cI’ve been amazed each time I discover a new, innovative
- Cross-pollination of ideas and technology from one industry into another
- “Open Innovation” through tool-enabling development kits that allow brilliant minds around the globe and in different industries to come up with new uses for great technologies
Here are 10 relatively new Xbox Kinect product and service applications:
1) Demonstrations of
2) Showcasing the interior of Nissan’s Pathfinder crossover SUV at Nissan’s auto show exhibition booth. Work was done by digital marketing agency Critical Mass and interactive experience developer IdentityMine.
3) Big data visualization that can transform a graph or Excel spreadsheet, like data on oil reserves, into visuals that show maps of the geography where the reserves are located.
4) Physical therapy rehabilitation. Vera by Reflexion Health remotely tracks skeletal movement in patients doing physical therapy exercises at home. It transmits their performance to the therapist, who can provide real time feedback to the patient.
5) Another firm, Jintronix, combines game theory with physical therapy exercises to make rehabilitation for patients more fun. It also relays rehab progress to clinicians monitoring their progress. By making rehab more fun, Jintronix increases the likelihood patients will exercises more religiously.
6) The Dravet Syndrome Foundation has pioneered monitoring individuals with the disease for the onset of seizures so they can be controlled or averted in a timely fashion, and so caregivers no longer need to stay up all night worrying about detecting signs of oncoming seizures. Work was done with EIC BBK.
7) Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia worked with InfoStrat Advanced Technology Group to provide an interactive photo wall for students to “meet” other students in the library of the highly digital university. Nearly 90% of the students attend online and the interactive photo wall helps connects the students in spirit, around the world.
8) At Bloomingdale’s, a solution was tested called Swivel that allowed customers to find the best fitting jeans by scanning for body measurements and 3-D depth. Customers then waved their hands to select outfits, which are nearly instantly fitted to their forms. They can turn and see the outfit from different angles, then snap a selfie, and using a secure tablet, share it with friends over social networks. Work was done with Bodymetrics.
9) Coca-Cola Amatil manufacturer in the Asia Pacific created interactive beverage coolers that engage their young customer target. Through gesture and touch, and using their mobile phones as a remote control, users can listen to music, take photos, and share them through social media. Work was done with digital marketing agency TKM9.
10) The educational learning company Kaplan has used Kinect technology to make learning more fun and physically interactive for kids by teaching spelling, shapes and spatial relationships through motion and visual and sound rewards. The work was done together with InfoStrat Advanced Technology Group.
One of the great changes in new product development over the last 20 years, in my opinion, is that firms no longer feel they need to invent everything associated with their core technologies and competencies in-house. Through software development kits made broadly available and other programs -- like General Electric’s partnership with the crowd-sourcing idea firm Quirky where it can let people loose to come up with new, non-conflicting uses for their patents -- the world can become a better place with more novel inventions and uses for great core technologies. It’s a win/win: new products and services are developed that can help individuals and businesses in many ways, and the firms with the patents win through royalties on businesses they may never have dreamed of, that are incremental and non-cannibalistic.
