· Able to achieve 10X data compression by removing image noise, so you can expect clear and sharper images, and a smaller overall energy footprint due to easier data compression.
· Have been able to achieve 400% increase in classifier performance
· OEMs can pair with ALIIS to get the most out of their products, clear sharp images, efficient performance, and cascading downstream benefits.
· ALIIS well suited for Industrial automation – conveyor belt speed would result in less light being taken in thus fast frame rates would be required, faster shutter speed required.
· Pristine Surgical, we are a good fit with them, they are the first adopter of ALIIS, and we expect a lot more to adopt ALIIS in the coming months.
· Question - When will ALIIS be available on Arm chips commercially, Answer is NOW!
· Question - What attracted Rich to NXO – Said he was totally impressed, tech is at cutting edge employing neural network technologies. Rich commented that Pristine surgical will probably explode with these single use endoscopes because this is where these things are headed, and that this is just the tip of the iceberg for ALIIS. There are multiple market segments where ALIIS will shine from military, drones, mobile phones, robotics, etc. Nexoptic has been working with several potential customers, very large fleet management company, and many others. He’s VERY VERY excited about the future of this company. ALIIS will provide a foundation platform for a variety of market segments, it’s VERY exciting!
· Arm is everywhere, huge customer base and ALIIS is available commercially now on these Arm devices.
· Vehicle license recognition – noise affects that performance, ALIIS great application for this.
· Nexoptic has an internal SDK, can use for partner evaluations, this SDK may become public at some point
· Korean office was opened to work with potential mobile customers
· Question - How does Nexoptic's AI compare to other AI out there - It's better because we are at the edge, work with raw data, a lot of other companies do this type of image enhancement but are doing it for process media, RGB media, etc. ALIIS can remove noise before it gets baked into H265 stream, once in there very difficult to get out. Could see 10X more bandwidth if not taking the noise out (for example zoom calls), end up using more bandwidth. A lot of AI solutions are focused on the object recognition and detection, segmentation. Nexoptic has chosen to focus on the low light, noise reduction, a more fundamental imaging property so that we can help all these downstream processes, and adding more functionality to be AI for AI.
· Anti-glare conceived for the automotive use case, tunable artifact removal algorithm. Well suited to these applications.
· Double size of AI team over next couple of months, plus lots of people to draw on from our Korean team who are well connected in the AI space.
· A lot of ongoing conversations right now with multiple companies.

Some of the NEX team went through the questions asked a couple of days ago, but due to the answers being posted sporadically, i thought it might be better collating answers and reposting for visibility!
I highly recommend reading through if you are interested in NEX!
    NEX team marked as
U = u/Unignorant, C = u/Canesin, L = u/Localalhost_coz  
Original post here
Q: What is the NEX marketing plan to grow in terms of a customer base ? And how far is the team away from a finished product? During most of the interviews I noticed the team reference comparison to Binance, how does the interface match binance in a decentralized environment? (u/sheldonbraganza)
(U)We will have a complete product out on TestNet in Q2, and a fully working cross-chain exchange on the NEO and Ethereum networks in Q3.
NEX is marketing to two primary groups of users: (1) Mainstream users who want an easier experience buying altcoins with cryptocurrency. Through our network of banking partners, we will make it easy for anyone in the world to buy tokens on NEO, ETH (and eventually other chains) using their national currencies. (2) Bots and traders: we aim to have best-in-class trading APIs for high performance, computational trading. We will have better and faster APIs than today's centralized exchanges, with the added benefit of these systems running on decentralized networks
The point of our off-chain matching engine tech is to enable the same (or better!) usability as an exchange like Binance, while keeping around the decentralized model. The off-chain engine makes trading just as performant as today's centralized exchanges, and makes it much easier to support the kind of cross-chain trading functionality that has long been a pipe dream for decentralized exchanges. We are very much inspired by other exchanges like Coinbase in this regard, and we will be the first DEX to achieve this.
(C) Just to remember that NEX is also going after costumers that usually are not considered by other exchanges with its features to facilitate peer to peer payments requests, invoicing and tipping/gifts.
Q:Can you elaborate on NEX staking? The whitepaper was fuzzy about it and had terms like "staking percentage". (u/r3dh4r7)
(U) The NEX staking rate will be from 25-75%. Committing to stake for one day gives a rate of 25%, which increases linearly to a rate of 75% if you are willing to stake for 2 years By staking rate, we mean the percentage of revenue you will get from NEX fee collection proportional to the tokens you hold. For example, if you hold 10% of all NEX tokens and are staking at a rate of 75%, then you will receive .10 * .75 = 7.5% of all fee revenue generated by NEX over that period.
We will confirm these details in an updated white paper release coming out today or tomorrow. ~ If you commit for two years, the first year will still be at 75%.
Q:How soon do you introduce Fiat pairs? (u/coinonymous1)
(U) Our network of banking partners will begin to go live in Q2. That means users will be able to enter the ecosystem with national currencies through the NEX extension and web-based exchange interface.
(C) To clarify, this are not direct trading pairs on the exchange itself (i.e. JPY/NEX) but a easy method to on ramp and cashout using the tools. Users will be able to acquire NEO and GAS with fiat and any other tokens traded at NEX will be using the exchange itself.
Q: The chrome extension is great but why should I still rely on desktop to access NEX interface ? When can we expect Iphone/ Android App? (u/cryptobuddy_1712)
(U) We are planning native android/iOS apps. Depending on how fast we can grow, they may be out by Q3.
(C) Mobile presence is a complex topic, depending of how much of the full experience you want to provide - that will depend on the support shown by 3rd party wallets, if they adopt NEX APIs.
Q: Will you guys be supporting Ledger integration any time soon? Nex chrome add-on, Nex exchange integration...?! Plans to list the Nex token on other exchanges before the release of your own? What are the plans to continue supporting Neon wallet now that Nex came out with their extension for chrome? Will Nex exchange introduce fiat deposits/withdrawals? (u/mihai_ss)
(U) Yes, ledger is on the roadmap. We cannot comment on other exchange listings right now. We love and will continue to support Neon wallet (you are speaking to its creator :) as a great desktop wallet and complementary partner to our extension. NEX will support national currencies in/out of the exchange through our network of banking partners.
(C) Not only ledger but hardware wallets in general. Ledger is priority currently given that it is quite popular in NEO. We have to have in mind that NEX is trying to do a lot of different things to make usage easier to new users (that probably don't have a ledger!), there is currently about 96k users of it (more than this sub) so we will focus on fixing the corner cases and issues that appears frequently with such large user base first.
Q:More and more people are using mobile apps for trading. Don't you think nex should also have its own iOS and Android app. Are the API being developed future proof to integrate with mobile apps for trading and seeing candle charts. (u/Cryptobanku)
(U) We agree with the power for mobile, and future proofing the API is 100% on our mind. Longer term, we are planning native iOS/android apps.
Q:So NEX is a security right? What does that mean exactly? The Token only will be available on the neon exchange? In order to get the exchange dividends are we gonna be forced to put our tokens on stake mode? If so, once we put our tokens on stake mode does that mean we are not gonna be able to move them or sell them for a specific period of time? (u/sersimovi)
(U) NEX is a registered European security. It will be traded on NEX exchange, but that is not the only place it will be traded (I cannot say more than that right now). Being a registered security is amazing for investors. It means that all of the sketchy things that so often happen with cryprocurrencies/tokens (things like market manipulation or insider trading) are made explicitly illegal. It also means that we, as a company, go through an extensive audit. For that, we have partnered with the top tier accounting firm Ernst and Young.
The staking model means that you commit to staking your NEX for a certain amount of time to receive a share of fee revenue. The minimum amount of time you can stake NEX is one day. The maximum time you can stake is two years. While staked, you cannot move or sell the NEX tokens.
(C) All that plus the investor don't need to fear it will crash because someone classified it as a security in the future.
Q:When will the official sale date be announced and when will the official tokens per neo be determined? (u/rborsb9)
(L) We are still working with our legal partners to determine a final sale date, but it will be sometime at the end of April. The tokens per Neo/Gas will be determined from the 10 day moving average of the price before the sale begins.
Q:What do you think sets NEX apart from the countless other DEXs that are starting up right now? Why should people invest in NEX vs Switcheo/Etherdelta/Binance(once they release)?
(U) NEX will be the first usable, performant, and cross-chain DEX. Out of all the exchanges you mentioned, none of them are using an off-chain matching engine, which quite simply means none of them can do what we are doing.
In addition to that, NEX has by far the most generous revenue share model of any exchange you have mentioned. This is because we are embracing being a security (not hiding behind some questionably legal utility token). The people who invest in us will be treated very well by this model.
As for competitors: Switcheo unfortunately doesn't work. There is no volume, and the SC is broken (or at least didn't work when I tried it; the transaction failed and it stole the small amount of GAS I tried to trade). Etherdelta has higher volume but still ridiculously low overall. And again, just try to use Etherdelta... it is a usability disaster. There is really no comparison here. Binance might do something interesting, if they decide to do anything. But we have better technical talent than Binance, so I am not too worried.
Q:What % volume neon exchange will support compared with top centralized exchanges? Thanks big neo fan! (u/myfriendbaubau)
(U) We will support just as much volume as today's centralized exchanges.
Q: Will NEX have a stable coin? (u/masi252)
(U) We have looked into various implementations and ideas surrounding stable coins and have determined that it is not something we are planning on doing in the near future.
Cont: What about when Alchemint releases? (u/Bing0to)
(C) We wanted to do a fundamental strong stable coin that was capital efficient. Unfortunately there is some pre-requisites for that to be possible that currently is lacking in crypto markets. We will continue to monitor how this space evolves and our ideas are stored waiting the future when they can be applied.
Q:Can we expect the erc20 token trading earlier than q3? (u/markerizza)
(U) Q3 is the current roadmap projection. It is possible it will happen earlier depending on our growth.
Q: Will the token sale be via smart contract, so that we recieve our tokens right away? (u/Ebrii)
(U) Yes
Q: will you guys have an official subreddit and telegram anytime soon? (u/markerizza)
(U) No, we dislike the idea of project oriented telegrams. There are too many opportunities for scammers. We may have a subreddit in the future, but not anytime soon.
Q: What is the plan to get liquidity on the platform? It seems to be the biggest problem with current DEXs. (u/Mutedtommy)
(U) We have strategic partnerships for this. We are also working with other partners to develop some nice APIs for high performance trading.
Q: On the site you say that the ORIGINAL winners can participate in the second round (9000$) options, do you mean only the first round lottery winners or the first and second round winners combined? (u/FrancoisFrancis)
(U) Any lottery winners (whether first or second draw) have the opportunity to participate in both rounds 1 and 2. Please see this medium post for clarification: https://medium.com/neon-exchange/nex-extension-and-lottery-q-a-667e56f58e4a
Q: If you chose to participate in round 2 from the KYC process, does that mean you are guaranteed a spot? The medium article seems to indicate there will be an additional lottery from those who selected that option to see who from round one is eligible for round 2. (u/DwyerMatt)
No one is guaranteed a spot in round 2. It is even possible (though extremely unlikely) that all NEX is sold out in round one. This would happen if everyone who is selected goes through KYC and participates at 100%. (U)
Q: Will NEX tokens only be tradeable on NEX or is there a chance of it being listed on other exchanges like Binance? (u/Frank_Sinatra88)
(U) See an answer above. Not just NEX, but I can't say more than that right now.
Q: How do you see NEO compare to other coins on its network ? Like another coin could be valued more than NEO itself ? And will NEX always be bound to NEO? (u/BN_Boi)
(U) It is unlikely but possible that a NEP5 token could eventually achieve a higher marketcap than NEO itself.
NEX is not bound to NEO much at all. Our token will live as a NEP5 on NEO, and that is how users will receive staking rewards, but we will support trading very early on Ethereum as well.
(C) Google runs atop of other companies infrastructure (telecom providers), but it is valued more than all of them. The same thing can (and probably will) happen in token land, it will just take a while - when infrastructure becomes less important than applications and platforms atop of it. Like with the internet.
NEX behind the scenes (as the DEX is cross-chain from start) is using NEO capabilities, but the future of both is broad and uncertain. As a long term strategy the NEX company will do what it can to improve its underling technology and remove risk from its business.
Q: Is there a vesting period for the half of available NEX tokens that will not be sold during the ICO? (u/ETHERjimbo)
(U) The founder and employee tokens (25%) will vest over two years.
Q: Whitepaper uses an example $100m in the fee distribution calculation. If NEX is truly a security token and the whitepaper is your prospectus then you must provide further data on fwd looking statements. The NEX token gives the right to fee distribution. Given this you must provide assumption based forecasts on expedited fees over the next 3 years. This will support price discovery. How can the market properly price the token when fee expectations are unknown.(u/nsheahan82)
(C) Fee structure is defined on whitepaper and version v1.1 contains a example section as stated. Version v2.0 (to be released very soon) contains the actual staking portion (25% to 75% linear over two years growth on staking).
Guess work on the volume would in reality be very indigenous, look at volume behavior market wise (https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/#charts) so much variation. Following the 3 years trend we could say trading volume will be bigger than the world economy, clearly that is not happening.
Q: Would NEX Staking be a 50% or 75% as stated on the whitepaper? (u/GMDaddy)
(C)See answer above, it starts at 25% and goes up to 75%. The increase is linear and maximum period is 2 years.
Cont: By linear, you mean like as an option where the user has the choice on picking whether to stake it from 25% up into 75%?
(C)No, when you start staking it starts at 25% and by linear I mean it increases at a constant rate of about 2.08% per month for two years until it reach 75%.
(U)To clarify fabio's comment: yes, you can choose a fixed rate of 75% by committing to stake for two years.
Q: A massive attraction to NEX is the prospect of decentralised banking. What makes decentralised banking better than traditional banking? (u/kabelofthe3rd)
(C)Our goal is to facilitate crypto trading at large, this touches from usage of applications to investing passing by funds management and invoicing solutions. What this enables is a digital cashless economy, we call it the smart economy. In the smart economy users are in control of their funds using this advanced technological tools to perform the tasks above and current banking solutions are no longer needed.

Q: Once NEX is rolled out, what will be the easiest way for US residents to buy some stake? I'm aware it's going to be issued as a security so I'm thinking the NEX token will only be tradable on NEX itself because most non decentralized exchanges will not list security's or tokens that don't pass the Howet Test. Is this correct?(u/Cozmo525)

(C)You are correct, for US persons you will need to wait other licensed exchanges list NEX or we acquire the proper licenses to allow US people to trade securities. Whatever happens first =)
Q: Can I stake only NEX or also other Token f.e. NEO? (u/masi252)
(C) NEO doesn't need to be staked, you already can claim GAS on NEX extension.
Q: How do you plan to compete with Switcheo when they have first movers advantage and will be live for months before your platform will be? (u/toneeey1)
(C)We plan to compete with anyone in our market by providing better products.
Q: Will TNC be utilized? (u/molly1nora)
(C)That is not planned, NEX has it own custom scaling solutions already in development.
Q: Do you see exchanges not listing NEX, due to the fact that you guys are direct competition? (u/detnah)
(C)That is a tricky question, I believe competition will not be with every exchange - in special centralized ones, as CEX they will more focused in national markets and we are going after broad chain level trade.
Q: Is there a chance in the future you will also introduce other coins to the exchange sich as ERC-20 tokens etc? If so you'd blow all competition out the water. (u/Frank_Sinatra88)
(C)Yes, ERC-20 tokens will be supported by Q3 together with NEP-5.
Q: Will NEX APIs support mobile Dapps or Wallets? (u/johndon96)
(C)Both, APIs are in general not target to a specific application, is up to the developers to use it in their products.
Q: What are the team's plans to make NEX the best decentralized exchange and one of the best projects ever released? (u/its_me_TAG)
(C)We will be working close to our costumers, never afraid of breaking status quo and never ending improvements. NEX will never be done.
Q: Are there any plans to open up some Nex-Stores in several spots around the Globe? (u/michaeluebelhart)
(C)No, but will have a online swag store :D
Q: Is it possible that in the long future to have forex pairs listed on NEX? (u/BR8889)
(C)In a future where fiat has token representations or stable coins are indeed stable.
Q: When will we see the updated Whitepaper? (I know for example that you plan to integrate ERC20 tokens earlier than mentioned in the original Whitepaper) (u/mambor)
(C) Target is this weekend. We could delay if redacting detects things that should be changed/improved.
Q: What is your go-to-market strategy? (u/Dux_AMS)
(C) We already have >100k users. ;)

china purchases us war bonds II. Summary of Program Changes mirqlkljvW=q^{hb=klqebo=illh=} The latest Survey of Consumer Finance data was released Friday 24th of February. It shows that the rich in the US continue to be in great shape. We thought this was good time to bang the drum on plutonomy. Back in October, we coined the term ‘Plutonomy’ (The Global Investigator, Plutonomy: Buying Luxury, Explaining Global Imbalances, October 14 2005). Our thesis is that the rich are the dominant drivers of demand in many economies around the world (the US, UK, Canada and Australia). These economies have seen the rich take an increasing share of income and wealth over the last 20 years, to the extent that the rich now dominate income, wealth and spending in these countries. Asset booms, a rising profit share and favorable treatment by market-friendly governments have allowed the rich to prosper and become a greater share of the economy in the plutonomy countries. us senate ways and means committee chairman Also, new media dissemination technologies like internet downloading, cable and satellite TV, have disproportionately increased the audiences, and hence gains to “superstars” – think golf, soccer, and baseball players, music/TV and movie icons, fashion models, designers, celebrity chefs etc. These “content” providers, the tech whizzes who own the pipes and distribution, the lawyers and bankers who intermediate globalization and productivity, the CEOs who lead the charge in converting globalization and technology to increase the profit share of the economy at the expense of labor, all contribute to pornography. Item Name Description Pos. FTEDollars ($000)PageSalaries and Expenses Enhancements Domain and Operations Response to a WMD Incident To augment Hazardous Devices Response teams and provide the assets required to decrease the time it takes to respond to a WMD incident, and to expand Hostage Rescue Teams and provide associated services, supplies, and communications gear. 34 17 $30,055 6-1 CBRNE/WMD Forensic Response Capability To enhance the FBI’s Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Explosive Forensic Response capability and WMD Forensic Response Program. 48 24 20,267 6-6 Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate (WMDD) To enhance the WMDD’s capabilities through increased coordination, subject matter experts, training, outreach, and preparedness initiatives. 50 25 15,522 6-14 National Security Field Investigations To support the FBI’s field investigations program response to emerging national security threats. 143 71 29,723 6-17 Computer Intrusion Program To conduct CT, CI, and criminal computer intrusion investigations where the Internet, computers, or networks are the primary tools or targets of the activity. 57 28 10,231 6-20 National Security Analysis Center To continue the development of initial operating capabilities of the NSAC. 18 9 10,777 6-25 Item Name Description Pos. FTEDollars ($000)PageDomain Management Technology Program To ensure that FBI intelligence personnel have the technical capabilities required to assist in the analysis of an ever-increasing volume of information. … … 7,000 6-30 Undercover and Sensitive Operations Program To supplement the FBI’s Undercover Program to meet emerging threats and the growth in demand and scope of Undercover Operations. … … 3,114 6-33 Counterterrorism Financial Analysts To provide an increased level of financial analyses for counterterrorism investigations. 15 7 1,390 6-34 Foreign Language Program To enhance the FBI’s ability to translate intelligence collected in a foreign language in support of critical national security investigations. 40 20 10,752 6-37 National Virtual Translation Center (NVTC) To provide the NVTC a nationwide workforce of proficiency-tested and vetted linguists via state of the art technology. 14 7 4,997 6-41 Foreign Intelligence Collection Program To support the expansion of the FBI’s Foreign Intelligence Program. 129 64 23,850 6-47 Confidential Human Source Validation (CHSV) To support the CHSV program across all FBI operational programs. 151 75 26,256 6-53 Guardian Counterterrorism IT System To further the development of Guardian 3.0 / e-Guardian 2.0. … … 2,751 6-57 Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative To allow the FBI to combat computer intrusions that hinder U.S. national security interests. 211 106 38,648 6-60 Open Source Program Staffing To provide staffing to the FBI’s Open Source Program. 1 1 150 6-69 Item Name Description Pos. FTEDollars ($000)PageSurveillance Surveillance Provide additional resources for the FBI to conduct surveillance and collect intelligence in national security investigations. 86 43 $28,342 6-71 Aviation and Surveillance Program To upgrade the FBI’s surveillance capacity through aircraft replacement and operations and maintenance funding, as well as Special Operations Group equipment and training. … … 9,196 6-72 Advanced Electronic Technology To meet the increasing demand for lawfully authorized electronic surveillance of broadband and other data network and Internet communications. … … 2,000 6-75 Tactical Operations (TACOPS) To address the increased demand for the use of the covert entry/search technique, fabrication, and technical countermeasures. 29 15 11,744 6-76 Data Loading and Analysis System (DaLAS) To continue the development of integrated tools designed to exploit seized digital media and scanned documents for investigative leads. … … 11,500 6-79 Physical Surveillance (FISUR) Technology To enhance the FBI’s mission critical surveillance capabilities. 3 2 8,720 6-80 Consolidated Collections To continue the development and deployment of communications interception techniques and systems. 27 13 10,000 6-84 Item Name Description Pos. FTEDollars ($000)PageNexGen - Electronic Data Management System (EDMS)/ Data Warehouse System (DWS) To pursue the combined development of the EDMS and the DWS into one single resource. … … 7,000 6-88 Infrastructure Field Facility Infrastructure To support the FBI’s multi-year field office relocation program, and to address key security requirements. … … $10,000 6-91 Information Technology Disaster Recovery To upgrade critical Disaster Recovery capabilities. … … 5,000 6-97 Central Records Complex (CRC) To support the development of the permanent CRC. … … 8,367 6-100 Unclassified Network Capabilities (UNet) To facilitate the FBI’s Internet Connectivity and Consolidation program. … … 5,000 6-104 Leveraging Technology DNA Programs To expand the operating capacity of the Federal Convicted Offender (FCO) Program and other DNA-related requirements. 47 24 $30,638 6-107 Counterterrorism & Forensic Analytical Support To provide enhanced counterterrorism and forensic analysis support to FBI investigations. 5 3 1,450 6-116 Communications Capabilities Please refer to the classified addendum. … … 4,050 6-120 Partnerships Expansion of CT Presence Overseas To support a number of critical overseas counterterrorism investigative efforts. … … $1,628 6-123 Legal Attache Expansion To support the expansion of the FBI’s Legal Attache program. 3 1 2,375 6-125 Item Name Description Pos. FTEDollars ($000)PageFusion Centers To support the development of a national integrated network of state and local Fusion Centers. … … 1,658 6-129 Workforce National Security Branch Training Capabilities To support the enhanced development of FBI personnel through specialized training. … … $4,500 6-133 Background Investigations To address the backlog of security investigations resulting from aggressive hiring over the last several years and to meet future personnel requirements. 18 9 6,730 6-134 Foreign Language Program - Workforce Initiatives To enhance foreign language recruitment, retention, and training resources. … … 8,753 6-37 Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Training To improve the FBI’s HUMINT training capability through the expansion of the Domestic HUMINT Collection Course. … … 9,146 6-138 Cyber Training To provide additional specialized cyber training courses. … … 5,389 6-142 Pay Modernization To support pay modernization efforts sponsored by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. … … 9,076 6-146 Subtotal, Salaries and Expenses Enhancements 1,129 564 $437,745 Salaries and Expenses Offsets Intelligence Community (IC) Centralization of LIFECARE Management The proposed transfer will simplify the administration of the LIFECARE program, reducing costs while still providing the same level of life services to employees and their families. … … ($130) 6-148 Subtotal, Salaries and Expenses Offsets … … ($130) Construction Enhancements FBI Academy Construction To address facility upgrade requirements to meet the current and projected need at the FBI Academy. … … $9,800 8-1 Subtotal, Construction Enhancements … … $9,800 Total, FBI Direct Enhancements and Offsets 1,129 564 $447,415 2-PAGE 2 2-PAGE 1 SECRET//NOFORN//20320518 SECRET//NOFORN//20320518 2- PAGE 1 Federal Communications Commission FCC 99-229 of covered services, stating: “Thus, a carrier providing a customer with a service or facility that allows the customer to obtain access to a publicly switched network is responsible for complying with the capability requirements.”23 The House Report also describes CALEA's focus in terms of law enforcement agencies' traditional surveillance requirements: “The only entities required to comply with the [assistance capability] requirements are telecommunications common carriers, the components of the public switched network where law enforcement agencies have served most of their surveillance orders.”24 Further, the legislative history contains examples of the types of service providers subject to CALEA: “The definition of ‘telecommunications carrier’ includes such service providers as local exchange carriers, interexchange carriers, competitive access providers (CAPs), cellular carriers, providers of personal communications services (PCS), satellite-based service providers, cable operators, and electric and other utilities that provide telecommunications services for hire to the public, and any other wireline or wireless service for hire to the public.”25 11. The legislative history of CALEA makes clear that the requirements of CALEA do not necessarily apply to all offerings of a carrier. The House Report states: “[C]arriers are required to comply only with respect to services or facilities that provide a customer or subscriber with the ability to originate, terminate or direct communications.”26 We therefore find that an entity is a telecommunications carrier subject to CALEA to the extent it offers, and with respect to, such services. 12. CALEA also makes clear that its requirements do not apply to certain entities and services. Subsection 102(8)(C) of the definition specifically excludes information services,27 and the legislative history makes clear that CALEA does not apply to private network services: [T]elecommunications services that support the transport or switching of communications for private networks or for the sole purpose of interconnecting telecommunications carriers . . . need not meet any wiretap standards. PBXs are

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Date: 2015-04-02
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Questions	Answers
Do you ever think that the base will be closed? Are there still major issues that we just don't hear about from mainstream sources? What are your personal feelings on the political firestorm that has historically surrounded the base? Thanks!!	Unknown to the public. There are two parts of the base. The actual Naval Base itself and the Prison, which is called the JTF. When people talk about closing the base, they are usually referencing the JTF.
	The base is actually quite large! I was told we have approximately 5500 military personnel and foreign nationals working here. The base is a major control point for US military operations in the Caribbean and South America. It also the oldest US base on foreign soil! The base has stood the test of time so far, I doubt it will close anytime soon.
	In regards to major issues, I actually haven't heard of any during my time here. The command is very relaxed and its small enough where almost everyone knows everyone.
	In regards to the politics of the base. I assume you are referencing the JTF. I partially disagree on the way we treat the prisoners with indefinite detainment. Legally in the US, a person can only be detained for up to 48 hours. I think it's ridiculous that these people are treated differently. In my opinion, they have a right to a fair trial with evidence provided just like every other person to pass through the American legal system. I'm a strong believer in innocent until proven guilty.
Wow, there's a lot of stuff I wasn't aware of! Very interesting... Thanks for your thoughtful response!	I had to stop myself from rambling but I can tell you a lot about a lot of things.
Do you like it when people tell you "thank you for your service"?	Honestly. I do and I don't.
	I've been in for 7 months now. GTMO is my first duty station after Bootcamp (RTC) and A-school.
	I like the fact that people are willing to approach me and thank me for the courage I have to leave my friends and family behind to serve our country.
	I don't like that I don't know how to reply to the comment and usually have to explain to them that im thankful but I'm still working on how to reply.
	Edit: another fun little piece of info. I've noticed that at least 85% of the time. The people thanking me are usually older people (40+).
Why should people thank you? You decided to join army, if you die... Well you knew the risks.	I honestly don't care if people thank me. I've always been a very humble and modest person and having people thank me makes me a bit uncomfortable. I honestly don't believe that I'm doing anything that great. Now, if I was like a Purple Heart recipient, I could understand.
Nobody thanks a welder, but if he dies at 40 from the hazardous fumes there won't be shots fired.	There is a risk in any course one chooses to follow but this one is substantially dangerous as at any time, you may have to give your life to protect the ideals of our society. There's risks to be captured, killed, mortally wounded and so on.
So no clue why someone in military deserves more respect than someone else.	So when people thank me. I like to think they aren't thanking me for enlisting, but because I'm willing to lay down my life at any given time to defend our countries ideals of freedom and justice for all.
How's life out there? There's a possibility I'll be stationed out there for 372 days, so I'd like an idea on it. Not Navy but Army, but I'd doubt there would be a huge difference at GTMO.	The Internet is slow ass satellite internet, but you get used to it. The NEX is decently sized and has just about everything you need. Everything has to come in via ship. So, mail does take a little while.
	It's a really small community. Literally everyone knows everyone. It's actually not that bad, I don't mind it here. The bay is beautiful. I went swimming in it recently and it's clear turquoise water and you can see straight to the bottom and it's all just white sand.
	There's also big ass iguanas everywhere. They don't really do much besides chill in the sun and lay in the road and impede traffic.
What is your role at the base?	I'm a hospital corpsman who works in the Naval Hospital. I am actually assigned to work in the only Department of Defense Assisted Living Facility! It's the only one like it in the world and its job is to help tend to all the old Cubans who sided with the U.S. during the days of Castro and all that.
	The patients have some pretty crazy stories as to what drove them to leave everything behind and side with the USA.
Do they still have the huge crabs and lizards down there? Spent 4 months down there in 1994, i remember the heat, the gym/track, lizards/buzzards/crabs, and going golfing with a piece of astroturf.	Yes I am quad zero. Also, the iguanas are still here. They're big as fuck. Here's T-pain, the local barracks iguana.
You a quad zero?	Link to imgur.com
Also, how'd you feel when you found out you got orders to GITMO?	Well, they were number 5 on my list. I originally wanted to be 8404 (corpsman with the marines) but they have me 000 orders to NAVHOSP GTMO.
	I didn't really mind. I'm happy as it is a once in a lifetime experience to come here. A lot of my friends were telling me to waterboard people and shit lol.
Seems like every HM wants to go FMF. Pretty funny when they end up as a lab tech or dental assistant.	Because it's probably one of the most prestigious jobs you can do as a corpsman. I joined the Navy instead of the Marines specifically with the hopes of being an 8404.
Are you allowed to be doing this AMA? If so, thanks for doing it. If not, thanks for doing it anyway.	I don't know if I'm allowed to or not. Assuming I don't release any classified info of anything pertinent to operation security. Then it should be fine to my knowledge.
My question is: has GTMO done anything for April Fools' Day?	And to answer your question, nothing happened on April Fools. :(
Do you have a water board?	A water board isn't an object. Water boarding is an act. A terrible one at that. My friends and I fucked around once and tried it. Absolutely horrible, I only lasted 3-4 seconds.
Do you have a boogie board, for the beaches?	Lol no. The beaches here aren't that great. It's the mouth of the bay that's the best.
Are you allowed to leave base, and if so, is there much at all to do? As military personnel, have the recently improved diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba had any impact on you?	We are allowed to leave base. It just has to be via plane to anywhere besides Cuba. However, with the U.S.-Cuba relations improving. It is likely that during my time here, the embargo could end and I might be able to travel Cuba!
Is there like... even a door or a gate going out to cuba? Like... hows that handled? If it even exists, does any one remember where the keys to the gate are?	I haven't gone all the way to the perimeter as the base is decently large. However, I'm pretty sure the gate is guarded by Marines and the Cuban military. I think maybe it's similar to the whole DMZ thing in Korea.
Why on earth did you think this AMA would be "special" if the only interesting aspect is something you haven't experienced, basically this is "I have a job that my superiors wanted to promote AMA"	I apologize that this didn't live up to your hopes, dreams and aspirations. I decided to do this AMA with the thought "well, how many people have ever gotten to talk to someone who currently lives in GTMO?"
"yeah my job is really fun, I am having the best of times, no human rights violations here as we all think that is bad ;)"	If the thread doesn't interest you or it's not what you expected, then go to a different thread and move on. I appreciate you taking the time to berate my idea of entertaining people, to what I feel is, a very unique AMA.
Your answers have been exactly the same as anyone on any other base and any of the interesting aspect you simply don't know.	Some things I am generally not allowed to talk about since it may be classified or violate HIPPA.
	Sorry if that bothers you. But the other people reading this thread seem to be quite entertained with the given answers so far.
Why do you work for a bunch of sociopaths? Are you a sociopath?	Actually during my senior year of high school, my best friend and I took psychopathy tests and mine came out 79% likely and his came out 85% likely.
Utterly unsurprising. And we're supposed to respect soldiers why? Fuck you and your kind.	Thanks for your support stranger.
	I'm just one person, I don't not represent the entire United States military. Also, I'm not a soldier. I'm a sailor.
	Army - Soldier Navy - Sailor Air Force - Airman Marine Corps - Marine.
	It's pretty simple stuff.
Have you participated in torturing the inmates or are you just that guy who stands out side the door while it happens? Also do you feel disturbed in anyway knowing you're job is to maintain a human rights violation factory?	I actually do the complete opposite working in the DoD's only assisted living facility helping tend to all the old ass Cubans who stood by the U.S. against the communist regime in Cuba during the days of Batista and Castro.
Have you or anyone you worked with witnessed torture?	Not personally no. It's kind of a taboo subject. If someone works at JTF, you don't talk to them about what goes on there.
My cousin's GF was just sent there recently I think. It also sounds like she may have a similar role like yours too. Anyway, how long have you been stationed there? When you come back to the states you're able to bring Cuban Cigars right?	It'd be cool if I knew who she was, if she's in the Navy and she's a corpsman. It's highly likely that I have worked with her on a day to day basis or just spoken with her randomly.

Last updated: 2015-04-06 16:22 UTC
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