CrowdOptic Sees $1M

[Corrected 4/26/11] John Fisher, CEO of San Francisco-based CrowdOptic, has led a $1 million Series A funding round for the company, according to a report today from Dow Jones VentureWire. CrowdOptic is developing software for smartphones that shows users information about moving objects tracked with the phones’ cameras. CrowdOptic also said yesterday that it will work with San Francisco-based Moon Express, which is developing a robotic lunar lander as part of Google Lunar X Prize competition, to provide spectators with augmented-reality smartphone views of the craft’s launch. “Our system senses when a plurality of cell phone users focus on moving objects (as a function of GPS/Compass heading) thereby establishing triangulation,” Fisher tells Xconomy. “The more users that focus the more accurate our system.”

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/