Archive for the ‘Horizon’ Category
Get Some Green for Going Green – ecoATM
Quick. How many old cell phones do you have lying around the house? I must have four or five. Some are stuffed in drawers, while my daughter uses others as toys. The reality is that most phones don’t get recycled. In fact only 3 per cent of mobile phones worldwide get recycled. That’s a lot of landfill and digital waste. It’s also a business opportunity for a company called ecoATM. They have built a nifty kiosk that takes in your old cellphone and gives you money for it.
The ecoATM kiosk has visual recognition technology and other sensors to check the type of phone as well as inspecting it for damage. With over 4,000 phones in its database, the ecoATM matches and inspects your phone, and then determines how much it’s worth (the average payout is about $9 per phone). EcoATM has already recycled over 33,000 handsets and they are deploying their kiosks in malls, electronic store and college campuses across the US.
Look for many more ecoATMs to spring up, since Coinstar has invested an undisclosed amount of money in the company. Coinstar, as you might now, puts out those convenient kiosks that take your spare change, counts it, and converts it to cash and store credit. However, it’s Coinstar’s other kiosk endeavor that has really taken hold. Coinstar is behind Redbox, the popular DVD kiosks that all but doomed Blockbuster and the local DVD rental stores.
To further sweeten the pot, ecoATM is expanding its business model to accept a wide variety of electronics, including video games and iPods. If they get around to selling electronics in their Kiosks, RadioShack better watch out.
Another Green Idea
While on the topic of going green, Stanford University students have come up with a laptop that you can break down into recyclable parts in about 30 seconds. Called the Bloom laptop, it’s designed to take the hassle out of reducing e-waste. Today, the process for recycling computers either does not happen or is pretty inefficient. Aaron Engel-Hall, one of Bloom’s designers, states “They spend 90% of their time prying 250 screws out of every device that comes in the door–it’s very expensive and time-consuming.” With the Bloom laptop, you just turn a couple of knobs to pop out the parts not easily recycled (e.g., motherboard, battery, mixed materials) and toss the rest into the recycling bin. It even comes with a postage-paid envelope behind the screen to send in the parts you can’t put in your recycling bin.
The Bloom laptop has one other very cool feature that’s very handy while you are still using your computer. Its modular design allows users pop out the keyboard and use it remotely. Why didn’t someone think of that before!
Taking Windows Computing…Literally
The New Window to the World
One day soon you might be able to peer out your window and have it tell you the temperature, traffic and latest news. Samsung has developed a see through flat-panel screen that can be used as a high tech window. Samsung demonstrated this new screen at FPD (Flat Panel Display) International exhibition in Japan, touting it as innovation for the commercial storefronts as well as offices.
Built on OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diodes) technology, the screens could project almost any information you like, while allowing you to see what’s happening on the other side. Samsung’s mock-up featured storefront displays in which a window played videos of models who wore clothes available inside the store. These displays also come with fully functioning touchscreen capability, meaning you can interact with the window displays. This would be particularly handy in a business environment where you could use a window as a large display for your presentations. You needn’t worry about displaying your company financial secrets to the world outside. Samsung claims that the information projected on one side cannot be seen from the other.
Currently the size of the displays are limited to the largest LCD screens in production (about 83 inches X 95 inches or 2.1 Meters X 2.4 Meters). Still, the technology is impressive and when you combine it with other emerging technologies, you could get some amazing applications. For example:
- Integrate it with database information and an operations manager could see real-time inventory statistics while looking out on the production floor.
- These windows could go mobile. Put them in cars, boats, trains and planes, and even sun glasses.
- Integrate sensors, and the window display could give you all sorts of information about the environment before you step outside. This could be particularly useful for first responders.
- Put it on your aquarium and it could tell you when you need to change the water.
- Add a point-of-purchase and you could buy a product before you walking into the store.
- Combined with Augmented Reality and facial recognition to provide you even more information about the people and places around you. Pizza place down the street having a sale? Your window could give you an icon alert.
No matter what the applications, these displays will impact everything from architecture and home design, to computer development, to even transportation and car manufacturing. Sure might make holiday decorating a lot easier (could you imagine the haunted house!)…
Your Epidermis Is Glowing – LED Lights That Get Under Your Skin
Tattoos are so last decade. The new wave of body art might come from miniature LED displays that are placed under your skin. LED, or light-emitting diodes, are commonly used in everything from street signs to toys. Until now, they’ve been too bulky and brittle to go into your skin. Researchers at the University of Illinois have changed that by developing a new type of flexible, waterproof led technology that can be placed in everything from a rubber glove to under your epidermis.
Combine this with some of the emerging nano and sensor technologies, and you can get some pretty interesting applications:
- Body art could be taken to a whole new level; easily re-sculpted, removed or “turned off.” Heck, you might be able to make yourself a human Lite-Brite (fun at parties!).
- Low on blood sugars? Having a heart episode? Potential seizure coming on? Pregnant? Your body could flash you a warning sign before it’s too late.
- If you pass out, your body could give your rescuers valuable information about what happened, what to do, or who to call.
- Proximity sensors could detect if a compatible person is sitting close to you. You could just load up your interests on a central site and download a code in your LED device. Someone with a compatible code sits nearby and you both light up like one of those pagers at restaurants. You could then spend the next several hours finding out why you’re so well matched.
- Wirelessly connect it to your mobile device and let developers come up with a whole world of apps.
Then again, maybe the whole idea just makes your skin crawl…
Your Next Phone Battery Could Be…You
Nokia's Hot New Phone
Every time I need to make an important call, I always seem to be low on battery. When I had my old Blackberry, I used to carry around a couple of extra batteries in my bag. Now that I have an iPhone, I lug around an external battery. I keep wondering, “why can’t they come up with a better way.” Now they have…
Nokia has come up with a concept phone called the E-Cu that comes with a built-in thermogenerator that converts any heat source into electrical energy to power the phone. According to Concept Phones.com (a great website for future-looking mobile devices), the Nokia E-CU can be charged while in your hand on even in your pocket. Although the idea sounds a little too much like “The Matrix,” the idea of using your body heat to power your phone falls under the “why didn’t we think of that earlier” category. The E-CU gets its name from “E” for environment and Cu, symbol for copper. This is because the casing for the phone is made of copper “heat sinks” that collect the thermal energy.
Sunny outlook for solar powered phones
Although thermal energy is relatively new to the phone industry, companies have been playing with solar powered phones for a while. For example, in 2009, Samsung released its Blue Earth phone, which was the first solar powered full-touch screen phone. It has solar panels on the back that recharge the battery and Samsung even went the extra “green” mile by making the Blue Earth phone out of recycled plastic bottles. More recently, Dutch technology company Intivation, released its V206, which sports a SunBoost chip that makes it practical and cost effective to market solar powered phones.
Some companies are even experimenting with kinetic energy for cell phones. Companies are playing with phones that recharge when you run, yo-yo and even swing a golf club.
Dark Silicon and GreenDroid to power the future?
One of the core challenges with alternative energy phones is that they do not offer the massive number of features to which we have all become accustomed; all that brain power in our smart phones sucks too much energy.
University of California is working on an answer. They have developed a smart phone chip that requires much less energy than the ones we use today. Called a GreenDroid, the chip uses a technology called Dark Silicon that uses about 11 times less energy than a typical processor.
Aside from being more convenient, these alternative power promise to make a big impact on conservation. Currently, unwanted phone chargers produce 51,000 tons of waste a year. In India alone, solar powered cell phone towers could all but eliminate the use of 530 million gallons of diesel per year.
No matter how they do it, I can’t wait to say goodbye to my “low battery” light.
Google Cars Drive Themselves – What is the Future of Driving?
Google is testing cars that drive themselves. Why? Who else is doing this, and how close are we to kicking back and letting my “Chevy Google” do all the work?
It didn’t make sense at first. Google announced that they have been testing cars that drive themselves. This sent the tech world abuzz and, fittingly, the search engines ablaze. Everyone from New York Times to Computer World were writing about it. But…why?
Not “why have automated cars?” People have been dreaming bout that since the 1950′s. Self-driving cars promise drastically reduced fatalities, increased convenience and mobility to many who would not otherwise easily have it. Why Google? Also, how close are we to really having automated vehicles? First, Let’s look at Google.
Google has been testing fully automated cars in California that do not require human interaction to drive. They modified a Toyota Prius with an array of cameras, radar and lasers to to enable the car to “see” and react to traffic and road conditions. They have mounted a rotating sensor on top of the car that generates a 3 dimensional map for 200 feet in all directions. According to their blog, they have logged over 140,000 miles with these cars. Don’t worry (too much). These cars are not left completely to their own devices. During the tests, they have a trained driver behind the wheel, ready to take over at a moments notice.
Not Exactly KITT, but getting close
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Obi-Wan Kenobi Would be Proud: Mobile Phones Go 3D
Help Me Obi-Wan...Win This Game
Ever since we saw Princess Leia pleading for Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, we’ve been entranced with the idea of mobile holographic communications. Samsung’s new B710 phone does its best R2D2 impression, by bring 3D to mobile devices. The best part? No funny glasses required.
While it’s not a full hologram, the B710 does make image appear to be popping out of the phone (Samsung is also releasing W960 3D Smart Phone, but the B710 was first to market, so we’ll give it credit). Software created by Dynamic Digital Depth, converts 2D content to 3D in real time. According to MIT’s Technology Review, you simply tilt the phone and it “creates pairs of slightly different images that the viewer’s brain combines to produce the sensation of depth.” It even automatically interprets depth by synthesizing visual cues. For example, if it recognizes a image of the sky it will put that in the back ground. (more…)
MIT Wants to Make You Just a Little Bit Cybernetic
Dial By Hand (Photo: Lynn Barry)
MIT sees information as our sixth sense, and their goal is to integrate information with the real world in a much more effortless way than we do today. The SixthSense project at MIT Media Lab has developed wearable mobile technology that recognizes hand gestures and then projects information on to real objects. For example, if you want to call someone, you make a gesture and the device projects a phone number pad onto a wall, your hand, or whatever is close by. You then “touch” the number pad image to start dialing.
Sure, we carry around the entire Internet with our smart phones, laptops and tablets. But we still need to interrupt the flow of our interactions to go search for information. The SixthSense project looks to eliminate the phrase “hold on and let me look that up.” They are doing this by combining several emerging technologies:
- The device has a camera suped up with advanced recognition technology. The device takes in the world around you and recognizes words, objects and even faces.
- A mobile processor linked into the Internet so that it can search, analyze, upload and download the information you need.
- A projector to display anything from search results to pictures, movies and generated graphics onto object in front of you.
- The ability to understand your hand gestures. It does this by tracking different color caps on your fingers. In their demo, they use pen caps, but they also say you could just paint your fingernails different colors. (more…)
Preparedness: Be Aware…Be Very Aware
There are three steps to disaster preparedness. We’ve talked about the first two…Make a Plan and Get a Kit. The last one is Be Informed. It is essential to know what disasters are likely for your area and prepare accordingly. Your preparations may be different depending on the disaster. For hurricanes, you may need to plan for an evacuation. Snowstorms? You’ll need to be ready for days without power. Understanding the likely events in your area will make your plan better and easier to implement.
Before, during and after a disaster, you need to know how to get information. How will you know if a disaster is coming and how serious it’s likely to be? How will you know what help is available? Where to go if you need a shelter? Luckily, many locales now have alert systems set up, including e-mail, text and other technology to get the word out quickly. You’ll need to do some poking around because the information isn’t always heavily publicized, but start by checking with the emergency management resources in your state. You can find state emergency management information on ready.gov/america.
For example, residents of the Washington DC area can sign up for capitalert.gov, a messaging service that covers the entire national capital region and taps into state and local information in the same stream. Likewise, the San Francisco area offers the AlertSF notification system offering text and e-mail messages with emergency related traffic and weather warnings. (more…)
You Might Be a Digital Native If…
Gone (Digital) Native?
If you get more “wall posts” than post cards on your birthday…you might be a digital native. If you use acronyms like OMG and LOL, even when you are talking to someone…you might be a digital native. If you have ever checked to see if you’re in a relationship by looking at someone’s Facebook status….you might be a digital native.
Digital native. Marc Prensky coined the term, referring to the generations of “wired” people who have grown up knowing only modern communications technology and the Internet. He sets the demarcation at roughly 1980; if you’re born after that, you are a “digital native,” born before that makes you a “digital immigrant” who is finding your way through a new cyber-driven world.
There’s a lot of controversy around the concept. Does the brain work differently for digital natives? Why the 1980 demarcation? Why not 1990? Why not 2004 (the year Facebook launched)? What about all those super-users over the age of 30, or the technophobic twenty-year-olds?I find it hard to place myself in one of those categories – maybe I am more of a digital “naturalized citizen.”
Whether you are a digital native by birth, or you simply have adapted and adopted your way to the forefront of our technology-driven world, the impact is essentially the same – there is a digital divide between high technology users and the low ones. Actually, there are multiple divides. Technology innovations periodically leap into radically new directions. All technology adopters don’t cleanly make the leap into the next direction. There are plenty of people who are very comfortable with e-mail and Word, but do not “get” social networks, smart phones, texting and Foursquare. More on this in another blog. For now, we will concentrate on the high and low technology users. (more…)
OTH: It’s the Relationships
As you’ve read in some of my posts here, I believe the return for business investment in social media is the deepening of relationships. As a CEO, I can appreciate how the challenge of calculating that ROI keeps some of my peers (not to mention CFOs, CMOs and COOs) awake at night. But a recent encounter at a small restaurant gave me even greater faith in my belief.
I walked in to the Yesterday Café looking for a light lunch as I passed through the small town of Greensboro, Georgia. As I settled into a booth, I noticed a journal on the table near the ketchup and other condiments. Thinking someone had left it by accident, I showed it to our waitress as she took my drink order. To my very pleasant surprise, she said it was not there by accident, but by design—the café put them at all the tables to give customers a way to share their thoughts with the staff and other customers. Cool.
As I waited for my cold beer (it was your typical hot day in middle Georgia), I read about meals that went well, service that was less than sterling, how much management appreciated the suggestion for a new sandwich and how the buttermilk pie was the greatest dessert ever created. Every entry was in each person’s hand writing giving me a sense of originality and authenticity I haven’t felt in quite a while.
When my beer arrived, I asked the waitress about the journal and she shared how customers, staff and management all loved them. Yes, there were the occasional stings—a bad meal, regretful service, an incorrect tab—but there were also inspiring jewels…like a sketch of a staff member or a crayon drawing by a child of chicken tenders. She went on to say the owners took the information and feedback very seriously often taking the journals home so they could write a reply or digest the suggestions in a personal setting. Cool.
I also noticed something else–there weren’t any “ads” in the journal. Nothing from the management telling me to try an entree or if I showed up on Tuesday, my kids could eat free. The journal was about customer thoughts and, where appropriate, management appreciation. Way cool.
There are a thousand reasons why today’s social media tools might be a better means for that customer-business connection and quite a few arguments for why a simple journal at a table might be as worthwhile as all our digital investments. But there is a very important commonality—a business connecting and looking to inspire and use customer generated content to build a powerful relationship. As a CEO, that keeps me up more than the ROI of social media investment: are we connecting and actually building meaningful relationships.
My lunch at the Yesterday Café was super. And, I topped it off with what is arguably the best buttermilk pie in the universe. To see how much I gushed over the flaky crust and amazing filling, you can read my entry in the journal…it has a blue cover and I signed it ”Nunndog.”
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