1) Idea behind technology: Nationalistic Singstar editions.
Names: Singstar Australia Day Edition, Singstar Independence Day Edition, etc. these are only examples, as each national market would have its own particular name.
Description: Sony can tap into the affects of the popularist nationalism. A Singstar disk installment that collects all the popular pop and folk anthems for each respective country. Imagine how many they would sell for backyard BBQs for Australia Day for the Singstar Australia Day Edition? “Tie me kangaroo down, sport” “Down Under” (already on one of them) “Great Sourthern Land” “My Island Home” “Waltzing Matilda” some Bee Gee action, bit of Acka Dacka, and some latter day tunes like The Living End, maybe some Kasey Chambers and so on. Ok, so Australia is one market, perhaps a useful test market, but imagine the US version of Singstar Independence Day Edition (or Singstar Fourth of July Edition). Money maker, Sony!
2) Idea behind technology: Digital marking device for teachers.
Names: Tacticle Digital Editor (TDE) or ‘teddy’ ;).
Description: This technology would combine slim PC-based digital book or document reader + a touchscreen + some software not unlike Word’s “track changes” function. This is to address the problem in marking where 90% of students get 90% of the same comments. Markers and examiners can then have the text open on the screen and a menu of comments on one side of the screen. While reading the assessment the marker can touch the screen to highlight, drag and drop comments from the menu, and a plug-in a USB keyboard to add comments. The device would have a ‘comment library’ which markers would add to and swap. It could be connected via wifi to the big plagiarism checker search engine/databases as well as other databses such as bibliographies to provide further direction for reading material to students. I am thinking as a university educator, but it would be very useful for any text- or print-based design work. The core principle is having a portable ‘sandbox’-type interface that receives tactile input to control digital data. It would be much bigger than a PDA, I am thinking about the size of a superslim 19-inch LCD screen. It would also function as a basic PC (ie with a retractable stand, so it becomes a monitor, and USB/WiFi/ethernet connections).