In this episode of the Construction Disruption podcast, hosts Ryan Bell and Todd Miller chat with Tony Nicolaidis, the Chief Commercial Officer of Origin AI. They explore the groundbreaking Wi-Fi sensing technology that Origin AI is developing and discuss its applications in smart homes, healthcare, and home security. Tony explains how the technology works, its origins, and how it differs from other monitoring methods.
The conversation also touches on real-world use cases, including collaborations with Verizon and Verisure for security and patient monitoring, along with the potential integration into future building designs. Tune in to learn about the challenges and excitement surrounding this revolutionary technology and its future impact on the construction industry and beyond.
Timestamps
00:39 Meet Tony Nicolaidis and Origin AI
01:28 Understanding WiFi Sensing Technology
06:09 Real-World Applications of WiFi Sensing
14:01 Challenges and Future of WiFi Sensing
24:15 Rapid Fire Questions with Tony
30:41 Closing Remarks and Final Thoughts
Connect with Tony Online
Website: https://www.originwirelessai.com/
Email: tony.nicolaidis@originwirelessai.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-nicolaidis-9b5b236/
For more Construction Disruption, listen on Apple Podcasts or YouTube
Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn
This episode was produced by Isaiah Industries, Inc.
Construction Disruption was recently featured in this 15 Best Podcasts for Contractors list!
Welcome to the Construction Disruption Podcast, where we
Intro:uncover the future of design, building, and remodeling.
Ryan Bell:I'm Ryan Bell of Isaiah Industries, manufacturer
Ryan Bell:of specialty metal roofing and other building materials.
Ryan Bell:And today my co host is Todd Miller.
Ryan Bell:Todd, how are you doing?
Todd Miller:I am doing really well and I'm excited about our guest today and
Todd Miller:our show today and see what we can learn.
Todd Miller:You know, that's what I always love about these is I always learn something.
Todd Miller:So it's good stuff.
Ryan Bell:I am excited too.
Ryan Bell:This is a technology focused episode.
Ryan Bell:Um, today our guest is Tony Nicolaidis, the chief commercial officer of origin
Ryan Bell:AI, a company that invented wifi sensing technology and is revolutionizing smart
Ryan Bell:homes, healthcare, and home security.
Ryan Bell:Wifi sensing will allow for non invasive and highly accurate monitoring
Ryan Bell:through the utilization of current IOT devices around your home or office.
Ryan Bell:By monitoring occupancy in real time, Origin AI's solutions enable
Ryan Bell:security intrusion detection, HVAC control, and patient monitoring.
Ryan Bell:Soon, Origin AI's Wi Fi monitoring system will be a staple in
Ryan Bell:all modern construction.
Ryan Bell:Tony, it's great to have you on the show today, and thank you for joining us.
Tony Nicolaidis:Ryan and Todd, thank you for having me.
Tony Nicolaidis:And it's a pleasure to be here.
Ryan Bell:Well, to get us started.
Ryan Bell:Um, can you explain a little bit about kind of what wifi sensing
Ryan Bell:technology is and how it works?
Tony Nicolaidis:Yeah, that, uh, that definition you just gave, that
Tony Nicolaidis:was, uh, that was, that was pretty good, very complex, but let's make it
Tony Nicolaidis:ephemeral and let's get right to the point of, of, of the easy explanation.
Tony Nicolaidis:Wifi is ubiquitous.
Tony Nicolaidis:In our lives, in our home, in our businesses, um, and what, what happens
Tony Nicolaidis:is our bodies walk through Wi Fi.
Tony Nicolaidis:We disrupt.
Tony Nicolaidis:The wifi waves, uh, actions that we do that are macro actions, macro doing
Tony Nicolaidis:jumping jacks, all the way to laying down and breathing, we disrupt those
Tony Nicolaidis:wifi waves and what origin, the origin AI technology does is it quantifies
Tony Nicolaidis:and contextualizes that disruption.
Tony Nicolaidis:So we know what type of disruption, uh, it is that has occurred to the wifi signal.
Tony Nicolaidis:And then we can give that back and whatever use case we're talking about.
Tony Nicolaidis:So basically disrupting wifi waves.
Tony Nicolaidis:And contextualizing and understanding that
Todd Miller:so if i'm if i'm eating a corn dog as an example
Todd Miller:would that disrupt the wi fi
Tony Nicolaidis:Yeah, if you're eating a corn dog and the corn dog's very good.
Tony Nicolaidis:So it's going to be an ephemeral meal.
Tony Nicolaidis:It's going to go fast Uh your your your fingers are moving your hands
Tony Nicolaidis:are moving everything like that We're going to know that you are moving.
Tony Nicolaidis:We're going to know that you're in that spot.
Ryan Bell:Cool.
Ryan Bell:I was going to say, so, so I can tell my kids when they're complaining
Ryan Bell:about the wifi not working, that it's because they're moving.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, you know, it's funny you ask.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, no, because we suck up no bandwidths.
Tony Nicolaidis:I, and we'll talk about that.
Tony Nicolaidis:I think today throughout the.
Tony Nicolaidis:The, the, uh, the discussion, but we will not, uh, we've been
Tony Nicolaidis:thoroughly tested in not doing that.
Ryan Bell:Okay.
Ryan Bell:Interesting.
Ryan Bell:Um, so what, what was it exactly that inspired the development of
Ryan Bell:this wifi sensing technology and how is it, uh, different maybe from
Ryan Bell:other wifi monitoring solutions?
Tony Nicolaidis:So Dr.
Tony Nicolaidis:Ray Liu, who was a university of Maryland digital signal processing Uh,
Tony Nicolaidis:professor, uh, also the IEEE president in the, in the world, in the global
Tony Nicolaidis:world of digital signal processing, Dr.
Tony Nicolaidis:Ray Liu's name is known globally.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, he was doing some work for the government through DARPA back in
Tony Nicolaidis:2011, 2010 on how to get signals and, and more knowledge of what's going
Tony Nicolaidis:on in various places in a submarine.
Tony Nicolaidis:And he stumbled across wifi sensing and he kind of put it together,
Tony Nicolaidis:invented it, it patented it, uh, and in the end left university of Maryland
Tony Nicolaidis:and knew that wifi sensing was going to have massive potential in our
Tony Nicolaidis:everyday life and changing millions of millions of lives for the better.
Tony Nicolaidis:And he started origin, uh, in, uh, 2011, 12.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, and, um, that's how the technology came about.
Tony Nicolaidis:Dr.
Tony Nicolaidis:Ray Liu is still chairman of our board.
Tony Nicolaidis:He's still our chief technology officer, very involved, very
Tony Nicolaidis:involved in the day to day business.
Tony Nicolaidis:So that's where we came from.
Tony Nicolaidis:Now, uh, he let the technology bake.
Tony Nicolaidis:Until 2019, so about seven years, seven, eight years to thoroughly understand
Tony Nicolaidis:it, hired all the, uh, engineering, uh, staff that needed to be hired to
Tony Nicolaidis:really develop it and shore it up, make sure the science was sound, uh,
Tony Nicolaidis:file for the IP, all that good stuff.
Tony Nicolaidis:And then you started bringing a few of us in to start commercializing
Tony Nicolaidis:the technology and that's where Spencer made our CEO came in.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, that's where I came in.
Tony Nicolaidis:So the technology was really being developed over, let's call it a seven year
Tony Nicolaidis:period until we started commercializing.
Tony Nicolaidis:Now, how is it different?
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, certainly when you compare it to other kinds of cousin technologies,
Tony Nicolaidis:like radar, uh, radar technology has been around a long time.
Tony Nicolaidis:A lot of great companies like Vyar out there that do do radar.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, radar is very, very accurate and can sense a person or people, but radar
Tony Nicolaidis:is expensive and radar has a lot of hardware you have to set up throughout
Tony Nicolaidis:a location to get a full picture.
Tony Nicolaidis:Okay, of what's going on contextually in that environment, whereas with Wi Fi, all
Tony Nicolaidis:you need is a Wi Fi signals, connected devices, and we'll know what's going on
Tony Nicolaidis:in that contextualize that environment in a much, much, much lighter way.
Tony Nicolaidis:Way than radar gives you an example of a, of a, of a
Tony Nicolaidis:comparison to another technology.
Ryan Bell:I, I'm not quite sure to be honest that I under really understood what
Ryan Bell:it was until you explained it like that.
Ryan Bell:Um, can you give us some examples of maybe some real world examples
Ryan Bell:of how this is being used and smart homes throughout healthcare?
Tony Nicolaidis:Absolutely.
Tony Nicolaidis:So we've launched.
Tony Nicolaidis:With Verizon, um, in Northeast here, Verizon, Fios.
Tony Nicolaidis:You know your, I ha I live in Baltimore, Maryland.
Tony Nicolaidis:Here I've got a Fios router.
Tony Nicolaidis:That's how I get my wifi to my home.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, Verizon has a service called Home Aware, and, uh, and home awareness.
Tony Nicolaidis:Basically, uh, you can, we have our firmware, our technology sitting on
Tony Nicolaidis:the router right on in the router.
Ryan Bell:Okay?
Tony Nicolaidis:So when somebody signs up for home awareness, um, you, that
Tony Nicolaidis:the router wakes up and starts pinging all the connected devices to your house.
Tony Nicolaidis:Now in the U S there's an average of 17 connected devices.
Tony Nicolaidis:What's a connected device.
Tony Nicolaidis:Anything on your wifi from I'm, I'm staring right here at a Sono speaker.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, a printer, uh, Alexa, Google home, your TV, any kitchen
Tony Nicolaidis:appliances, a PlayStation on and on.
Tony Nicolaidis:We have connected devices throughout the home and it pings all those
Tony Nicolaidis:stationary devices and from that router, Ryan and Todd to each of those
Tony Nicolaidis:connected devices, you have this.
Tony Nicolaidis:elliptical kind of zone that is connected.
Tony Nicolaidis:And when somebody enters that zone, right, we know they're there.
Tony Nicolaidis:We know there's verified human presence in that zone.
Tony Nicolaidis:So, uh, that is how they, uh, Verizon is selling home awareness.
Tony Nicolaidis:And basically, uh, they're starting out with who's, you know, basically
Tony Nicolaidis:understanding Not who identified who, but are there not a lot of people, nobody in
Tony Nicolaidis:your home or many people in your home?
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, you know, depending on how many zones are being disrupted all at once.
Tony Nicolaidis:So imagine this blue orb, it'll get big, big, big when there's a lot
Tony Nicolaidis:of people in it, small or nothing when there's, when there's nothing.
Tony Nicolaidis:That is how Verizon, It's doing it right.
Tony Nicolaidis:And they have a whole product road to use that technology.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, and then from there, we have other, um, customers right now.
Tony Nicolaidis:You may have not heard of a company called very short.
Tony Nicolaidis:Very
Tony Nicolaidis:sure is the largest security company in Europe.
Tony Nicolaidis:Number two to ADT globally, very big company.
Tony Nicolaidis:We are launching with Verisure in Europe right now.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, and literally in the process of launching, uh, where they have
Tony Nicolaidis:their normal security system.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, and what happens is they're going to have, let's say a camera
Tony Nicolaidis:or a motion, motion sensors tripped.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, as soon as that happens, we wake up, ping all the connected devices and see
Tony Nicolaidis:if there's verified human presence in the house to avoid the biggest problem in the
Tony Nicolaidis:security industry, which is false alarms.
Tony Nicolaidis:Right?
Tony Nicolaidis:So those are two examples in the ISP space, in the security space, where
Tony Nicolaidis:occupancy and verified human presence is being used to make systems much,
Tony Nicolaidis:much better than they are today.
Ryan Bell:Is there a visual representation of what
Ryan Bell:is present in the space?
Ryan Bell:Or is it more just like a notification, like a, like an alert type thing?
Tony Nicolaidis:Depends with Verizon.
Tony Nicolaidis:There is a visualization of this blue orb.
Tony Nicolaidis:If you go to your Verizon app and you go to home awareness, uh, you'll see a
Tony Nicolaidis:blue or big or small or nothing at all.
Tony Nicolaidis:If there's depending on what's going on in your house, uh, in the
Tony Nicolaidis:security use case, it's all about, you know, it's all about notification.
Tony Nicolaidis:Hey.
Tony Nicolaidis:Your motion sensor on the door tripped.
Tony Nicolaidis:Oh, by the way, we have that piece of data.
Tony Nicolaidis:And now we know that there's human presence in your house.
Tony Nicolaidis:Right.
Tony Nicolaidis:Cause so wifi sensing will, will reconfirm the door sensor tripped and now there's
Tony Nicolaidis:somebody in the house before all you knew was the door sensor tripped.
Tony Nicolaidis:You're going to get a call from them saying, what do you want us to do?
Tony Nicolaidis:I don't know.
Tony Nicolaidis:I'm not home.
Tony Nicolaidis:I don't know what's going on.
Tony Nicolaidis:You don't know if it's a real alarm or not.
Tony Nicolaidis:Now we'll know if there's somebody in the house and that's a, an alert based.
Tony Nicolaidis:kind of system.
Tony Nicolaidis:So it depends on the use case, Ryan.
Todd Miller:Oh, I was wondering how, I think I can imagine, but how
Todd Miller:is this being used in healthcare then and patient monitoring?
Tony Nicolaidis:So in Todd, so in healthcare, what we're doing is we
Tony Nicolaidis:have various use cases in healthcare.
Tony Nicolaidis:Let's just start with Alzheimer's.
Tony Nicolaidis:And occupancy is the person there or not.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, I have many friends, uh, unfortunately that are caring for aging parents that
Tony Nicolaidis:now have Alzheimer's and dementia, and they've got all of these cameras and all
Tony Nicolaidis:this crazy stuff all over the place and cameras have a very limited field of view.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, and they're always looking to see if their parents are home.
Tony Nicolaidis:We will be able to know.
Tony Nicolaidis:Does a person is supposed to be home or they're not right?
Tony Nicolaidis:That's one use case.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, the other use cases, um, their tendencies around
Tony Nicolaidis:the house trends over time.
Tony Nicolaidis:They're spending a lot more time in bed this month than they were last
Tony Nicolaidis:month, or they're spending a lot more time in the bathroom this month.
Tony Nicolaidis:Then last time, the last month, these are all, this is all data that doesn't exist
Tony Nicolaidis:today because in the health industry, all you have are, are purrs or, um, you know,
Tony Nicolaidis:rechargeable kind of wearables that, you know, many, many, uh, uh, uh, elderly,
Tony Nicolaidis:uh, people don't charge and don't wear.
Tony Nicolaidis:Now you don't need any of that.
Tony Nicolaidis:All you need is a wifi signal and we can kind of do trends around the house.
Tony Nicolaidis:And then the holy grail of it all.
Tony Nicolaidis:is fall detection.
Tony Nicolaidis:If somebody has fallen and they're still down there and what to do.
Tony Nicolaidis:So that's a very complex use case.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, and it's one that we are most definitely, we can demo it, but as you
Tony Nicolaidis:try to scale, uh, fall detection, there's a lot more hardware and things that need
Tony Nicolaidis:to happen that we're working through.
Tony Nicolaidis:So those are kind of some simple use cases for, for what we call
Tony Nicolaidis:health tech that can be used.
Todd Miller:So for my aging mother, I'd actually have to convince her
Todd Miller:she needs internet in her house first, but I like the idea of this.
Todd Miller:It makes a lot of sense.
Tony Nicolaidis:Yeah.
Tony Nicolaidis:All you need is wifi and we're there.
Ryan Bell:So how does it, uh, is there like an initial setup process
Ryan Bell:or something where it maps walls and like, uh, if there's a concrete wall
Ryan Bell:or column or something, like, does it take like a, a print of that to know
Ryan Bell:the, this location, the space it's in?
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, our engines.
Tony Nicolaidis:Come out so far already taught.
Tony Nicolaidis:There's no learning needs to happen with the engines, right?
Tony Nicolaidis:So when you say the occupancy engine, as long as there's wifi, we're going
Tony Nicolaidis:to detect verified human presence in terms of coverage, which is
Tony Nicolaidis:really what you're talking about.
Ryan Bell:Yeah.
Tony Nicolaidis:Ryan.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, we also have visualizations where you can walk around, call a tribe before you
Tony Nicolaidis:buy, and you can walk around your house and you can see this graph going crazy
Tony Nicolaidis:as you're walking around and you can get to spots where it's whoop, it's dead.
Tony Nicolaidis:And you can say, okay, in this spot, either I'm going to need an Alexa.
Tony Nicolaidis:Or an extender from Verizon or whatever, either a connected or a
Tony Nicolaidis:connected light bulb, uh, whatever.
Tony Nicolaidis:And now all of a sudden that spot will be live.
Tony Nicolaidis:So that's all you really need to do.
Tony Nicolaidis:Nothing else to teach it.
Tony Nicolaidis:But what we find here, Ryan, in the U S is it's a bigger problem in Europe.
Tony Nicolaidis:Concrete, steel, the constructionism in the U S primarily were drywall and wood.
Tony Nicolaidis:So wifi permeates everywhere.
Tony Nicolaidis:We don't tend to have that problem as much in the U S
Ryan Bell:are you able to extend it outside your home?
Tony Nicolaidis:You can, if you have connected devices outside of your home,
Tony Nicolaidis:you have to be very careful though.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, if you have connected devices out there, you don't
Tony Nicolaidis:want to have false positives.
Tony Nicolaidis:You know what I mean?
Ryan Bell:Sure.
Tony Nicolaidis:Yeah.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, so you want to tend to keep it inside the home.
Tony Nicolaidis:We suggest you have it inside.
Ryan Bell:That makes sense.
Ryan Bell:I can't tell you how many alerts I get at night for the cat on
Ryan Bell:my porch from our, our level.
Tony Nicolaidis:Exactly.
Tony Nicolaidis:And that's the other thing with us.
Tony Nicolaidis:We have human versus non human, uh, notification.
Tony Nicolaidis:Okay.
Tony Nicolaidis:Pets are a massive false alarm issue in security.
Tony Nicolaidis:Sure.
Tony Nicolaidis:And so we, we are able to distinguish human versus a big bucket called
Tony Nicolaidis:non human, which could be pets.
Tony Nicolaidis:Rumba vacs in Europe are very popular, oscillating fans, moving curtains in
Tony Nicolaidis:the With the air conditioning, that all that stuff will set off alarms.
Tony Nicolaidis:We can do human versus non human.
Ryan Bell:Very cool.
Ryan Bell:Um, so origin AI, uh, aims to be a staple in modern construction.
Ryan Bell:How do you foresee the integration of this wifi sensing technology
Ryan Bell:and future building designs?
Tony Nicolaidis:That is an excellent question.
Tony Nicolaidis:And one we feel is an absolute vector for us as we move along in the
Tony Nicolaidis:future, because it's a little more of a slow burn for new construction.
Tony Nicolaidis:Imagine if we work with the builders and we say, whether it's a home builder or,
Tony Nicolaidis:or a commercial building, and we say, you know what, we're going to automatically
Tony Nicolaidis:put these sensors in the walls.
Tony Nicolaidis:We'll have, uh, uh, wifi, um, uh, sensors in the wall and, and, and connect the
Tony Nicolaidis:sensors in the walls already designed in the building that you no longer have to
Tony Nicolaidis:put anything else around the building.
Tony Nicolaidis:You can, if you want to increase coverage, if you want, but if you
Tony Nicolaidis:design it into, uh, as a building and the home is being built.
Tony Nicolaidis:You are ready to go.
Tony Nicolaidis:All you need to do is turn it on.
Tony Nicolaidis:Right.
Tony Nicolaidis:So that's for new construction.
Tony Nicolaidis:So we need to partner with builders, which we're doing, but it's a little bit more
Tony Nicolaidis:of a slow burn, um, with construction that already exists, especially in the
Tony Nicolaidis:commercial space, guys, where we're really focusing on energy efficiency.
Tony Nicolaidis:And turning thermostats off, air conditioning, heating.
Tony Nicolaidis:We have smart plugs.
Tony Nicolaidis:You can, you can, we can give you that.
Tony Nicolaidis:You can plug in each smart plug.
Tony Nicolaidis:We'll do 500 to 750 square feet, plug them in.
Tony Nicolaidis:They're out of the way.
Tony Nicolaidis:You don't see them and they will be your wifi sensing network.
Tony Nicolaidis:They will connect to all the connected devices and they will be able to do a
Tony Nicolaidis:bill and they will be able to manage a building that is already built.
Tony Nicolaidis:So we have ways to do it with.
Tony Nicolaidis:Already built buildings or working with builders in the future.
Tony Nicolaidis:That's a very passionate topic for us.
Tony Nicolaidis:Me and Spencer made, uh, or Spencer made and I spent 30 years of Stanley
Tony Nicolaidis:Black and Decker in the DeWalt business.
Tony Nicolaidis:So that's where we both came from.
Tony Nicolaidis:That's where we know each other.
Tony Nicolaidis:So our, as kids, we were on job sites every day.
Tony Nicolaidis:So we have a passion for builders.
Tony Nicolaidis:So.
Tony Nicolaidis:Most definitely an area we want to, we want to move on in the future.
Ryan Bell:So there's a, there's a huge push for, you know, privacy and, and data.
Ryan Bell:Is there anything that you all are keeping in mind or any hurdles you've
Ryan Bell:had to overcome, you know, with people that are worried about their
Ryan Bell:privacy and data being respected?
Tony Nicolaidis:Tell you what, and that is not an ephemeral question
Tony Nicolaidis:because that question comes up so often.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, it's ephemerally long.
Tony Nicolaidis:So, um, you know, I think I'm going to give it to you with two customers,
Tony Nicolaidis:Verizon, which we've already launched and Deutsche Telekom in Europe,
Tony Nicolaidis:which we're going to be launching here at the end of this year.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, both with similar use cases are both ISPs.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, we were thoroughly tested by both of them and by thoroughly, I mean, almost
Tony Nicolaidis:years of testing to make sure that we did not eat up the bandwidth of their signal.
Tony Nicolaidis:Which I talked about earlier.
Tony Nicolaidis:And so that led us to a place where all our computation, all of our, uh,
Tony Nicolaidis:activity in terms of, uh, running our algorithms run completely 100 percent
Tony Nicolaidis:on the edge, nothing in the cloud, because in the end that you got to take
Tony Nicolaidis:data back and forth out of the cloud is when you really soak up bandwidth.
Tony Nicolaidis:So we're a hundred percent on the edge, completely private
Tony Nicolaidis:does not soak up any bandwidth.
Tony Nicolaidis:And we're also, now we can do, um.
Tony Nicolaidis:Over the air updates and that kind of stuff, uh, quickly.
Tony Nicolaidis:So that is how we protect private data privacy and, uh, make sure that our
Tony Nicolaidis:topology is, is, uh, is hack proof.
Ryan Bell:When my modem goes out or my internet goes out, I should say, but my
Ryan Bell:modem is still on, does this require the internet to be active and on to work,
Ryan Bell:or there's still a wifi signal being sent from my, my modem, correct, even
Ryan Bell:though the internet from the ISP is down.
Ryan Bell:Does that make sense?
Ryan Bell:I
Tony Nicolaidis:mean, if your wifi is on in the house, no matter
Tony Nicolaidis:what's going on connection back to your ISP, it's going to work.
Tony Nicolaidis:Right.
Tony Nicolaidis:And then we're looking at other scenarios, especially in the, it's important
Tony Nicolaidis:in the security vertical about what happens if I don't have wifi and there's
Tony Nicolaidis:cellular options and other things, but like our partners, like VeriShore,
Tony Nicolaidis:I don't know if you know, alarm.
Tony Nicolaidis:com here in the U S we're literally launching alarm.
Tony Nicolaidis:com and VeriShore on either side of the pond at the same time,
Tony Nicolaidis:which is a, a massive, uh, Uh, undergoing or, or, or, uh, uh,
Tony Nicolaidis:achievement on our, for our company.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, they have cellular backup and they kind of take care of that.
Tony Nicolaidis:So if your wifi goes down completely.
Tony Nicolaidis:You still got self connection.
Ryan Bell:So are there any particular challenges you've you've faced
Ryan Bell:and bringing this to the market?
Ryan Bell:Any, any huge hurdles that you've had to overcome?
Tony Nicolaidis:Yeah.
Tony Nicolaidis:You know, look, uh, we've had some very large customers that
Tony Nicolaidis:have done significant testing.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, significant testing means that it takes time to get the market and, you
Tony Nicolaidis:know, we're not a big company, so time to revenue for us in the past, uh,
Tony Nicolaidis:was a challenge, but as we're getting scale now, that's less of an issue.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, You know, so making sure we work because we're B2B, so that Verizon
Tony Nicolaidis:or that Verisure or that alarm.
Tony Nicolaidis:com or that Deutsche Telekom or T Mobile, all these companies, basically we're
Tony Nicolaidis:really depending on them to get to market.
Tony Nicolaidis:So that's the biggest challenge is working with them, uh, working with
Tony Nicolaidis:all their people, their marketing folks, their engineer, their
Tony Nicolaidis:engineering team and our engineering team to get our product embedded on
Tony Nicolaidis:a, on a router is not an easy task.
Tony Nicolaidis:So that's really the biggest challenge is execution and getting them going
Tony Nicolaidis:and getting time to value for revenue.
Tony Nicolaidis:And once we're there, which we are now, and we're scaling, um, you know,
Tony Nicolaidis:it's a little sweeter, so to speak.
Ryan Bell:With all the advancements in AI lately, um, anything kind of
Ryan Bell:going on in your neck of the woods and is that having an effect on anything,
Ryan Bell:or is that giving you some other ideas on how to connect with AI or use AI?
Tony Nicolaidis:Better believe it, especially ideas in the future.
Tony Nicolaidis:Like I said, are.
Tony Nicolaidis:Engines.
Tony Nicolaidis:When I say an engine right now, what I mean by that is macro motion is an engine.
Tony Nicolaidis:So it's an engine we have trained to, to look for gross motion, jumping jacks,
Tony Nicolaidis:running, walking, micro motion, just breathing, laying there is an engine.
Tony Nicolaidis:Fall detection is an engine.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, we train our engines.
Tony Nicolaidis:So they come out already trained.
Tony Nicolaidis:You don't have to train them overall, but as we're moving into the future,
Tony Nicolaidis:all that data that comes in from a house that has, uh, home awareness.
Tony Nicolaidis:Or, or, or has origin in there, uh, we will be able to take that data and
Tony Nicolaidis:do a lot of AI with it, uh, and be able to have even more, uh, context
Tony Nicolaidis:and even more future opportunity to help the people in the home or the
Tony Nicolaidis:people in the building over time.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, so there is no doubt.
Tony Nicolaidis:AI is going to, it is.
Tony Nicolaidis:Cause it plays a big part as we train our engines now, right.
Tony Nicolaidis:And it's going to be in the future.
Tony Nicolaidis:And just look out for us as you, you hear, um, news flashes and see us in the news.
Tony Nicolaidis:You're going to hear more and more of what we're doing in AI.
Tony Nicolaidis:It's very exciting.
Ryan Bell:What's, uh, what does the scalability look like with this beyond,
Ryan Bell:um, Health, health care and security that we've kind of talked about already
Ryan Bell:is other, other sectors out there that you have plans to scale into, or maybe
Ryan Bell:right for this sort of technology.
Ryan Bell:Yeah,
Tony Nicolaidis:you know, there's one interesting one.
Tony Nicolaidis:I don't know if you guys know what the hot laws act is.
Tony Nicolaidis:Have you guys heard of that?
Ryan Bell:No.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, I'm sorry.
Tony Nicolaidis:The hot car law, hot cars law.
Tony Nicolaidis:Forgive me.
Ryan Bell:Okay.
Tony Nicolaidis:And NPAC in Europe.
Tony Nicolaidis:Basically, it's there are laws that are being passed during the pro they're
Tony Nicolaidis:already passed during the process of being passed, um, to have car set up.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, so that if, if an, if a, a, a, a, a baby or a child is left strapped into
Tony Nicolaidis:the car and it's hot, there's an, uh, some kind of notification that goes
Tony Nicolaidis:off, um, these things happen tragically.
Tony Nicolaidis:And, uh, right now there's laws being, uh, passed about that.
Tony Nicolaidis:So all of the automakers, uh, are looking for ways to be able to tell if there is.
Tony Nicolaidis:a baby in a car.
Tony Nicolaidis:Ironically enough, the first country that's going to really implement
Tony Nicolaidis:it, it's already said so, is China, uh, in all of their cars.
Tony Nicolaidis:So if you're shipping into China by 2026, you're going to need a solution.
Tony Nicolaidis:So we're working with, um, the automakers and other partners, uh, and what we
Tony Nicolaidis:call CPD, child protection detection.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, and, um, to, to do that.
Tony Nicolaidis:So that's another area that, because cars are going to have wifi now, right?
Tony Nicolaidis:It's another area where we're going to, we're looking to see
Tony Nicolaidis:how we can make an impact there.
Ryan Bell:Very neat.
Ryan Bell:That's, that's really cool.
Ryan Bell:Um, not something I have ever thought about before, but very cool.
Ryan Bell:So what, uh, any advice you would give to a young aspiring entrepreneur
Ryan Bell:that's kind of looking to get into this wifi tech industry?
Tony Nicolaidis:So wifi is all around us everywhere.
Tony Nicolaidis:Yeah.
Tony Nicolaidis:Right soon, Elon Musk is going to put it out on the streets where you're
Tony Nicolaidis:not going to need Verizon anymore.
Tony Nicolaidis:It's just going to come beaming down from the satellites.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, and so, you know, you're going to get into a, uh, a technology that
Tony Nicolaidis:is very mature, uh, if you're going to use wifi, find a very, if you want
Tony Nicolaidis:to build a business of wifi, find something unique, you can do with it.
Tony Nicolaidis:Because a lot of people are already doing as much as they can with it.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, so find a unique way to use it.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, and, um, what, how do you leverage wifi six, wifi seven, and all the
Tony Nicolaidis:advancements in wifi, we got two and a half gig, five gig, six gig is coming.
Tony Nicolaidis:All these bands are opening up, find and solve a problem, right?
Tony Nicolaidis:Don't be a technology looking for a solution.
Tony Nicolaidis:Be a solution to a problem.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, and then, um, just hunker down and, uh, and, uh, it ain't going to be easy.
Tony Nicolaidis:Just persevere, keep your head down and keep working and you'll get there.
Ryan Bell:Concrete advice.
Ryan Bell:Thank you.
Ryan Bell:Well, thanks so much, Tony.
Ryan Bell:This has been great.
Ryan Bell:Um, and we're thankful for the time we've had with you today and everything
Ryan Bell:you've shared with us and our listeners.
Ryan Bell:Um, we're close to wrapping up what we call the business end of things.
Ryan Bell:Is there anything that we haven't covered today that you'd like
Ryan Bell:to share with our audience?
Tony Nicolaidis:No, once again, I appreciate the time.
Tony Nicolaidis:It was ephemeral and I wish we could have had more time together.
Tony Nicolaidis:But thanks guys.
Ryan Bell:Great.
Ryan Bell:Well, before we close out, there's something we like to do at the end here.
Ryan Bell:It's called rapid fire where we give you 7 questions and your only commitment
Ryan Bell:is to give us a quick response.
Ryan Bell:Uh, to each question, some of them are a little silly.
Ryan Bell:Some are maybe serious.
Ryan Bell:Are you up for the challenge?
Ryan Bell:Let's go.
Ryan Bell:I'm there.
Ryan Bell:Let's go.
Ryan Bell:Uh, Todd and I will take turns asking questions.
Ryan Bell:You want to lead us off, Todd?
Todd Miller:Absolutely.
Todd Miller:So Tony, would you rather fight a swarm of angry bees with a giant fly swatter?
Todd Miller:Or have to herd, uh, stampeding cats armed with laser pointers,
Todd Miller:or would you rather fight those stampeding cats with laser pointers?
Tony Nicolaidis:Fight the stampeding cats with laser pointers.
Tony Nicolaidis:I hate bees.
Todd Miller:Yeah, I think I'd be right there with you.
Todd Miller:That's a pretty easy one.
Todd Miller:Me too.
Todd Miller:You need them
Tony Nicolaidis:in the environment,
Todd Miller:but I don't want swarms.
Todd Miller:Probably the likelihood of either one is slim, but.
Ryan Bell:Question number two.
Ryan Bell:If you were a cat, Could replace all the grass in the world with something else.
Ryan Bell:What would it be and why?
Tony Nicolaidis:Wow.
Tony Nicolaidis:All the grass in the world, what would it be?
Tony Nicolaidis:And why mattresses make it nice and soft.
Tony Nicolaidis:You can go out there and take a nap.
Tony Nicolaidis:I like that.
Todd Miller:I was thinking it might be something that wifi would detect.
Todd Miller:I don't know.
Todd Miller:Go
Tony Nicolaidis:out there, walk out to your front yard,
Tony Nicolaidis:lay down and go take a nap.
Todd Miller:Like it.
Todd Miller:Okay, question number three, uh, what's one book or movie that has profoundly
Todd Miller:impacted your perspective on life
Tony Nicolaidis:and why the road less traveled personally?
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, cause life is hard and, um, you just gotta be ready for it.
Tony Nicolaidis:And you gotta, you gotta, you gotta, uh, you gotta, you gotta be focused
Tony Nicolaidis:and, and work hard, uh, professionally crossing the chasm by Gregory Moore.
Todd Miller:I don't think I've come across that.
Todd Miller:You're in a
Tony Nicolaidis:startup.
Tony Nicolaidis:Read that book and read it twice
Todd Miller:to look that up crossing the chasm.
Todd Miller:Good deal.
Ryan Bell:Question number four, what motivates you to keep pushing forward?
Ryan Bell:Even when faced with obstacles or setbacks,
Tony Nicolaidis:the startup life is not for everyone.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, I'll tell you that right now, getting a business off the ground, you know, and
Tony Nicolaidis:having that big milestone of becoming a small business and crossing that revenue
Tony Nicolaidis:mark is not for the faint of heart.
Tony Nicolaidis:You have to have very clear belief and passion in what you're doing
Tony Nicolaidis:and have the end game in mind.
Tony Nicolaidis:We feel strongly and we live and breathe that Wi Fi sensing, um,
Tony Nicolaidis:will change millions of lives.
Tony Nicolaidis:In a positive way all over the world and you have to believe that and we believe
Tony Nicolaidis:it every day and that keeps us going Through all the even though you get
Tony Nicolaidis:down into them the value or the muck.
Tony Nicolaidis:You just gotta keep pushing through
Todd Miller:good stuff Good stuff Okay, next question If you had to pick one
Todd Miller:celebrity to be your personal assistant for a week Who would you choose and
Todd Miller:what task would you ask them to do?
Tony Nicolaidis:I would choose.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um You I would choose Elon Musk.
Tony Nicolaidis:There you go.
Tony Nicolaidis:Check that.
Tony Nicolaidis:Check that.
Tony Nicolaidis:Check that.
Tony Nicolaidis:I would choose Jeff Bezos.
Todd Miller:Okay.
Tony Nicolaidis:And I'd have him come in and, uh, you know, we beat up our
Tony Nicolaidis:go to market, uh, go to market motion and go to market strategy a lot.
Tony Nicolaidis:We feel very good about it as a scaling, but I'd want him
Tony Nicolaidis:to beat it up even further.
Tony Nicolaidis:Like, how do you scale even more?
Tony Nicolaidis:I say, Jeff, sit down and tell us.
Todd Miller:That's a great answer.
Todd Miller:Very good answer.
Todd Miller:Absolutely, man.
Todd Miller:You're good at this.
Tony Nicolaidis:Let's go.
Ryan Bell:We have two left.
Ryan Bell:Uh, would you rather have to sing everything you say or communicate only
Ryan Bell:through interpretive dance for a week?
Tony Nicolaidis:Well, I'm a musician, so I play guitars.
Tony Nicolaidis:I've been in bands all my life.
Tony Nicolaidis:So I'm going to sing interpretive dance.
Todd Miller:Interpretive dance would be challenging.
Todd Miller:Yeah.
Todd Miller:I'd rather sing it.
Todd Miller:Doesn't mean you have to sing it.
Tony Nicolaidis:I'm saying.
Todd Miller:Okay, the last question, have you recently
Todd Miller:purchased a product or service that was a real game changer for you?
Todd Miller:Sort of a, you know, where have you been all my life moment?
Tony Nicolaidis:I would have to say it's not recently, but, um, good notes
Tony Nicolaidis:and being able to take notes on my iPad.
Tony Nicolaidis:That's not, that's not a new thing, but I was always a paper guy.
Tony Nicolaidis:And I'd say in the last few years, I've completely made the transition.
Tony Nicolaidis:So now I don't have gobs and gobs of paper everywhere.
Tony Nicolaidis:I got my iPad and everything is in there.
Tony Nicolaidis:Everything, every meeting I've been in, all the notes, this, that,
Tony Nicolaidis:and, uh, I would say that made me significantly more efficient in terms
Tony Nicolaidis:of just tracking what's going on.
Tony Nicolaidis:Not a new thing, but it definitely helped me here in the last few years.
Todd Miller:Yeah,
Ryan Bell:absolutely.
Ryan Bell:That's good.
Ryan Bell:That's, that's something I'm trying.
Ryan Bell:To get better at you.
Ryan Bell:Like I love I use the good notes app or yeah.
Ryan Bell:Yeah.
Ryan Bell:I think it's good notes.
Ryan Bell:And I love, I love it when I'm watching something or, or taking notes on
Ryan Bell:something and I can save screenshots, but I always forget to go back to it.
Ryan Bell:Yeah, I don't know why.
Tony Nicolaidis:Screenshots.
Tony Nicolaidis:I can bring in thoughts from somewhere on the side and I can still write with it.
Tony Nicolaidis:Um, I think that makes things so efficient.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, and man, we were plugging the hell out of good notes,
Tony Nicolaidis:but you know, it is what it is.
Ryan Bell:It's a good app.
Ryan Bell:It is.
Ryan Bell:Well, Tony, uh, thank you again for your time today.
Ryan Bell:This has been a lot of fun for anyone that wants to get in touch with you.
Ryan Bell:What's the best way for them to do that?
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, originwirelessai.
Tony Nicolaidis:com just visit our website.
Tony Nicolaidis:Uh, and I'm a Tony dot Nicolaidis at origin, wireless, AI.
Tony Nicolaidis:com.
Tony Nicolaidis:Reach out to me anytime.
Ryan Bell:Awesome.
Ryan Bell:And we will make sure to get that in the show notes.
Ryan Bell:Um, before we close out here, we need to recap our challenge words, which
Ryan Bell:we were all successful in working into the Tony, you were an overachiever.
Ryan Bell:I don't, I've, I lost count of how many times you got yours
Ryan Bell:in there, but your word was
Tony Nicolaidis:ephemeral,
Ryan Bell:ephemeral, six times, maybe five or six times.
Ryan Bell:Good job.
Ryan Bell:Good job.
Ryan Bell:Yeah.
Ryan Bell:Todd, your word was corn dog.
Ryan Bell:And I got to use it once right at the beginning there.
Ryan Bell:And my word was concrete.
Ryan Bell:Good job guys.
Ryan Bell:I say, Tony even used your word once.
Ryan Bell:Yeah.
Ryan Bell:Yes, he did.
Ryan Bell:Yes.
Todd Miller:Yeah.
Todd Miller:I didn't know if you do it or not, but yeah, you did.
Todd Miller:I didn't notice.
Todd Miller:I didn't notice it.
Todd Miller:I
Ryan Bell:thought you were just overachieving your
Ryan Bell:overachievement already.
Ryan Bell:You guys gave
Tony Nicolaidis:me a task, an objective and I went for it.
Ryan Bell:Well done.
Ryan Bell:Well done.
Ryan Bell:Well, thanks again, Tony.
Ryan Bell:Appreciate your time here with us.
Tony Nicolaidis:Thanks guys.
Tony Nicolaidis:Loved it.
Ryan Bell:Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of construction disruption
Ryan Bell:with Tony Nicolaidis of origin AI.
Ryan Bell:Please watch for future episodes of our podcast.
Ryan Bell:We are always blessed with great guests.
Ryan Bell:Don't forget to leave us a review on Apple podcast, or
Ryan Bell:give us a thumbs up on YouTube.
Ryan Bell:Until the next time we're together, keep on disrupting and challenging those in
Ryan Bell:your world to better ways of doing things.
Ryan Bell:And don't forget to have a positive impact on everyone you encounter,
Ryan Bell:make them smile and encourage them.
Ryan Bell:Two simple yet powerful things we can all do to change the world.
Ryan Bell:God bless and take care.
Ryan Bell:This is Isaiah Industries signing off until the next episode
Ryan Bell:of Construction Disruption.
Intro:This podcast is produced by Isaiah Industries, manufacturer of specialty
Intro:metal roofing and other building products.