Category Archives: Invention
Talking Quirky at ICKC
Last night I was invited to share my experience at the Quirky offices with the Inventor’s Club of KC. The response was pretty strong, so I have no doubt a few new members will be joining the Q community. I also have no doubt that ICKC made a new member out of me. The community is really supportive and productive. If you live in the area I highly recommend attending the next meeting.
Here’s a look at the talk, which starts around 20:35.
The GetUp Desk
I’ve been kicking around the idea of using Kickstarter. This particular idea is a small but subtle one I would like to license and put on to the infomercial circuit at some point in time.
So far it’s garnered some nice compliments and a $25 Amazon gift card from Genius Crowds, but alas, I’m still looking for the right licensee. If there are any takers, let me know.
Oh – and pardon the terrible VO.
Pocket Sitcom: Season 2
Pocket Sitcom has been a pet project for some time now. A pet project that has done much better than I ever anticipated – even finding it’s way on to national television – and it’s high time it got a glossy new reboot:
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Version 2 features a much larger array of SFX thanks to Noel Selders, the top dogs at Propaganda 3 and Bazillion Pictures. We’re quickly approaching 150,000 downloads, which just may give me the green light into a premium version that I’m extremely excited for. I shouldn’t divulge plans yet, but I’ll say that if we go about this the right way, we’ve got a very killer feature coming up!
As always, stay tuned!
If you haven’t yet, download Pocket Sitcom from iTunes and check it out yourself. Hey – it’s free!
Why isn’t the Kinect in the Classroom?
This is a video of a project from the talented crew at Take 2 | Back Alley Films. They showed this to us just a day before I entered the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Global Education Challenge. It was a matter of seconds before I put the two together in one glorious idea.
As someone who works in advertising, I see a lot of interesting and unique ways that technology is reaching consumers. We live in an age where dynamic digital experiences are quickly growing around us, and it’s time to use them for more than just selling products.
Odds are you know somebody with an Xbox Kinect in their home. This technology allows people to interact with games without a controller – just using the motion of their own body. Multiple players can even join in.
Combined with a projection screen and software designed around grade-level lesson plans can create an immersive experience where students work with each other to turn problem solving into a shared experience.
Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about, and how this can translate taking a passive audience into an enthusiastic community:
A typical kinect runs a couple hundred dollars. The projector another couple of hundred.
The software can easily change and develop for age levels. For example, students learning to develop letters can “create” them in a virtual environment, then place them by different objects to understand their phonemes. As a group children can work as “word factories” where some build the letters and others connect them in the right order, creating a team-based, interactive environment.
Microsoft has just released a software development kit (SDK) for Kinect technology, allowing for open-source creation of apps like the ones I’m hoping come about. I’d really like to use this post as a topic of discussion for potential games and applications that can use this technology as an interactive learning tool.
Read an article to the physical benefits Kinect can have with kids here, or see this example of how it can be used with art class:
Please share any thoughts you may have.
Farewell traditional can opener. Long live the Quirky Apri
Months ago I submitted a general can operner idea to Quirky, a clever NYC company that creates crowd-sourced products from its online community. Didn’t expect too much from the concept, since there were a lot of issues behind the general idea (for starters, it defied the laws of physics).
I’ve been struggling with this particular idea for a couple years, so I had little reason to think it would be the one to send my to NYC to join the industrial design team in their upcoming reality show on the Sundance Channel.
I take all this as proof that Andy Warhol was right: everyone gets 15 minutes of fame. Less of a blessing and more of a threat, really… but if my time has come, I feel fortunate that my pasty mug is used to develop a new kitchen innovation instead of blowing Brett Michaels in the back of a bus.
Did I mention the can opener? It’s called the Apri:
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My initial concept was a lid that allowed you to “twist off” the can’s top using the same motion you would for a jar. It’s a nice theory, but a difficult reality with so many different sizes of cans, and the lack of leverage that would give the Hulk arthritis. Like I said, I knew these problems going in, but I have a sense that the show will pitch this process as “Jon, the hopeful guy who knows nothing about design.” I know they’re using the head designer – the main naysayer of the concept – as my “foe.” Of course when the cameras were off and no lines were being fed to me, I found the entire staff at Quirky to be nice, energentic and welcoming. Couldn’t ask for a better evolution of the idea.
Did I mention the Apri is now available for presale on the Quirky website? I didn’t? Here’s a little more information on this side-opening bad boy:
- Lever uses body weight to clamp onto cans, no need to squeeze handles together
- Ratcheting knob relieves wrist strain
- Side cutting design prevents sharp metal edges
- Talon-hook lid lifter with magnetic catch-and-release system
- Sleek design looks great displayed on your counter
Pocket Sitcom Knows Ya Boo
I wouldn’t say I get starstruck easily. I met Justin Timberlake at a urinal once and was fairly unimpressed. I was also fairly drunk. This was also when he was still in his N’ Sync days and had not yet went on to sleep with every sexual fantasy I’ve had in the past 10 years, but whatever. I met George Clinton at a bar in Detroit during college and greeted him as if he had just come to a house party of mine – no biggie. Of course, I was still fairly drunk.
Point is, I don’t think much of a celebrity level, but I certainly felt a level of awe when I found out one of my all-time comic heroes Aziz Asnari had stumbled upon my dear brainchild Pocket Sitcom and liked it so much he put it into an episode of Parks and Recreation.
The iPhone app plays a small but crucial role as Aziz’s sound effects for his show, Know Ya Boo. Go to 4:46 in the timeline of the actual episode to see for yourself. Otherwise, check out my guerilla-style preview:
It’s a pretty solid achievement that wouldn’t have been possible without the skills of Cello and his crew at Propaganda 3, Noel Selders, Jeff Bieth and the team at Bazillion Pictures. You guys rock. Now let’s get version two knocked out.
The CanDO (can it?)
Some exciting things happening on the Jon front. For starters, I finally can wear the title of “inventor”.
Presenting my upcoming brainchild: The CanDO (name pending).
Pretty simple concept, but a pretty daunting feet nonetheless. Anyhoo, looks like I’ve made my bucket list a tad lighter thanks to the folks at Quirky Inc.
For those that are not familiar, here’s how it works:
- Sign up as a member of the Quirky community (free)
- Submit your ideas/innovations for the rest of the community to review
- No idea yet? No prob, because everyone can review and comment on ideas – ideally to make them better
- The top ideas are reviewed for viability, market appeal and all the other stuff that can cost you a lot of money to do yourself.
- One idea per challenge is selected to be developed, produced and sold by Quirky through vehicles like HSN, Bed Bath & Beyond and more.
This week’s review went a little something like this:
As you can see from the video, I have my work cut out for me. Not sure if I can divulge all the upcoming details yet, but let’s just say there are very exciting additions to the story for your humble Jonboy.
Stay tuned!
ShoeFX
Although I focus most of this blog on advertising, I put heavy day-to-day work into my big dreams of being an inventor. The secretive nature of the business keeps me from broadcasting projects, but in the words of a young Tom Cruise, sometimes you’ve got to say: “what the f—.”
I’m starting to post some of my older ideas on Quirky.com in hopes that I can have better guidance toward developing and getting some ideas to market. My most recent post is called ShoeFX.
I’m interested in feedback, and I’m very interested in your votes as well. Please feel free to visit Quirky and join in the conversation. If this tactic works, I just might be more apt to share more.
Ever wondered how your kids will use tech? Here’s where I’m placing my bet.
It still amazes me when I see my two-year-old touch the computer monitor, expecting the images to move. I almost don’t want to teach him how to use the keyboard and mouse, in fear that it will only be counter-intuitive to the ultra-tactile world he will no doubt work and live in.
But let’s face it: my iPhone is going to look like a Beta max joke by the time he’s my age. If anything, the future will be split into all or none – a world we manipulate with our hands, and a world brought about by the following video.
Just like we revel in virtual omnipotence we get from the web, our future is quickly adding telekinesis to our list of traits. Pretty. Bad. Ass.
Look before you draw.
A shining example of, “look before you build a sell sheet”:
Cool idea, isn’t it?
That’s why it already exists:
If anyone wants a Kensington SpinStation, feel free to order it from Amazon. In the meantime I’ll be hitting the drawing board.
