What is Umbala Network?
Camera economy is the new term which similar with mobile economy, explaining all industry business models can apply camera technology to accelerate and compete in the market; in which the digital data can be saved in the form of image and video.
The five-year market analysis which is first publicly shared in Aug, 2017 by LDV Capital claims, the total number of cameras in the world will proliferate to at least 216%, which means the number reach about 45 billion by 2022.
As technology continues to progress and more of our tools become interconnected, so does the need to include context in order to process information accordingly. And as natural evolution has already proven, there is no better way than vision. The entire visual technology ecosystem is driving and driven by the integration of cameras and visual data. Visual technologies are any technologies that capture, analyze, filter, display or distribute visual data for businesses or consumers. They typically leverage computer vision, machine learning, and artificial intelligence”. Powerhouses are investing so much in AR (Augmented Reality) the applications go far beyond social media, games and goofy special effects. The technology could give rise to practical applications in areas ranging from navigation to e-commerce, where virtual dressing rooms could grease the wheels of online apparel purchases.
“It” is the moment the camera became forever separated from its original format, a lens on a movable box, and its original intent, recording personal memories. The shift was triggered when film became digital and thus transforming images into data files. Not only could images be easily and instantaneously transferred from one point to another, they could be parsed, modified, analyzed and interpreted. From a dumb copying machine, cameras became a data collecting device. They now create documents for processing. And while they can continue to record memories, they are also now used to communicate (Snapchat, WhatsApp, Instagram), analyze (content recognition), identify (face recognition), classify (inventory analysis), monitor (Industrial QA) and drive vehicles ( self-driving cars, trucks, and boats).
The world’s largest search engine, Google, unveiled a new visual search technology of its own this year. Google Lens has been integrated into Google Photos and Assistant and can be used to help users identify what’s in their photos and videos and connect them to relevant resources. The e-commerce applications of this are obvious.
I’ve been pursuing the camera technology for my entire life, since the era of video sharing in 2005, when YouTube first launched, with a strong belief that the era of digital communication will be soon upgraded into visualized form with social-sharing; I’ve been working on the integration of mobile camera & social-platform applications, and now with blockchain technology, finally I can build the first Blockchain for Camera Economy: Umbala Network.
Umbala Network follows a simple idea: camera-data standing alone brings no value, only when they’re able to be connected; the data can create value for various type of business models; using camera’s digital data to leverage connection and communication. “We like to think of the camera is the new keyboard” — Tony Leach, Facebook Messenger Product Manager has said. In the raising digital era, social platform is everywhere in order to connect people by providing digital communication tools, which keeps getting better with camera-technology integrations to express the full range of emotions. The revolution of camera-based applications is coming along with the switch of digital communication, from form of text to images and to real-time interactive videos.
During our journey of creating mobile social apps, we came to understanding the problem of centralized platform where the policies not belong to creators, but they are dependent on one firm; we wanted to build a playground where user-generated content creators have voice in benefits sharing, also the brands and other stakeholders, where the transparency has existed and well-recognized. This is the right time for us when the mainstream now has started getting used with decentralized concept and blockchain technology has been applied to almost all of industries.
We aim to create the world’s first blockchain-based camera economy; Umbala Network positions being a vertical blockchain where all stakeholders can optimize camera-based applications to accelerate their business. We will build an ecosystem with partners and members from real estate, education, e-commerce, etc… and I can say, anything. We value experience, we value the visual technology which help storing all those experiences; that’s who we are, that’s what we are about.
With the strong belief in the potential of camera economy and my world class team members, I hope Umbala Network will have the greatest supports from communities and investors.