Saturday, October 31, 2009

Idea: BizJigSaw: Matchmaking for startups and businesses


Finding a date for the weekend is a matter of few clicks these days thanks to the numerous dating websites that help us finding a partner. These partners however have a probability of 90% to be just for a weekend or two.
But, if you're into finding like minded entrepreneurs to have a life long relationship, there's basically nothing except the likes of LinkedIn. It just boils down to 'Weekend meetings are abundant and Weekday meetings are scarce'.

This idea involves the setting up of a dating like website, only, it will make matches between entrepreneurs and available resources. Any entrepreneur can setup a profile describing the nature of business they're planning to start/operating in, the positions they want to fill up, the capital base et all. Those who are just willing to be a part of a startup/business can create a profile and offer service in their domain of expertise. The website will then make matches on earth. There are a dozen websites thriving on the net to provide resources to Startups but none of them is currently providing human resources in this extremely convenient fashion.

Let the professional matchmaking begin!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Idea: I-Deal - Mobile Search for Best Product Prices

With the mall culture setting in so fast and retailing being the new buzz-iness, it becomes almost inevtiable for people to compare, rate and select the best for there use. What if You get to decide which superstore they go to?

I-Deal is a business idea for startups to help customers determine the ideal deal they're looking for. Imagine using your camera phone to click the barcode of a product and receiving the best deals available in your area for the product. The camera would capture the barcode, convert it into numbers, add your demographic details and send an SMS to a server. This server would compare the price quotes of the product from all superstores in the location and send an SMS back with results classified as Nearest, Best Price and Best Deal. The user can choose if they want the cheapest price, or willing to travel the smallest distance or looking for that free with the product offer.

All this is possible by setting up an SMS Server, a mobile app and product list, store location and quotes from retail stores chains.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Idea: In Da Hood - GPS based Friends Locator


In Da Hood, is my idea of a service for GPS based mobile phones. This would be developed as a mobile app which would be map based (Google Maps for ideal) and would record the users location with a map place-mark. It would work in conjunction with a Social Network (Facebook, MySpace) website to auto-upload the user's current location. It would also download the locations of the user's contacts and display the same on a map with place-marks. It could also be set to auto alert if a particular friend's or all friends locations change and move away from/to the user's vicinity.
Now that the GPS mobile phones are fitting in the pocket, physically and financially, who wouldn't bet on a service that would help them locate who's In Da Hood!

I'm sorry guys, but a turn off button would also be a feature to protect the interest of Girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands et al. Better safe than busted!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Idea: WeCards - Mobile Contacts Backup and Transfer

Switching brands of cellular phones makes it a pain to transfer your entire contact list, calendar entries etc.

This idea 'WeCards' is based on virtual contact cards (also called: vCards) and is perfect to capture the niche created by the above requirement. This would be maintained as a simple web based service which would allow users to register and identify the make of their current phone. Then the users can periodically update their contacts list (option of automatic pre-set time or manual) which would be saved in a universal contact format. The concept that would distinguish this service from other contact back up services would be that users would be allowed to identify the make and model of their cellphone before they restore contacts from the latest backup.
This would ensure that they can backup contacts from any phone and restore to the same or another.

Notes:
  • This idea can be extended to Calender entries and Notes in cellphones
  • If any of the user's contact is also a registered site member, they're latest contact details would be updated automatically in the user's contact list. (Like Plaxo, ZYB etc)
  • A small Java app can be developed for users to install on their phones, this could automatically detect target phone and allow auto-sync of phonebook.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Idea: RandomsUp - Social Network Apps

We do not interact with everyone on our friend lists on Facebook, MySpace etc. Well, if you do, this aint for you. To randomly keep in touch with our friends, i had a thought of a small application.

RandomsUp (I'd acknowledge someone who suggests a better name!) is a small application that can be built for Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc. This App would initiate each time a person logs into their FB/MS account and search for online friends. It would randomly select 1,2...n (preference based) friends and send them a random 'Hi/Whats up' message. In case there are no friends online or other privacy constraints, the app could send a random 'Hi' to any random offline friend. Everything in this app would be customizable, the friend list to be considered, the set of 'Hi/Whats up' messages set, the number of unique friends to send the message, message to be sent as Wall Post / PM (depending on the website) and an option to run on log-in or run daily at a pre-set time.

Come to think of it, this app wouldn't require more than a week to start from scratch, develop and run online on the likes of Facebook and MySpace.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Idea: UniCard - One Card Fits All

Imagine not having to carry all your cards in one wallet. The Drivers License, The Tax Payer Card, Voter's Card, Credit Card, Debit Card etc etc.

The UniCard is a concept with immense upward potential. As would be the initial requirements too. UniCard would be a regular looking smart card with a photo, name, magnetic strip and some gibberish numbers on it. Its speciality would be that it would hold a 512K Sim Card embedded in it. The SIM would be holding a PROM (Not EEPROM for security purposes) on which data would be stored with the highest possible encryption. This card would be an individual specific rather than individual and service specific. Thus, the card could be programmed to serve as a credit card, a tax payer card, voter card etc etc. The card would have two levels of authorization - 1. A Passcode and 2. A Biometric fingerprint.

The UniCard service provider would need to also provide UniCard Scanners which would be built to read the card depending upon the requirement as a Bank Card for Banks, A Driver's License for Traffic Cops etc.

To avoid chaos due to a missing card, each individual subscribing to this service would be issues two similar cards, the secondary being activated only when the primary is locked on request.

This should give a fair idea of the plan, although the actual plan if penned would go on to more than a few hundred pages excluding the technical aspects of the card.

 At least our grandchildren would be using this sometime....

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Idea: Automated Billing Trolleys (The Super Market Diaries)

To mark my first post, i would definitely introduce my obsession about changing the way supermarkets work. Those of you who know me well, would definitely have heard this before from me.

It's really annoying how picking up a couple of items at Big Bazaar and the likes in India, we have to be standing in a queue that never seems to end. The idea is called 'BillFast' and is aimed at reducing these long queues at supermarkets and large format retail stores. It would require mounting a Bar Code reader on the handle side of the supermarket trolley facing the basket space. This would be connected to a 5 line monochrome LCD display. Also, a retractable USB cable to connect to the billing desk.
How it works: Any person who wants to pick up less than 10 small items can pick this trolley, use the barcode scanner to scan the items and ]verify his items and total price on the display. For billing, there is a separate express billing counter where the USB would pulled from the trolley and connected to the billing counter to transfer the list for billing. The count of items and names would be displayed on the billing monitor and the items can be verified while packing.

Notes:
  • This would be the first generation concept and eventually the entire billing could be brought on similar lines
  •  The number of items have been restricted to a convenient number to avoid errors in verification of the items scanned and the items actually present in the trolley.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Nightmares...

Night after Night, I get these dreams that make me a tycoon several times a sleep. There are wild opportunity beasts that torment me and invite me to conquer them. Its difficult to keep silent and sit aback. I've been working on taming a few of them but i need an autonomous army that can learn of the beasts from me and conquer them anyway they want. Thus, today onwards, I declare this ground as the platform of my interactions with these devils of sleep. I hope I could be the one, one which could help you conquer your dream monsters.