Efficient service delivery for auto rickshaws!

Walking through the busy streets of India, one of the largest economies of the world, you feel helpless when you don't find a auto rickshaw. Here are some new designs I found on the net for the future auto rickshaws of the world:

Yamaha's electric rickshaw

An auto rickshaw is often the only source to commute out of small localities where our amazing public transport system can't yet access. Often these three wheeler taxi services are all pooled up in specific locations and at the end of the day we have to find them. 

TVS auto rickshaw

"What if" there was an app created which would allow auto drivers to find us when we need them. As Indian auto drivers experience the benefits of the growing economy, they are bound to buy smart phones as prices come dwindling down in the near future. An application can be developed on the phone which will allow the user to send out a call service to the nearest auto driver! The call service should also give details of the final destination to the auto driver giving him the power to choose too. Makes me think why hasn't this sort of an application been developed for taxi services as off yet.

Gadget integration and Receptor!

Exams and holidays are over! My holiday at Maldives was great. The cool Indian ocean breeze, the blue beach and the setting sun inspired me to dream on. Feels great to have a MBA..only time will tell how I will use this degree to change the world around me...

The internet revolution is pushing websites to become a one stop solution for the masses. Now the internet is facing a shake-out period where only the titans will survive. Yahoo, Google are all trying to integrate solutions.

I foresee a world where "integration" is the key differentiator for the large corporations. Integration not just in the software realm but also in the physical. Imagine a world where our cellphones, laptops, Ipads, TVs, Fridges, pens, cars, are all talking to each other. For example, your Ipad recognizing the fact that your fridge doesn't have enough milk in it or your laptop converting your notes taken with your pen.

In light of the age of integration it is most probable that there will be space for a new device; I call this device "Receptor".  In life all we have are memories and Receptor is a device that would record each instance of your life. Using the rich database of the owners daily behaviour, the device would be a mirror of human life as it is in the digital realm. Recording and understanding human behaviour to predict and suggest solutions for the owner. This device would integrate your whole life with all the gadgets that you have and make digital human integration seamless.

If integration really is the future, then we need something or someone to manage it.

Youtube please design a repeat or loop button!!

Exams are around corner and music keeps me alive. So here I am doodling a small idea this time.

Listening to Linkin Park's latest ablum on Youtube recharges my soul n body to keep the midnight oil burning; but I realised Youtube could improve features tremendously by just adding a video looping button or a repeat button. That button would make life so much more easier, so please Youtube team make the button.

Convergence of Reality TV shows and technology to create a new sport for the 21st century

The hunger to see good competition has always driven the media to release one game show after another. As we move further into the future our appetite for technology also seems to be never ending.  I am surprised that nobody has converged these two ideas and created a new sport for the 21st century. I remember watching Tron a long time ago and seeing this idea being developed at an early stage. The only real form of it today exists in an advertisement which I found on the internet by Lacoste:

Source: http://magnitudes.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/lacoste-future-tennis.jpg

(So, as suggested by me in an earlier post, it is probably inevitable that technology and clothing will converge into one industry. You wont just own an iGadget, you will wear it!) The following video on youtube is the actual add that was released: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP9rm8AtFXk

The techno sport would be also be an amazing avenue for partnerships between the big boys like Nike + Microsoft to play in. This would not only create a space to indirectly advertise the products of the company but also create a whole new market to sell new products. 

User experience and the next dimension!

Computers today interact with us primarily through sight and sound. Our primary mode of consumption of data on the net is in the form of either videos or sound. Take yourself a decade into the future and imagine what if computers could also interact with us using the other senses. Where you can taste an exotic fruit from India or smell wild flowers from the Amazon or even feel the fresh water of a stream ripple through our fingers.

Like Plato described a world of forms where everything was perfect, we could very well be heading towards creating a world of our own; a perfect world where we store the perfect form of everything we know. Perhaps this is the future mission for Google; store all known digital copies of taste, smell, touch and maybe even emotion. If the senses are eventually nothing but electrical impulses in our brain, we can very well replicate them in the future. User experience could take on a whole new dimension in the future. 

The implications of this could be tremendous. Imagine walking into a restaurant and actually tasting your meal before you buy it! Or tasting the flavour of a coffee brand before you pick it up at the super market. Imagine watching a movie at the theatre and actually experiencing the sense of smell which was part of your plot.

This might sound like science fiction but research is already being done in this space. For example, Disney Research is working on a technology called Telsa Touch where your touch experience on your touch screen phones could be made to feel as though you are really touching different surfaces.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/08/tesla.touch.disney/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Source:http://komar.cs.stthomas.edu/qm425/02s/Lloyd3_files/image003.gif

I think in the next 20 years or so we will very soon be able to walk into Star Trek Holodeck's and experience anything we want. 

Telecom Towers and Universal loyalty, credit cards!

Telecom service providers need to install towers to provide better coverage. Initially Telecom providers took up this task on their own and started putting up multiple towers throughout the landscape. This process of installing and maintaining towers was not an inexpensive one. It was also getting harder to procure space in urban areas to install these large towers. 

Solution: Build one tower and lease it to multiple Telecom providers at a lower cost; this is exactly what many companies did and it was an instant success. Telecom providers no longer had to worry about installing towers as they could rent towers from the service providers. 

So what does this have in common with loyalty cards and credit cards? A lot! 

Our wallets and purses don't have unlimited space to accommodate those lucrative yet space consuming cards! 

Image Source:http://leathercreditcardwallet.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/137-300x272.jpg

Image Source:http://www.i-mockery.com/blabber/pics/wii-target-giftcard.jpg

We need an universal touch screen card! We need the Helix Card! I envision that in the very near future someone will release a card which will be a touch screen card that can store multiple cards on it. So the next time you are tempted to pick up another credit card or loyalty card, simply slot our Helix Card into the retailers machine and your card is downloaded! And then flick through your Helix Card and choose the right card for the right moment! 

MindFlex, Gaming and the future of Hollywood!

Matel released a toy called Mindflex at CES 2009. This is an amazing little toy that reads the beta waves from your brain and then uses it in a game scenario. So, you control objects in the real world using nothing but your concentration power. WOW! If you don't believe me..check it out for yourself at http://mindflexgames.com/

I am surprised that even after almost two years XBOX or Play Station haven't attempted to buy this technology or tried to replicate it. Why should they do it? Think of the numerous virtual world games that could use this technology! Imagine playing Star Wars on a console where you are the Jedi. In the game your power or force is measured by using the Mindflex toy which will interact with the console. This would be a wonderful extension to XBOX Kinect but lets see if any of the consoles value this technology at all.

I believe the future of Hollywood is very much integrated with that of the gaming community. Innovations like MindFlex and Kinect are taking us closer to a world where we wont just be passive viewers of Hollywood movies. Movies in the future would require us to interact with the story lines and be part of another virtual world. 

I remember reading great interactive books when I was young which allowed us to choose the destiny of your heroes as we followed them in the book. For example, as we read through the chapters the readers were given options like 'If you want the Prince to go the palace keep reading, else turn to page 52!' . Just as these books managed to give us a little bit of control and made us feel part of the protagonists journey, I believe movies in the future would also allow us to interact with them. 

Just like James Cameroon was credited for taking Hollywood into another whole dimension with Avatar, very soon someone will rise to the occasion and transform the Hollywood experience from an viewing experience into an interactive one.