Reviewing the Innovations of Tomorrow
By Raj Choudhury on Friday, June 22nd, 2007One of my roles at Spunlogic (and a personal passion) is to review emerging technologies and new innovative concepts. Over the last several months I’ve been on various Beta teams, reviewing what I think are very exciting concepts to our industry that I’d like to share with the masses.
Coghead (http://www.coghead.com/)
Coghead is probably one of the most exciting concepts that is actually becoming a reality. I joined the Beta team about 9 months ago, and am excited to say the product just got released a few weeks ago. Coghead, in essence, is a do-it-yourself web application platform. It allows business users to build complex applications using logic and business components through a user interface “wizard”. No coding language or database knowledge is needed. You can search for applications other users have shared (free or buy), copy them and modify the logic/data structure as needed. It can create multiple access rights for various users and essentially replace enterprise level software if done right. I like Coghead for many reasons, but most of all it allows me to play with concept applications very easily to determine the logic I’ll need, the data structure and the interface screens that make sense without having to involve development in any way. For example, I’ve been playing around to create an asset management system, as well as a robust employee records system. The future is end-less for this on-demand service, and large software companies need to take a serious look at how this type of product could impact them.
Joost (http://www.joost.com/)
What can I say? I LOVE Joost. It’s my new way of watching TV and sharing what I like in a community. I finally got into the Beta team about 7 months ago. To be honest, the performance of the product/service wasn’t great; but, as they improved the software I started to experience what they were talking about. Live High Definition TV on my laptop, with great controls and features. I was recently allowed to share Joost with a limited number of friends, and I’m curious to see their feedback. Prior to Joost I’d been using BitTorrent (http://www.bittorrent.com/). And, in my opinion, Joost kicks the Torrent concept and is going to be the new wave of how we watch TV, at least on our Laptops, etc.
Fotowoosh (http://www.fotowoosh.com/)
I recently came across fotowoosh and thought the concept and practical reality was amazing. Having just joined the Beta team I don’t have a great deal to report. The product has a long way to go before it’s ready for commercial use, but essentially fotowoosh uses complex mathematical algorithms to construct a 3D rendering from a digital photo (2D). What!!!??? How!!!??? In very basic terms, the software determines the ground, sky, vertical and horizontal surfaces, and building structure, etc. and applies learned knowledge from training images in order to construct the 3D model. So, basically, some really complex geometry and logic! The possibilities are endless, as you can imagine; historical reconstruction, real-estate, architecture firms, mapping, etc. Think about it, even virtual worlds like Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com/) would one day use this rendering technology to have a real-life experience. As I mentioned this software is really at its infancy, and has a long way to go. But I’ll keep you posted during the beta phase.
I’d love to know your thoughts, and even other tools/software your all keeping an eye out for.
Fotowoosh sounds really interesting, and I think your comment on the potential impact in virtual worlds like Second Life is a really interesting insight. Should the technology be sound and reliable it could sprout many legs for future technological and marketing applications – what could a 3D plug in mean to sites like Flickr?
Raj, when you told me about Joost, I thought, “Yeah, sure, another ‘dancing bear’” (Yes the bear can dance, but it will never be on Dancing with the Stars–it’s remarkable only for its novelty.) With a real wide screen TV in the next room, I tuned in wondering if Joost really added much–Oh I see–a whole bunch of content that DirctTV DOESN’T have. “Hey wait a minute, maybe this could be something.”
But two things have to happen. As you say, it’s still beta. The technology has to catch up with the vision, and I’m sure it will. Today, my three year old computer and DSL don’t have enough horsepower to deliver an acceptable (read: indistinguishable from Real TV) experience. This will come.
The other issue is no stranger: Content! Now we have the potential to stream an endless number of channels. Professional content has to be created (or repurposed) that is even more specialized than the 150 channels of crap on the cable and with high enough production quality that we will want to tune in to watch it. More than YouTube, much more diverse than the big three. Definitely could happen, though the economics have to be worked out. Would I want to tune in to watch a daily show on knitting? No, but I know people who would. I’d prefer SCUBA TV with video from one interesting dive after another, 24×7. And maybe the local news when I’m on the road. Or play by play on building than new RC plane.
Hmmm, very interesting.