1. First working prototype complete! (Taken with Instagram at Milwaukee Makerspace)

    First working prototype complete! (Taken with Instagram at Milwaukee Makerspace)

    (Source: mmassie)

  2. Could a global ad company open up streaming web content?

    If there was a streaming ad company that offered the ability to target ads by location, could we open up streaming blackout and location restrictions? Would sporting event broadcasters be more open to streaming globally?

    Currently the companies that are pushing ads on streaming networks are either the station themselves (Watch Hulu, while watching Hulu) or national brands that have less concerns about location, as long as they ban it for outside national IP addresses. ESPN is just showing you a black, “Be back shortly” clip. Clearly networks are struggling to figure this out, when it should be easier than what their current over-the-air tools offer.

    It seems that there would be an opportunity for a ad company to manage and deliver streaming ads based on users location and potentially login info. This gives relevance and targeting to the ads that are on the screen during air time. This provides an even better model than what broadcasters provide to the companies buying air time today. In this option, if a venue wanted to stream the events, only local/relevant content will be displayed - instead of a spot for a  UK cellular company to be shown to a pub full of folks in Los Angeles.

    I understand that there is value in holding a US show for a year to keep hype high before rebroadcast in foreign countries, but sports is different… it would be the equivalent of replaying the Weather Channel from last week.

  3. Shot a quick video playing around with more NFC tagging, this time linking our wedding day photo, in Copenhagen, to Google Streetview of the actual corner that it was photographed.

  4. Name Plate 2.0 (for the multi-location worker) Update: It may help to explain - I work in two different campuses and I often asked what campus I’ll be working from. So while I am working on a physical device with the some of the crew at Milwaukee Makerspace. I dropped an NFC tag behind my nameplate and programmed it to link to my Google Latitude account. Tap my nameplate with your NFC enabled phone and you are instantly show where I am at that point in time. UPDATE: Posted a short YouTube video showing how it works: http://youtu.be/buy-H9ee-Rs

    Name Plate 2.0 (for the multi-location worker) Update: It may help to explain - I work in two different campuses and I often asked what campus I’ll be working from. So while I am working on a physical device with the some of the crew at Milwaukee Makerspace. I dropped an NFC tag behind my nameplate and programmed it to link to my Google Latitude account. Tap my nameplate with your NFC enabled phone and you are instantly show where I am at that point in time.

    UPDATE: Posted a short YouTube video showing how it works: http://youtu.be/buy-H9ee-Rs

  5. Adding Weather and Traffic to Trip Directions I am kicking around - draft mock-up above - some feature options for adding two other factors into Google Maps (Directions): Weather and Traffic. By leveraging weather and traffic data throughout the route, a Google Trip feature can refer the optimal travel time to save on time and gasoline. Avoiding adverse weather conditions can optimize safest travel times. Dots on route represent time increments; time increments change depending on distance. Like time-of-day/traffic algorithms, historical data could relate weather effects on traffic through an area. Changing departure time alters estimates; peak traffic times, construction hours, etc. Weather overlay potentially can offer users to play/ffw/rew stream of moving weather patterns. A little background - Last week we took a road trip to DC and this weekend we headed on a short trip up to Madison to visit a friend. This got me curious about how often do people take road trips (over 2 hours)? I typically don’t, but realized that there are a lot of college students and people in general that have a car/flight limit - under 3 hours and they drive, over they look to fly. We mapped out most our trip on Google Maps and I do like the new social options of sharing trip data with others in Google+. I got to thinking about the other influences that affect driving times. Love to hear how often you’ve taken road trips, over two hours and just generally if you have feedback.

    Adding Weather and Traffic to Trip Directions

    I am kicking around - draft mock-up above - some feature options for adding two other factors into Google Maps (Directions): Weather and Traffic. By leveraging weather and traffic data throughout the route, a Google Trip feature can refer the optimal travel time to save on time and gasoline.

    • Avoiding adverse weather conditions can optimize safest travel times.
    • Dots on route represent time increments; time increments change depending on distance.
    • Like time-of-day/traffic algorithms, historical data could relate weather effects on traffic through an area.
    • Changing departure time alters estimates; peak traffic times, construction hours, etc.
    • Weather overlay potentially can offer users to play/ffw/rew stream of moving weather patterns.

    A little background - Last week we took a road trip to DC and this weekend we headed on a short trip up to Madison to visit a friend. This got me curious about how often do people take road trips (over 2 hours)? I typically don’t, but realized that there are a lot of college students and people in general that have a car/flight limit - under 3 hours and they drive, over they look to fly. We mapped out most our trip on Google Maps and I do like the new social options of sharing trip data with others in Google+. I got to thinking about the other influences that affect driving times.

    Love to hear how often you’ve taken road trips, over two hours and just generally if you have feedback.

  6. The key to a connected media TV experience will be in layering content

    When it comes to a connected media experience on our TVs, full screen apps will have their place, but the benefit will really be in layering over other content -A customizable sidebar would be a key feature in a connected media experience on your TV.

    I’d love to have the ability to have an open bar on the side of the screen that would show when my friends are on Skype, emails in, plus a section that is adaptable to the content on the screen: Like when a movie trailer is playing on the screen that a button slide onto the sidebar that would allow me to a) Check local availability via Flixter b) Add to Netflix. When watching a sporting event then I can add a player stats bar, or a Twitter feed with a #hashtag of inline conversations (like the World Cup Tracking Page).

  7. VoIP for the Massies… or, Masses

    Cisco should purchase Skype, if only just for a hardware component: SkypeTV - a small TV top unit w/vcamera, internet connection (Wi-Fi & CAT5) on top of a TV with video in/out. Mainly as a simple non-tech/elderly friendly set-up to connect families, but also to connect people where they socialize, not huddled around a laptop, but in the living room.

    For that matter, a camera peripheral for the next Apple’s iTV to FaceTime, or GoogleTV to Google Voice would all help connect us with our loved ones in the place where we keep company - not in the office.

  8. Google 10 to the 100 submission - Viesansfil

    Wish me luck as today I submitted an entrant in the Google 10 to the 100 initiative. I had this idea drafted as a Technical Writing project at MSOE. Why let it go to waste right?

    Viesansfil,is a proposed new medical tool which would be comprised of an online database (DB) and a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag. The RFID tag would be issued to patients in two forms, either an implanted chip under the patient’s skin or in a traditional medical bracelet form. This RFID tag would hold critical information about this patient that can be read by any medical staff within 4 meters. With the online DB being managed by the collective medical profession, this DB could avert overdosing issues, misdiagnosis due to efforts made by other physicians, or other administrative errors. Populated in the patients database would be medical data like allergies, family history, and previous incidents. With either scanning the RFID or checking the online DB, any medical practitioner is able to quickly see all data related to this patient, for example; If a patient were to be admitted to the hospital unconscious, the hospital staff can scan the patient’s tag, find that him/her has an allergy to latex and who to contact in case of emergencies. This is critical data that can follow the patient everywhere. Further advances to the RFID tag would be to communicate its info to other wireless haptic devices within RFID range (e.g. RFID tagged heart monitor, RFID enabled mobile phones for real-time communication with physicians or database).