Monthly Archives: June 2014

by | Wednesday, June 18, 2014 · 4:35 am

Smart Shirts

SmartShirt

Can the shirt you are wearing tell your heart beat and breathing rate? Probably not, but some types innovative clothing can indeed tell wearers important information about their health. T-shirts made by a Canadian company, Omsignal, have sensors that pick up information about health indicators, including how many calories are burned along with the wearer’s stress level.

Wearable technology is an innovative, and growing industry. Going beyond devices such as fitness bands, heart monitors, and other fitness trackers, wearable technology can now be embedded directly into textiles using biometric material. Uses for the materials range from sports and health-monitoring, to making wearable computerized clothing for soldiers. And, wouldn’t it be nice if our clothes could sense when we need food and drink in order to stay healthy, and have the order placed before we even arrive home from the gym?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: how many monitor their workouts or health using fitness bands or applications?
  2. Discuss the barriers and challenges to adopting wearable technology. How can these barriers be overcome?
  3. View wearable apparel and see it in action at: http://www.omsignal.com/
  4. For wearable technology products, what distribution channels are used now? Divide students into teams. Have each team draw a flow chart for the distribution of the product.

Source: New York Times, other news sources

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by | Wednesday, June 18, 2014 · 4:30 am

Smart Toilets from Japan

SmartToilets

Quick – which room in a house do you think has the most technology? For most of us, the living room or office has the most entertainment and the latest technology gadgets. Now – which room in the house do you think has the least technology? It takes a little thought, but it is probably the humble bathroom. After all, how much technology do we need in a shower, sink, or toilet? It’s an interesting question in a significant industry; toilet sales are estimated at $12 billion today.

However, bathrooms are about to change and become more technology-enabled with the recent import to the U.S. of Japanese high-tech toilets. These “smart toilets” have unique electronic features such as heated seats, automatic lid-lifters, automatic flushing, automatic sanitizing, Bluetooth sync with smartphones, and speakers in the toilet bowl. Some models can also analyze health factors such as weight, BMI, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. Today, these toilets are used in roughly 75% of Japanese homes. Next stop – U.S. bathrooms.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: which room in their houses has the most technology, and what are the gadgets?
  2. Next, poll students about the rooms with the least amount of technology? Why is technology use lower in those rooms?
  3. Show the video at http://youtu.be/gL9pmDr1cfI (go to 2 minute mark).
  4. Divide students into teams: What are the barriers to this product gaining market share in the U.S.?
  5. Who is target market? How can this market be reached?
  6. Assign each team to develop a promotional campaign for the product.
  7. Teams: Find current pricing for today’s toilets. How should the new product be priced for the U.S. market?

Source: Wall Street Journal, CNN, KRON TV, other news sources

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by | Tuesday, June 10, 2014 · 3:53 am

Charge Phone Battery is 30 seconds!

battery

How many times each day do you charge your cell phone battery? And, how long does it take to do this? Like most of us, the answers are probably “too many” and “too long.” And, the more we depend on cell phones for common, everyday activities, the more frustrating it is when the phone battery dies at critical moments.

With a solution for this vexing problem is an Israeli company named StoreDot. The company has developed a prototype phone battery that can be recharged in 30 seconds! The company didn’t set out to develop the product; it found the technology while researching treatments for Alzheimer disease. Using ground-breaking technology based on the discovery of self-assembled nanodots of biological origins, the nanodots are the core of several innovations that relate to smart phones, TVs, energy storage devices, bio-medicine, and more.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Start by showing the video of the product:

http://youtu.be/pdEWw1LOO2I

  1. The company’s Web site is at http://www.store-dot.com/
  2. Discuss the various promotional tactics that can be used for launching a new product.
  3. Have students come up with tactics and list all the tactics on the white board (ex: billboards, print, direct mail, etc.).
  4. Divide students into groups to work on this exercise.
  5. For this product, have each team select three different tactics. Explain why the tactic was selected and how it will be used.
  6. Debrief by putting together the entire suggested lists on the white board. As a final step, have the entire class vote on the top three tactics to use.

Source: Manufacturing business technology, CNN Money

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