I am on a caffeine-induced creative tear very early this morning, and am just overflowing with great ideas, so please bear with me and hear me out while the thoughts are fresh in my mind, as they might not seem coherent or even very good in the lights of day and decaf.
At any rate, I was in a new business pitch and the prospect kept bringing up this expression for getting attention – he kept on saying they need to do some “big arm movements,” which I thought was pretty cool way of putting it.
Then, I read in the NY Times about how pollsters are using sentiment analysis to understand social media chatter and take the pulses of voters. It seems like this technology is finding more applications, and getting better and more widely used.
Finally, I thought back to my post on augmented reality – the technology that enriches viewing on a cellphone screen by superimposing data over images captured by the camera.
It occurred to me that a some really smart developers could come up with a breakthrough app that combines image capture, pattern recognition, sentiment analysis and augmented reality. It could be used to analyze hand gestures in real time and then superimpose an avatar or caption defining the person and sentiment being expressed.
I know that this is a bold idea and at first might not be easy to follow, so please take your time, and re-read if necessary to take in and understand the richness and brilliance of it. Wouldn’t it be great to have your own portable schm**ck detector, to do the following (perhaps some examples will help here):
- Bird Watcher – Put your field glasses away, this app is not for the naturalist but for the driver – it detects when the middle finger is raised and can help avoid road rage situations
- Look at me, I am Merlin the Magic Wand Waver – This app detects when someone is holding up your elevator ride – it senses hands being waved like magic wands that trigger the optical detector and cause the door to open – it emits a jamming elecotromagnetic pulse to defeat the waving
- Hand Waver – Finally, when someone is prolonging and endless meetings via “look at me, call on me, I need to be heard” hand waving, just point your cellphone – it will identify the offender and then emit a loud fire alarm signal to end the meeting
