Website

The 9 ball will be part of the NHS smoke free service and will be integrated into their website via a tab, it will not disrupt the look nor the feel of the current smoke free website, and will simply blend in, via a new section.

Upon clicking on the 9 ball tab, the user will then be asked to enter their e-mail, which can be a personal one or one issued by a smokefree support group member. The product will be clearly on show so that the user know they are on the correct page. Only members who are given a 9 ball by the support group will be able to enter the website.

Upon entering their username and password they will then be directed to the 9ball home page which will give them 3 main options as displayed above as well as a series of sub options in the second navigation menu.

When they click on forum this page will show up

Upon clicking My ball the statistical information for their ball will display. The colour lines will correspond to the colour of their 9ball, and upon clicking the calendar they can view each weeks progress, and their own habits. This information will also be displayed to staff members so that they know how to help, as well as other members of the support group.

Once they have clicked on group ball, all the group members statistic will show up. Reinforcing the idea that you are not alone, and that there is someone there with you, in the same situation as yourself, relating back to the ball with its lights.

Once they click on My group this page will display. The ring represents the 9 ball and the 9 coloured dots represents each member, each do  will display a group member name next to their own colour, so that everyone will know who is who, and who they are helping with their 9 ball. This is incase the members lose their 9ball card.

On the left hand side there is also a column for support group staff to leave messages as well as to keep in contact with the group members whilst they are outside of the group. Thus once again uniting the support group as a whole whilst they are not at their meetings.

 

Hope you guys like it xD

Mo

Technology

Bridging the language divide

The Business Times, 22 October 2004

A SYSTEM that breaks down the language barrier – Gist Mobile Translator System (GMTS) – has made GistXL Pte Ltd a merit award winner at the National Infocomm Awards (NIA) this year.

‘GistXL has launched a technology that has the potential to change the world,’ said the company’s executive director, Tan Dan Feng. GMTS technology translates languages on hand-held devices. Translations can then be sent or received as text, image or audio files.

GistXL prides itself on GMTS’ ability to create social value, stressing how important communicating in different languages is to enterprises’ business competitiveness.

The award has helped GistXL gain recognition as an innovator, said Mr Tan, boosting the company’s ongoing effort to attract and recruit experts and specialists. He also hopes the award will raise awareness of the automated translations systems market.

In the meantime, he is optimistic regarding the company’s prospects. Globalisation provides good business opportunities for companies that harness the technology and tools to overcome the ‘language divide’, said Mr Tan.

‘I believe that GistXL has a very good chance at becoming an industry leader in this emerging and very promising area,’ he added.

However, he did acknowledge the challenge posed to the company from a lack of resources and past experience. ‘There were many instances when we had to make up the rules as we went along,’ said Mr Tan.

He hopes the credibility and recognition the award brings will help in the company’s plans for future expansion. It will deploy GMTS in South-east Asia and Greater China next year, and aims to cover most major Asian markets by the end of 2005. It has set its sights on Asia for the short and medium term, but is open to exploring possibilities in other regions.

In the long run, GistXL aims to develop a wider range of translation products, from e-mail and instant messaging translation to enterprise-level translation products for specific domains such as pharmaceutical and patent translations. As usage of GMTS’ data-driven system grows, the quality of translation will improve as well, Mr Tan pointed out.

But for the time being, GistXL plans to add cross-language functionality to hand-held devices, and is now working with more device manufacturers in addition to mobile operators and service providers. It also hopes to use GMTS as an enabling application, such as integrating it with mobile gaming.

GistXL was founded in 2003 by Mr Tan, who worked previously at Interlexis, a global network of language translation providers. According to him, GMTS technology works using a hybrid non-rule based approach, which allows for better translation of complex and non-formal sentences.

Expansion talk: GistXL’s executive director, Tan Dan Feng (right), said the company aims to develop a wider range of translation products, from e-mail and instant messaging translation to pharmaceutical and patent translations.

HI

As I told Max today, I won’t be in tomorrow as I have to babysit my little brother and sister. Lucky bums got a day off. Anyway I just wanted to let you guys know that I’ve brought and made some balls up today filled with different things ad texture.

They are:

1- A balloon filled with marbles

2- a balloon filled with flour

3- a balloon filled with rice

4- a rather firm just about squashy ball that I brought from the shop

5-a ball filled with gooey worms (which is really soft- resembles gel)

6-another filled with only air but on the outside the texture is really spidery. Which is in the picture below from left to right

I’m going to do a survey with them on smokers to see what they prefer so that we can say we done some research on texture and fills for the ball. I’ll post up my results later for you guys.

and hopefully see you guys on Saturday somewhere nice ^_^

we like this shape, something to think about?

In a Nutshell

Our Understanding of the Target Group/ Addiction Support Group Users (Smokers)

Addiction Support Group Users are essentially individuals who attend Addiction Support Group. They seek help from Support groups because they are desperate to quit their habit due to its destructive nature. Reasons to quit can be -

ü health issues,

ü money,

ü family pressure,

ü work and

ü shift in attitude towards smokers. It’s not cool.

Sex – Both Male and Female

Age Group – 18 – 80

Race – Diverse!

Most Important Point

First and foremost, it is really their own will power and motivation to quit which bring them to the Support groups. Without their will and motivation, one cannot succeed in quitting programs laid by the Support Group.

After researching different Support Groups (for drugs, smoking, eating), we narrowed down our focus on addicted smokers.

Smoking is more Prevalent

And from our primary research we have come to know that smokers who are addicted to smoking find it extremely difficult to deal with their addiction once they are away from their Support Group. Also, they feel the need to do something with their hands.

Two Problems : Emotional and Physical

Emotional:  Feelings of disconnect when away from the Support Group; cognitive dissonance creep in, a lapse in their better judgment. Leading to potential relapse.

Physical: Not knowing what to do with their hands.

We have in our mind a Product ( random order)

ü which will keep their hands/mind busy

ü which will connect to the group and program

ü Better alternative to a fag

ü Make the experience better

ü FUN

ü Interactive

ü Relaxing

ü Motivational

ü Positive

LED Interactive Stress Ball/Virtual Environment

Our LED Interactive Stress ball acts as a portable friendly object, which reminds the addicted smokers that they are part of a group of people who are targeting to quit smoking and that they belong to a community of people who are in the same situation going through similar experience.

A stress ball is a small, malleable ball that fits comfortably in the palm of a hand. Emotional stress can be relieved by tightly squeezing the stress ball, and it can also be used to relieve pain or discomfort from repetitive movements (like lighting a cigarette, taking it to the mouth etc etc).

The LED Interactive Stress ball also connects the Support Group users. With every squeeze, the ball becomes active; the ball signals LED lights to blink in other similar balls to light up along with lighting their own LED light.

LED Interactive stress ball, hence, serves to provide individuals with the ball a sense of community and connects them.

Addicted Smoker ‘A’ could be at a bus stop having a strong urge to smoke. Addicted Smoker ‘B’ could be in a pub feeling the same urge. All they now need to do is take out their LED Interactive Stress Ball and start playing with it and encourage each other with positive wordless signal – ‘ don’t smoke, I am with you.’

The LED Interactive Stress Balls come in a variety of different styles, colors, fabrics, and shapes.

The Make Up of the Object

(ergonomics : the science of relating the physiological and anatomical characteristics of the working or racing animal to the physical aspects of its working environment. )

The insides of stress balls are usually made with gel or foam and then covered with resilient fabric that can endure a lot of handling.

Transceiver

LED lights

Battery –

Size (?)

Some sort of sensor (?)

NOTE:

Maybe we can have two modes? Mode one can be help which means if they need help they squeeze the ball and the other people see the light, and mode 2 can be support so when other people see the light they squeeze the ball and the person who needs help their ball will vibrate, so they know someone is there for them.

But if no one is in need of help and a person has their ball on support and they squeeze it, the ball will automatically switch to help mode.

Scenarios

Ideas

Stress ball

A stress ball concept for support groups. The idea is every member of the support group will have one of these stress balls, and a single colour allocated to them. When you squeeze your stress ball your colour light will start to flash on your own ball as well as on the ball of other group members, no matter the distance between the ball, (locally- i.e within your town/city not abroad) and vice versa. Thus alerting other members that you are in need of help.

This ball also aims to unit the support group community, as you will know when other members of the group are using the ball as well, therefor it takes away the sense of loneliness when you are not at the group meetings.

This product is aimed mainly at smokers who use the nicotine patches, and are trying to quit, as they find that although they have the willpower to want to quit, and use the patches, they do not know what to do with their now vacant hand.

NEW IDEA!!!

Ok imagine we all go to smoking support groups, and has a group we are all giving whistles (dog chains). It isn’t just any whistle but a salite built whistle. the whole story goes like this

1: we are all given a whistle, and every whistle has its own flashing colour

2:when you want to smoke you grab the whistle and blow it. there is no sound that actually comes out of the whistle. when you blow the whistle it sends signals to other users with blinking lights and vibration. the colour that shows up on your whistle is the colour of the person that really needs to smoke. you can then call them and to talk to them encourage them. its about communicating has a group and helping each other. BLOW YOUR PAIN!!!!

Give me a call if you don’t get it to well. i’ve told many people of the idea and they are all pretty impressed. im goin to do some draw ups. Tai