Corning Makes Bets

Great piece on the long bet, we need to make more of them.  Who or what keeps us doing that?

Corning’s CEO reminds us that big corporate achievements rarely come overnight.

Creating value from long-term bets  by Wendell P. Weeks

The argument for corporate longevity is quite simple: achieving something strategic, significant, and sustainable almost always takes time. Longevity is particularly important for innovation because time and sustained investment are needed to solve really tough problems. To understand why, consider an example from the history of my company, Corning.

This story begins in the mid-1960s. Phone carriers were in trouble because their existing copper lines were being strained by the volume of information. Physicists thought optical technology could provide a solution. There were high-powered lasers, but no way to transport the light without major signal loss. ....  "

Corning and Electronically Tinted Windows

In IEEE Spectrum:  An energy savings idea, but one that does increase the complexity of the smart home.  Visited Corning some years ago and enjoyed their approaches to innovation.

Corning's Glass House

We developed a 'Home of the Future' back in  '00 .... and have always been interested how the home would evolve to integrate internet technologies. 

We saw Phillips efforts in this area, which used mirrors to display online information.  A mirror in our bathroom displayed makeup options.  A medicine cabinet showed the status of your prescriptions.  A talk with a office furniture company showed how the sides of an office could be used as displays. In the den your grandchildren's pictures are displayed in picture frames and continually updated. In the kitchen a refrigerator display shows the latest scores and tells you whats in the frig via RFID tags and cameras.

A friend sends me this recent video which shows Corning's view of a complete home of the future, using glass displays and surfaces.  It is very sexy, lots of clear glass displays that can be anywhere.  In the walls,  tables, anywhere.   They can also be pulled out, adjusted placed anywhere for your convenience. Check out the video above for their view.

Very nice, very impressive, very flexible.  But to actually integrate all of this in the walls and infrastructure of a home is expensive and complex.  Do I want to embed a technology into a home that has a lifetime of 18 months to two years, and then soon replace it?  Probably makes more sense to have a number of wireless iPad style displays throughout the home that I can move and update as needed.  Corning's view is not for the ordinary house for some time.