If you had told me on March 1st that by early April I’d be on indefinite lockdown in my San Jose home (along with the rest of the country) due to a pandemic, I would have laughed it off as a terrible plot idea for “The Twilight Zone.” Yet here we are. The impact of the virus has even directly touched our firm—my colleague Anshel Sag contracted the pathogen in late March, but thankfully is on the road to recovery. His frank and emotional account of his bout with COVID-19, along with his description of how technology helped him through this crisis, can be found here.
During these uncertain and scary times, I take solace in how truly fortunate I feel to work in the tech industry. In my opinion, the industry has stepped up to combat COVID-19 in a way that is reminiscent of the role American companies played in defeating Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan during World War II. It makes me proud to think about what companies like Apple, Intel, Microsoft, Amazon, Cisco, Google, HP, NVIDIA and IBM (just to name a few) have done in just a few short weeks. My colleague Patrick Moorhead wrote extensively about these companies’ efforts since March, and it’s nothing short of extraordinary.
While these efforts are awe-inspiring, I’ve perhaps been most impressed by the role that technology is playing in how we deal with this pandemic. Cognitive Systems recently invited me to a full-day deep dive session with its senior leadership team at its corporate headquarters in Waterloo, Canada. I was struck by the potential usefulness of its motion sensing technology in the home and office—particularly in the context of our current national lockdown. Let’s take a closer look.
To read the full article on Forbes, click here.