Matt Baril

Idea #8 Augmented Reality: multimedia aggregator accessible through smartphones & physical tags

As smartphones with Internet access become the norm, things will change. One hot topic right now is augmented reality and it's about making the reality "better" by using technology. Here I'm using AR in a slightly different meaning than the official definition given by wikipedia. But the point is that technology can support you and give you more information than what would normally be available in the "natural" world. My idea is in 2 steps. First create a content aggregator a la Squidoo in which a user can put together the best resources available on a given topic: videos, sounds, news articles, blog posts, pictures, etc. This page could be modified by other users or not, that would be up to the creator. Second, upon successful creation of a "page", a short URL, a code and an image would be automatically created. A short URL would make it easier for the user to share his or her page with other people online via traditional channels (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). The code and the image are both URLs and are meant to be used as URLs for smartphones and connect the virtual world with the real world.

Here's an example of how that would work. Let's say you work for a museum for instance and you want to enrich the experience of your visitors by creating a page about your latest exhibition with videos, pictures, and articles about the artist and her art. Then you print the image and the code (they are both a physical URL to your page). You make the code and the image apparent so people can see them. Finally, your visitors use their smartphone to either manually enter the code to access your page or better use their smartphone camera to take a picture of the image which a software would decode and redirect you to the right page. The image might sound confusing, but that technology already exists and you can read more about it here.

Idea #6 Mobile app offering guided tours to tourists tapping into wikipedia, videos, images, songs

As geolocation is becoming more present and more accessible there is a whole new world opening up, everything needs to be done: e.g. new apps, new games, new social media platforms. It encourages us to think differently and to tap into this new opportunity. One of them will be tourism as people travel more than ever before, but people want also to know more. You can have expensive bus guided tours, inexpensive walking tours, books, DVDs, etc. With handheld devices with access to Internet however, you can use maps and offer content based on where the user is. Someone could use their smartphone to have content delivered to them: videos, news articles, wikipedia pages, audio files, etc. based on where they are and what they're looking at. It would be their own personal guided tour. The app should also tap into Social Media and let people share their comments, appreciation, pictures, etc. As more people use the app, there would be more content to share and a richer user experience.

Idea #5 Body measurement software that can create your 3D/2D virtual model based on 4 pictures of yourself

I'm currently working for an online retailer and one thing I've noticed is that either people are really confused and call us to know whether a given item and size would fit them or they order and then return the merchandise. In the first case there isn't much we can do since first of all we don't have access to all the merchandise and we don't know what all the sizes of all our brand are. Anyways we're on the phone and we obviously can't see the person and therefore cannot be of any help. Whether someone calls our CSRs or order something to end up returning it, it costs a lot of money to the company. The virtual model is an old idea, but as far as I know there are two ways to create your model: you either type all the required measurements yourself or you go to a physical store to have your body scanned. Both methods are inconvenient and their spread has been limited.

The idea here would be to use an "anchor". That could be a standard little piece of plastic that people would have to hold while taking their picture and that specific anchor would act as a marker to indicate the proportions to the software. This is exactly the same as when someone takes a picture and puts a penny next to the object they're taking a picture of. All that would be required is 4 pictures: face, side 1, back, side 2 and the software could measure your body and come up with at least a 2D model of yourself, and possibly one in 3D.

I see 2 main advantages to using this system: it's inexpensive, convenient and fast for customers as most people now have digital cameras. Secondly, there is a possibility of charging for the piece of plastic used as a marker. Customers could go online and order the marker that would be shipped to them. This kind of business model would be sustainable.

I also see 1 main disadvantage to this system: for optimal results people would have to take the pictures in underwear and many people are likely to feel uncomfortable uploading their pictures on a third party website. For this reason the software would have to be installed locally on the customers' computer, but the company should also offer a strong legal contract and strict policies about the privacy of their customers.

This kind of software would not be cheap to build, but considering all the money spent on shipping and customer service due to wrong sizes being ordered, online stores would save an important amount of money in the long run. It would also help to decrease the resistance many people have with shopping for cloth online. Finally, it would be possible to create a universal or central system, so someone can upload their measures on the website and then export their measures to many different online stores. The use of this universal system could be charge to the online retailers and in this business model the company would get cash flows from both end customers and retailers.

What do you think? Would you use such a software?

Idea #4 Events feed aggregator that would include hundreds of feeds & would make find events easy

There are many websites specialized in creating and sharing events such as upcoming.yahoo.com, meetup.com, and facebook amongst other. It would be great and probably technically easy to create a feed aggregator which is a platform that would fetch all the events of all these different websites and make searching through them easy. Websites like SimplyHired.com and Indeed.com are feed aggregators for job postings and as far as I know there is no such a thing for events. This website would come up with a list of events in your area based on your location and would offer different categories such as parties, games, conferences, etc. Money could be made by charging premiums for having an event to come up at the top of the list and selling general advertising.

Idea #2 Middle-man/transit between North American e-stores and international undeliverable locations

I'm currently working for the e-store department of an e-commerce solutions provider in Vancouver, British Columbia. One thing that's really annoying when you shop online, is when the store doesn't deliver to wherever you live. We advise our customers to ship the items to someone local, if they know anyone, and then ask that local person to ship the items to them. So the idea is to be the middle-man so anyone from anywhere in the world have their items delivered to you, and then you charge them the shipping cost plus a premium and reship their package to them.