Throwaways 3.0
Every quarter I intend on writing a few ideas which I think are interesting but not ideal for me to work on. Some are not ideal because of the lack of industry knowledge, others are just not exciting enough for me. I will share some of them with you here in hopes that it inspires you. If you do choose to work on these ideas or want to learn more about my thought process, feel free to reach out!
The ideas are not listed in any particular order, and some are not even framed as concrete ideas, just trailing thoughts. See my first post here.
Here they are:
App based audio guides:
Do you ever walk into a museum and take an one of those old walkman style headsets from the tourist information desk. You pay $5 for pre recorded content, that you can only access by inputting the correct number near the exhibit. If this was an app it would make life so much easier. If not an app, maybe a mobile site that is a hybrid app? You can pay the money on your phone, and access content that is more recent, and ideally changed frequently. The phone could track your foot traffic, and even which exhibits interest you the most. It could also create games like scavenger hunts or manipulate the audio based on who you are. Add some AR to this and your phone can make your museum visit even more interactive. This is quite easily the most obvious product that has not hit the market.
Peer to peer health exchange
Health information is vastly available online and people are already seeking forums to obtain group information. What is missing is a smarter way to match people with the same conditions. Facebook groups exist, as do reddit communities, but they are helping people on the aggregate. What if my child had a condition and I wanted to chat with another parent, ideally locally, who dealt with or deals with the same problem. Theres an idea around ‘no man is an island’ and I think that definitely extends to healthcare and treatment. Also, there is not reason why this should stop at ‘sick care’. If you want to improve your health, you should also be matched with someone who can help you do that. Almost like a gym buddy, but without the focus on gyming, just the focus on pairing.
Local brand advertising
One of the big things that came out of Facebooks recent documents where their inability to target all sorts of smaller, and more local businesses. Suppose I own a sushirrito joint in Shoreditch. I can maybe go and advertise this on Facebook. However my ad spend will have to be high, as I’ll be competing with all the other kinds of fast food companies and delivery companies, who have much higher spending budgets. These companies benefits from economies of scale by advertising in multiple regions and categories, and likely have lots more money. To counter this, there should be a platform where I can join other brands and collectively pool our money together. One example is I could work with other local brands like ice cream shops, or attractions in Shoreditch to start advertising collectively. Alternatively, I can find sushirritto restaurants in other regions and we can all pool money to advertise in our respective regions. The idea that a collective group of small brands can’t compete against one big one due to lack of scale can be solved by technology.
ML code refactoring
All software technology products require coding. There are also different kinds of codes for different purposes. The coding language you need to learn for Android development is different than for iOS, and thats different for web. Each software application has a long repository of code, almost like an ever growing essay. Since it keeps getting longer, there is no way one person writes all the code, forcing different styles of writing in the same repository. While essay writing might be focused on style, coding style is all about logic. The logic is how each programmer that wrote code in the repository has solved the problem that appeared at the time. This means you can have lines of code that do not follow the same train of thought at all. It is almost like walking into a server room, where two servers are connected without any real thought on the colour coordination of the wires, or if people will trip as they walk around. In order to make coding easier to read and more usable, coders refactor on an ongoing basis. Some do it before release, some do it during a small 2 week period, and there probably are some that never do this. Since there a finite possibilities to a coding problem, and a finite number of languages, I think building a machine learning based program to refactor the code is possible. Consider it like spell check, except the corrector understands how you type, and recognises what good English is written like. Kite.com is doing something similar to this but its a very hard problem. Its hard because coding languages are updated all the time, and thinking of all the possible ways one can solve a logic problem to feed the machine learning system is very difficult.
Feature Ideas — Not businesses but cool features
Image classifier — I take lots of pictures of documents and I’d just like to tag the document so i can find it when i need it in my photos. I don’t want to endlessly scroll for it.
Spotify party playlist — At every house party, there is usually an active or a passive DJ. If there is an active DJ, people with Spotify in the area should be able to send a request for the next song and the DJ should be allowed to select if they want to play it. If its passive — such that a playlist is selected and its running, it should be alterable with enough votes.
Blood transfusion service — Pretty sure these exist but there has been many studies on the benefits of transfusion, especially if it is from young blood. Right now giving blood is already a challenge, but if you can put a price on it, I am sure it will become more accepted and apparent.
Healthy/vegan/etc meal near me — Identifying restaurants is one thing, but what we really want is the meal. Why is there now way for a service crowd source healthy meals in my area? One thing I have been doing lately is taking an assortment of pre-cooked, healthy items from grocery stores and combining them. For example, I would buy a pack of lentils, some microwavable broccoli, and salmon pieces, all for about $5. I had to discover that myself. If my grocery store or another app, told me that the combination of these 3 things would give me this much nutrition, cost this much, and is available near me, I would totally buy it. And then you have restaurants who jump on that and want to compete because they see that you are looking for a healthy/vegan/etc meal around you and if enough people do, it could be created.
Further Reading:
Facebook documents: https://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/culture-media-and-sport/Note-by-Chair-and-selected-documents-ordered-from-Six4Three.pdf
Blood transfusions: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/young-blood-transfusions-are-on-the-menu-at-society-gala/
Don’t hesitate in reaching out to me over twitter or email! And check out my other work here.
