Ideas Based on the 5 Stated Themes

Hello All Napkin Labbers (aka Social Scientists and Idea-Machines, although some are Xerox ;) just kidding)

Napkin Labs mentions these 5 pointers which reveal that the main target of GTV would be youngsters and rightly so. The current young generation (around 25 and below) will form the bulk of GTV customers and cutting edge entertainment tools of the future.

I have tried coming up with ideas for each of these pointers keeping focus on the youth. Some of these ideas I might have already put as my ideas, some of these ideas might be others’ ideas that I read on NL (I’m sure NL judges and Google judges will see the date at which an idea was submitted the first time before deciding the credits, in the meanwhile we should just help each other build up on our ideas, who knows, even by commenting positive on another’s weak idea, you might get a cracker of idea which could be the next YouTube/Chatroulette)

Interactive Education & Discovery

Need: Many younger individuals demand more interactive experiences, which is why they look to the internet for entertainment, exploration, and education. However, many of these activities are more engaging with friends, making TV a more engaging platform. Young teens want more interactive ways to explore new content and information along with their friends. Scenario: Adam and his friends love sharks - and shark week on the Discovery Channel is the event of the year. Adam wants a way to make shark week more interactive so he and his friends can play games and learn more about sharks while they are watching shows, but laptops are too personal and restrictive. Opportunities: - Interactive education, e-commerce, and social apps etc. to make TV content more engaging - TV apps that can interact with toys & devices to create rich and fun learning environments - Immersion - Interactive trivia and games that integrate with content

·         Remote control of GTVs just the way TeamViewer and other Remote Control software work, so that friends can help friends setup apps and other settings

·         Group Viewing as I have described in the Ideas section – teachers and pupils can bookmark, past, present and future shows and content from the internet into a package that can be seen collectively at the same time on a set time and also reviewed later. This can be taken to actual classrooms too as part of “Google Schools” and “Google Universities”

·         A web cam with group chat and group web cam conference is basic. For example, a song on MTV or aVH1 or a YouTube song can be danced at together.

·         Sum solving common blackboard/whiteboard touchscreen, where groups can together work at a sum/equation/problem/diagram etc.

·         Informed debates, groups of children can take part in virtual debates and they need not be backed with “I had read somewhere or I had seen on the internet” anymore, they can instantly provide the material to back or refute claims

·         Young boys especially want to learn the tips and tricks of sports they play when they watch the matches on TV, so if a curve ball goal happens on TV, a GTV operator will flash a YT like annotation that says “press yellow button to learn how to curve ball”

Connected Device Ecosystems

Need: Young individuals want TV to be more social, but do not want to be social on their TVs. While interactivity and social experiences are interesting to TV users, social networking is very personal and the TV is an inherently shared device. Individuals are looking for more seamless ways to have their TV content integrate with devices like their laptops, cellphones, iPads etc. Scenario: Mike is in college and lives with several roommates. They all have their laptops with them while they are watching TV to check up on fantasy football scores and Facebook. While none of them want this content to be on the TV, Mike wishes the game he was watching could integrate with his laptop to make TV more interactive, while maintaining his privacy. Opportunities: - Apps that integrate devices, making the living room ecosystem more seamless - Making TV content clickable through other devices - Interactive experiences between TV content and other devices - Controlling the TV interface through other devices

·         The ability to “slide” content onto the Master Screen. This is like a drag and drop function. In the described room above let’s say there are 4 laptops and 1 GTV Master Screen. The 4 laptop screens are recognized by GTV as secondary screens and using advanced Wi-Fi algorithms GTV will know the exact position of each of the screens in the room. So if Eric wants to show a particular video message he received from Erica to his best pal Tom and not to other friends Paul and John then he will “slide” (if touch screen laptop/tablet) or drag and drop the video in the direction where Tom is sitting, instantly on Tom’s screen the video will arrive and start playing. If Eric wants to share the new Bieber video (snicker snicker lol, or maybe Christina Aguilera video) with all then he will “slide” the video by touching it on his screen and flicking it towards the direction of the GTV Master Screen.

·         Remote control of the master screen MUST lie with only 1 device, the remote control has been and forever will be a symbol of power and control, that is relevant only if 1 person has it, if everyone gets to remote control the master screen (users can opt for this too if they want) then it would become a big fight. Any touch screen can control the TV easily, if not touch screen then even the mouse pointer can work, by clicking the relevant areas of the likeness of the Master Screen on the remote control secondary screen. Voice control and gestural controls should also be made.

·         Retina identification – HD web cameras will be easily able to identify any user who comes and sits in front of the TV, they will be greeted by a robot like AI computer voice “Hello Tom, Good Morning, What would you like to do?”, user can give response “Friends Season 4 Episode 10” or say “Menu” and the computer AI voice will say “yesterday at this time you saw Scrubs, you like Football and right now Man U is up against Chelsea, or would you like to see the latest Eminem video, it launched 3 hours ago” based on the intelligence about user Tom that the machine has gathered. If Tom and his dad Tim are watching the GTV together then the AI would say “Hello Tom, Hello Dad” to make it feel as a family member

·         There is a lot that can be done as far as device interconnectivity is concerned, but it all depends upon the technology and the compatibility of the devices, a Wi-Fi washing machine could be easily setup to take instructions fed into GTV but an older machine cannot. So it does not make sense to point out such ideas at the moment.

TV in the Background

Need: Many individuals engage the TV for more than just active watching. Individuals turn on the TV as a ‘passive companion’ and enjoy the white noise; however, many want the TV to be more useful in its resting state. Scenario: Whenever Amy is in her room, she turns on the TV, but she rarely engages and provides her undivided attention. She wishes she had other things she could put on the TV in the background that could do cool things like show energy consumption or streaming news. Opportunity: - Home monitoring, passive social apps - News feeds, reminders, gaming - Apps for passive entertainment - Rethinking the idea of ‘off and ‘on’ - are there other settings?

·         Once the retina scan of GTV detects that there is no one in front of the screen for a long time it will switch to audio mode i.e. the TV would become radio, it will start streaming the favourite songs of the person who switched on the GTV but is not present in front. It can play songs, movies or talk shows as per the person commands through voice commands.

·         Quiz shows and games like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire can be easily played through audio and GTV will take the voice input answers and convert it to text in order to verify wrong or right answers.

·         The screen will switch off to save power and only switch on when the GTV detects movement in front of the screen like power saving bulbs that switch on only when someone enters the room,

Personalizing the Experience of TV

Need: TV as a platform is rigid, structured, and built around content providers and not users. Young generations are intolerant of experiences that are not user-centric and personalizable. Scenario: Jamie’s computer is her go-to entertainment device as it provides an on demand, personalized, and intimate entertainment experience. Comparatively, the TV feels like a dead and cold experience with no real personality. Jamie wishes she could ‘sign in’ and be presented with a more customized experience that gives her feeds of relevant content along with content recommended by friends. Opportunities: - Apps and experiences for personalization - Profiles and content filtering - Integration with morning and evening routines - Controlling the TV interface through other devices - RSS feeds, etc.

·         Playlist like setup for TV channels can be made if the person does not wish to watch YT like channels that the GTV will provide.

·         Voice sign in, finger print sign in, retina scan sign in could all work together or even alone and thus the TV will know who is watching and it will display content respectively, it will also sign them in on their social net sites automatically and update their status to watching so and so show on TV.

Content Navigation & the TV Interface

Need: The way people naturally seek, view, share, and recommend content to cut through ‘noise’ has evolved on the internet, but the TV remains very difficult and frustrating to navigate. Scenario: Kate is 17 years old. She hates turning on the TV and flipping through channels in search of something that looks good. She wants an interface that makes it easy to choose her next show or clip without disrupting her viewing experience. Opportunities: - Contextual discovery - Social filtering and content navigation - Seamless integration across apps and platforms

·         First of all flipping channels will be provided in the traditional form but the GTV will arrange the channels in order of the frequency of them being watched by the current user. So if Ram only like movie channels and discovery and TLC then those channels will flip one after the other instead of them being several channels apart. Also if Ram watches only 1 particular show on Fox and if he sits in front of the GTV when then show is on then the “flip rank” of that channel will advance while normally it would be low as that channel on the whole is not liked by ram except for that 1 show.

·         Currently TV shows very little info and synopsis through Set Top Boxes. Even new devices such as Roku and Boxee don’t show much more. A lot more info needs to be made available. Emphasis should be on free and non-commercial messages, rather than messages about DVD releases and buy this DVD or buy this Blu Ray at your neighborhood store.

·         Why should the screen only display 1 channel at a time. PIP (picture in picture) too is old. The web sites today use interfaces such as Cooliris to display image galleries neatly, similarly channels too need to be displayed in a 3D Windows 7 Aero type interface.

·         Adult channels and adult content on TVs will automatically switch off for young viewers. Even if a family is sitting and there is a 12 year old child present who the GTV recognizes it will skip the part where the hot actress does a topless scene.

·         A text-cloud is a very neat tool that is being used by lots of sites today to show lots of links neatly based on the importance of the links the size varies. Similarly a text-cloud of the show names/movies now playing names will show up on a navigation screen and the most popular shows and movies of the viewer will have the biggest font sizes in that text cloud.

MORE COMING LATER, THIS DOC WILL BE UPDATED AND REUPLOADED

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