Write up of the 1st meeting.

Those present: Sam, Jenny, BJ, Andy, Max

Aims: Collect some ideas for further thought and discussion.

Ideas:

- Musical Cushions to aid children in musical development: recognition of notes, beats etc.

- Smokeless cigars.

- Thought to text processor, particularly for those over 60s who have trouble with their memory. Also suggested was a thought to speech processor.

- A simplistic internet browser with large and simple buttons for old people, or with high restrictions and a simple layout for children. Simplifying technologies in general was a theme, with phones, mouse/keyboard, printers and remote controls all mentioned.

- Games:
- Exercise programmes for children: combine the ideas/technology of dancemats and the Wii. Possible implementation could include team games: real time online games against other real players.

- Virtual sibling as an introduction to social interaction. Could take the form of a hologram. Does not just have to be an AI programme, could also be real friends in different locales enabled by networking.

- Literal thinking cap. A programme which monitors the user's thoughts and utilises something like Google to find answers.

- Clothing/Body suit teaching aid. Creates sensations at certain points on the body, eg part of the arm, leg etc. Helps children learning relatively complex moves in sports such as Taekwondo. Promotes saftey as failure to grasp certain concepts and moves can lead to injury. As a side point some kind of stability enhancer was discussed for old people with unreliable motor skills.

- An automated driving system was touched on for older people who have never learned drive or can physically no longer drive.

Tasks for next session (3pm Tuesday 30th Jan): Come up with 5 ideas each for discussion. As a helper they might be to do with our respective undergraduate degrees, but this should not restrict the contribution of non related ideas.

Link to the photo of the whiteboard from this session:

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/7870/whiteboardat1stmeetingbt3.jpg