Similar to one of our other blogs, let’s continue to discuss ideas for apps, widgets and the like that could make you a bundle of cash.
Conventional wisdom tells us that everyone in the world is looking for love, while 70% of the world’s songs have been written about this intriguing human condition. Dating sites make a packet of money, and most people have at least one dating app on their phones.
So what would happen if your phone could read people’s non-verbal cues and maybe even take some physiological readings to determine if another person was in love with you? The technology already exists to recognise faces and uniquely track them, so this wouldn’t be too big a stretch. The app or machine can tell the difference in surface skin temperature, eye movement and pupil size, heart rate, and sweatiness of skin, as well as shortness of breath and a change in vocal tone – all signs that someone might fancy you (or has a cold!).
- A mod-con key finder (but not just for keys)
What if you could use the same facial recognition technology or the technology that a GPS device uses, to tag certain items that you’d find valuable but could easily lose? Even if the camera was sensitive enough to read a label on a book or a set of keys, or you could tag the item a la Facebook. Imagine then that all you needed to do was call the name out to the phone and it tracked a path to the missing item. Now that would be handy!
- A medical diagnostic device
This is Dr House meets Star Wars. Trips to the doctor can be rather expensive, so if you had an app that could tell you what potentially is wrong with you, that could save you a packet. We’re talking about moving beyond self-diagnosis by using a website to input symptoms – this device or app can take your temperature, assess a fracture or a broken bone, diagnose a headache, or spot a cavity. This one might be a while off…
- A 4D smart phone
Like smell-o-vision or 4D rides, you play Angry Birds on your phone and you can smell the pigs as they blow up, or the game rattles in your hand. How about a mini shock if your score isn’t in the top 3, or a whiff of perfume if it is?
The future will be interesting, no doubt…