Software/Hardware Mashups
1. Mr. Softee Tracker App
Mister Softee has over 600 trucks and over 350 franchise dealers operating in 15 states plus China. Mister Softee was founded in 1956 and has now become America’s most recognizable mobile ice cream vendor.
I have so many memories as a child waiting for Mr. Softee to come around to my block – but as soon as I would go inside to eat dinner, I would hear the famous Mr. Softee song. I would be playing at the park with the other kids who all wanted Mr. Softee, just to be disappointed when he never arrived. I would be indoors at a friends’ house when we’d hear the truck, and run outside only to find out we were a minute too late. I’ve searched online and found there are other people who feel the same way as me – Mr. Softee needs a GPS tracker.
I am proposing that each Mr. Softee truck be equipped with a GPS tracker. There would be a web app that would show the locations of the Mr. Softee trucks nearest you so that you can go find him when you want to buy ice cream. Additionally, if you are with a group of people and want Mr.Softee to come to you, you can enter the address and the number of people you are with. More and more kids these days have IPads and IPhones, so this would not be an issue for younger children who want Mr.Softee. Therefore, instead of Mr.Softee waiting at a park where there are no customers, or driving around trying to find customers, he can receive the information of addressed and number of people on his end. He can customize it so he does not get a request of less than 4 people (this is just an example number). This maximization of time and customers would definitely bring in more revenue for Mr. Softee, while additionally keeping their ice-cream lovin’ customers happy.
[GPS, Google Maps, Web app, some sort of display screen for the truck]
2. Real Life
Version of the game Life, but would be called Real Life
If you’ve ever played Life, you know you get to choose a job, salary, and house and you go around the board trying to get to the end with the most money. Along the way you land on spaces where half of the time good things happen (you plant a tree, have a baby, etc) and you get a “life”, which gives you more money.. Or, bad things happen – a tornado hit your house, you got some life threatening disease, and you lose money.
This is an American game so it is relevant to the American dollar and income. I would like to change the perspective from the game, possibly so that it mimics the salary/events of a poorer country. The other idea would be to use multiple countries, so each player is from a different place that they cannot choose in the beginning- you can be from Rwanda for instance, living off of 2$ a day, and your teammate could be from a wealthier country. This would give the wealthier people an unfair advantage (as Life does), but would raise awareness about actual conditions that other countries live in. I definitely need to think about this more and do some research, but children playing would get perspectives from other countries and realize that these are real world issues.
Software Mashups
3. Suicide University
A map that shows suicide rates of different colleges and universities throughout America, compared to their academic ranking in order to see if there are correlations. I am choosing this issue because in my senior year alone at Cornell about 8 students committed suicide, and the effect that each one had on the school and the students was monumental. Maybe there is information I can bring out in an attempt to get to the root of the problem, and hopefully this would make schools aware of the effect they are having on students.
4. Stereotypes of Manhattan neighborhoods map
5. Map that would compare most commonly eaten foods and obesity rates (of either US states or by country).
Comments!