GeckoSystems, a Mobile Robot Co., Updates Stockholders
CONYERS, Ga., Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- GeckoSystems Intl. Corp. (PINKSHEETS: GOSY | http://www.geckosystems.com/) announced today that a stockholder update letter from their CEO has been released. GeckoSystems is a dynamic leader in the emerging Mobile Service Robot industry revolutionizing their development and usage with "Mobile Robot Solutions for Safety, Security, and Service(tm)."
Dear Fellow Stakeholders,
What a productive past year for us! It is good to have this opportunity to briefly summarize GeckoSystems' activities, challenges and accomplishments this past year, and present our future goals to you. As you will read in this update, we have been very busy!
Please let me personally thank you for your past and continued support. And I thank you for your time to read this summary discussion of our business, technology, and the context in which we find ourselves. Despite the lingering effects of the Great Recession, we have made --and look forward to continued-- substantive progress in several key areas, both business and technical.
Eldercare trials
Perhaps the most positive accomplishments of all was our conclusion of a year of the world's first in home elder care personal robot trials. During this time we learned a great deal about the many benefits --some which were unexpected-- to the family such as looking in on the care receiver from a grocery store parking lot, or the care receiver "minding" the CareBot's requests better than requests made directly from the care giver. Due to these trials, some needed improvements in our CareBot™ product surfaced. For example, GeckoScheduler™ was improved for greater ease of use. Our GeckoChat™ verbal interaction system was augmented with a higher power, lower distortion audio amplifier since one of the participants had a greater hearing loss than the family realized.
Significant mobile robot cost structure reduction achieved
There has been a significant reduction in the fundamental cost structure of indoor mobile robots that we have embraced. For nearly thirty years industrial robot work cells have routinely employed "structured light machine vision" systems to determine orientation and location of objects such that robot arms could pick up for insertion into CNC machining systems, placement on conveyors, pallets, etc. Typically these rather elaborate machine vision systems cost $20-25,000 per robot work cell.
Last fall Microsoft introduced a runaway best selling "depth camera" called the Kinect for use with their video game system, the Xbox. Using technology they licensed from PrimeSense, Microsoft achieved a retail price point of $149.95. The PrimeSense technology has dramatically reduced the decades old cost of structured light machine vision systems by two orders (100:1) of magnitude. This is akin to the dramatic cost reduction in electronics when that industry went from discrete transistors with one per package, to many thousands of transistors in a single integrated circuit (IC). In retrospect, this transistor to IC paradigm shift dramatically changed the world in which we live.
PrimeSense's invention of a low cost, high volume manufacturable "depth camera" now enables the cost structure for personal robots like GeckoSystems' CareBot to go down from a retail of $12-15,000 to approximately $10-12,000 each. That is an impressive retail cost reduction of 15-20%. To achieve that reality, we invented the GeckoImager™ early this year to replace our less robust CompoundedSensorArray™ previously used by us as a low cost mobile robot machine vision solution for our product line. Further, this new low cost vision system has opened up new markets for us, such as the retrofit upgrade of existing power wheelchairs to be collision proof with the incorporation of our automatic self-navigation software, GeckoNav™. The upgrading of large numbers of powered personal mobility systems represents "low hanging fruit" for GeckoSystems as demonstrated by the prototyping of one --and soon to be two wheelchairs-- for Imasen Engineering Corporation.
First strategic sale
We achieved what we believe to be our first strategic sale of our mobile robot solutions to the oldest wheelchair manufacturer in Japan, Imasen. We have upgraded one of their wheelchairs to be collision proof using several of those solutions. Due to their satisfaction with the performance level they have witnessed in public venue videos, we expect a second wheelchair from them late this month.
In order to streamline that migration of our CareBot solutions to the Imasen wheelchair, we developed new utility software, GeckoVerify™ and GeckoConfigEditor™. These new MSR software utilities, while expensed on our income statement, are nonetheless strategic assets due to their applicability to other applications of GeckoNav, etc. on additional manufacturers' wheelchairs and other mobile robot appropriate locomotion systems such as electric golf carts, etc.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Request for Quote (RFQ) for 20 CareBots from the Flagman Grupp Ltd. in Estonia have not been realized as a purchase. Due to their expected funding being withdrawn, that relationship is now in abeyance partly because of the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in the EU. Nonetheless we are actively engaged in discussions for representation in the EU with other parties.
More products enabled
Utilizing this new depth camera technology we have begun market research for two more mobile service robot concepts, the AscBot™ and the ChairBot™ using the Delphi method.
The AscBot, short for assistant sales clerk mobile robot, is similar to a traditional customer service kiosk, but more cost-effective due to its mobility while providing intelligent, theft deterrent video surveillance. Product location service would be provided using graphical touch screen input with verbal and/or visual outputs. The AscBot's GeckoChat™ would interface with point-of sale (POS) store inventory control systems for location, pricing, and special offers available to individual customers.
The ChairBot would consist of a collision proof wheelchair equipped with several additional artificial intelligence systems (GeckoSavants™) developed for the CareBot. GeckoChat would provide verbal interaction for control of the wheelchair and annunciate medication and other timely reminders. GeckoScheduler would timely prompt caregiver designated reminders for medication and/or vital sign measurements such as blood pressure, pulse rate, blood sugar and/or oxygenation level, EKG monitoring, etc. mounted on the wheelchair. The GeckoSuper™ would be programmed by the care givers such that appropriate alarms would trigger should any pre-set vital sign parameters be exceeded such that pre-designated parties would be promptly notified by pager, email, and/or cell phone.
R&D relocated
From an internal infrastructure perspective, we moved our R&D facility in April to a more cost effective and comfortable building more suitable for the long hours and creative work our team of roboticists perform. We hired and trained one more degreed electrical engineer and one more degreed computer science programmer. Since moving to this new facility, GeckoSteer™ was invented to interface between the joystick on the Imasen wheelchair and GeckoNav. GeckoImager was improved for greater efficiency and lower hardware costs. GeckoNav was extended to better fit the realities of necessary wheelchair avoidance maneuvers. GeckoMotorController was migrated to a new platform, the Imasen wheelchair. I am very proud and appreciative of the hard work and effort that went into these improvements.
R&D continues to reduce manufacturing costs
And we have further cost reduced other mobile robot solutions for greater performance and lower cost manufacturing in areas besides machine vision. The GeckoOrient™ sensor fused subsystem was cost reduced while improving performance by incorporating a significantly less expensive solid-state compass utilizing our own proprietary software.
International mobile robot safety summit
Early last December, we met with master roboticists representing the Japanese government to discuss mobile robot safety issues. We presented to them our synthesis of appropriate mobile robot differentiation and safety criteria in our Safety Paradigm Discussion For Mobile Service Robots. Dr. Masahiro Kato and Dr. Kentaro Kotani have subsequently translated it into Japanese due to their perception of its importance. They reported that they have circulated this seminal discussion amongst their Japanese associates.
Significant stock buyback
As substantive demonstration of our goal to increase stockholder value, we initiated and consummated three share buybacks since Dec. 31, 2010, resulting in reduction of issued and outstanding by over 30% or over 250,000,000 shares. This reduced the issued and outstanding to 466,160,675 as of June 30. We regained Current Information reporting status with OTC Markets confirming our commitment to transparency to our many loyal stockholders.
Website, Administrative updates
Our website was updated and streamlined this year for easier user interface. More videos, pictures and descriptive content were added as well. We hope you like these changes.
We wish to announce that regarding litigation with a former employee that we have fundamentally reached an agreement and are presently working on appropriate and sufficient terms and conditions to achieve final settlement. We are confident regarding the conclusion of this matter. Our attorneys are first class professionals, but nonetheless charge reasonable rates, so there have not been significant litigation costs.
We became officially incorporated in the State of Georgia on August 5, 2011. As a brief explanation, when GeckoSystems International Corporation was created in 2007 our New York attorney at that time incorporated the company in the State of Delaware. As time progressed we realized it was more beneficial to be incorporated in the State of Georgia since that is where all our company facilities are located.
Present marketing initiatives
Now that we have demonstrated the robustness of our mobile robot solutions for safety, security, and service™ by migrating GeckoNav, etc. to Imasen's wheelchair, we have not only expanded our domestic marketing efforts, but also our Pacific Rim and EU activities due to our increased credibility as to the applicability of our proprietary technologies to mobile platforms other than that of the CareBot.
Due to the hard work of Mr. Hajime Yasumatsu, Chairman of Yasu, Inc., and his associates in Japan, we have several potentially meaningful discussions occurring in Japan, besides Imasen, and in the U.S. Should any one of these deliberations result in MOU's and/or Letters of Intent (LOI's), the impact on GeckoSystems could be dramatic.
In June of this year, we held a high level, international marketing meeting with ALTA America Corp. officers Mssrs. Hirokatsu Hibino, CEO; Kazuo Yamashita, COO; and Katsuji (Ken) Fujii, VP. The meeting was arranged by our lead Japanese business development representative, Mr. Yasumatsu. This strategic marketing meeting was held at one of the downtown Marriott conference centers in Atlanta, GA. To date they have made several commitments to Mr. Yasumatsu and me due to their very favorable impression of our suite of MSR technologies after having viewed a live demonstration at the Marriott. (Some videos are on our website of the level of autonomy they witnessed first hand.) We believe them to be pursuing several strategic relationships for us in Japan at this time. Also we have a representative in China seeking a relationship with a Chinese wheelchair manufacturer.
Near term focus and activities
Going forward we basically have only some technical refinement work to do regarding better manufacturability. Of course, we will be improving our GeckoSavants routinely in the years to come, but our primary focus is going to be sales and marketing. We are shifting gears, so-to-speak, from an inwardly R&D focus to an outwardly sales and marketing focus. Our presently ongoing discussions with potential Japanese and European partners will continue to be nurtured. Depending on budgets available to us, we will be attending trade shows and other conferences relevant to our target markets of consumer, professional healthcare, and commercial security.
"Barnstorming" activities occurred in the early days of flying machines being flown from farm pastures to introduce and demonstrate that new invention. Cost effective, truly utilitarian mobile service robots have not been seen by most of the general population. Consequently, we plan to do many mobile robot demonstrations at shopping malls, retail stores, hotels, trade shows, investor groups, and conferences; and to potential partners and suppliers. We will be demonstrating not only our CareBot, but also our collision proof Imasen wheelchair. As they become available we will be placing numerous videos of those public venue demonstrations on our website.
These barnstorming activities will now carry significant credence due to having successfully demonstrated that our mobile robot solutions for safety, security, and service are not platform specific, but can be easily, efficiently, and economically migrated to mobile platforms that initially were not designed to be the locomotion system for a mobile robot. It is truly amazing to see an empty wheelchair automatically self-navigate!
I want to thank you all for your interest and continued support! This past year has seen many business and technical challenges and accomplishments. Due to having met those challenges and achieved those accomplishments, we now have a great year before us!
Sincerely yours,
/s/R. M. Spencer
R. Martin Spencer
Founder
GeckoSystems Traded on OTC Stock Exchange With Current Status
GeckoSystems Intl. Corp. (Pink Sheets: GOSY | http://www.geckosystems.com/) is quoted in the U.S. over-the-counter (OTC) markets, on the Pink OTC Current Information tier, under the ticker symbol GOSY. GeckoSystems is a dynamic leader in the emerging mobile robotics industry revolutionizing their development and usage with "Mobile Robot Solutions for Safety, Security and Service(tm)."
Current Information Status is reserved for companies disclosing adequate, mainly financial, company information publicly that increases transparency so investors can make informed decisions.
As a result of having its securities available for trading under Current Information status on the Pink OTC market, GeckoSystems is able to offer its shareholders ease of trading through regulated broker-dealers, while providing transparency to its investors, business partners, and customers.
"By making more company information publicly available as to stock structure, beneficial owners, etc, GeckoSystems is attempting to foster an efficient secondary trading market and provide greater understanding of our business model for investors, advisors, and regulators in the OTC market. We hope that our meeting the Current Information guidelines will allow us to better satisfy the needs of our stakeholders by providing high quality disclosure to investors via Pink Sheets.
"We have long expressed and demonstrated our commitment to increasing stockholder value. At the beginning of this year we bought back 185,000,000 shares that reduced our issued and outstanding over 25 percent. Our second buyback this year of 40,000,000 shares reduced our issued and outstanding by more than 7 percent. Our recent third buy back of more than 6.6 percent of all issued and outstanding has been completed and gives continuing substance to that commitment. With this completed stock buy back, over 250,000,000 GOSY shares have been purchased since the beginning of this year and will reduce the issued and outstanding to 466,160,675 of which 128,864,235 shares are in the public float. These three stock buy backs present many benefits to our large shareholder base, just as a stock dividend would," said Spencer.
The term "OTC securities" is a catchall phrase for any equity security that is not listed on a U.S. stock exchange. The OTCQX and Pink OTC marketplaces constitute, by dollar volume, the third largest U.S. liquidity pool for trading public company shares, after The NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc. (NASDAQ) and The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Due to the need for equity financing for high growth firms, GeckoSystems has worked for over ten years to become fully reporting as soon as financially viable. In fact, the Company has been successfully audited twice, for two year periods each, and found to be fully compliant under thorough outside financial audits prepared by SEC certified CPA firms with the Financial Accounting Standards Board's (FASB's) generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
"Due to the level of risk inherent in high tech, emerging market Development Stage firms such as ours, especially during this post Great Recession era, we understand clearly that only equity (not debt) instruments can provide sufficient return on investment (ROI) for investors to assume the risk of purchasing any high tech, emerging market stock such as GOSY stock. Hence our long time efforts in this regard, and determination to continue our move upward to not only a more pronounced domestic stock exchange, but also those with international reach, such as OTCQX," observed Spencer.
GeckoSystems received their Pink OTC trading symbol from FINRA as a result of satisfying all of their due diligence requirements from the filing of a Form 15c2-11. The Company has never been a "shell" and has no unaccounted for, or otherwise missing, shares. "We worked for nearly a year in preparing our initial 15c2-11 submission to, and addressing the comments of, FINRA prior to their issuance of our trading symbol. We received our trading symbol from FINRA in September of 2007. In order to enable electronic stock transfers we became DTC eligible in January of 2008. As a DRS Participant, the ability to transfer GOSY stock electronically is even more streamlined, efficient, transparent, and reliable," stated Spencer.
DRS provides for the electronic direct registration of securities in an investor's name on the books of the transfer agent or issuer. It allows shares to be transferred between a transfer agent and a broker electronically through the industry's DRS Profile Systems. Historically, investors hold their shares either in "street name" with their broker, or they are "registered shareholders" and have a certificate. Consequently, the Company is in a position, as a DRS participant, to readily identify those parties engaging in "naked short selling" of GOSY stock.
"We are very pleased to be able to offer our stockholders this new, heightened level of corporate transparency and greater ease in their transfers of their GOSY holdings trading in the Pink Sheets in the Current Information tier.
"We wish to assure our stockholders that this greater efficiency in the marketplace for our stock will further enhance the value and liquidity of GOSY stock and increase the ROI for them as we continue in our efforts to move upward to more pronounced domestic and international stock exchanges," reflected Spencer.
About OTC Markets Group:
Pink OTC Markets Inc. is a financial information and technology services company that operates the leading electronic quotation and trading system in the Over-the-Counter (OTC) securities market. The OTCQX and Pink Sheets marketplaces that they operate constitute, by dollar volume, the third largest U.S. liquidity pool for trading public company shares, after The NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc. and The New York Stock Exchange. Pink OTC technology platform provides a comprehensive suite of information products and trading services for OTC market participants.
About the Company:
Since 1997, GeckoSystems has developed a comprehensive, coherent, and sufficient suite of hardware and software inventions to enable a new type of home appliance (a personal companion robot) the CareBot(tm), to be created for the mass consumer marketplace. The suite of primary inventions includes: GeckoNav(tm), GeckoChat(tm) and GeckoTrak(tm).
The primary market for this product is the family for use in eldercare, care for the chronically ill, and childcare. The primary distribution channel for this new home appliance is the thousands of independent personal computer retailers in the U.S. The manufacturing infrastructure for this new product category of mobile service robots is essentially the same as the personal computer industry. Several outside contract manufacturers have been identified and qualified their ability to produce up to 1,000 CareBots per month within four to six months.
The Company is market driven. At the time of founding, nearly 14 years ago, the Company did extensive primary market research to determine the demographic profile of the early adopters of the then proposed product line. Subsequent to, and based on that original market research, they have assembled numerous focus groups to evaluate the fit of the CareBot personal robot into the participant's lives and their expected usage. The Company has also frequently employed the Delphi market research methodology by contacting and interviewing senior executives, practitioners, and researchers knowledgeable in the area of elder care. Using this factual basis of internally performed primary and secondary market research, and third party research is the statistical substance for the Company's sales forecasts.
Not surprisingly the scientific statistical analyses applied revealed that elderly over sixty-five living alone in metropolitan areas with broadband Internet available and sufficient household incomes to support the increased costs were identified as those most likely to adopt initially. Due to the high cost of assisted living, nursing homes, etc. the payback for a CareBot is expected to be only six to eight months while keeping elderly care receivers independent, in their own long time homes, and living longer due to the comfort and safety of more frequent attention from their loved ones.
The Company's "mobile robot solutions for safety, security and service(tm)" are appropriate not only for the consumer, but also professional healthcare, commercial security and defense markets. Professional healthcare require cost effective, timely errand running, portable telemedicine, etc. Homeland Security requires cost effective mobile robots to patrol and monitor public venues for weapons and WMD detection. Military users desire the elimination of the "man in the loop" to enable unmanned ground and air vehicles to not require constant human control and/or intervention.
The Company's business model is very much like that of an automobile manufacturer. Due to the final assembly, test, and shipping being done based on geographic and logistic realities; strategic business-to-business relationships can range from private labeling to joint manufacturing and distribution to licensing only.
Several dozen patent opportunities exist for the Company due to the many innovative and cost effective breakthroughs embodied not only in GeckoNav, GeckoChat, and GeckoTrak, but also in additional, secondary systems that include: GeckoOrient™, GeckoMotorController™, the GeckoTactileShroud™, the GeckoImager™, and the GeckoSPIO™.
Mr. Spencer received his Masters in Business Administration from the J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, in 1987. Consequently he is formally trained and educated for the professional management of publicly traded domestic and international corporations.
Social Media:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=140182685996116&v=wall
YouTube: Kinect Enabled Personal Robot video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn93BS44Das
In this video one will observe static and dynamic obstacle avoidance into and back out of a cluttered and narrow "gauntlet alley." One may determine that the movements are smoother than what most people could do using a joystick, human controlled mobile platform. One will witness three low levels of obstacle avoidance: reactive, proactive, and contemplative. No prior mapping or path planning was performed before or during the demonstration run. GeckoNav, the AI savant doing the guiding, controls all mobile activities during this demo. You will witness subsumptive AI behaviors occurring as obstacle avoidance subsumes way point seek and vice versa with an emergent behavior expressed as errand running down a cluttered hallway and back without any human intervention.
"One CareBot, One Family"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxK46chfP6A&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
Mobile Robot Navigates Dining Room & Kitchen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_jd9_0W9mE&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
Telephone:
Main number: 1-866-CAREBOT (227-3268)
International: +1 678-413-9236
Fax: +1 678-413-9247
Safe Harbor:
Statements regarding financial matters in this press release other than historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company intends that such statements about the Company's future expectations, including future revenues and earnings, technology efficacy and all other forward-looking statements be subject to the Safe Harbors created thereby. The Company is a development stage firm that continues to be dependent upon outside capital to sustain its existence. Since these statements (future operational results and sales) involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, the Company's actual results may differ materially from expected results.
Kinect, Xbox are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.
SOURCE GeckoSystems Intl. Corp.
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