Shaun Githuku

The humble computer mouse has been a permanent fixture on desks everywhere for a couple of decades now and as much as they do the job well enough, ever since I watched Minority Report (10 years ago) I’ve been counting down to the day that we finally have some ridiculously cool way to play Angry Birds for a couple of minutes before jumping back into Photoshop to dig deep into my creative side. Whilst we’re at it, I wouldn’t mind being able to throw in some CSI type enhance the image type tricks from the comfort of my laptop.

The Minority Report interface

Kinect needs to take a leap

So anyone with a drop of geek cred has probably been screaming that most of what I want has been achieved in Microsoft’s Kinect. Microsoft has been pushing the next iteration of the Kinect as part of the new and maligned Xbox One that is due to be released at the end of the year. Unfortunately there are two problems:

1. I want it to be portable - working on my laptop with a device next to it that is a foot wide is not my idea of progress
2. It’s not designed for that - Microsoft is putting (most of) its energy into selling this as a gaming accessory and as such, the developer hive-mind is focused on that for now.

Thankfully, there looks like there is hope on the horizon. Leap Motion, a startup with serious pedigree is about to release a product that solves both these problems:

Excited yet?

Granted its not quite small enough to attach to my laptop but it’s a great deal smaller than the Kinect and clearly the focus is to improve how I interact with my laptop every day. Two massive checks in Leap’s corner.

Very rarely do I get excited about the first version of products from relatively unknown companies but I’ll make an exception here because the product fits so nicely into my vision of a utopian existence in which technology makes interaction with our devices totally natural.

Now to try fighting my megalomaniac visions of taking over the world from behind the safety of my laptop.

We meet new people everyday, greet them, and hope to some known or unknown Deity that we’ll remember their name three seconds after they introduce themselves. Even worse, societal norms have made me believe that asking someone for their name in that fourth second after they introduce themselves is bound to be both horribly awkward and unlikely to solve the original issue: what was his/her name again?

Over time, I’ve tried a million and one ways to improve my ability to remember names and even tried using mnemonics, that Phil Dunfy in Modern Family was using:

Still no end to the awkward hey dude/man/sir cycle was in sight. Until Google released the prototype of Google Glass, that is.

If you don’t know, Google Glass is a “wearable computer with a head-mounted display” according to Wikipedia that feels like an extension to an Android phone for the extra geeky amongst us.

Now as much as the video has a couple of nice ideas about what it could eventually be used for, I’m sure it’s pretty obvious why I’m excited about this thing. As soon as someone mashes together a facial recognition app and hooks it up to this thing, I’ll be able to say this:

“Glass, who was that?”

So what is this blog actually about?

Those that know me personally will know that I’m always trying to find something new to get stuck into. So really, iterate is a blog about that search for newness: those things that pique our interest, intrigue, or impress. This is likely to include any manner of things including technology, people/companies trying to change the world, or even an album I’m listening to. Imagine my twitter feed with more time to take a sip and enjoy the view.

Who are you?

My name is Shaun Githuku. I’m a soon to be MBA candidate at MIT Sloan interested in energy and technology ventures. Previously, I worked in corporate finance and did freelance web design before that as well.

If you want to get in touch to discuss some ideas, or anything else, you can find me on twitter, linkedin, or elsewhere on the internet if you’re so inclined.