Group Name: Mango Innovations
Members:
Ralph Arroyo
Candy Chang
Kevin Chen
Flora Dai
- Zhicong Lim
Brainstorm
Art/Music
Recorder: May be best to use in conjunction with phone’s recorder. Act as a remote control for when you want to start and stop recording, so you don’t have that awkward 5 seconds when you pick up your instrument again.
Metronome: Buzz the watch to the beat to help a drummer or guitarist’s rhythm.
Can also play the usual metronome tick for instruments that would be annoying to play with a constant vibration.
Can couple with recording app that somehow registers whether or not you’re following the beat - and then gives feedback on when you deviate so you can practice more effectively.
Tuner: Get feedback without having to take your hands off your instrument.
Also, be able to track your pitch accuracy over the span of your whole piece: be able to better evaluate any patterns in your playing and adjust accordingly.
Air Guitar/Drums: Be able to ‘compose’ on the go - play air drums with your hands and have the watch register the motions.
DDR: Match the beats with certain taps and motions. Finger DDR :)
Games
Geocache Hunting: People “hide” items (which can be either physical or digital) at GPS locations, which other people then try to find.
I Was Here: A new communication method - delayed, context-based. Leave presents or messages for family and friends, have them search out and stand in the same place you were standing to hear or read your thoughts.
Time capsule: Leave timed messages that won’t activate/unlock until after a certain amount of time.
Game Map (a la Digimon / Pokemon): “Catch” monsters and engage in random battles according to geolocation.
Hide & Seek / Hot & Cold: Watch vibrates more intensely the closer the seekers get to the hiders.
Demesne: An AR social game made of teams, where you can ping others to battle, collect resources, establish territories by through real-world locations (the real world is the gameplay world). The watch acts as your controller and you can opt in and out of the game but remain notified through the constant-on watch interface.
Hot Lava Monster: Can designate areas as lava/off limits, then have players figure out how to get to their objective without getting caught.
Paintball - Teammate Tracker: Be able to see the locations of teammates and communicate via short texts/pings about where to go next, who to target.
Tap Keyboard: Using a sensor, track muscle movements within the wrist (or some other location) such that tapping fingers in some pattern allows you to type without the use of a physical keyboard.
Do stuff nearby with watches (“Street Passing”):
Icebreakers - at random intervals the watches vibrate/pair you up with a nearby person, and then you do activities together.
Rock-Paper-Scissors game: Play a game in real life with the person you pass, and get to know them.
That game where you have to form groups of 2, 3, or 4 depending on the whims of the game master; those who don’t make it are out.
Work/Class
Sports team organization/roster: Have all members on the same platform; they can register absences without making you have to check texts, emails and phone messages in order to aggregate information. Can communicate ‘on my way/going to be late’ in an easily accessible way and know the coach will get the message in time.
HandyCue: Allow presenter to simply glance at watch for presentation cues cards. If it could pair with a presentation application, you could also use the watch as the ‘clicker’ to advance through slides.
iClicker: You can iClicker on your watch. No need to pull out an extra device.
Flashcards: Flashcard studying on the go.
Immersion Pitch: For architects/landscapers/people who work with an environment, be able to provide an ‘on the ground’ and maybe interactive way to pitch their designs/communicate their plans.
UtilityRepair: Something for underground utilities/overhead utilities - being able to communicate with sensors and be alerted of problems on the watch. Being able to tag certain pipes or landlines for the rest of your team.
For consumers: being alerted of dangers/downtime/utility repairs that might impact their work/home life in some way.
Virtual sticky notes: Leave reminders that are triggered by location/beacons, so you aren’t limited to places that you can comfortably leave visible sticky notes.
Emergency/Save Me
First Aid/CPR prompters: For those trained in first aid/CPR who might want prompters when they’re on the spot. Helps CPR count compressions + time breathing through vibrations, first aid can give steps for splinting someone’s limb, for example.
SOS + Pepper Spray: Immediately be able to call 911 on your watch without having to pull out phone + dial numbers. No need to reach into a bag/carry something in your hand. (It’d be awesome to equip the watch with pepper spray as well!)
Health info bracelet: Some people have bracelets/anklets they wear to let paramedics/doctors know about allergies and specific health conditions right away. What if we could leverage the smartwatch to provide that information - maybe with the SOS app, so the information gets sent ahead at the first alert, giving doctors/EMTs more time to react.
Emergency Alert: Know when fire/police need to get through: This app would alert you when a fire truck/ambulance/police car is nearby and coming toward you, so you can pull over to the side or stop to let them by.
Nearby Good Samaritan: SOS calls (like previous idea) would alert people who are nearby and have this app, and are trained in CPR/other emergency situations. This would shorten the response time.
Hospi-Alert: As cellphones aren’t usually allowed in many areas of a hospital, use the watch to replace pagers. This keeps hospital personnel’s hands free to deal with emergencies as well as still remain connected to their phone and possibly extend more apps usage. Issues could be security and bluetooth use.
Travel / On the GO
City Tours (at tourist spots): Tourist information pops up when user is at places of interest - can integrate with the game ideas above to make it more ‘fun.’
Museum/Exhibit Tours (Walking Guide): Similar to above, except inside buildings with greater precision so beacons may be needed. Can integrate with exhibits to be interactive, or customized to audience’s age and background knowledge.
Flash Events: Notify you when a flash event is about to happen. For certain events that want to be more spontaneous, they can also provide instructions on how to join in.
Nearest Bus Stop: Poll your location, provide the nearest bus stops + arrival times of buses.
Traffic Alert: Warn of upcoming traffic routes, suggest alternatives.
Translator: Have key phrases in different languages that you can easily access.
May also attempt to have a ‘speak into watch, have it speak/display translation’ feature, so you can spend less time playing charades and more time enjoying the sights.
Money Conversion: Quickly convert from one currency to another.
Urban Artwork: “Before I Die” walls are one example - what if that were expanded to an experience that involved the digital, and smartwatches in particular?
Food Truck Tracker: Know if there are any food trucks nearby.
Personal / Utility / Random...
Calendar (Reminders): Allows user to view and be alerted of upcoming calendar events.
Recipes: Display recipes and instructions when cooking.
Have multiple timers if you’re cooking lots of things at once, so you don’t let any food burn on the stove or in the oven.
Mood Monitor: Like a mood ring, input a mood and get suggestions for things to do in that mood .
FlashLight/LightShow: Flash the watch screen different colors for an epileptic good time!
FeedTime: Alerts to feed pets, babies, kids, yourself, etc.
FindMe: Find items you’ve tagged/registered, like phone, keys, wallet, etc.
Reveal to Me: A ‘search’ function: alerts you when something of interest to you is nearby. For example, if you’re looking for green spaces, it’ll point out parks within some radius.
Or, ‘surprise me’ will point you to a spontaneous place to explore.
Can also alert to events that are happening nearby that may be of interest, for example a show at the nearby theater, or a farmer’s market a few blocks away.
Health
Allergy Notifications: Inform user of allergens in the food they’re about to eat - it can search up the restaurant the user checks in at, and first comb through.
Kind of related to health bracelet - it could also alert others that you have such an allergy.
Drunk Check: Answer a question on your watch to unlock/start your car. If you can’t answer, you’re too drunk to drive.
Wrist Masseuse: For when your wrist cramps up, use the watch’s vibration to create a massage set.
Prescription Alerts: Make sure you take your medicine daily. Doctor/pharmacist can enter instructions, or you can get them by scanning some code on your medicine bottle/choosing a common option.
Retail / $ / Shops
Shopping (Discounts & Coupons): Allow shopper to flash coupons on watch.
NeighborSale: Alert shoppers to good deals from nearby business or Craiglist.
eWallet: Pass through BART/Caltrain without having to go through the ticket booths. Purchase anything you want without having to swipe a card or count out cash. Even board a plane with your eticket on your watch.
AdWatch: Allows users to opt-into a program that allows ads to be displayed on watch instead of sites -- users get to browse ad-free using their phone/computer while receiving ads that take 1~5 seconds on the watch.
Logo League: A way for businesses to entice customers and make it into a playable “game”, users check into a retail location and increase their “logo-count,” entitling them to coupons, freebies, etc. Like being in a reward program with instant notification of rewards with GPS (instead of searching through emails or fumbling for the correct rewards card or number).
Home
SmartHome: Control devices in a smarthome (locking doors, changing thermostat, closing blinds) from wristwatch.
For example, can set to automatically turn on devices when you come home.
GuardDog: Get alerted to status of home security by security system as well as reporting authorities (ie. Power Off, Door Opened, Police Contacted → “10:59pm: Window broken, suspect fled, call ###-####...” - Officer XX).
Hermit: Watch has an option to go ‘off the grid’ and turn off your phone/computer/itself + any other technology, so you can be tech-free.
Laundry-Free: Find out if laundry is done or the machines are free. Tired of walking to the laundry room to find all the machines taken? Check your watch rather than your phone for ease of access as you hold your laundry basket on your way over.: Exchange contact information from the watch.
Social
Digital Fist Bump: Exchange contact information from the watch.
Never Alone: Meet up with others for meals/events; get alerted to what others are doing and join in.
Dating: Have a Tinder-like watch app which shows photos of nearby users.
Meeting: Lets your friend know where you are, e.g. if you’ve scheduled a meetup
Could have an ‘I was here’ function, so you can let a missed appointment know you did stop by, but had to go do something else/changed meeting place/”just needed to go to the bathroom, will be back soon!” kind of thing.
Negotiate where to meet up based on your locations - it can find and suggest places in between.
Pictures/Camera: Remote control camera via bluetooth.
‘Yo’, extended: No lengthy message necessary, simply choose a friend from your watch to send a message to.
Good for alerting someone instead of having to shout through a crowd, for example, if you’ve saved them a seat at a Cal football game.
Pre-determined messages, to reduce I/O problems of watch that prevent good text entry.
FeedMe: A random food/restaurant generator - for the times when you’re both really hungry and really indecisive. People are always asking “well, where do you want to go to eat?” - this would take the decision off your hands.
Pay it Forward: Send a nice message to someone when passing by. They then pay it forward by sending a nice message/doing something nice for someone else.
MarkedNews: Get notified of news articles related to your favorite topics and easily bookmark them for later reading. Allows you to remember what articles to read instead of scrolling and browsing.
Exercise/Outdoors
ExerciseCount: Counts reps, and pounds lifted.
Elevation (Hiking/Climbing): Track your elevation from your watch.
Could be nice to have hiking trail maps/markers left by previous hikers that let you know where to go and keep you from getting lost on wilder trails. Forest rangers/park rangers can also leave alerts as to where not to go, and send out emergency alerts in real time.
Track Health Outdoors: Get health alerts with extra sensors. For example: Light sensor tracks how long you’ve been out in the sun → get a reminder to apply sunscreen.
Pace Setter: Set a running pace; watch can vibrate to keep you on track.
With a heart rate sensor, it can also keep you within your target heartbeat rate by speeding up or slowing down the suggested pace.
Field Guides: Are those mushrooms safe or not? Field guides you can access on your watch in order to identify trees, animals, and other organisms.
Tide Warnings/Ocean Safety: Get the timings of high/low tide, riptide warnings, shark alerts, and so on, so you can surf and hang out on the beach safely.
Compass: Read your bearings without having to access an extra instrument.
It should also be able to give your position relative to points that are of interest to you. For example, you can select a location as your new ‘north’ and navigate relative to that point.
Winds: Provide you with readings of wind speed + direction + other relevant weather data right on your wrist and give recommendations for action based on that.
Project Proposal
Idea selection
Out of all our ideas, we believe that Digital Fist Bump is an idea worth pursuing as we are applying the technology offered by the smartwatch to what is already a natural human gesture. People often struggle with remembering personal details from conversations and networking sessions, and business cards are a far-from-optimal aid for this. Digital Fist Bump is hence our approach to solving this contact information exchange problem, while allowing us to personalize and optimize this information exchange in today's digital era. The idea also takes advantage of the smart watch's unique presence on the user's wrist to both detect actions and display relevant personal details of the other party. Exchanging information and remembering people should not be this difficult in this day and age!
Project Description
Target User Group:
While our identified problem affects everyone from convention and trade show organizers to career fair recruiters and salesmen, our target user group will be high-volume job hunters and recruiters. These users face the need to network and maintain professional relations in their daily interactions the most, and will benefit the most from our idea. They want to easily exchange essential info and not be required to handle multitudes of business cards or resumes. Time and convenience is of the essence; information exchange must be quick and simple - no entering information into forms, for example. Keeping hands free is also important for handshakes and other social greetings. They also want to be able to easily store, organize and follow up on the information they have gathered. With the number of new faces they meet all the time, it is difficult for them to connect someone's name and personal details with their face. They both have to deal with too many business cards and yet also want to exchange more info than a business card can hold.
Project Description & Context:
Networking is a critical part of one’s professional development. Despite this, it remains one of the areas barely disrupted by technology. The practice of asking for each other’s names, attempting to remember it while holding small talk and finally exchanging physical business cards after has still stuck. Later, one still has to sift through all the cards one has collected, attempting to connect them to real people and all the information one has learnt about them barely hours ago. The sheer scale of this is simply unmanageable. As undergraduates at Berkeley, we often attend various tech talks and networking sessions as well. Yet, we often struggle with remembering people’s names, and at times, even forget to ask a person for their contact details or business card.
This situation applies just as much to business professionals as it does to job seekers. A scenario closer to home is that at career fairs. When observing people there, we noticed that many companies now ask for you to input your contact information on iPads. These tablets however introduce an awkward environment with stilted conversation, with one person interacting with the device while the other looks on. Disruption in human conversation was prevalent at these booths. Instead of facilitating human interactions, the use of such devices actually made recruitment less personal, preventing the recruiter and candidate from forming real connections.
Digital Fist Bump is our approach to solving this contact information exchange problem. Human memory is limited, and we often struggle with remembering personal details particularly if we met many new people in a single night. We believe that there is a simpler and more efficient way to exchange this information. The smartwatch will sync with a mobile application that contains a user’s contact information and personal details, far more than the physical dimensions of a business card can allow. Once a fistbump or handshake is detected on the smartwatch, this data will be passed between both users’ smartphones, and a summary of the other party’s personal information will be displayed on each user’s smartwatch. This will also serve as a conversation starter, and allow users to easily review the other party’s personal information at the end of the day. Exchanging information and remembering people should not be this difficult in this day and age!
There have been several attempts to improve this situation and allow for an easier exchange of contact details than business cards, but none have gained much traction. Digital methods of exchanging contact information currently take too many steps and reduce the time spent actually conversing. The first part of the problem is collecting information; the second part is following up and keeping contacts organized. People’s digital presence can affect and promote their experiences and skills in the field but this information is not easily accessible through conventional paper means such as business cards or resumes. With all this information scattered in digital and paper form, having everything consolidated would be convenient and enable more work on the go - especially important for recruiters traveling from event to event. Job hunters should have an easy way to organize their contacts and keep track of who they’ve talked to, who seems interested, as well as when applications or interviews are happening.
The best solution currently on the market is perhaps Bump, a mobile app that allows users to “bump” their phones together to exchange details. Unfortunately, after an acquisition by Google, development was discontinued earlier this year and service shut down on January 31, 2014. Other apps exist on the market, but few besides Bump have taken advantage of natural human gestures to trigger an exchange of information, instead choosing the problematic route of having users manually trigger it instead, and certainly none have taken advantage of the opportunities a smartwatch offers.
Why is a Mobile App a Good Solution?
The trend of people building digital identities through sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Google and more has taken off. As employers take notice, there is a growing trend toward checking out this information. With a mobile app and the idea of Digital Fist Bump, we can take recruiting and networking on the go. Instead of having a stack of resumes or business cards to flip through and carry around, users' mobile devices provide a great platform to store such information digitally. Users also will not have to manually enter a browser link to view someone's social or professional profile, but can instead browse it on their phone on the go, or even better still from within just a single app. This can drastically speed up applicant reviewal and shorten the recruitment process. Currently, companies are trying to move into the digital field by having applicants enter their contact information into forms on iPads or laptops; however, this takes up table space and time that could be better spent on booth displays or talking to another potential candidate. It would be much better to simply leverage the mobile devices that recruiters and job seekers already carry around with them.
Why is a Smart Watch a Good Solution?
A smart watch eliminates the hassle of taking out your phone and manually entering a person’s name, email, phone number and any other relevant information. The pain point in exchanging information currently is that there are too many steps. A person needs to ask for contact information, take out their phone, input the information, send their own contact information to the other party, and then save the information. At a networking session with multiple professionals, this could take up a lot of time. Most users are also holding resumes or some other printed material in one hand, making it inconvenient to enter information into a device. However, with a smart watch that syncs with your phone, this process is instantly accelerated. This is particularly so considering smart watches already have built-in accelerometers, allowing them to detect arm motions. Once a fistbump or handshake is detected, data from one smartphone will be passed to another and vice versa. There will be no need to even reach into your pocket. Through this simple greeting that we are all already accustomed to, both parties can now have each other's contact information. The watch continues the ‘hand-connection’ feel by being accessible right on the wrist. Taking out phones creates a barrier between two people; bumping watches together breaks that barrier like a handshake or handing over a business card would. Furthermore, a smart watch is always on the user's wrist and subtle in nature. This allows us to display relevant personal details of the other party that can be viewed with a quick glance, without breaking the flow of the conversation. By capitalizing on the unique advantages of the smart watch, we can create human connections far more rapidly and enhance conversations without requiring a change in human behavior, dispelling the common complaint that technology comes in the way of human interactions.
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