Team Toq-O
- Joanna Mary Abot, Nitika Daga, Emily To, Wei-Li Wang, Ashley Ann Willard
Brainstorm
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Cooking Timer: An app that gives you timed reminders about the next step in a recipe (i.e., “After 10 minutes, take the pasta off the stove and strain it.”) for home-cooks who like to try out new recipes.
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Baby Monitor: An app which allows new parents to check on their baby remotely through a laptop Bluetoothed to their smartwatch.
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Item Locator: An app for young professionals which helps you find easily lost objects, such as your keys, using electronic tags and Bluetooth technology.
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One-Touch Car Opener: A remote control app which allows car owners to unlock their car with a simple swipe across the screen, preventing users from having to fumble for their keys.
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Thermostat Adjuster: A remote control app which allows homeowners to control their thermostat remotely, which helps prevent worry if you forgot to turn off the heater or AC before you left home.
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Smart Key: An app for users with roommates which lets them share unlock permissions with other people in special circumstances, such as a roommate forgetting their key or letting a friend inside who arrived at your home before you; this app would also require a pre-installed lock that can read the watch’s signal.
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Energy Saver: An app with an answer to the age-old question “Did I remember to turn off the lights?”; this app allows the stay-at-home parent to juggle their kids, jobs, and busy schedules without having to worry if they turned off the lights or stove or unplugged the iron.
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Hearing Aid Volume Control: A volume control app which allows people with hearing aids to adjust the volume on their hearing aids with a simple swipe across their smartwatch.
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Airport Convenience: A flight app for frequent flyers which allows you to store your boarding pass on your watch to make security easier and pings you with any updates or delays regarding your flight.
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Translator: A translation app which allows a traveller or user to translate words or phrases by voice commands. The app provides textual and audible feedback.
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Restaurant Finder: An app designed for people on the road, especially those on long road trips who are tired and do not want to wait at a full restaurant, which will find restaurants close by with open seating.
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Let Me Be Your Guide: An app designed to provide tourists with the knowledge and expertise of a tour guide by alerting the user to landmarks, museums, and tourist destinations as they pass by.
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Geotagged Reminders: An app made for city-dwellers whose primary mode of transportation is walking, which will remind the user to do some specific task (i.e., “Buy flowers for my girlfriend”) when they are in a given location (i.e., “ passing the flower shop”).
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Deja Vu Calendar Sync: An app to sync with your calendar to bring up previous events designed for the elderly, take a walk down memory lane as previous landmark events from your calendar populate your watch based on your location.
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Bay Area Maps: With simple swiping gestures and voice recognition ability, this app provides step-by-step directions to get from one place to another for tourists who are new to the Bay Area.
- Safety Check-in: A safety app designed for young, social adults who have to walk home late at night by themselves, which allows the user to notify friends if they do not reach their destination safely.
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Kitestring for watch: Kitestring is an app meant to provide some security during late-nite walks home: the user places their finger on a part of the screen and if their finger leaves the screen, the app calls an in-case-of-emergency number who can make sure the user is safe.
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Parking Meter Updates: An app for those who own cars and live in the city which lets you know when your time will expire, as well as lets you add money to the meter through your smartwatch.
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Clipper Card: An app for Bay Area commuters which lets you scan your watch, just as you would scan your Clipper card, to use BART.
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Medicine Reminder: An app for the elderly which tells you when to take your pills and notifies you of any potential adverse effects of drug combinations.
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Food Expiration Tracker: An app for grocery shoppers which allows you to scan a food item’s barcode when you buy it and sends you reminders when the food is about to expire.
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On-the-Go Meditation: A health app for busy workers who want to take a break from their busy schedules which helps facilitate a peaceful meditation session; this app can playing calming, nature sounds as well as keep track of heart rate.
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Exercise Tracker: An exercise app for people that work out which can track a person’s workout; the app automatically updates certain stats while a person works out, so the user does not have to input the information.
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Marauder's Map: An app for magical folk and muggles, and Harry Potter enthusiasts, “Marauder’s Map” uses geolocation to show you where your friends are, and if you need to avoid any awkward confrontations.
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Real World Pokemon: An app designed for fans of Pokemon which would extend the Pokemon world to real life; a person can walk to certain places and face different types of pokemon based on the user’s location.
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Karaoke To Go: A singing app which allows teens to belt out their favorite hits with perfectly timed lyric prompts which move from left-to-right across the smartwatch’s face.
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Assasin’s Game: An app for high school sports teams which allows you to play a game of Assassin’s through the watch; kills are triggered by a certain wrist motion and reports are broadcasted to all the players each day.
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Running Stats: An app for marathoners which keeps track of their physical condition while running, such as: pace, heart-race, and mileage.
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Golf Stats: An app which allows golf-players to keep track of their stats, such as: number of strokes, above/below par, and length of drive.
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Sports Perfector: An app for athletes which helps you perfect your technique for different sports, such as a golf swing or a baseball pitch, by tracking the movement of your wrist.
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Presentation Prompts: An app for presenters, especially teachers, which allows you to pace yourself during your presentation with vibrate-only alarms and stay on track with key words or phrases as prompts and even allows the user to sync the watch with their computer and to control the slideshow remotely using their watch.
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Memory Trainer: An app with various, fast-paced activities which increase comprehension skills and brain elasticity, which is targeted for adults who wish to improve their memory and critical thinking skills.
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Dictionary On-the-Go: An app for elementary students which allows you to “throw” words that you are reading on an e-reader onto the watch, which will display their definitions.
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Outlet Finder: An app for tech professionals which allows you to find available outlets in the cafe/library/space you are in so you have a place to study with your laptop.
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Grocery Shopping List Maker: An app for parents which allows a user to input recipes and create a grocery list of ingredients along with the amount of that ingredient. Stores what is bought into a database and makes sure an ingredient is not bought multiple times.
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Price Scanner: An app for the smart shoppers which will scan bar codes and price tags and tell you the price; the app can also tell you if the item is cheaper elsewhere.
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Wrist Wallet: An app for young professionals which allows you to tap your watch and payment is done.
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Personal Shopper: An app for the avid and frequent shopper which lets you find items based on your style choices from other media platforms for the store you are currently in.
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Headlines Sampler: An app for the commuters who want to pull up the news which allows you to swipe through the day’s top headlines; additionally, you can add a headline to a list to access later to read the full article on a phone/laptop.
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Friend Broadcast: An app for the socialites, which allows you to send a ping to people on a list to let them know where you are, but only when you want to be found.
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Singing in the Shower: An app for novice singers which lets you sing in the shower since the Qualcomm Toq is waterproof; the lyrics scroll across the screen in time with the music.
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NYFWatch: An app which allows the fashion savvy attendees of nyfw to maintain real-time updates on relevant tweets and news.
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Contact Info Exchange: An app for young professionals which allows them to exchange contact information with a simple shake of their hands.
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Keep in Touch: An app for young professionals to remind them when they should get back in touch with business contacts
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Tag: A game app for the athletic and middle schoolers, which broadcasts who’s “it” and who’s safe.
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Public Transportation Updates: An app for busy commuters which gives you up-to-date information about the bus/train you are on, such as estimated arrival time and any relevant delays.
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Uber Pick Up: An app for Uber users to call Uber drivers without taking out their phones; simply tap on the watch face and have Uber show up in minutes.
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Speech Assist: An app for people delivering speeches which allows them to briefly glance at the watch for keywords so they can stay on topic.
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Spritz (Reading Assist) : An app which creates an accelerated reading environment for people who read on the go; just scan a passage and have it presented in an efficient way (http://www.spritzinc.com/about/).
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Origami Instructor: An app for origami novices which reveals the next step in an origami design using voice control or swiping gestures.
Idea Selection:
We narrowed our 50 ideas down to three: airport convenience, geo-tagged reminders, and presentation/speech assist. We thought the airport convenience app would be useful for TSA pre-checked frequent fliers because they are not required to take off their watch before going through security. They could use the watch in place of a paper boarding pass or a smartphone boarding pass, thereby saving the hassle of rummaging through bags or suitcases. However, the rest of the functionality (flight updates) could be achieved via a watch or a smartphone, with the watch being slightly more convenient. The geo-tagged reminders app is another neat idea. This app will remind the user to do something when they are in a certain location. It’s nice to avoid that feeling of regret when you get home and realize you were right by the drug store but forgot to pick up some much needed shampoo. We thought that the functionality and implementation of this app was a bit too close to Prog 02, so we decided against it. Ultimately, we decided to go with the presentation/speech assist app. We thought this app would be useful to anyone who has to give presentations, whether for a profession or for school. Additionally, the app is much more suited to a smartwatch than a smartphone.
Project Description:
Target User Group:
We would like to target people who often need reminders while giving presentations or who need to use both hands while presenting. Persons that this app will benefit greatly are employees that present their findings or give demonstrations to senior management. Currently, users have to hold a device, often a clicker, in order to transition between slides else be near a computer to provide input directly. If they wanted to do something requiring both hands, they would have to first put down the clicker first before beginning the task. In addition, presenters often have to remember what they were planning to say for each slide off the top of their head, without reminders or have to look back and look at the slide itself to refresh their memory. When giving a presentation to someone important, presenters would rather not have to rely on those gestures. In addition, they would have no way of keeping track of time except through asking another person to give them reminders during the presentation. This app would solve all three of those problems.
Problem Description & Context:
Our idea for a presentation and speech assist mobile application would solve many of the problems facing our target user group of presenters, especially educators. Among the problems facing presenters are:
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Being able to look at notes during a presentation while still keeping your hands-free: Presenters often want to keep their hands-free when giving presentations so they can move freely around the space. This means that there should be no hindrance to the presenter’s movements.
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Glancing at key words while presenting but still looking professional: Presenters often need to be professional when giving lectures, talks, or presentations in general. Phone apps exist that let them look at notes or key words to prompt them when presenting; however, holding a phone during a presentation does not look professional. The user may appear to be distracted, and their audience may even wonder if the presenter is busy doing other tasks on the phone during their own presentation.
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Reviewing for your presentation even when you have a busy schedule: Many presenters want to review or practice their presentation beforehand but their busy schedules prevent them sitting down and pulling out their laptop to focus on this one task. For example, teachers are presenters with packed schedules that often have to multitask. They may have to give a lesson next period but they have to run several errands, such as being on yard duty or making copies. Having to pull out their laptop to look at their slides while running these errands would be awkward and cumbersome.
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Using any free time in any location to review for your presentation: Presenters often want to use any extra time they have to review for their presentation. However, those bits of extra time may occur when you do not have a whole desk space available to you, such as when you riding the bus or waiting in line at the store. In these situations, taking out your laptop each time would be extremely inconvenient for the user.
- Being able to keep track of time without needing outside assistance: Presenters often lose track of time while presenting. This could be because they speed up or slow down their speech when they actually present vs when they are preparing or it could be because of factors outside their control such as the audience having many questions. When presenters do not have someone giving them reminders or have a clock on hand, they may not be able to present a key concept that is important due to time constraints.
Why is a mobile app a good solution for the problem?
A mobile solution is particularly suited to this problem because being tied down to the 3 foot radius of your laptop is often a hindrance when giving a lecture or presentation. There already exist some mobile solutions to this problem (iClicker-type remotes, mobile apps), which shows that there is a demand for mobile ways to control slide shows. In my experience, the most effective presenters - from a professor in a class to a speaker giving a TED talk - are dynamic and use the space around them to capture their audience's attention. A mobile solution allows a speaker to walk around the stage, instead of staying behind a podium or desk. Even in my own experience of giving presentations, having someone flip through the slides while I present isn't the most optimal situation. It requires that the other person know which cues to switch slides on and requires extra practice, which we might not always have time for. Instead, if I am able to flip through the slides on my own (while also being able to keep track of time and have my own keyword cues to help me remember what to say) and walk around the presenting space, it will make my presentation that much better. In addition, I may want to view the slides beforehand to practice but not have access to my laptop. In this situation, my smart phone would allow me to view the slides.
Why is a smartwatch a good solution for the problem?<
> A smartwatch is suitable to address the shortcomings presented by a mobile solution. We are looking to primarily address the issues of mobility, dynamism, and control. Although a phone can do all of the above, is it suitable? Typical presentation technology will consist of a clicker that is normally paired to a projector, but in modern day, what people want to connect to is not the platform, but the actual content. There are currently apps that deliver as a platform to control slide movements, but when people attend the presentation, more often than not they will be looking at you, and for a mobile solution, they will be looking at you and the large 5.5” object in your hand. Instead, in a space where dynamism is heavily appreciated, in slides, things should just happen. There should be no clicking of a spacebar, or waving around of a phone or clicker, instead, why not take advantage of the tools people already use to present, themselves? By having the controls on a smartwatch, the user will be able to have a less intrusive solution, as people won’t be staring at the object in their hands, but rather at the presenter. In an art where using your hands is highly encouraged, we want natural movement. What makes using a smartwatch different from a phone? Traditional presenters will have a mic, or even a headset, as well as demos. There’s a lot of movement involved, some of which needs both hands free. Whether its waving their hands to create emphasis, or writing a formula on a board, a smartwatch will provide a more optimal platform than a phone that needs to be placed down somewhere. A valid point: a smartwatch needs one hand to swipe, one to wear, so why STILL a smartwatch? In presenting, the speaker will always have the phone or control on them, whether or not they need it at the moment, but with a smart watch, the speaker will only need to touch the watch and have their hands occupied when they need to. Although there are still shortcomings in procedure, a smartwatch would be a more optimal technology in a competition of when-am-I-most-hands-free.
In addition to the powerpoint technology, our app will include a teleprompter adaption that will allow speakers to place emphasis on certain words in their slide. Speakers will no longer have to peak behind them, or refer to flash cards as the words they want to focus on will be present on their wrists. With screen real estate only present on a smartwatch, it will provide an optimal viewing solution. In addition, we will use the vibrations of the watch to let users know the time status of their progress.
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