Facial Recognition Glasses

Its natural to think of wearable augmented reality glasses including a facial recognition system.  But apparently Google has no plans to include such software at this time.  In Engadget.

More Smart Glasses

Its not all about the Google Glass idea.  The notion of head-wearable, camera enabled augmented reality is being promoted by a number of vendors.  Metaio reports on another example.  All of these ideas are augmented reality plays.  Metaio is a major software developer in this space. " ... “Wearable computing is the next step for natural, useful Augmented Reality,” said Metaio CTO Peter Meier. “In order to realize the dream of an always on, always augmented world, it is important to have software for developers ready, today, for smart glasses like the Vuzix M100.” ... " 

Personal Clouds

Controlling your own data, is this a great idea?  Prompted by data ownership issues and speed in conventional clouds.  Only a limited specialty concern?

Algorithms that Write Books

In Mashable:   We have a huge compendium of knowledge on the web, some public, some private, some hidden.   It has always seemed to me there are ways to integrate this information into compact accumulations of knowledge. in other words: books.  This is going in some interesting directions we will see more of.

Visualizing Service Design

I like the idea of visualization of design.  Its very natural for most people to think this way.  Add it to a presentation and you will capture their attention.  And applying it to services?  In a presentation today I tried to outline how services could be connected to data rich processes.  Would have been valuable to have a visualization to portray what I was talking about.   How many standards needs to be included to make the recognition swift and universal?

Digimind, Brought Back to my Attention.

Digimind

* Bigger box/ Bigger letters mean higher number of market news where “arctic” was discussed, indicating potential trend…I have selected country on the variation chart as the entity, but the trend analysis can be done by customer, person, segment, product line, competitor and many others. The list is unlimited…

Adjusting to the Digital Landscape

Well, yes, hope its not too late.  " ... As consumers turn to digital and mobile sources for product information and purchases, retailers have no choice but to adjust, experts say. For example, through partnerships with food-makers, QR codes can provide product information and coupons, as well as an entertaining video for children shopping with parents. ... ".  

Designing Your Next Product

Should a five year old?  Not unless five year olds buy it.  Naive does not necessarily make your product good.

Gamification Is Individual

Interesting thoughts.   "   ... A recent article by the IT specialist website Lifehacker Australia describes the most common pitfall of gamification; businesses often assume that gamification will instantly improve their business as if it’s a magic elixir. The article explains that while gamification can be very effective, it must be integrated in the right way, typically with a focus on the individual: “The big failing? Most projects focus too hard on achieving a specific corporate goal and neglect the objectives of the actual players, whether those are staff or customers. People don’t play games to reward others; they play for their own enjoyment. If you want a gamification project to succeed, you have to recognize that. This is why gamification by individuals often works better than gamification at a corporate level.” .. " 

Smart Devices Making Us Dumber

In CIOInsight:  Sounds much like the argument being made not so long ago about the use of calculators and before that,  slide rules.   Were we being dumbed down?    Today, though, the difference is that new smart technologies are adding social 'intelligence' to the mix, which the use of calculators never did.   The article includes reference to a WSJ on the topic.

Brainwashed, the Overreach of Neuroscience

Just received, Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience  by  Sally Satel  and Scott O. Lilienfeld  I was interviewed for this book and read an early version.  Will read and remark on in full soon.   Their description:  " ... In recent years, the advent of MRI technology seems to have unlocked the secrets of the human mind, revealing the sources of our deepest desires, intentions, and fears. As renowned psychiatrist and scholar Sally Satel and psychologist Scott O. Lilienfeld demonstrate in Brainwashed, however, the explanatory power of brain scans in particular and neuroscience more generally has been vastly overestimated. Although acknowledging its tremendous potential, the authors argue that the overzealous application of the burgeoning field of brain science has put innocent people in jail, prevented addicts from healing themselves, and undermined notions of free will and responsibility.  A provocative challenge to the use and abuse of a seductive science, Brainwashed offers an essential corrective to determinist explanations of human behavior.... " 

Updated: See also a balanced WSJ review.

Advice for Returning CEOs

Knowledge @ Wharton provides a history and analysis of returning CEOs,  see my note on P&G's AG Lafley's return.    Asking if the 'Gamble' will pay off.  Instructive and interesting.

Whats New on Lafley's List?

In AdAge:  I liked the fact that his predecessor, Bob McDonald, seemed to be emphasizing the analytical in finding ways to improve business.  Yet they soon found that there was little real support for new or sustained capabilities.  Business Sphere was one good example of value, but not taken far enough.   Wall street was not impressed.   Had worked with Lafley and his people and he is a true innovator, so liked his direction.  Very traditionally marketing directed.  Now has quite a challenge in front of him.  Find new, really profitable billion dollar brands.    But as AdAge asks, what is really new here?

Analytics Summit this Friday

Last chance, this Friday .... contact numbers below ... I unfortunately will be out of town, but looks to be good.

" ... Analytics Summit 2013  will be held on May 31, 8:15AM-5:00PM at the University of Cincinnati. Analytics Summit 2013 is the premiere analytics event of the year sponsored by the Center for Business Analytics in the Carl H. Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati. The theme of the event is "Real-World Impact from Business Analytics." 

The Summit will feature a keynote presentation by renowned thought-leader Tom Davenport, best-selling author of Competing on Analytics. The event also includes day-long tracks in the specialized areas of Consumer/Retail Analytics, Finance & Insurance Analytics, Healthcare Analytics, HR Analytics and Supply Chain & Logistics Analytics. Track speakers include representatives from Procter & Gamble, Fifth Third Bank, dunnhumby, Kroger Co, Mercer, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, and many more. 

To register for this event, please visit: http://www.regonline.com/analyticssummit2013. The website includes details on location, lodging options, agenda, etc. 

For more information, please see the website linked above or contact Tricia Burger at tricia.burger@uc.edu or (513) 556-7140.

Rise of Mobile Only

In a look at potential C suite users for business intelligence applications we quickly discovered a large number of users that are now mobile only.   More than I expected.  The rise of the tablet has made this is an increasingly specified requirement.  While the laptop is still needed for the typical analyst, the need has fallen away for many others.   The HBR discusses the trend.

An Age of Smart Machines

In the Economist:  Can we, will the knowledge worker be replaced and when?   Kurt Vonnegut is invoked from his novel Piano Player.   We certainly believed this in the 1980s.  .  " ... Two things are clear. The first is that smart machines are evolving at breakneck speed. Moore’s law—that the computing power available for a given price doubles about every 18 months—continues to apply. This power is leaping from desktops into people’s pockets. More than 1.1 billion people own smartphones and tablets. Manufacturers are putting smart sensors into all sorts of products. The second is that intelligent machines have reached a new social frontier: knowledge workers are now in the eye of the storm, much as stocking-weavers were in the days of Ned Ludd, the original Luddite. Bank clerks and travel agents have already been consigned to the dustbin by the thousand; teachers, researchers and writers are next. The question is whether the creation will be worth the destruction. ... " 

Information Insertion at Point of Need

From the BBC: What a good ridiculously simple idea, a sticker applied to Mercedes vehicles that contains a QR code, which directs first responders to rescue methods to extract people from a specific car model.  They have put the idea into the public domain.

Reminds me of related ideas of tattooing bar codes on people for medical ID .... Not far different from RFID capsule injection, now common in veterinary applications and some human systems ...

Designer Storytelling

Artifacts and more in storytelling.    You would think that today the universality of information technology would always bring it to the forefront as a required artifact of the storytelling process.  Yet there is much more: " ... Design artifacts  such as sketches, models, storyboards and multimedia presentations, are often described in terms of stories. We aim to observe designers’ approaches to storytelling during a design project  ran in The GlobalStudio, an international conglomerate of design students from various universities throughout theworld. Literature that provides theory surrounding storytelling is used to provide a framework of analysis with which we used to observe the design artefacts produced by the students. The paper concludes by discussing the themes in approach to storytelling that have emerged upon observing the students’ design artifacts and the implications that we believe this has for Design Education.

Fragility and Convexity

Long on my reading list, this essay by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.   Some fascinating thoughts:   " ... The point we will be making here is that logically, neither trial and error nor "chance" and serendipity can be behind the gains in technology and empirical science attributed to them. By definition chance cannot lead to long term gains (it would no longer be chance); trial and error cannot be unconditionally effective: errors cause planes to crash, buildings to collapse, and knowledge to regress. ... " 

" ... It took at least five millennia between the invention of the wheel and the innovation of putting wheels under suitcases. It is sometimes the simplest technologies that are ignored. In practice there is no premium for complexification; in academia there is. Looking for rationalizations, narratives and theories invites for complexity. In an opaque operation to figure out ex ante what knowledge is required to navigate is impossible. ... "

NASSIM NICHOLAS TALEB, essayist and former mathematical trader, is Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at NYU’s Polytechnic Institute. He is the author the international bestseller The Black Swan and the recently published Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder ... 

Blogs and Posts

The language log takes on the difference between blogs and posts.  To blog and all that.  Here I write a post about the subject.  All language is fluid, and in these times, with many new ways to exercise the language, it is more volatile yet.