While in my “innovation and entrepreneurship” course in college I was given the assignment to create a new, useful item from an old, used Pringles can. I immediately channeled my inner McGuyver and sketched a seemingly impossible multifunction device. After months of development, “the students desktop sidekick” was born.
This product was designed with the following functionality:
– Built-in webcam to video record teaching lectures
– LED light to light the desk space when the classroom lights are too dark
– Multifunction screen that displays the time, news headlines, stock quotes, weather forecasts, etc
This product brought me new levels of fame and resulted in me being videorecorded by a local company, invited to speak at the school’s academic symposium and, most importantly, created a following of nerds and computer-science majors who worshiped me as their “buddha”. But since graduating college the product hasn’t been useful to me, so I had to go back to the drawing board…
The newest revision of the “desktop assistant” product line is called “The CEOs Desktop Assistant” and I’ve developed one beta version as a proof-of-concept.
Features:
– Forward facing hidden webcam for videoconferencing and security monitoring
– Integrated speaker for listening to streaming radio, music or tele/video conferences
– New, brighter, hidden LED desktop light
– Sturdy, genuine wood used as frame (as opposed to pringles-can cardboard)
– Glass used to protect LCD screen from scratches
– Tinted front glass and glossy, smoke-grey interior paint to give the illusion of an empty black box when not in use
– LCD screen displaying subjects of newest emails, weather, latest geremology.com journal entries, stock quotes, current date and time, computer status, etc
A feature that will be implemented very, very soon is an alarm system that works with motion detection. When the camera senses movement, it will snap a picture of the intruder, email it to my email address, sound an alarm with the built-in speakers, and flash the words INTRUDER ALERT on the LCD screen…all from the inconspicuous black box on the desk.
Final version should be released soon.
