Augmented Reality Goes Niche, 3D Printing Gets Real and the Future of Creation Gets Granular

“Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” For any Trekkie fan, these simple words have become iconic in their own special way. We know the moment Picard finished this demand, the Replicator – the upgraded version of the 23rd Century Food Synthesizer seen on the original Star Trek – would create, out of “thin air” a streamlined, handle-less cup of steaming Earl Grey tea. We have all fantasized over such a machine and recent advances in neo-manufacturing are bringing us closer to the day when we too can bark an order at a machine and be delivered 2 dozen chicken wings, half hot, half teriyaki with blue cheese dressing and a cold beer… or, whatever it is you might enjoy. Joking aside, this movement revolving around on-demand “product” isn’t really about food & beverage at all, at least not yet.

Augmented Reality is Growing Up!

We were waiting, and waiting… and yes waiting for these moments. When AR (Augmented Reality) would show true value in the marketplace and move beyond some cute digital animation against a physical Starbucks cup and into something of very real value. In the last several weeks alone, a few fantastic examples of where Augmented Reality is really heading have shown up and the good news is, AR has finally gone niche.

As an extreme example, this recent Technology Review article (published by MIT) showcases an Augmented Reality helmet designed for, ready for this, welding. And not just any kind of welding, but rather Tungsten gas welding that causes significant challenges to preciseness due to the amazingly bright brights, and incredibly dark, darks created during the welding process with this specific element. Pretty remarkable and amazingly niche.

In a slightly less super-niche way but certainly more commercially mainstream, NConnex, through a nifty augmented reality iPad application, allows you to visualize how a new piece of furniture will exactly fit into your actual living room. Here is a neat video showcasing the technology and the unique way they are also utilizing Microsoft’s Kinect platform to easily generate a 3D model of any piece of furniture.

 Fast forward to around the 3 minute mark to see the application in action.

Both examples show us that Augmented Reality is finally going niche, and often in technology, it’s in the niche where value is born.

3D Printing Gets Real and Does Good

3D Printing, also known as Additive Manufacturing, is a very exciting frontier. Much like Augmented Reality, the possibilities of 3D Printing are really starting to shine as creative ways to use this on-demand manufacturing process are beginning to impact human lives in very big ways. It’s important to note, we’re not downplaying the creative aspects of creating a Yoda head out of thin air, (Fun, that is), as those are the types of projects that gain wide appeal and bring the technology to the masses. But when compared to the below video and how 3D Printing has literally changed this little girl’s life, well, it becomes obvious where new value creation can come from in the arena of 3D Printing technologies.

Programmable Sand: The Future of On-Demand Creation?

Imagine a fresh new crack showing up in the foundation of something important, such as a bridge. Now imagine a “magic” material that is sprayed on the crack that is comprised of what are essentially tiny robots that can communicate with one another and collectively, take the shape of the newly formed crack, filling the space, remedying what would otherwise be a potential danger. Is this very far off? Perhaps, but it’s the experimentation of this type of on-demand creation that is already underway that should get you excited.

MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has been working on this wonder material they dub programmable sand, which is comprised of small ‘robot pebbles’ that have the ability to communicate with another in order to effectively take any shape. The challenge is of course the size of these mini-computer pebbles and just how granular scientists will be able to make them in order to attain ever increasingly accurate copies of the object they are attempting to replicate. Think of it this way: Currently, the replicas they are able to create look like something out of Atari 2600, perhaps as “smooth” as NES 8-Bit. Where do the scientists envision this going? Well, it would look a whole lot more like… 

Whether Augmented Reality, 3D Printing or these remarkable programmable pebbles, the future of on-demand creation and manufacturing is quite bright. And even though all three either blend the digital/physical realm, or exist solely in the physical world, it’s important to realize it will be the software and algorithms on the digital side of the equation that will ultimately bring all of this value creation to life.

How Do You Pivot? Why this One GigaOm Article Matters

How do you pivot? How do you change? Do you change? Business leaders, those forecasting and driving strategy, those dubbed “change agents” inside an enterprise have an increasingly tough task. Often they are handed the reigns to steer a company in some new direction, but they battle a mine-field of internal opposition that makes the act of change, very, very difficult. A simple but effective graphic – one that was actually featured in the social media focused post The Social Media Minefield: 5 Factors Blocking Your Success - does a nice job of showcasing common roadblocks that get in the way of you getting to your desired state.

With the understanding that in a traditional enterprise it is far easier to keep things the same, we’d like to turn your focus to a very recent article from GigaOm that highlights the inevitability that is change.

For any programmer or project manager we encourage you to read the entire article here. Beyond this being an intriguing new language full of promise and purpose it remains of course unknown if Halide will get the kind of uptake needed for enterprises to take notice. But that doesn’t really matter because this is just an example of what is consistently taking place in the greater landscape of technology. Every single day, in fact every single moment of every single day, there are programmers from across the globe tinkering, refining, re-inventing and producing iterations, and sometimes all together brand new software languages. The entire industry is in a constant state of continuous innovation. Few will hit, most will miss, and some new advances will even change the world. But where should your focus be as the leader or aspiring leader of an enterprise? Should you chase these new technology languages? How would you chase them if you could?

Utilizing Your Community to Shepherd Change

Thinking about the very concepts of accessing a community might help you through these tough questions. There are at least three circumstances we have experienced at TopCoder that showcase how and why our clients were able to pivot faster to a “new” language via the TopCoder Community.

What’s New to You, is Not to Them

We have found, through practice, experimentation, failure and successes, that often the skills needed to innovate on top of a new software language or framework already exist within our community. When this is the case – and most often it is – the focus completely shifts from “chasing” the talent needed for success and instead keys-in on shaping a highly defined challenge or problem in such a way that effectively communicates how the new language will be utilized. In short, the talent in that specific language already exists, it was only a matter of drawing it out properly.

Ramping-Up the True New, Faster

Surely, there are times when a “brand new” language is being introduced to our community and we recognize that the specialized talent to create value from a certain language might not yet exist. It’s “too new” or for whatever reason, the very vast majority of the members have not experienced the tech as of yet. But even then, it’s a matter of transferring what is the potential value of the community,and shepherding it to a kinetic state of value creation. In short, we have a processes of introducing newer languages to our members and taking certain actions to help ensure quality coders join the competitions focused on this language. In the past we have even set-up competitions that are specifically labeled as training competitions. We alert the community to the fact that a pipeline of work in a certain language is coming, and as a first step, we set up competitions that allow the individuals within, to hone their skills.

Not New, Just Out of Bandwidth

A recent block of TopCoder competitions for a particular client focused on the Sencha Touch 2 mobile framework. Calling Sencha Touch “brand new” would be inaccurate. It is certainly newer, but it is not freshly released like the aforementioned MIT visible web language, Halide. But for our client, the challenge was very real. They had worked with the Sencha framework in the past and wanted to create new applications based on it. However, even though this company is in the Fortune 100, internally, they had only one individual with solid Sencha experience. In other words, their bandwidth to create value in this framework was severely limited. Via TopCoder competitions, they got the right talent to their challenges which resulted in innovative Sencha Touch 2 solutions. The client had no need to source and train individuals or take on consultants. Instead, via the TopCoder Platform, they launched a series of competitions and the process saved them time and money, while delivering outstanding outputs.

The GigaOm article which triggered this post matters. How you as an enterprise pivot matters! That GigaOm story is not uncommon. In fact, it is the norm in technology and software. When considering Open Innovation and the utilization of a community, think of the flexibility this approach can provide your enterprise. Whether you’d like to experiment with a new framework or simply need to address a traditional bandwidth concern in a specific language, development via community can at least be part of your solution.

The Grand Disruption by Technology and Why We Can Be Optimistic About our Future

The Grand Disruption by Technology and Why We Can Be Optimistic About our Future

Ever watch Star Wars? Especially the “newer” of the three – Episodes I, II, & III – and have you ever thought what are all the “people” (Wookies, Humans, whatever those Trade Federation beings were) actually doing? Droids are playing doctor, bringing Luke and Leah into the world, a Droid waitress offers Obi-Wan a cup of Jawa Juice at Dex’s Diner, we even see Droids building other Droids! So, besides selling Death Sticks at the local Coruscant club, and playing politics inside the Galactic Senate, what were all the people doing? What was their labor force doing in this world where Droids did a great deal of the actual work!? Now, have you ever thought about our future’s? What will we do as droids and algorithms take on a greater and greater percentage of traditional work?

Thankfully, there are some really smart people out there already thinking about the challenges facing us humans as we “Race Against the Machine” and the great part? – there is legitimate reason to be incredibly optimistic with regards to what this world has in store for all of us. One of those smart people is Andrew McAfee – a Principal Research Scientist at MIT’s Center for Digital Business and co-author of the previously linked book – and he recently delivered this inspiring TEDx Talk on the subject at hand.

We’d like to personally thank Andrew for not only delivering a well crafted message, but for including the TopCoder Community in his presentation.

Change is most certainly upon us, and we recognize that change of course brings new challenges. But as Andrew showcased in the above video, it’s that very change that causes shifts and may cause some to worry, that also shepherds amazing leaps in mankind that are felt the world over.

Zeo: Big Data, Inception Style Dreaming and the Sleep of Your Future

Zeo: Big Data, Inception Style Dreaming and the Sleep of Your Future

Big Data Catches Some Z’s

Part of the make up of Big Data is the fact that individual human beings are now measuring and tracking their own personal data like never before. To track this data, they are plugged into or utilizing some newer device that is typically accompanied by a mobile application or web interface (or both). This entire movement, tracking one’s personalized performance metrics is dubbed the quantified self. Unfamiliar with the term? Watch this TopCoder Innovation Series video and read this post defining the 5 pillars that comprise the quantified self.

Big Data is a huge part of the quantified self movement in 2 unique ways. It is both an element of the quantified self user experience and the data it helps generate is also an output. First, data that tens of thousands, and eventually millions upon millions of individuals are generating via some quantified self device, is being fed back into platforms and algorithms that help reshape the user experience for that next individual. Then when that “next individual” begins to digitally measure some aspect of their being, they themselves add to this massively multiplying set of data and the cycle continues.

One extraordinarily interesting  and exciting metric – or rather series of metrics surrounding one central topic – is that of tracking your sleep performance, or put more simply, how well you actually sleep and understanding the factors that help you achieve better and better sleep. Zeo is both a leading device and data platform in what is an already competitive space. TopCoder was invited up to Zeo HQ in Newtonville MA (about 15 minutes West of Cambridge) and we sat down with two leaders from team Zeo, co-founder Ben Rubin, and the president and CEO of Zeo, David Dickinson.

The below video goes well beyond what you might expect. Sure, you’ll get a better understanding of the device and mobile app, but you’ll also find out how various individuals are using this newly available data to self improve, how Zeo’s stance on open data and their open API has led to some amazing hacks, including a real-life Inception style connectivity between two lucid dreamers, and even how  a surprising demographic – elite athletes – have embraced the Zeo platform to help speed recovery during training.

The Future User Interface – One Mobile App, Multiple Experiences

The Future User Interface – One Mobile App, Multiple Experiences

How thoughtful are your applications? I know this may seem like an odd phrase to use, but it’s actually quite a purposeful word choice. Are your mobile applications thoughtful? If yes, great, now please tell us why you think so. If no, why? Where are they failing in your opinion? My personal background, prior to being fortunate enough to get involved with companies focused on Crowdsourcing and Open Innovation, was in the service industry. More directly, I waited tables for a few years out of college at Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, CT. It was a great job and the training they provided from an organizational standpoint really boiled down to one thing: Anticipate what the guest will want before they ask for it and deliver. Another word for that can be summed up with the idea of being thoughtful, but how do you become thoughtful in how you approach mobile application development is the tricky part.

Please take a moment to watch this brand new video released by Nokia yesterday that details their new location based service application and burgeoning platform City Lens that is debuting on Nokia’s first Windows 8 enabled device. If you create mobile applications or create anything user facing for that matter, this is 2.5 minutes of your time well spent.

A Very Thoughtful Mobile Application

What we saw above, to me, was a combination of a fluid, smart application that just so happened to be presented and marketed in a very compelling and clean manner. It’s not Earth-shattering, it’s not showcasing any “new” technology we haven’t seen before. So why is the video so impactful? Because the application is thoughtful. It delivers to a user 3 unique ways to experience the application, it utilizes cleanly an augmented reality interface and then seamlessly swoops into a traditional “map” mode where directions are extraordinarily easy to access. It “thinks” before you have to, that if you just chose a location, perhaps you’d want to share this with your friends via text or social. And, if you watched the video, it does quite a bit more in terms of reviews, filtering and beyond. In other words, it anticipates your next move before you ever need to think about it and the results are simple. A user gains more ways to access the information, spends less time accessing exactly what is needed and it helps a user make a decision faster.

How Can You Develop Thoughtful Applications?

There are 3 steps that can help you get to “thoughtful” in your application development outputs. Just like the Nokia application featured above, this isn’t rocket science, but it takes focus to execute properly.

Step 1 – Understand What they Don’t Like

You can use Crowdsourcing to ask your fans, you can listen and interact socially, and you can run traditional testing and focus groups to discover what people are complaining about. If your resources permit, you should be doing all three. Regardless the method, understand what about existing applications – yours or a competitor’s – people despise or feel is a waste of time, they will tell you! If you’re not an enterprise and don’t have these types of resources at your disposal then roll up your sleeves and study that app space and look outside that specific app space for innovative solutions you can re-purpose for your application. Find out what frustrates people, and design solutions that alleviate this frustration… but it’s not enough to stop there.

Step 2 – Think Digital Ergonomics

Yes, we all know ergonomics is typically reserved for physical creations where studies and tinkering breed new “things” that fit our physical world more comfortably. Great, apply that same notion to how you design your apps. Why? The digital and physical world are blurring ever closer with each upgraded augmented reality application and new quantified self wearable device. The real physical world is about to become the most ambitious Open API mankind has yet known. So thinking about physicality in your applications will help drive a user experience that is thoughtfully more intuitive.

Step 3 – See a Whole Lot of Options

Climbing the wrong mountain can be deadly to your company. You can spend months, even years working on a new application or platform only to realize that when you reached the zenith of your journey, that you’ve ascended the wrong mountain completely, and therefore your application fails to catch on. It happens, it will continue to happen. But what can you do to take more swings, see more intuitive user interfaces and make better decisions on your way to creating thoughtful applications while lowering your risk? You can create mobile applications through Enterprise Open Innovation processes (an evolved and enterprise ready way to Crowdsource). Why would you want to? Would you like seeing 11 sets of icons to choose from? Would it be beneficial to iterate through 6 – 8 unique user interfaces in parallel and then roll your favorite UI/UX designs into a rapid-prototyping contest that garners you 4, 6, or even 10 unique prototypes to click through? Would it benefit you to see more options at each phase of development? If the answer is yes, then you can benefit from Crowdsourcing and Enterprise Open Innovation.

Applications, accessible data and open API’s continue to rule the day and most think the forseeable future of digital creation. When seeking to build out your next application or your entire app strategy take the time to ask and answer what can be a very nuanced question. Is our solution thoughtful, and if not, what can we do to change that, starting right now.