If you look at a map and if I look at a map, should it always be the same for you and me? I’m not sure about that, because I go to different places than you do.
automagic”. We must aim to create digital services that are self-aware and personalised to the point that, for the customer, they just seem to magically know what they want and make things generally easier and more enjoyable
there will be a new literature from the mapping dictionary that’s now being built. There’s an Android app we’ve released called Field Trip…
Then when you’re walking around, say in Washington, D.C., the phone will buzz and say, “You are 25 feet from an accurate map of 2,700 solar objects. If you go over there to the Einstein Memorial, you can see them.” Or you might be walking down the street and it will beep and say… “Around the corner behind you is where a scene from your favorite movie was filmed.” It is using your location to search in a database of “interesting things,” and it learns what kinds of things you care about. It means having your life enlightened by travel knowledge, every-where, or getting to walk around with local experts who know your tastes, wherever in the world you go.
[Ubiquitous computing] - The idea is that computing devices will disappear into the background and what you’re left with is the benefit of computing, which is information and activities.
… Even though it’s possible to do a lot of things with your phone today, often that has the effect of pulling you into a bubble, instead of enhancing your experience.
When you’re out walking with your family, you’re not going to pause every 20 feet and do a Google search. So the notion [behind FieldTrip app] is that you can have this process that runs in the background that knows something about where you are, and about your interests. It can proactively offer up information that can help you have a richer experience but in a way that’s seamless and doesn’t interrupt the flow of your activity.
Expect Labs, a San Francisco start-up, have spent the past two years building an “anticipatory computing engine” - a platform for applications that predicts what people want or need before they explicitly ask or search for it.
Its first app for the iPad is MindMeld, a group voice and video-calling app that analyses what’s being talked about in real-time and “predicts” the type of information participants may want or need, pushing it to their tablets within seconds.
MindMeld listens to its users’ conversation and brings up related information
For example, let’s say, several co-workers are planning to meet up for bar snacks after work.Depending on what types of food, drinks and possible meeting places are mentioned, MindMeld “listens” in the background and pulls up pertinent restaurant suggestions, reviews, maps, images and phone numbers using data from across the web and social networks
Mitsubishi Unpretentious” analyses the content from your friends’ Facebook pages to see which are your most pretentious friends and then runs them over with a speeding 2013 Outlander Sport.
Catalina… is using a shopper’s location in store aisles to refine offers. Last year, Stop & Shop’s Ahold division introduced a mobile app, now run by Catalina, that allows shoppers to scan products. When they do, Catalina identifies them through their frequent shopper number or phone number, and knows where in the store they are. Special e-coupons are created on the spot.
“If someone is in the baby aisle and they just purchased diapers… we might present to them at that point a baby formula or baby food that might be based on the age of their baby and what food the baby might be ready for.”
Creating a game with TinyTap – which is free on Apple’s App Store – is a simple matter of adding photos, recording questions and tracing answers. Parents and kids can do it together, and then the game is ready to play
Existing laws require companies to reply to requests for personal data, but only on paper. Some take 40 days to respond. The government thinks that consumers and the economy would benefit if they did so immediately. Price comparison engines that suck in itemised telephone bills could find people better deals. Personal finance sites empowered to ingest financial statements could help spendthrifts reform. In the long term the government hopes entrepreneurs will dream up more inventive data-driven services. Start-ups able to track a user’s purchases might offer to store receipts and warranties in a central location, for a fee. Digital wardrobes might catalogue a shopper’s new clothes, then recommend accessories.
… I’m not certain this exists yet but it shouldLoois’s final project ended up being a smartphone app called BlankWays, which charts your progress through the city, noting which paths you’ve come down before and suggesting itineraries to cover new ground. The app indicates and measures which parts of the city you’ve traveled, and which you haven’t: (via Choosing the Paths Less Traveled? There’s an App for That - Technology - The Atlantic Cities)
what if we abandon the idea that everyone sees the same stories? That was a pre-Internet technological limitation, and maybe we’ve let what was possible become what is right. I want to recognize that each person not only has unique interests, but is uniquely affected by larger events, and has a unique capacity to act.
Neiman Marcus App Provides Sales Staff With Customers’ Preferences [Future Of Retail] - PSFK
(Neiman Marcus) has developed a location-aware iPhone application called NM Service that adds a heightened level of personalization to its in-store shopping experience. The opt-in service allows a customer to program the app’s preferences to automatically alert sales associates when they walk into the store, providing staff with instant access to their shopping history and Facebook profile image, and if a customer prefers to browse on their own when first entering the store, they can simply “check-in” whenever they are ready for assistance
Much like 23andMe … the Cat Ancestry test – developed by Dr. Leslie Lyons and the Lyons’ Feline Genetics Laboratory in the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Population Health and Reproduction – can determine which of eight major ancestral groups a given pet cat descends from
Supermarkets add mobile to the shopping list - Mobile Commerce Daily - Multichannel retail support
grocery retailer Ahold has a mobile shopping app called Scan It! that is available at 270 Stop & Shop locations in the Northeast. The app, which combines personalized offers, mobile self-scan and bag, and express checkout, helped boost the chain’s loyalty and drive an increase in sales“With shoppers ignoring 98 percent of the SKUs in a grocery store, personalization has an even greater importance with mobile,” Mr. Caron said.
“Bombard me with irrelevant offers and I’ll shut off,” he said. “Engage me with smart offers that are tailored to my needs and buying behavior, and I’ll reward you by spending more. And, in grocery, that’s where you win.”
