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Irvine Nihon Unit Lands $35 Million Defense Contract

Irvine-based Nihon Kohden America Inc. has been awarded a $35.3 million one-year contract by the Department of Defense to supply patient monitoring equipment.

The deal includes eight one-year options, and work on the initial deal is scheduled to be completed by next Oct. 30. The monitoring equipment will be used by the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies, according to the contract.

The Irvine operation is the U.S. unit of Tokyo-based Nihon Kohden Corp., which develops, manufactures, and distributes medical electronic equipment for patient monitoring, sleep assessment, neurology, and cardiology. Its products include patient monitors, electroencephalographs, electromyograph systems, electrocardiographs, defibrillators, and hematology analyzers.

The local unit’s customers include Kaiser Permanente, University of Connecticut and Broward Health.

The Irvine unit, which was established in 1979, employs about 150.

Its parent, which is traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, employed 4,776 and posted 12-month revenue of about $1.46 billion through March, the end of its fiscal year.

Games in AI Frontier

Blizzard Entertainment Inc. franchise hit “StarCaft II” will serve as a test vehicle for research scientists around the world through a new partnership with Google Inc.’s Deepmind unit in London.

The division is pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence and machine learning through programs that can solve complex problems without direction.

Video games apparently are an ideal medium to carry out the mission, Google contends, because they allow for the development of smarter, more flexible AI algorithms in a testing environment with instant feedback.

“StarCraft is an interesting testing environment for current AI research because it provides a useful bridge to the messiness of the real-world,” a recent Deepmind blog post said. “The skills required for an agent to progress through the environment and play StarCraft well could ultimately transfer to real-world tasks.”

Players need to demonstrate memory, planning over long periods of time, and the capacity to adapt to new information to succeed in the science-fiction military strategy game.

Irvine-based Blizzard didn’t respond to inquiries, and Google directed inquiries to its Deepmind website and blogs.

Blizzard is Orange County’s largest software maker, with about 2,000 local employees and revenue of $1.56 billion last year. The company on Nov. 22 launched the third and final expansion pack of its “StarCraft II” franchise, which has sold more than 11 million units, including a nod as the 2013 top-selling PC game in North America. The game grew to global prominence in the late 1990s through competitive gaming circuits, primarily in South Korea, and is considered one of the greatest video games ever made.

LeEco Interacts

LeEco, which agreed to acquire Irvine-based Vizio Inc. for $2 billion, is showcasing its suite of connected products at an interactive experience at The Grove in Los Angeles that runs through Dec. 27.

The Beijing-based conglomerate made a splash in late July with the Vizio announcement and followed that up with a U.S. launch event in October in San Francisco, where the company promoted its third-generation smartphone, an Android smart bike, 85-inch smart TV, updated subscription services, a virtual reality headset, and an autonomous electric vehicle.

The transaction, which is expected to close by year-end, bears watching as analyst circles buzz with the idea that LeEco is in a cash crunch due to its aggressive product and market expansion.

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