Caught me napping!

Last year when Jumbo and I made a class presentation on the product development plan for our imaginary shoe company, conjuring up all sorts of gizmos to fit into our "future-ready" shoes, we chuckled at each other in the middle of it, as amused as the rest of the class at the outrageously sci-fi shoes we said we had plans for.

We had force sensors, health trackers and shock adjusters powered by micro-sized batteries, all fitted into the everyday shoe. Stuff that wasn't gonna be there for the next 20 years at the very least, we were convinced.

I made the same presentation last month in my 'presentation skills' class, delivering the product plan with the same inconviction of its possiblity, this time chuckling at Ankur, who had been at the earlier presentation, all through. We had a good laugh about it after the class, bliss in the ignorance that stuff like this was already being developed at research labs across the world.

This morning The New York Times reported that Adidas had launched just the product to wipe my chuckle out, caught me staring at the screen, dumbfounded, with unbelieving eyes.

Adidas 1 has internal sensors connected to a 20-megahertz microprocessor inside each shoe which takes a series of readings, adjusting the amount of cushioning to the environment and foot-position. Price tag: $250.

I blurted out to myself, "Oh Boy! It's already here!"

Technology caught me napping, there.

E-Governance in India

I recently read an article ("E-governing India" by Sunil Jain, Business Standard, May 3, 2004) that pointed out the ways in which the use of technology is creating fantastic improvements in public services, from railway reservations to customs clearance to the election process.

The landmark e-election just held is of course the most impressive automation exercise ever witnessed in this part of the world at least, and is illustrated in the now-usual manner as testimony to India's acceptance of technology ahead of most developed nations.

But the article also points out some other significant yet widely unknown e-governance projects that hold great potential in benefiting businesses and the public. Here are a few excerpts...

"At a conference on large e-governance projects organised by consulting firm SKOCH, railway ministry officials made a presentation on some of their plans... you can now book your tickets on the Net and, very soon, even download your ticket details onto your printer at home/office, and just walk into the train with this and some form of ID like a driver’s license!"

"At 23 customs offices across the country, the official said, you can file your documents online, and figure out the status of your approvals even before your cargo hits the country’s shores — does your cargo have to be physically inspected, what is the duty to be paid, and so on, all these details can be checked by a series of clicks.

With over 95 per cent of all paperwork filed in this fashion, the number of processing steps has been cut from 18 to 6 for imports and from 15 to 5 in the case of exports."

"Computerising of cases in various courts helped reduced the pendancy (a polite term for cases not getting decided for decades) from 1,20,000 to 22,000. Once the cases were computerised, they could be classified under various points of law, and then it took just one judgement to dispose off thousands of similar cases.

Today, in most high courts, cases are assigned to different benches by the computer, and status of various cases (when is the hearing, before which bench, etc) can be seen online. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is now trying to do the same in civil courts as well."

"An even more ambitious project, and one that touches a lot more lives, is NIC’s AGMARKNET, a network that links up the major mandis in the country to provide information on 300 major commodities. Seven hundred and fifty such mandis have already been connected, another 2,000 will be connected in the next two years, and the balance 4,000 or so in another 3-4 years."

Day dreaming an RFID future

I've been reading stuff on applications of RFID technology in supply chain visibility. For the uninitiated, RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification... it's a microchip that replaces the barcode on products and can be tracked and identified by RF sensors. Each item has a unique code on its RFID chip and a retail store, for instance, can not only automatically keep track of the shelf-stock and inventory, but also track it online while it's transported from the manufacturer or warehouse to the store itself.

Read more in "RFID Supply Chain Revolution" by Gavin Chappell, Logistics & Transport Focus (November 2002)

RFID is already a decently affordable technology that holds promise of enormous benefits for businesses. Wal-Mart is in the process of RFID-ing all its stores and it's revolutionising the chain's retail operations across US.

What if we were to extend the concept further, to the demand chain, and build intelligent products and applications around it. Imagine the RFID future:

You enter Haiko (a local supermarket), pick up a few items, leave the supermarket. The items will de-register themselves from the store's stock as you go through the checkout gate, and you swipe your credit card yourself on a VISA machine. Better still, put an RFID on the credit card and you don't even have to take it out of your wallet.

The store's information system automatically sends info to VISA and withdraws the sum from your credit account. Some light turns green two seconds later to signal a successful transaction, the bill appears on your mobile phone and/or in an email message from your card issuer.

Then take the items home and put them in your refrigerator. The refrigerator will warn you if you are are running out of something. If you have "subscribed" it, it will automatically put it on your shopping list and order a home delivery. Or, if you are in the super market and want to know what you need, just use your phone to ask your refrigerator.

Enter a movie hall. If you have reserved you will be guided to your seat automatically. If not, you will be automatically billed going through a gate, using the same mechanism as Haiko.

At present, an RFID chip costs 5 to 10 cents to manufacture. RF sensors and other infrastructure are a bit expensive, and not every store has pockets as deep as Wal-Mart. But the most challenging issue that's holding the technology back is lack of standardisation and cross-platform operatibility. It is expected that once this issue is sorted out, widespread implementation will bring manufacturing scales and drastically reduce implementation costs. The RFID dream might come true in some time.

Wanna Startup?

Four Seasons In One Day

Four seasons in one day
Lying in the depths of your imagination
Worlds above and worlds below
The sun shines on the black clouds hanging over the domain

Even when you’re feeling warm
The temperature could drop away
Like four seasons in one day

Smiling as the shit comes down
You can tell a man from what he has to say
Everything gets turned around
And I will risk my neck again, again

You can take me where you will
Up the creek and through the mill
All the things you can’t explain
Four seasons in one day

Blood dries up
Like rain, like rain
Fills my cup
Like four seasons in one day

It doesn’t pay to make predictions
Sleeping on an unmade bed
Finding out wherever there is comfort there is pain
Only one step away
Like four seasons in one day

Blood dries up
Like rain, like rain
Fills my cup
Like four seasons in one day

- Crowded House

Launchpad

Here it is, finally, my own blog! :) And I have absolutely no idea what to do with it now. It's an open diary, I hear... I hesitate, wondering whether what I write would make any sense to others, let alone be interesting enough for them to read it.

My fears are helped along by an entry by Ankur the Great, a friend and a veteran blogger, one that warns against having others read your blog unless 'there is something interesting up there', and systematically shatters the whole idea of blogging on technical inconsistencies in the manner of great attorneys of law.

I consider giving up the idea altogether here and now, but I come across another entry that instantly reaffirms my faith with the simple, yet compelling style that is trademark of its author.

So Welcome, World! I share with thee musings on my life and others', articles, poems, and a few words of wisdom once in a while. Stay tuned! :-)