IDEA: Consumer electronics with open personalization

Okay, I have to do a quick post since I am at work.

I have mentioned before that I love the idea of people customizing their experience with the electronics they use each day. I have seen anime and other creative stories that have interesting UIs in cell phones and the like.

My idea is to have a company that makes consumer electronics such as cell phones. The primary goal is to add software to these devices that allows the user to personalize their experience.

You could say that Android systems allow this, but customization for each person does not seem to be an easy task from the little research I've done. Feel free to chime in in the comments if you know otherwise.

For this company, their software would allow users to personalize their device easily and quickly, perhaps even on the fly. One obvious example is font for various phone functions. The user could design their own font for use throughout the phone. Other possibilities for customization include background, animations, and so on.

This came up after I was thinking how cool it would be to use some of the LED displays I had obtained in watches, and then I thought "Well it would be easier to just do it with a single matrix-type display using software.

IDEA: Binary clock in a ring

Just a free idea off the top of my head. I was thinking it would be neat to have a binary clock on a ring.

After a little experiment with a small sheet of paper, it looks like it would be idea if the "digits" were all on one side (one quarter) of the ring. It would be readable for both right and left with the correct orientation.

The lights would have to be very small, e.g. 1mm in diameter, and with decent vertical spacing, only the hours and minutes could be shown. For the paranoid that wonder whether it's actually ticking, you could add one more led that blinks for each tick.

If anyone out there sees this and makes it a reality, I would be very interested in pictures!

IDEA: Coffee expiration indicator

I was just looking at some coffee pots at work thinking "It would be nice to know how old the coffee is."

And then I went into problem solving mode. Practicality be damned! I went through a few ideas, and came up with what I think is most feasible.

What I envision is a very simple "good/bad" indicator light for the coffee pot. It is based on the temperature of the coffee (or other liquid) in the pot. If the temperature falls below a certain level, the indicator goes from "good" to "bad"

Obviously, you would need to find a good point where good coffee goes bad. You can do this manually or automatically. For example, take the temperature of a coffee pot after sitting for 4 hours and after some general use.

The amount of coffee left would affect the temperature, so you could take temperatures with a full pot, 3/4 full pot, 1/2 full pot, and 1/4 full pot. If the pot is below an acceptable level, you could make it automatically trip the indicator.

You could rig a data logger to note the temperature and liquid level over time to help with the calibration.

I do love brainstorming solutions to a problem. The exercise is good, even if it doesn't produce useful results.

Feel free to add comments and discussion! I welcome feedback of all kinds, as long as it's civil :-)

IDEA: Sample Store

One thing that irks me about grocery shopping is the temptation to try something new. To do so, you usually need to buy a lot of the product, as that's the smallest size it comes in, and if it's not to your liking, are you going to return it?

Additionally, I sometimes want to compare flavors or varieties of products side-by-side to see which one I prefer more. However, the only available option is usually to buy a box of each flavor and take your changes.

Hence, the Sample Store. A store that encompasses both of these ideas in mind. It allows for samples of anything requested, and allows for side-by-side comparison.

Now, funding for such a venture may not be simple. More popular items could be cost-effective in that you buy a pack and quickly go through it in the course of sampling. However, some new and/or exotic products would likely be negative ROI, so those would need to be specially ordered, likely at a premium cost.

Then there's how to charge the customers.

A quick thought on this branch of thinking. It might be worth it just to have a bank of snack machines with individual packages of more popular products for people to sample as they wish.

Other ideas for funding this kind of venture are beyond my knowledge and experience, but the main goal would be to make the experience less painful than having to buy a large amount of food that you end up not eating due to a difference of opinion on taste

IDEA: Simpler interconnectivity for easier communication

It occurred to me that half of the mess of development of technology has to do with interfacing with legacy or proprietary systems. In light of this, I think it would be optimal for everyone to come to a consensus on what is the more efficient way to communicate (a la World Wide Web Consortium), and everyone develop around that. Legacy and proprietary interfaces would come at a premium to work with.

Some parts of this have already come to fruition, including XML.

IDEA: Humans as brain cells

Let me quickly guide you through my thinking before I start in. I was pondering Leonardo da Vinci, and how he created while cutoff from outside influences(1). Then I moved forward to today, where the Internet connects a lot of the world (if not most). Yet innovation proceeds, almost at an equal pace with da Vinci.

That's when I thought of something. What if humans with a connection to each other could mimic a human brain? Imagine a brain as diverse as or more diverse than our own. This might be the next leap in evolution.

(1) I don't know if he was actually mostly cut off from outside influences; I have yet to do actual research. My sources are Wikipedia and a video game with a rendering of one of his studios.

IDEA: From Desktop to PMP

I think in the whirlpool of mobile computing, we're missing the big picture of what the desired goal is, so I'll map it out.

- Desktop for home computing and organization.
- Laptop for mobile computing and organization.
- PDA for mobile organization.
- Phone for communication.
- Mobile phone for mobile communication.
- Media playing software for home entertainment.
- Portable media player for mobile entertainment.

My idea is that as we go from home to mobile, we should be able to carry our data and preferences with us. An example of the implementation of my idea is the following: when moving from desktop to laptop, there is some common bridge that allows us to transfer our computer preferences and necessary files over to the laptop with no fuss or muss.

Taken a step further, the desktop and laptop could be combined into one, and the PDA, phone, and media player could also be combined into one. In this scenario, I envision two docking devices. The dock has the big hardware that drives the more powerful requirements needed at home, while the detatchable mobile parts carry the preferences, data, and necessary mobile applications to manipulate those items. When changes are made to any one device, it transfers to the rest of the devices upon docking. You could even have a single dock at home that has a detatchable laptop and mobile device.

Going even further, a degree of customization for shells is possible for the mobile devices.

This all loops back to my underlying premise of allowing the user as much control over their environment as possible, rather than being locked in to the company's software interface.

See also http://www.modumobile.com

IDEA: Simple vs. complex processes

The idea running through my head is that I may, at some point, release software to the public that a company I work for deems as their own property. This brings up the idea regarding copyrighting and/or patenting software, which extends into the idea of copyrighting and/or patenting a simple idea.

Consider the following situations:

- Two people write books about a wizard that comes of age and defeats a wizard seeking a legendary "Philosopher's Stone". One writes a story that is marginally interesting and acquires little notice. The other story is written by J. K. Rowling.

- A coder writes a piece of code that is determined to be very useful. The company he is working for uses this code extensively, and it is a central part of their product. Said coder releases this code to the world in a package that in no way reflects the company product. Said company claims the coder violated a non-disclosure agreement, and is liable for damage in an attempt to thwart a copyright or patent on the software.

- You eat a bowl of cereal by pouring cereal into a bowl, pouring in some milk, then using a spoon to eat it. Then someone patents this process, and demands money in some way to compensate for use of their proprietary process

You see how silly this gets?

The worst part is that it is hard to determine the dividing line between a "commonly reachable" idea, and one that has a unique structure that should be protected. With human language, complexity increases with each word used. With constructs, the "parts" tend to be much larger, and therefore do not constitute a "complex" object until the object becomes quite large.

Food for thought.

IDEA: Teaching web sites how to ask for information

Quick idea, since I'm at work and supposed to be "working". Also, this is kind of more than a concept than a well-thought-out plan.

The idea is this: rather than spending time coding web site forms and the server code to process the information, is it a better idea to "teach" the server how to ask for information in a general sense?

For example, you teach the server how to ask for a simple text answer, like a name. Then you tell the server "OK, I need some text answers from the user, with the labels "Name", "Address" and "Email". Then the server takes that information, and handles everything by itself. No need to code HTML forms or write code to process the information once submitted.

As I said, I haven't had time to flesh out the details, but I'm hoping it would make things easier. For those in the industry, it's similar to how phpMyAdmin seems to work (for all I know, it doesn't teach the server anything), just in a more user-friendly format.

IDEA: Making adventure games less linear

First, a caveat: I don't possess a lot of knowledge about video games with non-linear play, so there may be plenty of video games using this idea. However, I wanted to post it, in case it had not been conceived or used yet.

The issue in some adventure games is that the plot that revolves around the game action is often linear, i.e. the plot events never or rarely change when you play the game more than once. One prime example is the Metal Gear Solid series of video games. While minor events may be changed depending on circumstances, the major plot events never change, thus making the game pretty repetitive on replay. Not to spoil anything, but such plot points include: the revelation of a new type of weapon; the revelation of a secret identity; and so on.

The idea I came up with is somewhat similar to real-life situations: the major players have "cards" of information that they choose to play at the most damaging, profitable, or dramatic times. Said times can be analogous to a list of prerequisites that must be met before said card is played.

I suppose one could argue that games like the Metal Gear Solid games already follow this formula, but that's a fallacy. The player has no choice but to complete tasks given by the game in order to progress, and in fulfilling those tasks, you could say that prerequisites for playing these "cards" are fulfilled.

What would be interesting is if a game is constructed so that a player can explore just about everything in the game without triggering major plot events, or triggering the events in a different order, or any other combination.

A further extension of this idea would be to have different endings based on how many "cards" were played, in what order were they played, and what is the combined effect.

At this point, I wonder how complex the idea is getting in terms of implementation, but I'll set that aside for future discussion.

IDEA: More do-it-yourself stuff!

Maybe I'm unaware of some large body of evidence that people don't enjoy do-it-yourself kits, but I would think that the do-it-yourself industry would be great for increasing the general public's knowledge and know-how regarding products.

Oh wait, you want to charge for service and parts. Proprietary. Right.

For example, I think it would be cool to be able to create my own wristwatch. This is a step down from my "create your own PDA" idea, and could possibly be more feasible, in that most parts wouldn't be that expensive. The may be some overhead in making small parts, but that's a wild guess.

IDEA: A site to help people find stuff

First, the short story: I didn't see any really prominent web sites where people could ask other people on where to find stuff that Google couldn't help them find. In a fit of zealousness, I staked out a domain, and set up a bare-bones bulletin board. You can find it here, although there's no one there as of this post: http://www.helpmefindthis.info (new window)

The premise: I have a stress ball on my desk which I obtained from my parents. It's actually only the "squishy" part of the item; I think it was attached to a base at one point, but was since detached. Since I have pretty strong hands (as a former tuba player) and the ball itself resists force well, I asked if I could borrow it. And so it goes.

Being the geek that I am, and my coworkers being the geeks they are, we all wondered what was inside. After leaving it on my desk for awhile, the texture of the cool inside matter seems to be some form of gel, which retains its shape, or at least succumbs to its own weight, when left alone.

My next thought was this: it would be great to have a second one of these to cut open, so that we could see what was inside without damaging the stress ball I already have. But where would I find it? Something like this would be difficult to find either through canvassing of the local stores or searching the web.

So, I wondered if there was some kind of online community where I could find it. There wasn't anything that stuck out when I searched Google. So, I decided to make my own. After finding and purchasing a humorously accurate domain like "helpmefindthis.info", I downloaded the latest version of phpBB, a bulletin board utilizing PHP and MySQL, and set it up. It wasn't very difficult, although there was some inflexibility that I won't take the time to overcome right now.

So, after all that, now what? How do I get people to come to the site and start helping each other find things? It would probably require effort on my part, which would be something for me to shoot for, a goal, as it were.

Well, we shall see what comes.

If anyone else out there knows of a place similar to what I have detailed, let me know!

IDEA: Acting script performance program

This is an idea I had several years back, while playing Final Fantasy III (American release, I think it was actually Final Fantasy VI). There were quite a few "cinematic" scenes, where the characters talked to each other while moving around the screen and performing certain pre-programmed actions.

So, from this, I thought it might be possible to create an application that accepted a script, then enacted it on the screen.

Unfortunately, they'd have to be told things like "move forward a step, move in front of X, exit stage left, throw up your hands in disgust," and so on, which means some kind of programming or scripting has to go on for this.

Oddly enough, in the present day, this is both somewhat easy... and possibly unnecessary. But, just in case someone else can run with this and do something with it, I wanted to mention it. That's what this blog is for!

IDEA: Affordable, customizable PDAs for all

So, even though I have no official training in business procedures, I'm thinking that the personal electronics industry doesn't have enough personalization available for consumers. When you consider the customer base for personal electronics, there are a lot of brainy people in there, and many of them are capable of at least some tech knowhow.

So, the idea is to create a line of personal electronics that allows people to either:

a.) buy the personal electronics and use the default settings and construction; or
b.) start with a base product, then personalize to their heart's content

And when I speak of personalization, I don't just mean hardware, but software as well.

Let's start with the hardware. In my opinion, parts for these personal electronics should either be:

a.) really cheap and easy to produce; or
b.) really long lasting, with the cost passed on to the consumer

If we can't do long lasting, cheap and easy to produce is the way to go.

Fore example, if the screen for a pda can't last longer than a couple of years, then make damn sure it can be replaced easily by the consumer, even at the cost of further lifetime of the screen. If the screen only lasts 6 months, but is very affordable and easy to procure and replace, then it's not such a pain for consumers, now is it?

As far as software goes, some tech consumers are obviously brainy enough to handle whatever programming language you use for the personal electronics. Hell, give 'em free reign over the product, if they want. Think of the possibilities if Nintendo allowed its touch-screen DS portable game unit to accept user programs. Think of the useful applications!

There are three main types of consumer out there: the simple consumer, who just wants to use the product; the tinkerer, who likes to play around with things, but not get too serious; and the "power user" who loves to dig deep and find out what makes things tick, and possibly use it for other purposes.

Right now, the simple consumers rule the market; companies in the tech sector are generally producing products that can't be tinkered with very easily. Especially in the tech sector, there are tons of people dying to dig in and get their electronics to really take off, and the companies seem to be too preoccupied with proprietary technology and bottom lines to realize the potential. This is not the way to advance technology! There aren't enough enterprising companies to cover the wide human spectrum.

The internet is a prime example of this. Look at the HUGE variety of web sites out there. Even in social web communities like MySpace, the variety is unbelievable. Now, think of what would happen if you turned these personal electronics over to the brainy masses.

I've written all this, and it occurs to me that this stuff might be available already, and I simply haven't gone looking for it yet, which is true enough. But you would think I would see something at the local Fry's or on the web by now.