Tag Archives: future

Thoughts

Audience-inclusive advertising

After the new video iPod launched, and the possibility to purchase and download ad-free TV shows came to light, I realized that the advertising industry would have to come up with some clever ways to keep their audience if they were to maintain revenues. The following ideas sprung to mind:

  • A site can be set up and maintained by a consortium of advertising agencies and brand owners or a neutral body, that would either track viewer product preferences through data mining and random surveys, or would actively encourage users to register and provide product preferences. Alternately, existing user data could be compiled from various databases.
  • Advertising during TV shows that certain user groups watch could be more closely targeted to those groups by ad personalization. Users could register for the chance to have an ad dedicated to them. For example, a sample user we’ll call Jane could indicate that she likes the MINI Cooper, and so when an ad for the Cooper runs during a show that she likes to watch, names can be selected at random from the database of users, and if her name comes up, that ad could say: “This goes out to Jane” before it runs, and end with a “Thanks, Jane!” Quite simple, really, but it serves to capture the audience, since people will stay tuned during the ads just to see if their name will come up.
  • This concept can be expanded to include groups of users, perhaps up to 3-5 identifiable users per ad.
  • Through the medium of the website, brand owners can also take a cue from the users about the kind of products they need to advertise, this time in a more direct way, through hard data. Even more, they can more easily survey the users about the kind of new products they want to see.
  • Another way to keep the audience is to offer prizes for watching the ads and picking through clues that are weaved through both the ads and the shows. Entries can then be registered on the show’s site or at this main site for a chance to win something, perhaps even products featured on the show, or something as banal as an actor’s coat, or the actual bottle of perfume used by an actress on the show. These aren’t things that cost much but mean a lot to the audience.
  • People are making a big deal about product placement, but I think that reaches a saturation point very quickly. You can’t plaster products all over the screen and detract from the value of the story or the entertainment. Product placements works when it’s subtle, weaved into the story, and reinforced through the regular ads.
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Thoughts

Gravitational propulsion-levitation vehicle

I’ve had this idea for quite some time – since sometime in 1997 – and I’ve carried it around in my mind, not knowing how to bring it to fruition, and certainly not knowing if I wanted to share it with anyone.

I’ve decided to share this idea with the world because I don’t have the physics knowledge that can allow me to figure it out on my own, and given my current and past schedule, it doesn’t look like I’ll have the time to beef up on physics any time soon. I hope that by sharing it, I can reach someone in whose mind the various pieces I’m going to talk about will click. Maybe this is one person, or a team of people, but that’s the power of the Internet – I can put my idea out there and see what happens!

I have to concede that this is the stuff of science fiction, of Star Trek and Star Wars and the like, but I really do think it can work. I think what makes my idea different from the sci-fi iterations is that it’s grounded – literally and figuratively speaking. I’m talking about gravitation. I have an idea for a vehicle that can move and float by harnessing the gravitational force of the Earth.

Here’s how I think it can work. The gravitational force of the Earth pulls things down to the ground. But it’s a magnetic force. We are attracted by it. If we can somehow deflect the force of attraction, we can move left or right along the surface of the Earth – that’s gravitational propulsion! If we can reverse it, we can rise – that’s gravitational levitation! Okay, so how can one affect a magnetic field or force? Through a magnetic field of opposing polarity. The problem is, I have yet to see a magnet that falls up, not down!

Here’s where it gets interesting. I can offer you the following clues, and I hope that you can put them all together to arrive at a solution:

  • Create – on a small scale – a gravitational field like the Earth’s, and attract other objects to it – this could be microscopic, it doesn’t have to be on a large scale. Once we can create this, we can apply the technology to see if we can create a gravitational field that the Earth “doesn’t like” and thus rejects – if this works, it means we can float, or levitate.
  • Look at the following two products currently on the market. The principles upon which they work is very similar to the way my vehicle can work. One involves an oscillating magnetic pendulum whose direction is determined by the repulsion from neighboring magnetic fields. This illustrates my gravitational propulsion idea. The second is an anti-gravity top, which, once tuned correctly, rises and stays in mid-air while it rotates. Please understand I’m not endorsing or advertising the company selling these products or the products themselves. I’m simply using them to illustrate my ideas. I do think the products are really innovative. I first heard about the levitating magnetic top several years ago, and that’s what helped me think about how my gravitational propulsion vehicle could work.
  • I think the repulsing gravitational field can be generated through the rotation (either parallel or perpendicular, not sure) of a disc or series of discs. It may be that some will have to rotate perpendicularly while others rotate parallel to the Earth. The angle of rotation can be varied to generate propulsion, levitation, or both. I think an important first step would be to generate propulsion alone – 2D movement along the Earth’s surface. That in itself would be a monumentous achievement. Levitation can come later, after the propulsion is perfected.
  • The vehicle can be perpetually moving. A rechargeable battery can be used to set the rotating mechanism in motion, and once the vehicle is moving and generating its own energy – remember, magnetic fields can be used to generate electricity – the energy from the rotating discs can recharge the battery.
  • The same mechanism can be applied to power plants, once perfected. We’ll be able to generate electricity directly from gravitational energy – no more nuclear or coal plants! The best part is that gravitational energy is in endless supply!

Just think of the benefits if we can ever get this idea materialized! I can go on and on, but I’ll let you dream about it: driving over fields of flowers without trampling them under wheels, sailing over water without getting anything wet, floating along the Grand Canyon, putting your hand out the window and picking fruits directly from the top of a tree… We won’t need roads anymore. We won’t pollute anymore. We’ll be able to camp out at the top of Mount Everest, or in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean…

Updated 2/27/13: I watched a documentary entitled “Modern Marvels – Car Tech of the Future” tonight, and was glad to see that others are thinking about this very idea: the capability of controlling gravity through what they call a “gravity capacitor”. See the video on YouTube and turn to 1:26:20.

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Thoughts

The personal computer of the future

We’re still several years away from a device that can successfully combine a computer, phone, handheld, digital camera and music/video player, in a size/weight/price combination that’ll make most techies happy. But I’ve already got that device on my wishlist!

By computer, I mean laptop. I think that desktops will eventually disappear. Not only are they energy hogs, but they are simply too big and they aren’t portable. They take up too much space. Bulky desktops are already on their way out. The computer of the future will probably evolve from our current laptop form factor. I think the real breakthrough will come when OLED becomes a mature technology, and virtual keyboards are also viable. By virtual keyboard I mean either film you can type on, or simply a projected keyboard where your fingers breaking light waves trigger key down events.

The computer of the future will have all of the capability that we crave in a form factor that will likely approach the size of our current credit cards. It will probably be thicker, but I can envision a laptop with a rollout OLED or wall projection display and virtual keyboard that boots up in a 1-3 seconds, acts as a cellphone and digital camera, and that’s about 3-4 inches in terms of width/length, and about 1 inch or less in terms of thickness.

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Thoughts

A truly portable cellphone

I think we have the capability of building a cellphone that is the size of a credit card, and about as thick as 3-4 credit cards put together. If we would use strip batteries plus an OLED, that could make it work. And I wouldn’t be interested in fancy games or the capability to customize the ringtones or to chat with my friends, etc. I just want a cellphone that’s thin enough and light enough to slip in my shirt pocket without seeing any bulge. I want a cellphone I can slip into my wallet or into an executive brief. The case could be made of magnesium allow or brushed aluminum. Now wouldn’t that look pretty cool?

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