The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

Yes on something that will read stuff to me! Linux has Festival, which unfortunately sucks compared to what Windows has for the same thing, but it is better than nothing.

My dream for the future is a tablet that I can talk to so I don't have to handwrite at all -- something with Dragon NaturallySpeaking accuracy!

We also need an app like Kdissert (a linux app that does memory mapping -- aka, helps make and take notes) or VYM, which does the same, or Brainstorm in Windows that does something similar.

The chess app isn't very good because it doesn't let you play both sides of the game, which is what you would want to do for chess study.

It would sure be nice if someone would sell a decent camera to make part of the N800 as a replacement for what we have.

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

Well, I suppose that you can use flite (festival-lite) to read any TXT document, and it works for me.

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

Shame only open to US residents...

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

I would love a GPS "swarm" application that uploaded aggregate tracking data for everybody who ran that application on their N800. It could then use the aggregate data to show average traffic speeds everywhere the application was in use.

By extension, you'd know where the traffic spots were because you'd see the places where the "swarm" was stuck.

Of course, you'd need a decent install base for this to work, and you'd have to remain online the whole time. ;)

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

Roger: flite was ported to the 770 and it does text to speech. If you saved the webpage as text and ran it from the commandline you could do it.

So it'd be like most other linux apps, fatty neckbeard gets it running from the commandline and leaves it alone instead of developing a GUI and making it useful.

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

Um, I didn't say you have to create a whole new TTS engine. A widget that let you engage Flite from within FBReader or Opera is what's needed.

And is it something that can be finished by Feb 27? Well, that's why I'm not suggesting something too big to bite off.

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

Reading through the rules, it looks like the PopSci folks want ideas, not implementations. They require an essay to be submitted, not source code and not anything like a ".deb" file.

-F

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

BTW: We should post entries here -- on ITT -- so that enterprising third-party developers can benefit from ideas just like Nokia can. As I see it, this contest is basically Nokia fishing for cool ideas to build for the Internet tablet platform. So why not share ideas with everyone?

There might be some legal problems with posting the essays -- they become Nokia's legal property once submitted. The intellectual property of the idea remains with the submitter, however (at least in my reading of the rules), so posting here in some form would be legal...and very cool.

Folks might want to way until after the submitting deadline...maybe...

-F

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

Well, since I'm not a US resident I might as well post my idea here.

In order for an idea to be really succesfull you need it to be either brilliant on its own for users or interesting commercially for companies - preferably both, if you want to attain both user and industry support. So my guess at the 'killer-app' of Nokia Internet Tablets (of any flavor) would be a localization service using a GPS device. The point is to make a localized database of information - something like a navigation Points-Of-Interest database on steriods. That is, companies could put geographically oriented information into a database, and the tablet would pick the relevant data out of the database depending on where you are and put it on a map of your current location. Examples:

- Nearest place to eat, including real-time updated menu of the day
- Nearest gas station(s) - including prices
- Nearest bus stops and train stations with schedules
- In Denmark we have a great system, run by the train/bus companies where you just put in your start and end address and it finds the fastest way by public transport between them, and prints an itinerary. This works from a national level all the way down to just-round-the-corner.
- The sky is the limit...

Of course users would subscribe to either individual content-providers (could be the cafe with their menu, could be someone having a lot of POIs for comparison - maybe a newspaper's food review section) or to specified keywords. You could set a limit on the number of keywords each content-provider could specify to avoid commercial spamming, and include users' reviews on content-providers so you know what other people think of the content-providers before you sign up for it. In that way only well-behaving content-providers get exposure - sort of a Digg concept. Also, advertisements can be targeted to opt-in'ers as well as geographically. And before people start screaming "Popup-monger, go jump off a cliff", I would like to point out that not all advertisement is bad. Google's advertisements on the 'net is, in my opinion, very unobtrusive, and targeted advertisement is better than random Viagra ads, as long as they don't pose a privacy risk. The privacy issues are fairly easily handled by allowing the user to choose what to subscribe to and implement it by just fetching this data from the database, without telling the database what the criteria are. Basically, only the Tablet would know what my subscriptions are.

In order to release this from the a specific platform, it should really just be a smart web service platform with the ability to take GPS coordinates as an input. You could make different views for this data - ie. dedicated Maemo software, a website, Windows Mobile or Symbian software (yuck?), all connecting to the database by some standardized protocol.

The only reason this is not already everywhere, is that no device has existed that made this easily accessible. The Internet tablets change this, as I am sure all the rip-offs coming up will also.

Now what I would really like is an N800 with a built-in GPS chip and antenna, but for now, a BT GPS reciever in my pocket would do well enough.

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

I have submitted an idea for using the N800 as a portable language translator, using text to speech with the camera and OCR module playing its part. I don't think the N800 has enough processing power to do fully natural speech recognition.

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

Well... I may be able to enter after April 13...

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

I hope not. :)

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

How about a video blog app. Something that lets you post what the webcam is viewing in real time.
An N800 could be used as a temporary video/audio security cam, ad hoc baby monitor, record and post ambush interviews or statements made by public figures... yadda, yadda, yadda. :)

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

what's so special about april 13th?

as far as I see it, you don't even need to be an N800 owner to enter; merely have a good idea that's feasible with an off-the-shelf N800.

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

How about a good PIM...clearly Nokia doesn't believe the N800 can ever do it.

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

- voice activation
- voice activation tied to apps like mapper via exposed API
- short range FM transmitter like the griffen technology iTrip
- a motion video/still image capture app
- video capture quality to take advantage of the great screen on the device
- WTF, a geiger counter
- something that can scan for any kind of transmission... like gene hackman used in "enemy of the state" to scan his safe house for bugs
- a PIM that can connect to my RAZR via bluetooth and see my contacts, and copy them back and forth.
- bluetooth headset support
- a Physician's Desk Reference on SD card
- biometeric tracking and analysis... something akin to nike+ipod
- bluetooth control to connect to a cell phone, phonetically "read" the contacts, and work as a hands free device for the phone (using voice activation above to make the call and short range fm transmitter above to broadcast over car stereo)
- the means to connect the device to my telescope (Meade telescope via bluetooth or usb/serial) and control its movements or the stars it tracks. can also use GPS to get location

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

- A barcode scanner (using the camera), coupled with a shopping list.
- A freehand scanner (again, using the camera) that lets you scan documents by sweeping the camera over them (would require some nifty auto-stitching software, but hey! if Geiger counters are allowed...) :D
- A life recorder (as in that Engadget article), using camera, microphone and maybe a BT GPS. Would really require 1TB SD cards, but we can start with what we have already. That freehand document scanner would come in handily here as well.
- A PIM. Obviously... :D (and don't ask me what I want in a PIM; just make one and I'll tell you if it's a good one) :D :D
- An app that records from the FM radio for later playback.
- Decent video drivers (I want to be able to watch 800x480 video at 25fps! I paid for the blasted screen, dammit!!!!) :D , but I'm half serious.
- A filter on ITT to keep all those whiners about PIMs and video drivers off the forums.

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

a widget that keeps "PIM" off my screen. need a "personal information manager"? if you have that much "personal information" get a secretary

an app to stream video from slingbox type devices

a drum machine program you can tap on with your fingers

sonar, using the mic and speakers

bit bash some sdio

a wsod emulator

a fricken lazer beam


damn, its hard to think of things that havent been done or are obvious..

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

I'll be eligible to enter. :/

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

How about a lie detector using audio analysis :D Look out kids I'm on to ya!!


How about a alternate window manager to be used with the internet tablets, now that would be very usefull :D

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

a new thought...

- a usb to cat5/cat3/RJ-11 connector with terminator for pinout testing
- same connector to check lines for open/broken wires, which can tell you how far down the wire the break occurs
- same connector and sensor wand to do line chasing in other rooms (tone generator)

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

So you've got that magic N800 that is capable of USB host mode then? Where'd you find it?

Re: The Nokia-PopSci challenge -- what can the N800 do they never imagined?
 

i like this idea