Directional Glass - Transparent Sound - HyperSound

Window cleaners will soon be cleaning speakers - There's minimal styling, and then there's Hypersound. Nice glass.

These crazy glass speakers speak volumes - but only you'll hear them: Nope, those aren't picture frames or tiny window panes; they might look like sheets of glass, but they're actually speakers. Forget wires, drivers, woofers, cones and all the other gubbins you'll usually find staring back at you when you look at a speaker stack. Turtle Beach has found a way to ditch it all for its Hypersound Glass prototype.

The top secret tech behind these incognito speakers has been in the works for a few years, but until now only worked with opaque or mesh grilles - but that was a little bit too traditional for Turtle Beach. This new look feels like something right out of the Jetsons. Better yet, they're directional - so you only hear what's playing when you're sat in the sweet spot.

Until you've given it a try it's difficult to picture how it all works. The video above does a pretty good job, but basically, if you aren't stood in the right place, you can't hear any sound at all. Think of it like a flashlight, but with sound.

That pretty much makes it the perfect tech for home cinema systems and stereo speakers for your PC; you can be knees-deep in Overwatch enemies, or absorbed in a 4K Blu-ray, but anyone else in the room can have a conversation without having to yell.

It's not just good for gaming and TV, either. The tech could end up built into your PC monitor, or even your car dashboard - so you're the only person that hears sat-nav directions while the rest of the cabin is bopping along to the radio.

The glass version is still a prototype right now, but Turtle Beach will be showing it off at E3 next week, and will hopefully give us a clue as to when you'll actually be able to buy a pair.

These Glass Speakers Work Like Magic: Turtle Beach’s Hypersound Glass speakers use a sheet of transparent glass to drive sound in a highly focused beam directly in front of them while being inaudible outside the beam’s range. Welcome to never knowing why you’re hearing ads all the time—our Blade Runner hell future has arrived.

The exact means the Glass uses to generate a tight beam of sound isn’t specifically disclosed, but according to the company, the glass is layered with transparent films. Like other highly directional speakers, what’s being generated isn’t audible sound waves but rather ultrasonic waves. Based on other products of this nature, it’s safe to guess that as those ultrasound waves pass through the glass/film sandwich they’re modulated in such a way that they become audible again while traveling in a straight line, though the details on specific improvements will likely remain trade secrets. Acoustics is, to put it mildly, a bizarre science.

While these see-through speakers probably won’t replace more traditional options for the home market, there are some interesting applications for the technology. According to a press release, Turtle Beach may try to integrate the technology into things we already make out of glass, like computer monitors and car windshields—things that are already easy to break and expensive to fix. But heck, being able to crank a laptop to full volume without bothering the person sitting next to you would be worth it.

Similar to other Hypersound products, the Glass might also be useful for people with hearing loss. Because the sound that directional speakers produce is so focused it’s more like wearing headphones than what you would think of as “speaker sound.” For that same reason, Hypersound Glass might find its way into things like ATM screens, where privacy is key.

Highly directional sound isn’t a particularly new concept—with early entrants in the market like Holosonic producing commercial models since 2000—it just never quite caught on at a consumer level. Glass also isn’t a novel material for driving sound: We’ve seen plenty of glass speakers in the past. But the two existing technologies have never been combined successfully before. Turtle Beach is mainly known for its gaming-focused products, but the company appears to be putting serious resources behind these laser-like speakers.

We’ll know more about the Hypersound Glass when a prototype model debuts at E3 this year.

Ungers 9000 Years Of Glass

Unger looks back at 9000 years of glass & how window cleaning originated.

The history of window cleaning: 9,000 years of glass - The material glass looks back on a nine thousand year old history. From prehistoric beginnings via handicraft and manufactu­ring, it found its way into industrial production. With the cost-effective production of glass, the commercial window cleaning industry was also finally born.

Glass is one of the oldest materials around. The discovery of glass date back to the Stone Age, around 7,000 BC. The organized production of glass in the form of jewelry and small jugs began in Egypt approximately four millennia later.

Only in 1861, did the Belgian chemist Ernest Solvay introduce the material to wide circles of the population with the cost-effective production of glass. Suddenly, countless office buildings, train stations, administrative buildings and ministries were equipped with massive window facades.

This laid the foundation for the commercial window cleaning industry. Frenchman Marius Moussy founded the French Cleaning Institute in Berlin in 1878. In other cities, Moussy’s former employees started up their own busines­ses. In 1901, the Federation of German Cleaning Institute Entrepreneurs was finally founded. The Göttingen publisher Ernst Kelterborn also published the first trade journal: the International Paper for Cleaning Institutes and Related Lines of Business. The industry experienced enormous growth.  Read more...

Also read: Window Cleaners In Days Of Yore

The first 150 up-and-coming pros who get in touch with us will receive a free Unger starter kit for window cleaning. All apprentices in the building cleaning trade and all participants in the JEZ competition can take part. Simply fill out the online form at here.

The first 150 entries will receive a window cleaning starter kit from Unger, worth over 40 euros. Each set contains a professional 18-litre bucket, a top of the range 35 cm ErgoTec Squeegee, and a 35cm ErgoTec Washer with a microfiber sleeve.

The reason we’re doing this? Sustainability is and remains an important issue in the building cleaning trade. Unger is well aware of its responsibility to future generations and is supporting the JEZ Award as a sponsor for the third year in a row.

Clean magazine not only provides young, up-and-coming pros with an exciting, industry-specific presentation platform; they can also discover fun application tips and insider tricks for using ergonomic and ecological cleaning tools.

SMS Assist

Chicago’s latest unicorn is all about grit. Flashy new technology, probably the same as the others.

SMS Assist, a No-Glamour Start-Up, Becomes a Unicorn: Unicorns – or private, venture capital-backed companies that are valued above $1 billion – are often defined by flashy new technology or millions of users, and often based in Silicon Valley. But the ones based in the Midwest have tended to be more about sprinkling digital dust on the dirtiest industries.

SMS Assist connects property managers with outside vendors, such as snow removal services, landscapers and window washers, through a cloud-based digital platform. SMS’s customers include retailers like Family Dollar and O’Reilly Automotive, as well as real estate operators, such as Colony Starwood Homes.

Turn a reactive event into a planned service: Exterior Maintenance technology creates real-time customer validation, satisfaction and feedback for continuous affiliate monitoring & quality control.

Using the SMS technology, a snow-plow serviceman can take pictures with his phone before and after the work is done and submit them to the property manager to show a task is completed. All invoicing is done through SMS’s cloud-based technology, and ratings are given to all vendor to assess their work. It allows companies with a lot of offices or real estate a way to keep tabs on the upkeep of properties.

On Tuesday, SMS announced that it had raised $150 million in new capital from the same Goldman Sachs team that invested in Uber, Facebook and Spotify, according to a news release. The new round, its Series D, sets SMS’s valuation at $1 billion, a spokesman for the company said.

Michael Rothman (pictured), founder of SMS Assist. Credit SMS Assist

That is almost double its valuation from a year ago, when a previous round of fund-raising was led by Insight Venture Partners. In the current market, private companies have had a difficult time raising capital at higher valuations, as investors have become pickier, looking for more reasons — such as profitability — to sink their money into something.

“This is a huge market opportunity, yet historically, the sector has lacked innovation and customer needs were largely unmet,” Christopher Dawe, co-head of venture capital at Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. “SMS Assist stands out to us as the only player delivering a scalable solution that improves both quality and transparency to its customer base while at the same time reduces costs.”

Michael Rothman founded SMS about 13 years ago, using the “bootstrap” method – which means he got started without much outside financial help. In 2008, a close friend invested $2 million, and several years later, he received his first infusions of capital from institutional investors, the Huizenga Group and Pritzker Venture Capital Group. “SMS Assist is a profitable company experiencing explosive growth,” said J. B. Pritzker, the managing partner of Pritzker Group, in the statement on Tuesday.

Mr. Rothman is a serial entrepreneur of sorts – always in the industrial services industry. One of his businesses was sold to Waste Management, while another, Kenny Industrial Services (which managed coatings and cleanings for industrial customers), made some acquisitions and reincorporated under the name K2 Industrial. In 2003, he left to start SMS.

Climbing Skyscrapers With Vacuum Cleaners

Not a window cleaner, but maybe pause for thought for future window cleaners.

Watch a rock climber scale a skyscraper using two vacuum cleaners: Professional rock climber Sierra Blair-Coyle climbed a skyscraper using two LG CordZero vacuum cleaners for suction. 

To demonstrate the suction power of its CordZero vacuum cleaner, LG has sent it sky high. More specifically, the company hired professional rock climber Sierra Blair-Coyle to climb a 140-metre (460-foot), 33-storey skyscraper in South Korea with two of the cordless vacuum cleaners strapped to her back, using the suction to cling onto the building.

There are some caveats. The vacuum cleaners' nozzles were switched out for suction cup attachments so that they could stick more safely to the walls, and, since the vacuum cleaners have only 40 minutes of cordless power in regular mode, they needed to be swapped out halfway through the climb. Blair-Coyle completed the climb in under half an hour, which indicates that perhaps the vacuums were running in a higher power mode. Even so, it's a pretty cool feat.

Also see: 

Vacuum-Boy Says Window Cleaning Will Suck In The Future?

Window Cleaners To Climb Walls In The Future?

More Window Cleaning Tax

The Senate budget also cuts taxes again by raising the standard deduction but raises them too by expanding the sales tax base to force people to pay more for gutter cleaning, window washing, pest control and a host of other common services.

MORE NEW TAXES ARE ON THE WAY FOR NORTH CAROLINIANS. This will be the latest reality if state Senate leaders get their way.

Members of the Senate Finance Committee met yesterday and discussed a bill that would make even more services subject to the sales tax. Senate Finance leaders claim that they are simply refining tax changes that have been passed in recent years, but this is not true. In spelling out various services that are subject to the sales tax, this bill adds a slew of new services that will result in North Carolinians paying at least $140 million in additional sales taxes, according to state officials. These spelled out services were not specified in the state budget passed last year that included expanding the sales tax base to more services.

Under the proposal, North Carolinians would now pay sales tax for house cleaning and janitorial services, landscaping services, gutter cleaning, window washing, furnace cleaning, pest control, and floor and carpet cleaning services, among other services.

Since 2013, services that have been made subject to the sales tax by state lawmakers are expected to result in North Carolinians paying nearly $640 million in additional sales taxes for the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1st. The latest proposed sales tax changes would add at least an additional $140 million to this increase in sales taxes.

This development would effectively erase the proposal that has already been approved by the Senate and included in the House budget to increase the standard deduction in an effort to address the state’s upside-down tax system. At an estimated revenue loss of $200 million, policymakers have effectively swapped an income tax cut for more sales taxes. Such a move essentially wipes out any effort to lessen the tax load carried by low-and middle income taxpayers from an increase in the standard deduction. It also means a tax increase for the lowest income earners in the state, who don’t benefit from increasing the standard deduction because their income is so low.

As state leaders’ inconsistent brand of tax reform – which favors tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations – persists, everyday North Carolinians continue to bear the brunt of flawed tax policy. Costly tax cuts passed since 2013 will reduce revenue by more than $2 billion each year once all tax changes are fully in place. These are dollars that otherwise would have been available for our public schools, making higher education more affordable, and promoting healthy and safe communities.

Instead, in taxing these additional services and failing to reinstate the state EITC or maintain an income tax structure based on ability to pay, state leaders continue their steady march to further shift the tax load onto low and middle-income tax payers. While hardworking North Carolina are on the job striving to make ends meet for their families, state leaders are working just as hard to create a tax system that ensures that economic mobility and opportunity remains a distant reality for millions of North Carolinians across the state.

Click to enlarge. Sales taxes in the United States are taxes placed on the sale or lease of goods and services in the United States. While no national general sales tax exists, the federal government levies several national selective sales taxes on the sale or lease of particular goods and services. Check locally for your own sales taxes for home/commercial services.

A Jacket For Window Cleaners?

The new Levi’s Commuter smart jacket, being pushed to window cleaners. Yet no information on if they get wet or washing instructions!

Levi's® Commuter™ x Jacquard by Google Trucker Jacket - The Commuter Smart Jacket: The new Levi’s Commuter smart jacket is fashioned in collaboration with Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) research along with Project Jacquard, which was created to embed technology in the clothes we wear.

Wearables is a sensitive subject for Google, because it is still nursing the wound from the failure of Google Glass (in terms of wide acceptance and not technology). After all the hype, considerable investment, and hard learned lessons, the company has decided to create a wearable that is more accessible and not so conspicuous.

The Commuter smart jacket looks just like any other jacket, which may be its saving grace. Unless you know the tech is in there, you would be hard pressed to find it. This was achieved using conductive yarns so that custom touch and gesture-sensitive areas can be woven at precise locations, anywhere on a piece of garment. Additionally, sensor grids can be woven throughout the textile, creating large, interactive surfaces.

When Google announced the smart jacket at the recent I/O conference, it was being pushed to urban cyclists and the commuter market, but there is no reason it can’t be applied anywhere else, especially after developers get their hands on the APIs.

Achieved using conductive yarns, custom touch and gesture-sensitive areas can be woven at precise locations, anywhere on a piece of garment. Additionally, sensor grids can be woven throughout the textile, creating large, interactive surfaces.

So What Can This Connected Smart Jacket Do?

As of now, not that much, but Google will release some APIs in 2017 so developers can use it create more solutions and integrate other applications besides the limited fair currently being offered.

The sensor that is attached on the cuff of the jacket lets you control your phone with some basic functionalities so you can focus on the road while accessing the information you need. This includes messages, calls, Google Maps, Google Play, Spotify and Strava using the Jacquard platform.

Small Business Application

In addition to bicycle messengers as possible business application, this smart jacket can be used in different industries. Security guards, window cleaners, drivers and anyone else that needs to communicate with minimal effort can take advantage of this technology.

The Levi’s Commuter smart jacket is going to be tested in beta this fall with availability in the Spring of 2017. The price for the jacket hasn’t been announced.

Do you have a small business that requires your employees to be outdoors a lot, and if so, do you think a connected jacket can improve their productivity and quality of work? If you have used any type of wearable as part of your operation, and might consider the Levi’s Commuter Trucker Jacket, please let us know.

Viability of the Levi’s Commuter Smart Jacket

What gives this connected smart jacket a great chance is the way it is made. It is produced using existing Levi’s factories so interactive textile can be woven the same way as any other Levi’s garments in the mills it operates. That means no special factories to invest in, which allows Levi’s to keep the cost low and scale to meet demand if consumers like the jacket and becomes hugely popular.

Also see; The Cold Weather Safety Jacket

Looking Up In Seattle - Scaffold Malfunction

In Seattle today a window washer was seen repelling down after a scaffold malfunction.

SEATTLE - Firefighters launched a rescue operation Tuesday after two window washers became stuck outside the upper floors of a high-rise building in downtown Seattle. Witnesses said that the window washers were trapped outside the 29th or 30th floor of the CenturyLink building in the 1600 block of 7th Avenue. 

Firefighters responded to the scene and rappelled down to the rooftop of the building for a rope rescue. Both window washers then safely rappelled down one at a time the several stories to the ground below. Seattle Fire officials said it appears an equipment malfunction was to blame for the washers getting stuck. 

Folks on the ground were captivated after two window washers got stuck outside the 23rd floor of a high-rise building in Seattle Tuesday. 

Window washers rescued from Seattle high-rise: Everyone could see how high up they were. These window washers -- their company is called "Panefully Clean" - weren't cleaning anything by this time. Just stuck. And just about every head was stuck, too, looking up. "Looks pretty insane!" said Richard Tarkington after he'd been watching for 45 minutes.

"I see the two guys up there," said Tarkington, his neck craning toward the tower. "They look like they're stable. So it's not too bad. But they are stuck, that's for sure." Birdie Sharp was asked what her fascination was with it. "Because there's always something," said Sharp, laughing. "We had a man in a tree. Now we have men on the building."

Seattle firefighters gearing up on roof top of downtown high rise after window washing hanging scaffold became stuck.  Rescuers rappelled down from the top of the building to the platform and then helped the workers lower themselves down to street level using a harness and rope.

The men told Seattle fire officials they began washing the windows at the old Century Link building in downtown Seattle at about 10 a.m. Tuesday.  It was nearly 1 p.m. and they were just about done, when their platform stopped working. So Seattle Fire Rescue One was called in to bring them down. "We just verified the systems that the contractor already in place," said Seattle Fire Lt. Frank Brennan. "That they were satisfactory; that the workers were in good health."

Then firefighter Michael Vander Beek rappelled down to check on them. "Both the gentlemen were doing well on the platform," said Vander Beek. "I just checked in on them to make sure they were comfortable doing the rappel." And they were. Nearly two hours after they got stuck, each window washer managed to rappel safely to the ground.

"We do this regularly for training," said Vander Beek. "It all went as planned." In fact, this is the first time that firefighter got to do this in the real world. He has been with the rescue unit not quite a year, he says. The window washers declined to talk.