Intro:

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.