Multiview Email

Idea: When composing an email to a group of people, often you wish to share different amount/type of information while keeping the central theme/content the same. Ideally, you would like to have a common email sent to everybody and let everybody know about the recipient list, but you might want to add/explain some of the stuff to a subset of people, or read-aloud read-between-the-lines to some of them. What I would like is an email with multiple views. For example, if I am throwing a party, I would like to send an invitation including place and time to everybody, and then attach a personal note for some of the invitees.

Reward: No need to use mail-merge and send out emails individually. Use the bulk mail, that you are used to (especially in usergroups), and customize them at your will.

Bonus: It would be like your email having multiple personalities.

LetMeSpeed: Speed legally, Avoid accidents

Idea: Road accidents is the number 1 cause of deaths in the United States. Many of them happen due to speeding. Sure, all the cars are designed to go beyond prescribed speed limits, but that shouldn't mean that we have right to exercise that. Frankly, I can think of very few reasons which can justify speeding, emergency medical situation being one of them. What if we could build a table of such emergencies and assign each one a code, and then expect the driver of the vehicle to enter one of these codes to get authorized for speeding for long distance. Sure, you can speed to avoid minor accidents, but that shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes. All cars could be programmed to either ask for speeding authorizations once driven beyond speed limit for a threshold time (say 10 minutes), or not respect accelerator. Now each of the authorized speeding vehicles should be traceable and can be asked to provide proof for the speed request.

Reward: No more speeding related accidents, and if you have to speed for the right reason have a legal way to do it.

Bonus: Catching thieves on the road was never easier. You can deny all speed authorization request for that particular car, and you're all set. Also, if you're able to regulate speed of vehicles remotely, you can do a perfect job at traffic obedience.

BrowseLib: A true online library

Idea: All libraries have online portals where you could search for an item you're looking for and it tells you where it has shelved it. In a lot of ways, it's just like an online store. While this facility is good, it doesn't quite offer some of the same advantages that a manual casual browse in the library provides. What I would like from an online library interface is to be able to browse books shelf-by-shelf, to be able to scan covers and first couple of pages, and move on to the next book. I would also like to be able to browse books from similar categories, just like how they're shelved in the library and better since in an online version choices of shelving are endless (and customizable). I would also like to participate in book review sessions and broadcast a story-telling session sitting in my chair at home.

Reward: A true library experience from convenience of your home.

Bonus: I should also be able to virtually pick up a book, go to a table with people from similar reading interests and spark a literary conversation. How about that for a virtual library date?

Industry Recognition: NextChat

Google must start paying me now! First, they implemented google health, which is based on an idea I published in early Feb (Refer to: WebDoctor). Today, Google announced lively, a next generation chat room which draws some of the very same concepts I discussed in my earlier post on this forum. (Refer to: NextChat). While, I am not getting any royalty (or even an honorary mention), I am glad to see my vision becoming alive. I guess the next logical step for lively would be to be able to share user created rooms and create a virtual social world. I am thinking, I should consider a career switch. How about Google Adviser? ;-) Last but not the least, kudos to entire ideakrafters team, and of course to Google!

GPS-STI: GPS with static traffic info

Idea: Garmin, and most other companies selling GPS devices offer traffic receivers. They come in pretty handy because they avoid traffic tie-ups by adding a traffic receiver and traffic services to your compatible GPS device. Your GPS navigator uses traffic information to minimize traffic delays on your route. The only catch here is you got to pay big bucks for this dynamic content. I claim that the amount of traffic content you really need to base your decision upon is not really dynamic. Not only that, but in case of a really dynamic event, even traffic receivers might not do the best job. So, how about storing last year's average (hour-by-hour, every 15 minutes) traffic information along with the maps on your GPS device. Using this static information, your GPS can make intelligent choices for you, and guess what you don't have to worry about your traffic receiver malfunctioning or paying for the dynamic content which you really don't need.

Reward: Since the information is static, software can do significantly better job (TSP?) at finding you the best route for the hour.

Bonus: You could also study last 5 (or 10) years traffic data and make traffic predictions. Also, based on this static information, you can avoid paths with higher statistics on accidents in certain season.

Scenic Drive, Everywhere

Idea: I happen to be on California Highway 1, which is considered one of the best scenic drives in the country. The drive begins in Monterey, the capital of Alta California under Spanish and Mexican rule and the home of some of the oldest buildings in the state. You drive south on Highway 1 toward Morro Bay through the California wilds, flanked by parks, reserves, and a sea otter refuge that extends from Carmel to Cambria. In addition to seeing California's wild beauty, Highway 1 drivers experience the wild adventure of two-lane, cliffside driving through Big Sur country, where jagged mountains plunge down into pounding surf. I started thinking, why do people have to come all the way to California to enjoy the scenic drive. What if the car windshield and the windows can simulate the exact ambiance! All the driver needs to see is the vehicle (moving objects) around his/her vehicle and road-signs. All these could be covered in a beautiful backdrop with some AI and computer graphics (detect moving objects, road-signs, pedestrians, etc. and re-image the rest with your favorite scene).

Reward: Well, your drive to work can be a scenic one. And guess what, you can adjust a few knobs and you could be on a completely different scenic drive to work.

Bonus: Extend this to racing tracks and you should be able to install CGI from NFS into your car and play a real race with real speed-racers in any terrain you wish.

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.

nextTread: A futuristic treadmill

Idea: Working out has become an irreplaceable activity from modern lifestyle. Remaining fit is the "in-thing" now. Many people love to workout. Many find it boring because fitness is an ongoing challenge. The primary reason I find workout boring is treadmills. They are supposed to emulate running. While the emulation does an excellent job at providing your a softer surface to run (and hence easier on knees), it fails miserably at providing you the same level of enjoyment you get running outdoors. A couple of approaches have been tried to alleviate this problem by putting big screen LCD TVs. I find it too hard to concentrate and very distracting. When I am running I would like it to be very similar to running outdoors in that I would like to look at changing sceneries while I "run forward". We could combine the technologies we already have (Shred 4D ride @ the Universal studios) with treadmill and provide the runner a perfect running ambiance.

Reward: A really enjoyable running experience on treadmill, finally!

Bonus: Maybe a runner could just be given goggles that show him terrain he is running on. The runner could also see fellow runners (running on similar treadmill anywhere in the world at that time) and exchange fitness tips. They could even take part in competition or a charity run while running on the treadmill.

Synergistic M&A

Idea: In 2007, From January to July, Google acquired more then 13 companies! It probably has a few more in pipeline. It's highly likely that Google's buying spree will never really stop. Close to 20 companies in 2007 is not a small number. Here is the list of all Google's acquisitions. Other companies like Cisco and EMC are known to do this and known to do this well, in most cases. In other cases however, companies have tremendous difficulties in porting technology (and of course people) from the acquired company and assimilate in their own. Some of the sad side effects being discarded technology and mass-layoffs. The problem being those companies were full blown companies when they were purchased, and in their growth most of them had no regards whatsoever about their current parent company or their current siblings. Had they known...? So here's an idea: how about giants like Google, Cisco, EMC,... taking active interest in startups and funding them from their beginning to shape them more amenable to acquisitions by them.

Reward: M&A can now be considered a match made in heaven! No more technology deaths and say goodbye to mass layoffs.

Bonus: The companies considering acquisitions could also participate in collaborative efforts to create solutions that might help setup a strong ecosystem. If there is significant market for co-solutions already, synergistic M&A could just be the next logical step.

Furniture Knapsack

Idea: I ran into this problem myself recently. I was moving to a new and much bigger apartment and I needed some furniture to populate my new place. I thought this can't be difficult! I set my budget and then started looking for furniture online, both new and used ones. What started being an easy problem, soon became nightmarish. Basically, I wanted to buy couch set, dining set and a bedroom set, and I had to search for them separately and every single time the total would go over my budget, plus I couldn't figure out what's the best combo deal I could get within my budget. So here is an idea: how about a furniture search engine which takes in your budget and items you're interested in buying and issues multiple queries to various furniture stores (and craigslist) and present you with a number of combinations which satisfy your furniture needs while staying within your limit. You could also provide a slack and engine would try to find you more options.

Reward: Peace of mind. Furniture hunting was never easier.

Bonus: The engine could be enhanced to take a delivery address and time as an input and provide you the end-to-end cost, and if you happen to select one of these options the furniture could be delivered to you at the time you wish for the price you're willing to pay.

flykut: shaping BA's million dollar social venture

Idea: Two months ago, I had published an idea about social networking in flights. Today British Airways announced that they will be investing heavily to make their air travel socially buzzing. They also outlined a number of incremental steps they will be taking in that direction. Willie Walsh, the new CEO of BA, has posed a million dollar challenge to design first version of social flight codenamed flykut. Well, if I were Mark Zuckerberg, I would just integrate basic facebook application in flights' personal screens along with a few applications and profiles of the passenger on board. I would also provide a touch screen keypad (like in iPhone) so that passengers can communicate (or play games, participate in quizzes). In addition, I would convert all headphones into headsets with microphones. Voice chats among fellow passengers would open up a myriad of possibilities.

Reward: Meet new people, learn new things, share new experiences.

Bonus: Since many flights now offer internet, the socializing experience need not be limited to in-flight passengers only. You could in fact socialize with people on the ground, or people on other flights!

Second Opinion Medical Experts

Idea: A while ago I published an idea about WebDoctors on this forum. While it generated some interest, seemed far fetched to most people who communicated to me. So here's an idea which is only incremental and uses the existing infrastructure of medical system. Many times I've gone to my dentist and come back confused. Did my dentist examine me properly? When she said everything was okay, was I really fine? When she said I needed some procedures urgently, could I really not wait? Sometimes I didn't agree with my dentist's priority about the work needed in my mouth. What if the medical (or dental) examination reports could be published online in a standard format, and I could show it to some other doctor (or dentist) for second opinion for a small fee? It would be like having both the doctors examine you at the same time, and having their consolidated opinion. After all, medicine (or dentistry) is not a perfect science.

Reward: Peace of mind. If your family doctor is not in the same town (or country), this way you can still seek her opinion despite being far far away. Since she knows you since your childhood, her opinion would really matter a lot.

Bonus: Once these reports are online, they can be made anonymous and can be studied by various people for satisfying their curiosity, for learning or for journalizing. Systematic research on this information could lead to improvement in diagnosis through collaboration.

Car that shouts "Safety First!"

Idea: There were nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States in 2005. The financial cost of these crashes is more than 230 Billion dollars. 2.9 million people were injured and 42,636 people killed. About 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States -- one death every 13 minutes. The number of auto accidents have not decreased from year 2000 despite improvements in car technology, stricter law enforcement and enhanced infrastructure. Top reason for these accidents is falling asleep on the wheel due to tiredness, and close second being DUI(Driving Under Influence). What if we could mandate DUI sensors in all cars, which automatically dial 911 when it detects drunken state of the driver? Taking a step forward, we could install facial expression recognition software, which upon detecting tiredness/sleepiness on the driver's face, could ask (or force) the driver to stop (and get fresh).

Rewards: Safer roads. I believe we could really get rid off this artificial cause (actually #1 cause of deaths in US) of human deaths.

Bonus: The intelligence system in the car can also be programmed to contact nearby cars to inform them about drunken state (or tired state) of the driver, alerting them to be careful.

Roadvertising

Idea: Advertising is a form of communication whose purpose is to inform potential customers about products and services and how to obtain and use them. Fact: With the rise of Corporation, the advertising industry really flourished. Fact: Google makes almost all their money from advertisement. Idea is simple. Advertise on roads. Of course, it does sound distracting at the first glance, but with careful thinking, this can made to work. Instead of flashy/gaudy text, companies can just put their logos on the road. If not on freeways, these advertisements can take place on city streets where traffic is already slow. You can utilize the footpath too. Government can lease the space for roadvertising and make some extra bucks.

Reward: More advertisements, more sales. Every footstep could now be translated into money through roadvertisement.

Bonus: Government could delegate the maintenance work of the block of the road or footpath to the advertising company, thereby distributing the work. This will guarantee that the roads are in excellent condition all the time. Read those ads, and say goodbye to those nasty puddles.

Online recipes targeted for your kitchen

Idea: Google the words "online recipes" and you'll get more than seven million results, all serving up free recipes. You can narrow them down by specific cuisines, or split them in vegetarian recipes and non-vegetarian ones. But frankly, nobody has got enough time to sort through all the information overload. Often times, all I want is given my current food inventory, what are the various dishes I could make? I propose a website where using various forms you maintain current status of your kitchen inventory online. Using various forms, you could enter various veggies, fruits, beans, pulses, meat forms, spices, herbs, oil, dressing, bread, sauce, pasta ... you have stocked up in your kitchen. The backend could be driven by a large recipe database. On a user request, a simple (or complex) query on this database could just return the information the user is seeking.
Reward: Now you can stop freaking out about what to cook. Just maintain your online kitchen inventory and expect suggestions in your email.

Bonus: The website could also provide you with a list of what to buy during your next grocery shopping to maintain inventory level for the recipes your like. It can also suggest adding a new ingredient to your inventory to increase your food options, for variety or for a more balanced diet.

Dreamcatcher

Idea: All of us dream. We remember some of them, while forget the most. Most dreams leave a trace of images, thoughts and feelings in our memory. It's their flirtatious nature that continues to amuse us. Though experienced by everybody on almost daily basis, dreams are not yet fully understood and is often topic of speculation and interest. What if we could actually record all our dreams? We know that dreams are strongly correlated with REM or rapid eye movements. We could device an alarm which wakes us up immediately after REM gets over or just after you're done with your dream. Your memory about the dream is still fresh. You wake up, make a few notes about your dream, and go back to bed.

Reward: Now you could record, share, discuss, analyze all your dreams. This will be a giant step forward in human psychology.

Bonus: Although recording your dream may sounds like a good idea to you, you might not like to wake yourself up from a deep sleep. So you could enhance our alarm to monitor your sleep stages and wake you up only during the first light sleep stage after your dream. That way your sleep is not disturbed much and yet you retain most of your memory about the dream you just had.

Your TV, your Waiter!

Idea: Television Cooking shows have been perennially popular. Watching the host dish out mouth watering recipes from scratch, makes you want to recreate them yourself. You rush for the pen and paper, jot whatever you could catch while the show breezes through and at the end of the day, looking at your notes, you hardly feel the enthusiasm to make it yourself. What if it wasn't so hard? Each one of us visit restaurants but very few know the "how" of the dishes we enjoy so much. How about having a "Watch and Order" television show, in which you get to see some of your favorite dishes being made from first principles and then you get to order the very same dish as soon as it is prepared? The host can make five such dishes(of course with helpers around) and you get to choose your dish. It's almost like pressing a button to get the dish come to you through your TV.

Reward: The dish being prepared under your very own eyes - hence no chance of it being tampered with. No scary cooking ways behind the food you eat!

Bonus: You can customize your dish by giving real-time feedback about what more you would want added or deleted from your dish. You can also send in your original recipes and earn money on the show when customers order what you cook, and how well you plate it. Many bored housewives can have their afternoons filled with learning and earning!

Progressive sales tax

Idea: We all pay the sales tax. Ideally, a sales tax is supposed to be fair, should have a high compliance rate, should be difficult to avoid, should be charged exactly once on any one item, and should be simple to calculate and simple to collect. Sales tax is a regressive tax; that is, low income people tend to spend a greater percentage of their income in taxable sales (using a cross section time-frame) than higher income people. If all purchases are subject to the same tax rate, the tax rate itself is flat with higher income people paying more tax as they consume more. How about sales tax based on your income? Most of the purchases are done using credit card or debit card nowadays, which can be linked to your SSN (and hence your last year's income). When you swipe that card, the reader could use this information to charge your appropriate sales tax.

Reward: A more just tax system?

Bonus: The system could also be leveraged to give discounts based on your income range. We could also devise a different progressive tax in which the tax increases as you buy more items. This scheme will prevent us against frauds of using lower income people to buy stuff for you. Not only that, it will also encourage more efficient use of all the resources available.