Industry Recognition: WebDoctor

While flykut was my idea of an april fool hoax, another idea of mine indeed got some industry recognition. I published an idea on Feb 1st about having personal medical reports online which can be analyzed by some tool or could be shared among medical facilities. (Refer to: WebDoctor). Well, I'm happy to announce that Google has come out with Google Health, taking the first steps in this direction. Kudos to entire ideakrafters team, and of course to Google!

Traveling Taxicab

Idea: As a software engineer, I often keep wondering about classic computer science problems and their applications. Take for example, the traveling salesman problem. Now let's try to apply it to current taxicab system in the US. Currently, you have to call the cab service where an operator receives your call and after going through his/her online records, contacts a driver nearest to you. This method is not perfect. Not only it's error-prone, the human operator doesn't always make the optimal choices. So let's apply the TSP here. Most cabs (cars) have in-built GPS nowadays. If the cellphone of a client is able to transmit his/her current location, the nearest cab could pick up his/her signal and accommodate him/her on the way given it doesn't violate the time constraints of the other passengers in the cab.

Reward: A complete automated and most optimal cab system.

Bonus: Different cab companies could share/transfer GPS and their data points in order to carpool as much as possible to save on gas. A cellphone application can be developed to have your individual preferences stored and call an appropriate cab once requested.

mobiConf: Video conference on the go

Idea: Videoconferencing allows businesses to keep in touch with employees and clients from across the country and around the world in real time with both audio and video. They are connecting classrooms for distance education in ways never before envisioned. They are allowing online matchmaking web sites to allow real and powerful contact between potential matches. One current limitation of all the videoconferencing technologies is that they require participant to be located at certain "conference rooms". An interesting observation is that most of the cellphones nowadays have both internet and video recording facilities. How about utilizing those features so that you could participate in a video-conference from virtually anywhere.

Reward: Talk to your loved ones while seeing them live, participate in your company meeting while you're at home, possibilities are endless.

Bonus: Considering cellphone screens are usually small, you should be able to connect your cellphone to your TV/LCD display and have a full size view of the conference while your cell phone's camera streams out your live images.