Innovation of the Week: Mind Mapping or “Personal Brain”
Posted by: meikah | 31 August 2007 | 1:25 am
Are you facing a complex task and you seem to be getting nowhere at organizing all your thoughts? Well, Mind Mapping, otherwise known as “Personal Brain” could be the answer.
According to TechNewsWorld Product Review, Mind Mapping software is hot!
Mind mapping, for the uninitiated, is a visual method for organizing ideas — a sort of project management tool for the mind. It often involves lots of thoughts in “bubbles” connected by lines.
The language used to describe the elements of a mind map — root idea, children, siblings, etc. — parallels that used by software outliners, except mind maps don’t have the rigid vertical form outlines have. Mind maps have an air of horizontal chaos about them.
Filed under: Tools/Toolkits, Innovation Update, Innovation, Project Management
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Innovation of the Week: Nokia’s Global Design Sense
Posted by: meikah | 17 August 2007 | 4:01 am
Nokia’s global design sense has undoubtedly put the company in the lead.
In a nutshell, the global design is making cellular phones that customers can really use wherever or whoever they are.
BusinessWeek Online reports:
Nokia (NOK) is looking to add 2 billion new users by the end of the decade by reaching out to emerging markets, including China, Brazil, Indonesia, Africa, and India (see BusinessWeek.com, 8/6/07, “Nokia Wins with Wide-Angle Vision”).
Nokia operates nine satellite design studios located within targeted nations where researchers and designers work to customize its approach to each market, blending macro trends with micro insights. A new studio was just announced in Bangalore, India; others already operate within China and Brazil.
Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations, Software/Technology, Telecommunications, Innovation Update, Nokia, Innovation
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Innovation of the Week: Sing to computer to download a song
Posted by: meikah | 27 July 2007 | 9:46 pm
Did you ever experience trying to search a song, which title you forgot?
Well, modern technology may have the answer to your dilemma. There is an ongoing research which will let you search a song by singing it to your computer.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports:
Australian computer scientist Dr Sandra Uitdenbogerd from RMIT University says retrieving music by singing will be possible with one of the next generation of search programs.
Uitdenbogerd says one form of retrieving audio by singing will involve users calling up a specific website then singing a tune or lyrics into a computer microphone to submit their query.
The computer will then search the website’s database to retrieve a menu of digital files, which the user can then choose from to download.
Filed under: General, Software/Technology, Innovation Update
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Innovation of the Week: Dynahand, Handwritten Numbers as Passwords
Posted by: meikah | 20 July 2007 | 12:19 am
In the face of online security risks, an innovative authentication program is thought to make your online transactions safer.
With Dynahand, passwords will be handwritten numbers. This is how it works.
The system works using handwritten numbers instead of letters because although others may be able to recognise your penned words, they’re not so good at distinguishing your handwritten numerals.
In the laboratory test, Renaud asked 11 people to write the numbers 0 to 9 several times. She asked other volunteers to provide samples of their numerals, too, but these were eventually used to distract the study participants.
She then scanned the numbers into a computer and used a software program, or algorithm, written by colleague Elin Olsen, to analyse the characteristics of the handwriting, such as height and width of strokes.
Well, isn’t it that our handwriting also works like our fingerprint? Especially our signature, it is something that is atrributed to us and validates our identity. Just maybe this is the answer to all those online fraudulent acts.
Source:
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Corporate Communications - Innovation & Technology, Handwriting, not passwords, safer online
Filed under: Software/Technology, Innovation Update
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Six Sigma and Innovation
Posted by: meikah | 15 July 2007 | 8:00 pm
There’s still much controversy about Six Sigma and innovation. Many companies, 3M being the most vocal and probably popular, are saying that Six Sigma and innovation counters each other out.
3M, which has been the most innovative company for years, allegedly stopped innovating when it adopted Six Sigma. I still could not fathom the reason for not being able to mix successfully Six Sigma and innovation.
Perhaps, those companies that have successfully implemented Six Sigma and and pursued innovation should speak up to end this debate once and for all.
The best venue for this kind of forum is IQPC’s Process for Innovation event on August 21-22, 2007 in The Gleacher Center, Chicago. The event will tackle this question and offers a structure for Innovation. This exclusive forum has been designed for leading Six Sigma and Innovation experts to discuss the practicalities of implementing Innovation across an organization alongside Six Sigma.
Check out the event and share with us what you have learned.
Related story:
How Six Sigma Improves Innovation
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Events/Announcements, Innovation Update, 3M, Innovation
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Innovation of the Week: Robotic Limbs Myomo e100
Posted by: meikah | 13 July 2007 | 12:22 am
We take a lot of things for granted. Perhaps one of those that we take for granted is our ability to move our body or flex our limbs. Some people are deprived of these though either by birth or some other stroke of mishap.
Mary O’Regan is one of them. She suffered a stroke after falling off a dirt bike, recovered from it, but never regained use of her left arm. Well, thanks to the latest in robotics, handicapped now has chances of being able to use their limbs.
New York Times Online - Health Section reports:
The Myomo e100 is designed to help stroke patients regain motion in their arms. The device, worn as an arm brace, works by sensing weak electrical activity in patients’ arm muscles and providing just enough assistance that they can complete simple exercises, like lifting boxes or flipping on light switches. By practicing such tasks, patients may begin to relearn how to extend and flex the arm, rebuilding and strengthening neurological pathways in the process.
Filed under: Innovation Update, R&D, Technology, Innovation
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Innovation Insights of the Week
Posted by: meikah | 28 June 2007 | 11:37 pm
Today, let me share with you insights on innovation from Henry Chesbrough Executive Director, Center for Open Innovation, Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley.
Over at Product Development and Management Assn (DMA), Michael Docherty interviews Henry Chesbrough. Read the interview and learn about open innovation, P&G, and innovation in general.
Michael Docherty: What do you think is behind the interest in and popularity of Open Innovation?
Henry Chesbrough: I think that many people in many companies felt that the earlier model of internal R&D [research and d evelopment] was no longer effective. Too little productivity, too many spillovers, too long a timeframe to go from inception to market—these were longstanding complaints. Two additional factors that have compounded the problem are the rising cost of R&D and the ever-shorter product life cycles in the market, should one be so fortunate as to get a project through to the market.
What was missing was any alternative way to address these problems. Open innovation increases R&D productivity, captures or leverages spillovers in other markets, shortens the time to get to market, and shares the rising R&D costs with others.
One thing I learned from the interview is that innovation efforts take a lot of hardwork and focus on what you want to achieve. Without the focus, the initiative could get bogged down.
Filed under: Interview, Innovation Update
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Innovation of the Week: A Computer in Your Wallet
Posted by: meikah | 8 June 2007 | 1:47 am
It seems like the future of mankind is going ultra mobile. And technology plays a major part in this mobility trend.
The latest of this innovative technology is a computer so small that you can carry it in your wallet. Unbelievable? 
Locutus of iToolBox blog will tell you that it’s for real.
Via has developed a motherboard that is small enough to fit inside of your wallet or billfold. That’s right, a complete motherboard including processor that is not much larger than a credit card. At about the same size as a name card you get at all of those geek conferences you attend, Via has done yet another industry first.
It is not just a bare bones system either. All it needs is a RAM module and it is ready to go. From Via’s own website here is a comparison picture of the motherboard and an ordinary playing card.
Filed under: Innovation Update
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Innovation of the Week: BT’s ‘Motion-Sensing’ Laptop
Posted by: meikah | 1 June 2007 | 12:08 am
Technology is in a roll. I think every second, I hear of new technologies and the latest innovations.
I’m sure you’ve heard of Microsoft’s touch-screen computer, voice-powered technology, 3G, etc. And now comes a laptop that can be operated by moving or tilting it.
Early this month, BT announced that their researchers have used Nintendo Wii style technology to develop a device for laptops that removes the need for a keyboard or a mouse. This innovation will benefit those people who are handicapped, or even those who are unable to use their hands because they are in a crowded place or on fieldwork. Sure sounds like overdoing it, but perhaps there are people who still have to use their laptops even when they are in situations where it is difficult to do so.
The ‘motion-sensing’ laptop works this way:
BT Balance, works by enabling the user to manipulate menus and applications simply by moving or tilting their machine. The small, specially designed adaptor containing movement sensors can be plugged into any standard laptop or tablet PC. The adaptor is then able to ‘talk’ to software downloaded to the laptop and then translate the motion and rotation into actions on the user’s computer screen.
The software can be adapted so that users can move a cursor around the screen or even turn the pages of a virtual manual or book just by tilting or moving around their machine.
Filed under: Innovation Update, Technology, BT
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Innovation of the Week: Take this Innovation Challenge
Posted by: meikah | 25 May 2007 | 1:34 am
In April last year, BusinessWeek Online came up with a list of The World’s Most Innovative Companies in the 21st century.
These companies are recognized for their being able to:
- reinvent business processes
- build entirely new markets that meet untapped customer needs
- consolidate, select, and execute the right ideas, and bring them to market in record time
Do you have what it takes to be like Apple, IBM, Procter & Gamble, BMW, GE, Nokia, 3M, to name only a few?
Take this Innovation Challenge and find out. 
