William Cummings

I think this idea can be a huge hit because it will lessen the workload of employees in Mattel and Autodesk and reduce risk. Before this innovation, companies had to think creatively to develop toys that they felt would appeal to kids. With this service, toy companies can observe 3-D printing toy trends and then base their next product off of what is the most popular. This idea can definitely help these two companies because it reduces the chances of them producing a product that flops once it hits the market. Lastly, it gives these companies the opportunity to observe others that may have a pattern of coming up with great ideas with toys for 3-D printing. Companies such as Mattel and Autodesk can then try to bring them into their businesses.

I really like this idea. Kids are the most innovative and creative minds there are when it comes to toys and building. They’re willing to try new things but they’re limited by the toys they have. Now with 3D printed toys, they can create anything they want which provides an endless amount of creativity. Lego tried this idea with their MINDSTORM line, and it has had some success. I think this idea could be even bigger.

I agree with Andrew and Bakari above. This could definitely be a big hit for these two companies. This kind of disruptive innovation would change the toy making industry, and could affect those who design the toys within the companies. However, it is a good thing that kids are coming up with the ideas for what they want to play with. One thing that I feel that could become an issue is copyright/patent issues with a toy that someone designs through these apps, but get no credit for doing so.

I think this is a pretty cool development as far as autonomous cars are concerned. It’s very interesting, especially considering our class discussion, that features of autonomous cars are already being put into production. I’m sure we will see continuous developments in the near future.

As far as right now, I would still rather wait until everything is fully automatic.

I think this is an interesting development in the autonomous car realm as well. I’m not sure I completely grasp the value it presents though. With autonomous cars, the value is presented by taking the need to drive away from the individual. This device simple parks the vehicle – something many companies have already instated with park assist features. I’m not sure if being outside of the car for park assist hold enough value for it to be adopted into the mainstream. I personally, would rather use existing park assist features and drive my own vehicle.

Great article, Will. I think this is a great entry into the autonomous vehicle market for consumers who might be hesitant to adopt autonomous vehicles early on. Owning a vehicle that parks itself via a remote would seem to ease tensions consumers have towards autonomous vehicles. I think that, at least initially, autonomous vehicles will be met with some contention but I think technology like this will increasingly ease fears.

I completely agree with Ryan. I think this product, if successful, will enhance the trust factor that people will have concerning the full automation of vehicles. If this form of automation proves to work, then it will only make it easier for people to really buy into the idea of fully automated cars. I know many people that struggle with the difficulty of parking in tight spots. For that reason alone, I think this is a feature that can benefit a lot of people.

For me personally, I would not want to pay the extra money just to have the car park itself. I do agree that it is a step in the right direction for the autonomous car market, and individuals should become more attracted to the idea of purchasing an autonomous car sooner, however we all know that these cars still have at least a decade before becoming available to the public at a reasonable price that regular cars are priced at now.

I think this app is a great idea. I had Hollywood vs Geology last semester, a gen ed science class and we discussed the possibilities of towns enacting multi-million dollar warning systems. However, it is difficult to predict exactly when an earthquake will strike. There could be several days of signs leading up to it and the likelihood of the earthquake could be extremely high, but sometimes it just might not happen. Having an app to send out warnings could be a great idea, especially in light of the recent unfortunate events that happened in Nepal. Hopefully this idea takes off and preventive measures will be enacted easier and faster in the future when it comes to natural disasters.

It’s hard to say whether I would feel comfortable on the road with an autonomous vehicle as it is so early in development. If the technology does prove to be reliable, there is no reason this shouldn’t become mandatory for every driver. The first things I think about are that a progrom operating a vehicle cannot be distracted by their cell phones, by something they see on the side of the road, by eating while driving, or by intoxication, among many other examples. For these reasons alone the techonolgy could reduce car accidents and other related accidents significantly. It will be interesting to see the results of the first autonmous vehicles to hit the road as this could be one of the msot disruptive technologies we’ve seen yet.

First, I find it crazy that Tesla cars built since October have had the ability to drive autonomously; all it needs is a software update that can unlock that feature. It is crazy to think cars are now getting software updates over the air, just like our phones do. I am a little skeptical about possible bugs that can occur in the software. If I had the option to allow this technology I think I would try it out, this feature is expected to increase the Tesla’s already amazing mileage. I remember in class talking about how only a few states have the rights to drive fully autonomous cars, so I would assume this can be potentially legal but I can also see how it might not be legal.

Thanks for posting this great article. First of all, I do believe that this auto-steering function is one of the great upgrade software that can implement to car system. But I strongly disagree that this functionality should not be on the road yet. I remember that before all the electric car came-out, there were enough of road test by the model of S all-electric sedan. What we always have to concern is the safety. We all know that Autonomous driving modes would allow the driver to truly cast attention away from the road-possibly even disable steering-wheel control, eventually-and they would take some of these core active-safety features and driver aids and then allow either full vehicle-to-vehicle communication and vehicle-to-grid, allowing multiple layers of safety so that the car could truly drive itself. However, this feature should be tested enormous times so that everyone can believe auto-steering function is reliable to be on the road.

This was a great post and and interesting article considering our recent class discussions. I think the legality of autonomous car features will depend on testing and the confidence level in its results. At this moment, I would not feel comfortable with these features being used while I was on the road. However, if there was sufficient evidence that these features were safe and effective, I would support the initiative of autonomous vehicles.

I think this technology could be a huge asset to many sports & athletic related fields. As an athleti, you are often blind to the inner workings of your body and can easy over exhert yourelf resulting in injury. I believe this device could help prevent small injuries and help predict the occurance of bigger problems. When reading about the device, I couldn’t help buthtink of the Cirque De Solil system which carefully tracks and monitors each performers health, inuries, & physical activity. In the curretn state, it is just a system of records which uses historical data to make predictions. Coupled with a technology such as OptimEye, they would be able to make highly accurate predictions of injury, recovery rates, & performer limitations. I would be interested to see how this could be used outsideo f the professional athletic realm.

This technology would be great if it was put into the hands of the regular consumer. Imagine if a high school coach could have this and prevent his younger players from getting hurt and ending their career way too early. With this technology it would also be great for the players to monitor how they are doing. Most players always want to perform better than they did the previous day, but how can they measure that? With this new technology it can give players statists on how they did the previous day and they can determine what they need to do better. I believe this technology will not only help prevent many injuries but advance the quality of the game.

Thanks for posting this article.
Transforming into one another is one of the hardest thing especially in business strategy.
Going global can cause problems such as if the company is not perfectly plan for what they want to change of it. For example, a lot of company still backing up useless data forever. Like the stars of the show Hoarders, most people are data hoarders. The company want employees to back everything up. Including the databases they haven’t used in years. Even after they’ve moved to a completely new systems. The company also like to storing stuff forever. These stuffs makes the company holds off from going into global. They are storing stuff they couldn’t access or read even if they wanted to, because the necessary equipment doesn’t exist anymore or not thinking about it to change it. There are more hardest things to change in information technology and they should’ve be all aware of this transforming one into the other.

I believe FIDO is a great option, it would require vast majority of authentication technologies. I believe fingerprints, iris scanner and other facial recognition’s would greatly benefits as a password authentication. Many laptops now even include fingerprint scanners and even apple are starting use them on phones and iPad. Many other companies are using them like Visa, Paypal and other fortune 500 companies. I love the new fingerprint scanner on my iPhone. Our generations has changed into making everything faster. Companies understanding that every seconds counts and with this finger print scanner on the iPhone, it saves so seconds and it’s much easier and safer.