"Billions of dollars worth of products are being purchased," Mr. Blitstein said, referring to software and hardware aimed at teaching children.
Sony seems very much to want to position this new device as hardware aimed at a subcategory of its core audience who value high-end graphics (likely those who might otherwise decamp to PCs for better VR visual via Oculus or HTC), and not as something that will ultimately replace the PS4 entirely.
The part software, part hardware solution aimed to help merchants and small business owners manage their reservations, organize inventory and so on.
As with most open source hardware aimed at the DIY engineering community, the limits of how Piksi can be used basically come to down to an individual's imagination.
But Hosain also acknowledges his company is fueled by a much larger ambition than simply building a cool piece of hardware aimed at fitness enthusiasts or hypochondriacs.
Oracle and I.B.M. are revamping their relevant products, while a host of start-ups have cropped up offering cheaper, faster hardware aimed at specialized tasks.
In the past year, Intel has bought two companies, Movidius and Mobileye, that develop image-processing hardware aimed at small gadgets and larger machines like cars.
Some analysts, however, cautioned that the bulk of Ms. Bartz's experience had been in companies that made software and hardware aimed at businesses, not in Yahoo's advertising and consumer media business.
The system is set up as a "black box" consisting of a hardware aimed at logging both energy and environmental parameters and a software for the assessment of building behavior and the management of energy flows.
(Before going that far, Jawbone must solve the battery-life issue and most likely design its own, dedicated super-low consumption processor). But Hosain also acknowledges his company is fueled by a much larger ambition than simply building a cool piece of hardware aimed at fitness enthusiasts or hypochondriacs.
