Using The Force: Mattel Made a Toy for Mind Control
Jedi Mind Tricks
No longer exclusive to Luke Skywalker and the Immortal Technique, you too can…well…move stuff with your brain. The latest game from toy maker Mattel captured the hearts (and minds) of techies and jaded Jedi alike at the CES in Las Vegas last week.
The game, Mind Flex, allows you to move a ball around through hoops, towers and other obstacles using the power of acute concentration. Mind Flex relies on EEG technology to measure brain wave activity through a headgear equipped with sensors. Focusing on the ball activates the sensors and causes a fan in the base of the game to lift the ball using a gentle stream of air.
Mattel is not the only company to commission this technology. Uncle Milton plans to release a similar game this year, called “Force Trainer.”
The games are fairly similar, but with Lucas Arts licensing the moniker it promises to outpace the Mind Flex.
License and charge twice as much, they will.
The Force is strong with this one.
Wireless Innovation
Cisco, the communications technology giant (not the singer/thong-enthusiast), has introduced the industry’s first next-generation wireless access point that combines a sleek design with power efficiency to simplify deployment in office environments– The Cisco Aironet 1140 Series Access Point.
This technology exhibits a secure performance while using standard “Power over Ethernet” (PoE).
The benefits of the technology include:
• improved wireless coverage and capacity
• optimized device connections
• simplified wireless management
The device combines full 802.11n functionality with operational simplicity, enabling businesses like yours to cost-effectively support the growing swell of diverse mobile devices and applications. Cisco is promising high-quality voice, video and dense media transmission across wireless networks, at a time when businesses are becoming increasingly collaborative and reliant of mobile technologies.
Which means you’ll be queuing Youtube videos faster than you can say Blagojevich.
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0465293.htm
Research and Innovation Trendy in ‘09
While marketing budgets are dwindling, market research and innovation are surging-this according to the newly released “Top Marketing Trends for 2009″ survey from the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG). MENG contacted more than 2,000 senior marketing professionals (VP or higher title), spanning all industries and marketing disciplines.
Overall the survey reveals that more and more firms are offsetting marketing budget cuts by “stepping up” innovation.
One marketing executive offered his thoughts on navigating a company through a recession: “Finding inexpensive ways to gain competitive advantage and grow share is critical to longer-term success when the economy starts to recover.”
An ability to adapt to limited resources during an economic downturn has traditionally proved to produce positive long-term results-à la Procter and Gamble after the recession in the mid-70s. This sort of agility is an excellent marker of future success and not just for established corporations, but for start-ups, as well.
Read, React and Innovate!
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=98223
Green Marketers Use Old Technology
“Ads On Bikes” has created a lean, green marketing innovation. The company, which is based in Portland, Oregon, is taking advantage of an eco-friendly resource, bicycles, and their idea appears to be catching the eye of local businesses and consumers alike.
They track the time and place ads appear and are then able to assign a dollar value to the particular route.
Bicyclists are not commissioned to follow a designated commercial route, but simply stick to the one they would normally use. The bikes are fitted with a GPS system that allows companies to track their ads and see exactly how much exposure they are paying for.
The prices of the ads are determined by:
• proximity to your business
• pedestrian foot-traffic
• time of day the cyclist rides
An inspirational venture-a positive collaboration of new business and old technology. Aside from demonstrating a uniquely creative marketing strategy they might just move a few more people to travel green and commute by bicycle.
Patented Collaboration
For the 16th (consecutive) year IBM leads the field in U.S. patents. The Wilt Chamberlain of tech companies issued a press release earlier this week proclaiming an astonishing 4,186 U.S. patents in 2008.
The 2008 List looks like this:
1. IBM- 4,186
2. Samsung-3,515
3. Canon- 2,114
4. Microsoft- 2,030
5. Intel- 1,776
6. Matsushita- 1,745
7. Toshiba- 1,609
8. Fujitsu- 1,494
9. Sony- 1,485
10. HP- 1,424
IBM is the first company to ever to earn more than 4,000 U.S. patents in a year and the total outpaced Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Apple, EMC, Accenture and Google-combined.
In the spirit of collaborative innovation, IBM also announced a rejuvenated effort to increase the number of technical inventions it publishes. By publishing their work instead of seeking patents, they are making their innovations more accessible to others.
Publication should inspire follow-on innovation, which will undoubtedly produce more vigorous business growth across the board.
Hopefully, their commitment to share will encourage continued investment in research and development and also cut through some of the legal red-tape that has stunted the freedom and creativity of other inventors and companies.
I applaud IBM’s dedication to stimulating economic and innovative prosperity.
This is the observations for January 20th, 2009. For more interviews, check out http://cogi.ottenhoff.net
