Week 8 - Final post & comments

Through this project I came up with idea that I think is unique and has it's potential in technology sector. Augmented reality application using smartphone. I was blown away by it's function and potential it has, I wanted to jump in to technology and make something great. Just like NFC, it's still growing technology and has lots of practical uses for it. It's great for travel, entertainment, gaming, or just for fun of it. Most of us have smartphone these days. It's becoming norm. Especially in college, its hard to see something without smartphone. With their GPS functionality and other sensors, augmented reality application is easier than ever. Of course I will need a good programing coder, but idea behind this technology is infinite.

For example, if you apply this technology to social networking concept, think of all the possibilities. You can play catch & run with your friends real time using your smartphone. As I mentioned in my blog post, walking in to a bar and looking for someone with similar interest and their exact location, bio, etc. (if you agree to share those info of course) This has great potential. However, there aren't lot of people using it so market need to be more saturated before launching this application. There are lot of big companies weighting potential of 3D augmented reality whether it's through big glasses or dedicated machine, but people carry their smartphone everyday. This is where it should be at. People are already replacing their point and shoot daily cameras with smartphone. Technology evolves over time. Ideas are not. 

I think there are clearly market for this, but right now it's small. I will keep developing this idea as other related technology evolve and big companies are willing to bet their R&D to this idea. Throughout semester, I learned new concepts and technology that helped me shape this idea. This project was really helpful for me personally because I always wanted to think of something that was my own idea rather than somebody else. This project got me interested in stuff that I did not before and will keep me going with other ideas. Overall, I enjoyed writing weekly blogs with new ideas incorporated into my idea and checking others blog with their unique ideas as well. This was great experience. Thank you!

Blog commented:

1. Eugene Dvorochkin

http://eugened88.blogspot.com/2011/09/just-start.html#comments

2. Jennifer Wu

http://jencwu.blogspot.com/2011/09/blog-1.html?showComment=1319589824740#c5953756478715079544

3. David Taylor

http://dgtaylor91.blogspot.com/2011/09/week-1-idea.html?showComment=1319590291882#c3210107526572700799

Week 7 - Michael Arrington

This is a blog post about Michael Arrington, a well-known blogger in tech industry. Michael is founder and former co-editor of TechCrunch, blog that covers technology news and other related topics ranging from consumers electronics to important technology news around the world. Michael was named as one of the most influential people on the Internet by Wired and Forbes. 

Among many of his start-ups and companies that he founded, TechCrunch is most notable of all. It covers  technology news and start-ups and ideas that are noteworthy. He worked there as co-editor and wrote columns in various ranging topics. At the time of writhing this post, he is no longer working or employed at TechCrunch. 

Although Michael is influential blogger in the tech industry, many fellow bloggers and even some CEOs in Silicon Valley seems to not like him, because of his arrogant attitude toward things that he doesn't support and inappropriate verbal usage from time to time. He was also involved in a lawsuit around developing and launching of tablet device, called JooJoo, where Arrington and other company were claiming the rights of device. Overall, he knows what he is doing, which is writing sensational blog post to attract people, and does it in a smart business way. 

Source

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Arrington

- http://techcrunch.com/

Week 6 - OS & Colors

In this week's lecture, we learned about operating system. Operating system is one of the most important factor for my idea. It's the core and foundation of augmented application. I'll have to decide what kind of operating system I'll be using for my application before doing anything else. Right now, Apple provides the most vibrant and easy to use, profitable API for developers. They provide tools that allow developers easily create application that's easy to use for consumers. 

Compared to Android, iPhone application are generally more sophisticated in terms of user interface and quality of application in general. Also, because developers prefer development environment where there are most demand. It used be dominant iOS but as Android's marketshare grows rapidly, it's common that more and more developers develop for both iOS and Android at the same time. I think it's good that developing app for both OS because of larger audience base.

Because of demise of BlackBerry and other mobile os, it's easier to choose what kind of application environment I need to focus on. I think it's important to decide what market to go after rather than trying to embrace every market which will likely result in wasting time and energy for something that does not offer profit. Right now future is iOS and Android, it seems. Maybe Windows Phone 7. 

Week 5 - Bit & Bytes

In this week's lecture, we learned about bits and bytes. Bits and bytes works in many technology formats. They are in music files, photos, and other data files. Over the past decade, with rapid advance in technology, the amount of bits & bytes also increased. With more bits & bytes, you simply can listen higher quality music, better photos, and just about better quality for everything you do on computer. 

We also learned the concept of size and their respective terms. These basic concepts and terms are necessary to know as people cares about their data storage and consumer wants to know and understand the size of their hard drive unlike the past. Also, it's worth noting that they care about the size of application, simply because if the application is too big, they are more hesitant to download it because of their limited flash drive size. Also, as carriers's data networks are heavily taxed by all these smartphones and they clearly can't catch up the rate of it's adoption. So they capped the size of application downloadable through their 3G network to small size. 

In order to solve the application size problem, I will rely heavily on cloud servers for both processing and storing information. This will allow application's size to be small but robust in it's functionality. Also, as Wi-Fi and 3G networks are becoming norm everywhere, it won't be a problem for people finding constant network connection to use the application. 

Week 4 - Input Devices

I think this week's lecture was one of the most important lecture for my entrepreneurial idea; Input devices and NFC technology. Near field communication, or NFC, is technology that allows for simple business transactions, exchanging data, and connecting near devices wirelessly. This is technology already deployed and used in Asia for paying goods, swiping their smartphones in subways instead of their credit cards, and other places. It hasn't really hit the U.S market yet, but I think it will soon as wireless carriers and favoring this technology and companies are putting NFC chips in smartphones. 

NFC technology allows 3D augmented reality to become really practical and hit the mass market. We can see it already happening in States with Google Nexus S 4G as it has little NFC chip built in. However, without valid software and mass infrastructure, it cannot succeed, just like any other technology. Google Wallet is the first to hit the market with partnering credit card companies and some big chain department stores. Most companies favor NFC over RFID and bluetooth, or any other wireless data transferring technology, because it is simply more secure much easier to put on to devices. 

For my augmented reality application, NFC plays vital role as it will help people make business transactions, or placing an order right from the app when they arrive at the store without talking to the employee. They can just use their smartphone camera to look at desired item which will have QR code attached so you can look at the details, and buy it all right from your phone. I'm learning more and more newly developing technology that will help my idea become more broad and practical. I can't wait to learn more technology and imagine my application utilizing them. 

Week 3 - Hardware

Just few years ago, when people talked about augmented reality it was common knowledge that people would have to wear some kind of weird eyewear in order for augmented reality ideas to work. Even better, some even suggested that implanting some kind of device to your body might be better option. However, after the smartphone revolution broke through and when hardware in these small devices become stronger and stronger, it became viable all-in-one device for many of the ideas and application, including 3D augmented reality concept. 

Smartphones and even tablets have enough raw power to run console games now. It matches the same raw power achieved by desktops just few years ago. Even better, graphics chip and rams are strong enough to run desktop-class application and other softwares that match the elegance and simplicity of laptop. With camera, GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, flash light, and all kinds of sensors built in to them, it's perfect solution and hardware that can make 3d augmented reality to everyone. 

Most importantly, it's something everyone always carry with them. It's small enough to fit in the pocket, it became part of everyones life. It already replaced most people's daily casual cameras, portable gaming device, newspapers, and many other tasks that was done by separate device. By utilizing these assets and strong advantages, it can help accelerate mass adoption on consumers to understand and realize the possibility behind 3d augmented reality. As screen gets crisper, cameras getting better, and more sensors built into them, hardware shouldn't be a problem anymore to bring 3d augmented application to these devices.

Week 2 - Privacy

Some people worry about their privacy on the internet and because of rapid advance in technology sector, it became norm for companies to collect your personal data and even give those data to other companies for advertising and statistics purposes. People checking in their current location on services like Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare is common practice. However, with all these data about you and your family can be used against you. While ago, there was a article about analytics firm who was collecting data from their customers of their location data, user information, and what kind of devices they are using. This sounds pretty legitimate until you hear the line where it says, users were not asked to give out these data. In other words, users were unaware of their personal data being sent to this firm. This is pretty scary. 

Computer generation are more willing to accept that in order to use social services to it's full extent, you need to give up some of your privacy. However, people who came before computer and people who need to protect their personal data are worried about increasing threats to their personal data. My idea of augmented reality app is based on the whole concept of social media and private data people have. Most of it's features are based on GPS location, and users data that can be shared with others. This might raise some concerns. However, I believe it's necessary step to advance our technology. People will still have option to use this application or not. There are people who do not want to share their data with others but there are also people who's willing to share more data with others. To embrace both sides, users can choose what they want to share, when they want to share, and if they want to be asked every time augmented reality app wants to share your data with others. By asking users every time or how they want to share their data, their privacy is still safe and is up to the users to decide.  

The good example is Google+. Although it has same concepts and are direct competitor against Facebook, features like Circles and ability to post things and share updates with the certain group you assigned is welcome concept. Facebook just rolled out similar update to it's service so I think as companies realize the importance of private data more and more, we will gain more control over our privacy over time. Most of these privacy concerns can be solved if companies provide solid guideline for what kind of data are being shared and how they can manage their private data without hiding under confusing settings menu. It's understandable that companies like Facebook need users to open up their data more more but there is no excuse for them to push out new services without properly asking their customers if they are fine with personal data being exposed.