Blog 8

The will be my last post regarding my entrepreneurial idea. From the first blog where we were told to formulate an idea that we felt could be used in our daily lives to talking about some of the specifics my refrigerator has come a long way. I think it would really be an amazing idea for anyone; A hard working set of parents, single parents or even right out of college young adults just learning about feeding themselves. This could not only help with keeping food fresh, but also keeping food costs down.

This product would come in three parts; the refrigerator, the freezer and the computer that would control them both. Although the details of this are not perfect I’m confident in the success of a product like this one. This project really let me use what I learn in IST 195 as well as my major, Hospitality Management to come up with an idea that would benefit me in my personal life as well as my future career.

I was also interested in looking at what some of my other classmates were able to come up with. I posted comments on blogs I really liked the ideas of; Melissa Post, Alexa Sapper, The Sleeping Beauty were three I really connected with while reading though many. Having a class outside of my major really opens up my mind to other ideas, when I work with classmates in my mandatory classes I find that we are often thinking of similar ideas but with this project that was definitely expanded.

BLOG 7

On Monday in IST we were given the chance to hear a guest speaker talk about his passion for computers and branding. Robert Sherman came in to discuss making “YOU” a band. I had recently discussed this topic in my marketing class so I was interested to see what new information he would be able to provide me. I knew that making a good name for yourself online was important because nothing is secret once its put online. No picture, no video no email is really very secret anymore. But I was able to take some new ideas and also new advice to follow when it comes to making MY own brand in the business world. One of my favorite things to think about was “ anything you put on the Internet should be able to be displayed on the cover of the New York Times”. This is so true although I know I’m guilty of posting some things I would not want my parents or even some of my friends to see.

After the lecture I actually went on Facebook and removed people I was not really friends with and also updated my security settings. I felt that Mr. Sherman stressed security enough that it was important for me to look over what my options were and update them according to who I wanted to see my information and who id prefer to block. I also took the time to look at my twitter account. I really never wanted a twitter but having it be a requirement for this class I made one. I didn’t know enough about it that I could actually help answer others questions and use it to my benefit especially in the work industry. I now know I need to learn more about twitter and the other sites I involve myself with. I took a lot from this lecture because I’m very cautious now about who can see my information, what i choose to write on my Facebook and twitter will now be more important as well as who I associate with on these sites.

Blog 6

The past week in IST 195 we discussed two topics. The first was computer forensics and the second was operating systems. My device would have to hold some credit card numbers to complete purchases of items that need to be restocked. For this reason hacking could occur. No product would be successful if there weren’t precautions to prevent these issues. To prevent this I would ask all customers to try and avoid using debit cards, these are the easiest way for a hacker to use credit card information to purchase personal items. Also checking all monthly credit card statements carefully to look for any odd charges. Another way to prevent hacking would be to add a password function that can be set on this device to try and minimize any hacking that would occur. This can also be used for any children in the household that might try and purchase items unwanted by parents.

Because people most people are torn between a Mac operating system and a Microsoft operating system I would want this product to be converted in both so that the customer can choose what he or she would prefer and is most comfortable with. The operating system provides a way for software applications to work with the hardware without having to know details.

Blog 5

This week in class we discussed bits and bytes. I knew I had heard these terms before but never really understood what they were so I was surprised to see I could incorporate them into my product.

Bits and bytes are used to pass information, one byte can represent up to 256 different foods, and most of devices have storage of 15GB or 30 GB. Each barcode can be transformed into the binary system making it easy for any food to be scanned into the system. It makes it possible for the computer system to process each item and store the information.

An app can also be created for this product using the same scanning system that can be used while in a super market and transferred back to the home base system.

BLOG 4

This week’s class discussion was about inputs and outputs. My product will definitely need both.

One topic we discussed I feel would be a great addition to my product is the voice recognition feature. This would add a great dimension to the refrigerator. This feature would let owners of this product ask questions like what is the caloric value of a certain item, or when it will expire. This would be good for those who might be visually impaired or to young to read to ensure food safety and to make sure they are receiving what they want.

To ensure that all items placed in the refrigerator are scanned and appropriately and accounted for, the product would need RFID. This Automatic Identification Technology will scan each item to log it into its memory. A passive RFID tag would be used because the items wouldn’t be more then 3 meters from the unit when the information needs to store. Because this isn’t really a very expensive way to scan data I think it will be a benefit to the product because it wont have to raise the price to much, making it affordable for more consumers.

One disadvantage to the RFID system that would affect this product would be incorrect reading of RFID tags. This problem might be able to be solved by really teaching the customers how to use the product, although this is not 100% preventable.

Blog 3

This week in lecture we learned about hardware components of a computer. Because my product does have a small computer device I was curious to find out what would be needed to put this together to make sure it will operate with my refrigerator. First and one of the most important would be Memory. Because it will be holding a lot of information I would guess it will need 2 to 8 GB , RAM. This will be enough to hold the different nutritional information and any products that the refrigerator contains, it will also be able to update though an wireless connection of any nutrition facts or other settings the customer might choose from a large selection. The Memory cache of this product will keep it running at a fast speed because it stores frequently used instructions and data. I would also like this device to have a USP port so that any updates from the company can be done through an online web site, witch will make it easy for the customer rather then going out and buying new software. It will also have a motherboard like any computer device along with a high-resolution display screen for a nice appearance.

Blog 2

This week in IST lecture we learned about the basics of digital images. This is extremely important to my appliance. The screen located on the outside of the refrigerator is what sets this product apart from the others on the market. This screen would need to be fully colored to enhance the pictures of the items stored in the refrigerator. Any product that has a screen there are many options that can be changed and modified to make the product fit personal needs better. These might be things like font and size of the font. The hue and saturation are important to these factors because you want the colors to be bright and easy to read as well as the font clear. Brightness would be one of the most important features. For those late night munchers you don’t want a bright screen hurting there eyes so its important to have that feature that will automatically change the brightness according to the time or day and lighting in the room. All of these factors would be in a settings button on the device so that although it’s the same product the users can all have a unique setting to better fit them.

Blog 1

For my IST 195 class this spring semester we were told to formulate an idea that we felt could be used in our daily lives or something we felt would be interesting. This Entrepreneurship project really got me thinking what I could come up with to better my every day living. Because I am a hospitality management major I wanted to pick something that could also be used in the field I’m hoping to be involved in. This is where I came up with the idea of a refrigerator that goes above and beyond our every day appliance. Not only would this contraption refrigerate all items but it would do handful of other helpful tasks. These include: scanning all items that are placed inside revealing the caloric information as well as an alarm or email reminder when the food is in a days reach of spoiling, recipes that each item can be used for and this spectacular mechanism will also re order and a company will deliver any items that need to be restocked. The company that sells these will be in affiliation with supermarkets that can deliver items quickly and during convenient hours for those busy or working families. All this information will be located on the outside of the appliance in a small handheld computer and can also be received though and PDA or cellular devise.
This refrigerator will only be advertised though social media sites such as twitter. As we learned in the past week twitter is a great way to get new information out quickly and to millions of people in a matter of seconds. Not only will tweets be written but customers that enjoy their products could re tweet and take twitpics of their new home edition.