Week 8 - Blog Summary

My idea to have a running live feed of all SU athletic facilities has greatly developed over these past 8 weeks. It started with a simple idea to have a live video feed of all work out facilities on the campus of Syracuse University. It is now called ScoUt where the SU stands for Syracuse University. ScoUt will have live constant feeds of all SU Athletic Facilities on campus including south campus. The past blogs have helped develop this small idea into a full blown website.

The Blog post about privacy is probably one of the most important posts because signs would have to be posted throughout all monitored facilities to let the students know they are on camera. RFID chips are also a relatively new feature that could greatly effect the results of this website. If every students SUID card had an RFID chip on it we could simple set up a scanner in each facility and take a quick poll on how many people are currently using the facility. This will allow ScoUt to display how many people there at a specific facility are in ratio to the max capacity. This can give students a percentage on how busy each facility is and help plan the students time to work out etc.

ScoUt will simply be beneficial to everyone and will free up space at the SU work out facilities. In my blog review I reviewed a company that specializes in life video feeds and actually used there technology at a Mixed Martial Arts gym. The idea has been used but SU can take it to the next level and make it campus wide. I can tell you from first hand experience that time management in college is everything and going to a gym when it is fully packed can make everyones workout a lot longer. My website has developed over these eight weeks into something that could actually be implemented here at SU. Here are the other student blogs I commented on.

http://stadiumspeak.blogspot.com/2011/09/week-1-intro-and-social-media.html?showComment=1319496743260#c5826497770669114516 - Jonathan Lee

http://carconvertingfromgastothefuture.blogspot.com/2011/09/blog-1.html?showComment=1319497219324#c2505622197574697902 - Michelle Matt

http://nowornevr.blogspot.com/2011/09/entrepreneurial-idea.html?showComment=1319497440017#c4357250468199546000 - Brandon Medina

Week 7 - Digital Color and Networking

This blog post is going to be about digital color for the website. Knowing all of the color codes will be very useful when designing the website especially for Syracuse University. Orange and Blue are obviously SU colors and should be incorporated in the color scheme for the website.

The HSB models will also be very important when we add photos of the live feeds (almost like preview before you tune in. Some areas of the gym will probably have to be brighter than others to help see how many people are using what machines.

Networking will also play a huge role with the development of this website. We must be able to send information too and from other users in a very short matter of time. The video feeds must be clear and as close to live as possible so the results don't change by the time students get to the work out facilities.

Week 6 - Blog Review

The blog I chose to review is HD Relay Blog because it is very similar to the concept of my entrepreneurial idea. As you know my idea is to provide live video gym feeds for all of the SU Athletic facilities. HD Relay is a company that provides live video feeds with over 5,000 state of the art cameras deployed around the world. Their blog consists of different events that they provided feeds for and how people use their business.

The most recent post on their blog was about the famous Big Fresno Fair hosted in California. The blog post was dated October 5th, 2011 which means that they are constantly covering different events and updating their blog. This company has a good head on its shoulder and could be a potential participant in helping out with the SU Athletics Live Gym feed.

A blog post dated September 6, 2011 definitely caught my attention. It is a post about how a Mixed Martial Arts (Victory MMA) gym teamed up with HD Relay to provide live gym feeds of their own facilities. The MMA gym is very proud of their new live gym feed and use it to promote their business. They are trying to get customers to move towards their MMA facility rather then a normal health facilities. However not many people know what an MMA gym would look like and this is why they provide virtual tours. This is where HD Relay comes into play. The Victory MMA gym has now moved away from virtual tours and provides live gym feeds to excite their customers. Consecutive members use the video feeds to watch different MMA techniques in the cage or to watch a class and see who is instructing. According to the MMA gym the live video feeds have been extremely successful and are worth the money.

This is given proof of a gym using live video feeds to their benefit. This is why SU should move towards the live video feeds and allow students to view the facilities.

http://blog.hdrelay.com/

Week 5 - Bytes

This website will be taking up a lot of Bytes from all of the video feed that it provides. We want the quality of the video feed to be as clear as possible which means it will take up more space. The website cannot be slow because it is supposed to be a live feed so when it is created the designers should have enough storage so the video quality is clear and constantly providing live feed.

The website will also have to run on a decent size server because there will be multiple video feeds and many users watching the feeds at once. Connecting the cameras to the website will be very difficult due to installation expenses but it will be much like a security system only it is being used for a different purpose.

Providing consecutive live video feed can be a very difficult task but it already exists and SU can use it to their advantage. The website and the video feed will take up a lot of capacity so it is key to make sure the website's server will be able to handle it efficiently.

Week 4 - QR Codes

My last blog mainly talked about the use of RFID chips and how beneficial they can be to Syracuse University. Using RFID will be very useful to SU facilities and the new program I am trying to develop at the gym. However this website with the live video feeds will need to be campaigned some how so people know about it and can use it beneficially and free up time at the athletic facilities. This can be done using QR codes.

I recently picked up a newspaper and saw a QR code on the third page. Took out my iPhone scanned it and it linked me to an Syracuse University webpage. I believe that QR codes can be beneficial if they are posted throughout the gym or around campus. The codes will make students curious and help spread the work about the new website launch.

Of course the website will have to be built and established before QR codes are made for it but it is always good to plan ahead. Making the new live video feed a known factor on campus will bring more users to the site throughout the use of QR codes. This also gives the students a direct link to the website so they don't have to worry about searching on Google for it.

Week 3 - Hardware

The website that will be created to run my live SU gym feed will need a data base and a server to be able to collect and produce all of the information that is collected. The main computer (or server) that runs the website will need a large amount of RAM or memory so multiple tasks can be completed at once.

Today in class we talked about RFID chips and stickers. I believe that this technology can be extremely beneficial to Syracuse University and the live SU gym feed. The RFID technology can be used to help collect data for the website. Simply each SU ID has an RFID tag on it and the different rooms in the gym can have scanners. This will allow us to collect data much more efficiently and smoothly than it is now. The website can now offer a full head count of how many students are in what rooms of the gym. (basketball courts, pool, free weight room, cardio room, and the dancing rooms, etc.)

RFID tags will also make it easier for students to sign into the gym. Right now we must scan our ids at the front entrance and write our names down on a manual log in the gym. These old fashion methods can be over and done with when we adapt to using RFID chips. The chips will also make it easier for all SU facilities to check in and sign out students. Instead of swiping our cards each time for attendance the RFID tags can literally take the attendance of the entire class at one time.

Week 2 - Privacy

Last weeks lecture was about social media privacy. The idea that I have for Syracuse is not a Social Media website but there are some privacy issues. I could imagine that many people would not like to be seen while they are working out. In this case the faces of all of the students can be blurred out in the live feed so no viewers can tell who is at the gym for privacy reasons.

The website should also have a "ticker" on the side that says how many people are currently in the gym and it can adjust to the amount of people that are there so you know. Then a ratio can be generated with the amount of people in the gym compared to the max capacity of the gym. This way we can get a percentage on how filled the gym is. For example the ticker will say the gym is currently forty percent full or so.

Also multiple cameras should be available for different parts of the gym. For example each gym can have there own set of live feeds. Each gym will then have different cameras for each part of the gym such as the free weight room, the cardio room, and the basketball courts. This will also be very useful on South Campus because the athletes will know what facilities are open when they are working out in the offseason.

Week 1 - Entrepreneurial Ideas

Recently Archbold gym at Syracuse University has been extremely crowded at the hours that I have been there. My idea is to provide live video feed of all of the on campus gyms at Syracuse University so the students can see how crowded the gyms are and what machines are being used. This way students can go to the gym and get their workouts done faster because everyone is usually on such a tight schedule.

I believe that my idea is very useful to the student body and it has not been invented yet. I have not yet been to the facilities on South Campus for the athletes but they can also be added to live video feed so other athletes can see how crowded the athletic facilities are there. This idea is also very technologically advanced which is part of the discussion that we had in class. The service will be free and available to all Syracuse University students.

This service probably does not exist yet because some people do not find it necessary yet. However for me personally it is awful to go to the gym when you only have a few hours to work out and show up to a crowded gym. With this live video feed I can check the facilities and see when it is crowded or not to plan out a better schedule. Clearly there will be some privacy issues like the ones we discussed in class but they can be worked out with waivers and signs that allow the students to know that they are being monitored. I believe this idea could benefit everyone at Syracuse University and help free up space at the work out facilities.