PhotoSparks: Innovation at Work in Communicasia 2014!

A picture is worth a thousand words, and a creative photo is worth a thousand ideas. PhotoSparks is a photo feature from YourStory, featuring five photographs a week which celebrate creativity and innovation. This week we bring you some excellent examples of product innovations from the annual Communicasia conference in Singapore (see my earlier article on speaker insights in technology disruptions). From smart cars to drone cameras, digital media are changing the world around us!

Smart Cars: The Driverless Era

Google is not the only company working on driverless cars – so is a Singapore-MIT consortium, which has produced a Smart car (Smart stands for the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, with National University of Singapore). The car called SCOT (Shared Computer Operated Transport) uses low-cost off-the-shelf sensors which enable the car to drive autonomously, independent of the Global Positioning System (GPS). Want to buy one? 

Desktop 3D printer for everyday home use

This desktop printer is priced at $1,400 and designed to print home objects such as small statues, decorative items and cellphone covers. Designed by CEL, the printer is called Robox. Dozens of printers are already in the market. The images of objects can be downloaded straight from the Internet and printed via Robox – thus unleashing the creativity of designers around the world. Will this be the beginning of a new wave of disruption?

Pico projector for travelling businessmen

The wireless Pico projector, about the same size as a smartphone, is a convenient product for salesman, executives, and jet-setters around the world. Yes, this product is from South Korean company Innoio – that is Psy of Gangnam Style in the projection!

Drone camera for filming large events

Drones are not used not just by the military or logistics companies: they can also be used to carry video cameras and film events such as sports games, as this unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) product by Easy Map shows. They can conveniently hover around the action and swoop in for close-ups, without needing large expensive static booms. I wonder if FIFA has some of these for the world cup football games?

Car camera for stable high-quality video streams

Tried to shoot highlights of your roadtrips, but got frustrated with the jerky quality of video? This Korean camera called Bulls-i Vehicle Drive Recorder by Ethertek is specially designed to be mounted on the dashboard or the corner of your windshield and has normalising software to reduce the jerky bumpy nature of your ride. This is a great product not just for consumer use but also in industry sectors like fleet management, to ensure compliance and to generate accurate data during accidents.

Up next:

June 28: PhotoSparks @ Sampoorn Santhe arts fair in Bangalore

July 5: PhotoSparks @ Rainforest World Music Festival in Malaysia

See inaugural edition of PhotoSparks here!

Got a good creative inspirational photograph to share? Email us at [email protected]!