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Category Archives: Innovative designs & gadgets

Kytephone Grows Up, Adds Kid-Friendly SMS

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This post was originally posted by Martin Drashkov on blog.kytephone.com.

Check out the latest news from Kytephone:

“We launched Kytephone four months ago with a simple vision: be the first smartphone every child gets. Despite kids growing up playing with touchscreen devices and getting phones at an increasingly younger age, parents are still rightfully hesitant to give a full smartphone to their kids. With Kytephone, we were able to offer kids a simple, child-friendly UI that ran all their favourite games, while parents got the call and app controls they needed to feel comfortable.

In the last few months since our launch we got a great number of happy users and yet, a nagging, recurring theme emerged. Parents found it hard to sell Kytephone to kids older than about 8 because it was too simple, too childish and lacked SMS. Parents with older kids wanted to use Kytephone, but their kids either put up a big fight and refused to use a phone at all, or used it and were unhappy. As one parent told us, “My kids curse your name, though they don’t realize they wouldn’t have a phone without you guys.”

We wanted Kytephone to work for older kids as well, so we knew the next version had to look more like a regular phone and have SMS messaging, while still maintaining the parental controls parents needed.

We released version 2 of Kytephone on Friday and based on initial feedback, we think it will make a big difference to a lot of families. The new homescreen looks more grown up, but retains child-friendly elements like big icons and text with a playful font. While we tried several different approaches, we found the now-standard left-to-right set of pages with a grid of icons to really be the simplest we could make it.

One area where we think we think we’ve managed to simplify the standard smartphone experience is our approach to phone calls and SMS messages. Smartphones today usually have separate Contacts, Phone and SMS apps, with many ways to get from one to the other and many different but related views – Call Log, SMS threads, etc, etc. Rather than trying to replicate that, we decided to combine all the communication under a single “People” app.

When kids click the “People” icon, they see their list of contacts and then click the phone icon to make a call or the message icon to go the Conversation screen. There, kids see not only their text messages in a standard chat screen, but also all incoming, outgoing and missed calls inter-weaved in between. When kids get a notification (missed call or incoming message), clicking on the notification takes them straight to this page. We believe this is a much simpler and more holistic way to handle calls, SMS and call logs, and it leaves the door open to easily add other communication channels in the same interface in the future.

We’re very proud of our latest release, so check it out on Google Play. We’d love to hear your feedback.”

Experience the Tactile Audio Chair at Rainbow Cinemas

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From May 4 to June 3, the public is invited to experience a new tactile dimension to film

TORONTO, April 26, 2012 — Tactile Audio Displays Inc (TADs Inc), a Toronto-based research and development company, in collaboration with Rainbow Cinemas, is inviting the public to experience its revolutionary tactile audio display system for the first time. Two TAD chairs are available for seating during screenings in Theatre 3 at Rainbow Cinemas Market Square between May 1 and June 3, 2012. Use of the chairs will be free with ticket purchase on a first-come, first-served basis, with users asked to complete a short online survey providing feedback on their experience. Completion of the survey will also enter participants into a draw to win free tickets to Rainbow Cinemas. For more information, visit http://www.tadsinc.com/rainbow/. To learn more about TAD, visit http://www.tadsinc.com . To view current film schedules for Rainbow Cinemas Market Square, visit http://www.rainbowcinemas.ca/A/?theatre=Market_Square&.

“The TAD system presents the next evolution in entertainment,” said Dr Maria Karam, TADs Inc. founder, CEO and one of the inventors. “First movies were silent, then ‘talkies’ added the element of sound. A tactile display creates a whole new layer of depth by adding a third sense, the sense of touch, to the entertainment experience. Once filmgoers experience the immersive qualities of the TAD system and its ability to take you deeper into the movie or music experience, it will reveal a new sensation that you won’t want to do without.”

“At Rainbow Cinemas we’re always looking for ways to enhance our customers’ movie experience,” said Jacquelyn Mathé, Rainbow Cinemas Market Square General Manager. “We are excited to collaborate with a local technology start-up company and to be the first to offer TAD’s tactile audio display technology to our patrons.”

The TAD tactile audio display technology was originally conceived of as part of a research project called the Emoti-Chair, headed up by Ryerson University Professor Deborah Fels, with collaborator Frank Russo. The Emoti-Chair was designed as an assistive technology device aimed at providing members of the deaf community with access to the emotional effects of sounds accompanying movies or music. Once developed, the tactile audio technology was determined to not only provide benefits for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences, but also enhance the audio and visual entertainment experience for all users. TADs Inc was then formed to commercialize the technology and to continue expanding research initiatives in the field of sensory substitution for tactile-audio translations.

The TAD system is designed to mimic the way the human inner ear collects, translates and processes sound waves. Embedded into each system is an array of voice coils aligned along strategic points on the chair’s structure. The coils translate sound information into physical sensations that are presented to the skin, thus enhancing and reinforcing the audio to the corresponding video content. This creates a new experience that will immerse and connect you deeper into the audio-visual entertainment world.

Founded in 2010, Tactile Audio Displays (TADs Inc.) is a worldwide pioneer in providing tactile sound technologies, services, and integrated solutions to help individuals and vertical markets add a new dimension of sensory experience to their everyday, mediated world. The company is currently based out of Ryerson University’s Digital Media Zone start-up incubator.

For more information, visit www.tadsinc.com.

Tads Inc. will be holding a media launch at Rainbow Cinemas on Tuesday, May 1st 2012 between 10am and 12pm at the Market Square location, 80 Front Street E. at Jarvis St, Toronto, Canada.

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For further information, please contact Garth Wichstrom,
Chief Operations Officer, Tactile Audio Displays Inc.
garth@tadsinc.com
416.550.3261

Ryerson Cloud Computing Competition ’12 Features Cloud-Based Student Ideas

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Yesterday evening’s 4th Annual Ryerson Cloud Computing Showcase proved to be a successful event on many levels. Computer science students from the CPS630 course, as taught by DMZ Research Director Dr. Hossein Rahnama and mentored by current DMZ research and development staff, showcased their cloud-based prototypes to various industry professionals. Some guests and sponsors were so impressed by the ideas featured last night that some students even received job interviews and interest for follow up right on the spot.

The event was supported by Canadian Tire and OpenText to allow students to learn application development in consumer-driven and enterprise computing sectors. The students were required to transform an idea into a fully developed application in less than two months, utilizing the help of six DMZ R&D staff.

As Dr. Rahnama said, “the DMZ is demonstrating its potential in helping students create more innovative and relevant applications for the industry as part of their curriculum.” In what he described as a “win-win situation for industry and students,” the Cloud Competition featured 11 teams made up of 40 students. Each team demonstrated their cloud-based business service prototype, some of which ranged from a hands-free driver’s assistance application to an augmented reality shopping navigation platform. Team 5, as featured in the below video, created an email encryption application that ensures total security when emailing information:

Here’s a full list of the teams featured at last night’s showcase:

Team 1: A workout tracking rewards platform that rewards users with coupons to commercial businesses

Team 2: 3D Twitter visualization engine where the user virtually flies above the city to see what’s trending in various neighbourhoods

Team 3: Augmented reality shopping navigation platform that directs the user where to go while shopping in a store

Team 4: Cross-platform “smart” calendar organizer that revamps the traditional calendar into an artistic infographic

Team 5: Secure document email platform

Team 6: Location-based gaming app based on Ryerson University campus, where each campus building features a new “character” to challenge

Team 7: Document modification tracking tool that’s like a Twitter widget for document collaboration

Team 8: Hands-free driver’s assistance application that provides the user with road information, as well as the proximity of emergency vehicles

Team 9: Social matchmaking tool where a user’s privacy is protected while being co-located with other people nearby

Team 10: Shopping navigation and user assistance platform where users utilize QR codes to request help in a store

Team 11: Secure document sharing module where each paper version of the document comes with a QR code, which can be scanned to see the most updated version of the same document

Click here to see a full description of all the projects.

 

With the success of last night’s event, the DMZ will continue to support student initiatives and their passion to advance digital innovation. For more coverage on last night’s event, check out this article on itbusiness.ca.

The Walrus Expands the Canadian Conversation with THE WALRUS SOAPBOX

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Toronto – On April 18, The Walrus Foundation and HitSend.ca will launch The Walrus SoapBox at walrussoapbox.ca.

The Walrus SoapBox is a new and nimble online platform that puts your ideas in the hands of key decision makers. The Walrus SoapBox is a strategic and innovative voting tool that will allow Canadians from coast to coast to coast and around the globe to engage with us, and with each other, about content they read in The Walrus magazine or at walrusmagazine.com, see on walrustv.ca, or explore at the Walrus Foundation’s national events.

The Walrus SoapBox is designed for community-based change; it is a perfect extension of our educational mandate to promote debate on matters vital to Canadians. With a focus on user experience, The Walrus SoapBox will expand our ability to offer a public forum for vital conversations—on the page, stage, and online—around the issues that matter.

Traditionally, a soapbox was a way in which citizens could be heard through an impromptu or unofficial burst of public speaking. The Walrus SoapBox at walrussoapbox.ca will enable users to post or evaluate (with a thumbs up or thumbs down) ideas, and connect with other users quickly, easily, and in real time. This modern form of the soapbox elevates the blog format to include the collective voice of its users.

“In addition to publishing The Walrus magazine, providing a high standard of content at walrusmagazine.com, thewalruslaughs.com, and on walrustv.ca; and producing national events, we’re thrilled to be able to engage more Canadians in important conversations through this innovative and exciting new realm called The Walrus SoapBox,” says Shelley Ambrose, co-publisher of The Walrus magazine and executive director of the charitable, non-profit Walrus Foundation.

The Walrus Foundation invites all Canadians to help launch The Walrus SoapBox at walrussoapbox.ca on April 18. Our inaugural topic will be the relevance of art in daily life. On May 2, we will hold a public debate on the same topic: The Walrus National Gallery Debate in Ottawa (walrusmagazine.com/ottawa). Submissions on The Walrus SoapBox will be referenced before, during, and after the debate – so your voice will be heard. The debate will move from the digital realm of The Walrus SoapBox to the stage, to the page, to the screen, and back to the digital realm.

“We’re thrilled to partner with The Walrus, an established thought leader committed to engaging readers in new and innovative ways. For us, a company all about ideas, it is a perfect fit. Through our platform, The Walrus audience will be able to interact and shape content and events in a meaningful way, adding a new dynamic to the already conversational nature of the magazine,” says HitSend.ca founder and CEO, Brennan McEachran.

To join us on The Walrus SoapBox: simply go to walrussoapbox.ca, click “sign up” to create a user account (or alternatively log-in to The Walrus SoapBox through Facebook), and then engage in the conversation.

For tickets to The Walrus National Gallery Debate in Ottawa on May 2, visit walrusmagazine.com/ottawa.

We are grateful for the support of the Canada Council for the Arts at The Walrus National Gallery Debate and to the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Ontario Media Development Corporation for their ongoing support of our digital strategy.

For more information, please contact:
David Leonard at the Walrus Foundation
david.leonard@walrusmagazine.com or 416.971.5004 x222

About The Walrus Foundation
The Walrus Foundation is a charitable non-profit organization with a mandate to promote public discourse on matters vital to our country. The Foundation is dedicated to supporting Canadian writers, artists, readers, education, ideas, and debate.

About HitSend
HitSend Inc. is dedicated to increasing collective happiness by making tools that empower communities to set and achieve goals. HitSend’s first product, SoapBox, is an online platform for community-based change that allows each person to get their idea in the hands of key decision makers. SoapBox was originally envisioned by Brennan McEachran, who as a student at Ryerson University wanted to create a way to make his school a better place by aggregating the input of his fellow students. HitSend is currently based in the Ryerson Digital Media Zone, a startup incubator in Toronto, Canada. For more information, please visit www.hitsend.ca.

App Review: Draw Something by OMGPOP

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This article was originally posted by Jany Jang at Tapgage.com.

Since its inception in March, Draw Something by OMGPOP has taken the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University, and pretty much every app user by storm. Over the week, my Facebook news feed has been bombarded with numerous status updates on people’s phone batteries dying and withdrawal symptoms from this game but it seems to be all worth it. Due to the app’s super addictive nature, it’s also hardly possible not see someone playing Draw Something on their iPhone or Android in the hallways, or perhaps online with Draw My Thing, OMGPOP.com.

This app is like virtual Pictionary. To play this game on the iPhone, you first create a game with a friend via their email, OMGPOP username, or Facebook contact. If your friends haven’t been playing, you can invite them, or start a game with an online player chosen at random. After creating a game, you are presented with a word to draw for your opponent to guess (i.e. “Dragon,” “Ninja,” “Drake, “Klum,” “Mohawk,” and etc.) and the game continues with each round alternating between opponents. It sounds easy enough with the correct scrambled letters given, but only if your opponent is a great artist; otherwise you’re sitting there thinking “what on earth are they drawing?!”

If it’s your turn and you find that your word is difficult, don’t worry – you may swap it, provided that you have enough virtual currency. If your opponent guesses the word, both of you get coins and with enough coins, you can buy different coloured pallets to help you visually convey your word, and bombs that can help by eliminating some of the unnecessary letters.

This game has 99 levels, and the words become more difficult as you advance but it’s great because it’s always a different drawing every time you play; however if you play online, you may encounter repeated words. I didn’t play this game with an iPad or tablet; however I can imagine that it would be a lot easier to draw on a larger surface. After you’ve submitted your drawing for the round, an interesting part of the game is when you are able to watch your opponent guess during the replay of your drawing process (but it can become time consuming, so I’ve been pretty much skipping the replays)! Each successful guess increases your streak with your friend, creating a history of stats.

Draw Something definitely creates LOL moments between friends, whether you are sitting in front of each other, playing individually or in a group setting. Last year, I remember playing this game on Facebook or at least a very similar game; however I decided to remove it because too many players would cheat in the public multi-player, online rounds [i.e. people would quickly tell each other the words (leaving no time for others to guess), or drawing the letters so it takes the fun out of guessing the drawing]. A downer to Draw Something is that requires you to be online, so if you don’t have data or internet connectivity on your mobile phone, chances are you won’t be playing this game on commute, or on the subway. This app costs $0.99 (ad-free) but there is a free version available for the iPhone (with ads).

Another downside to playing Draw Something is playing the waiting game while in between rounds; however I haven’t encountered a limit to the amount of games you create so there is always someone readily online to play. Speaking of the waiting game, I feel that the Facebook API lags the app and as a result, it causes the game to crash; otherwise this app is amazing and I highly recommend it.

To play online at OMGPOP.com, private or public multi-player (sign-up is not required but gaining points will allow you special permissions on their site): http://bit.ly/HBAquL

To download on your Apple device: http://bit.ly/x3mvMW

To install on Android: http://bit.ly/xg43n5

Ryerson: 100 start-ups supported, 800 entrepreneurs mentored

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This article was originally posted by Hailey Eisen at Backbone Magazine.

The Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University is home to one of the largest entrepreneurship departments in Canada, which includes major and minor degree programs plus two MBAs. Students are taught by experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who have started dozens of companies and helped hundreds of entrepreneurs raise more than $2 billion in financing.

The Ryerson Entrepreneur Institute (REI) is the only student-run entrepreneurial centre in Canada, and its mandate is to help students and alumni bring their ideas into reality through the StartMeUp Program, education, resources, funding, research and outreach.

The Ryerson Angel Network, the first university-led Angel Investor group in Canada, also offers funding, resources and mentorship to a selection of startups.

“Through all these programs, we’ve impacted more than 10,000 people, worked one-on-one with 800 entrepreneurs, helped to support 100 start-up businesses, created a few hundred jobs, and worked with a variety of audiences including students, at risk youth, young mothers, clean tech entrepreneurs, women in Kenya, Ryerson alumni, and the list goes on,” said Steve Gedeon, a professor of entrepreneurship and strategy and the directory of the Ryerson Entrepreneur Institute and the Ryerson Angel Network.

The first step for an innovator who wants to access these services is to visit www.startmeupryerson.com and register for an idea consultation, he explained. Once companies are involved in the program they have access to education events, CEO round tables, mentorship opportunities and more.

For Daniel Shain, the opportunities provided by Ryerson have been invaluable. “I didn’t come from a technology background,” said the founder of Finizi, “So I didn’t know a lot of people in the industry. Being part of Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone, the CEO Society, and the Business Plan Competition helped me grow my network and build my business.”

Finizi (finance made easy) is a free online platform where financial institutions can bid for the business of customers in live auctions. “We eliminate the need for people to shop around in order to get good rates on GICs,” explained Shain. Eventually Finizi will grow to include other investment and lending products.

“I came from a banking background and I recognized an inconsistency in the way financial products were being sold,” he said. “Our long-term vision is to be a one-stop shop for all financial planning, mortgages, car loans, and other investments.”

This piece is part of our on-going coverage of innovation in Canada. Please check out our big innovation contest at www.backbonemag.com/Startmeup.

Video: Indigo Ideas Powered by Hitsend

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When bookstore giant Indigo was looking for customer suggestions, they turned to Soapbox for help.

Soapbox, a startup here at the Ryerson Digital Media Zone, offers a web, Facebook, and mobile platform that makes it easier for companies to engage with their customers.

Indigo implemented Soapbox in October on their IndigoIdeas.ca page and loved the platform.

“Soapbox is a key tool in the transformation of our organization by allowing us to better understand our customer’s needs,” says Lance Martel, vice-president of IT Customer Solutions for Indigo Books and Music.

Indigo recently created a video about their experience with IndigoIdeas. Watch below.

Ryerson student creating a high-tech gesture database

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It’s arguably one of the most striking scenes from Steven Spielberg’s 2002 sci-fi flick Minority Report: a futuristic Tom Cruise uses his light-tipped, gloved fingers to flick through media files on computer screens before him.

A decade on, that fictional glimpse into the year 2054 is looking more like reality inside a Ryerson University technology design lab, where a team of developers say they’re months away from completing the world’s first comprehensive database of human gestures.

“It’s like the next generation of multi-touch. It’s a complete game-changer,” said Adrian Bulzacki, a 29-year-old electrical and computer engineering PhD student behind the software — a universal user interface that allows people to control technology with body gestures.

With no touching, typing or sound needed, the software revolutionizes the way humans interact with technology, said Bulzacki, who founded Toronto-based tech company ARB Labs Inc. and also developed a semi-transparent, frameless touch screen.

“Gesture recognition is the next frontier, making computing more intuitive and immersive than ever before,” said Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone director Valerie Fox. “(It’s) the future of computing.”

Though Bulzacki dubs his database the first of its kind in the world, the concept of gesture recognition is not new.

In 2010, Minority Report science adviser and inventor John Underkoffler demoed a real-life version of the movie’s gesture recognition system at a TED Conference in California.

That same year, Microsoft launched Xbox Kinect, a novel gaming system that turns the player into the controller. Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre has since introduced Kinect into operating rooms to allow surgeons to control medical images on a computer screen without having to touch the screen.

But Bulzacki, who began more than a year ago to develop a Kinect game called Charades (to be launched by Microsoft later this year), said he realized at the time that no one had compiled a comprehensive, technical database of human gestures.

To create the database, his team of ARB Labs developers, based at Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone, started to trim gesture data from the Charades game and transferred it to an Artificial Intelligence server — effectively training the server to recognize a wide variety of full-body human gestures in real-time.

“We came up with universal truths about the gestures to make the recognition of those occurrences really easy,” he said.

He gave the example of a punch gesture. The recognition system sees how the body moves when preparing and carrying through with a punch — from shoulder, arm and fist movements to the way a person’s ankle snaps in a certain way when readying for the follow-through of the punch.

Bulzacki said the gesture recognition database compiled by ARB Labs can now accurately identify human gestures faster than other existing gesture-based systems — and even faster than the human eye.

With a completed database on the horizon, Bulzacki said he has already licensed the system but plans to work on marketing the system to a variety of industries.

ARB Labs has already licensed the software in the oil industry, with companies using the technology to more easily interact with oil samples, and the real estate market — where developers plan to integrate gesture-controlled technology into next-generation living spaces.

He also said the company hopes to sell “aggressive gesture packs” to security companies at airports, casinos and banks — a software system that could rapidly identify aggressive gestures in public places and “protect people faster,” he said.

“The things we see in movies, futuristic movies, we’re very close to having that in the short term,” Bulzacki said. “In fact, I think we’re going to go past that very quickly.”

This article is originally by Niamh Scallan on The Toronto Star. 

Ryerson student builds world’s first gesture-based computing database

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A PhD student at Toronto’s Ryerson University says he could complete the world’s first extensive database of human gestures for use as a universal computing interface by the end of this summer.

Adrian Bulzacki, now in his final year of Ryerson’s electrical and computing engineering PhD program, started working on the universal gestures database while developing a new game called Charades for Kinect, Microsoft Corp.’s wildly successful motion-based gaming system. (Charades is due to be released by Microsoft by the end of this summer.) He realized while developing that particular game that no one, so far, had put together a comprehensive, catalogued, technical database of human gestures that can be recognized universally by any gesture-recognition computing system.

Commercial applications

“Now you’ll be able to interact and interface with any environment,” he said, not just traditional computer touch screens now used in tablets. “It unlocks a door to immersion everywhere, being surrounded by virtual items and information and interacting with it accordingly,” he said. Bulzacki is also working on a type of wallpaper “to create an immersive environment in your living room.”

The commercial applications could be almost endless, but one example Bulzacki gives would be to use the system in hospitals so doctors – especially surgeons – can operate computers and machines through gestures rather than actually touching them, a practice which currently forces them to scrub their hands repeatedly to prevent contaminating patients and sterile equipment.

Bulzacki has already licensed the system but it won’t be integrated with a live online recognition network until the end of the summer.

Bulzacki just received $55,000 in funding for his work on the database from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. The money is part of $315,000 in federal funds that will be awarded to 10 Ryerson students and graduates in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to help them commercialize their research and ideas.

This article was originally posted by ITBusiness Staff at ITBusiness.ca.

Greengauge draws new investment, reaches 2.5 staff as they approach beta launch

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Greengauge founder Lindsey Goodchild doesn’t think of herself as a “typical entrepreneur.” About 18 months ago, she finished her post-graduate work at Ryerson in sustainability and started doing consulting work for corporations. “I started consulting with really large companies and saw a lot of really good strategies, but when it came to executing those strategies they fell flat.” What they needed, she realized, were tools to allow them to better implement their well-intentioned strategies after they left the boardroom.

She submitted an idea to a GreenApp challenge sponsored by Ryerson and Blackberry to develop an application for mobile devices and the web to allow companies to better monitor and implement their green strategies. She won the contest, and Greengauge was born. She raised $30,000 in seed funding last fall, around the time she was finally able to quite her full-time job to focus on the company. She hired a full-time CTO at the start of this year, bringing her staff to “two-and-a-half,” she says, including their part-time CFO.

Just as Ottawa-based Coral CEA has invested in Greengauge as part of funding it announced for four Ryerson DMZ companies, Goodchild says the company is now weeks away from launching its first product for limited private beta testing.

“We’re really focussed on researching how to embed sustainability into organizations,” says Goodchild, noting that she’s drawn invaluable support from the academic community, the Ryerson DMZ and some advisors at MaRS.

Original post by Edward Keenan at Yonge Street Media