Subscriber Discussion

Prism Pivots And Gives Up On Retail Analytics....

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
Mar 25, 2017

Prism went from retail analytics, to an IOT platform and now into machine vision.

I believe they left retail because retail is struggling, not spending money and maybe the integrators channel is messy. Then to IOT platform because it's a hot topic but without a clear problem to solve and now into AI. The video was so general that it positions them as a consultant rather then a product.

It looks like they are back at square one fishing for a problem to solve after raising/spending $21M. Scary!!

(1)
JH
John Honovich
Mar 25, 2017
IPVM

#1, thanks for sharing. I had not noticed the pivot but they have definitely changed from retail to general computer vision.

Btw, I switched the video because the one you linked to was clearly something unrelated. The video I added was the Microsoft partnership video from a month ago which discusses the new focus. Let me know if you meant something else.

Prism has been relatively quiet for a while.

The cynic says that this is them just following buzzwords (computer vision and machine learning has gotten quite hot over the last year).

The optimist thinks that they already have a fundamental platform and can extend it to a general market.

The one thing that was not clear form what I have seen online so far is what the new Vision system can do, i.e., what can it 'see' / categorize / track.

Brian Karas will reach out to them for a post. Thanks again!

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
Mar 25, 2017

I will take that back. Looking into it deeper, Microsoft is doing all the AI. Prism is using microsoft cognitive services API. It's looks like your old boss is going back to creating a better way "search video" similar to 3VR but for different industries. I like the new pivot.

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
Mar 25, 2017

Yes. That's the video that I was trying to post. 

"The one thing that was not clear form what I have seen online so far is what the new Vision system can do, i.e., what can it 'see' / categorize / track"

I agree and that is why I think they are fishing. Building analytics to track someone wearing a white coat is different then tracking forklifts or construction sites progress.

I do give them an A+ on their ambition to go into AI.

 

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Mar 25, 2017

Vision is a cloud based recorder that uses metadata from embedded code in camera with limited video sent to the cloud and much stored in the camera.

Mobile devices connect to the cloud to view live video and search stored video.  

The unique part is the ability to query based on text based questions such as "red backpack" or even "doctor". 

This is based on the presentation I recieved. 

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(1)
U
Undisclosed #3
Mar 25, 2017

"I believe they left retail because retail is struggling, not spending money and maybe the integrators channel is messy."

Don't kid yourself - if they had a viable solution to a valid problem then they wouldn't leave - because they would be making money.  But they never made money with retail analytics because their solution lacks a valid problem (according to the market).

They left because their masters (the VC) want a return on their investment and retail analytics has not been able to provide this return.  So, instead of just admitting you flushed that cash down the toilet, the VC engineers the pivot to the next cool-sounding technology with hopes that their investment can finally deliver a return.

(1)
JH
John Honovich
Jan 18, 2018
IPVM

And LinkedIn shows a sharp decline in employees at Prism:

Stumbled upon their 'new years' 2018 post and checked up on how last year was - evidently very bad.

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #4
Mar 17, 2019

Once rumored to be installed in Apple stores, were there any success stories for Prism?

JH
John Honovich
Mar 17, 2019
IPVM

There might have and I heard directly from the company that they were installed in Apple stores. However, who is using Prism now I don't know.

I just checked LinkedIn and a year ago they had 43 employees listed on LinkedIn, now it is down to 27:

Their website is still live but their newest social media post across FB, LinkedIn and Twitter is more than 9 months ago, in May 2018.

Not good signs...

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