Lecture Post: Networking

Entrepreneurial Idea Overview:
If you ever wondered what that delicious wafting smell is coming from, the Food FTW App can detect what food it is through the newest iTouch/iPhone generation's smell sensor. The app can also identify food by pictures. The app has a database of all kinds of cuisine with information about them making it a handy tool for food lovers who enjoy discovering and learning about the food they eat.

Lecture:
How the Food FTW App will relate to network is that the application itself is a network. It is on a iPhone and the app fosters communication amongst its users' by allowing to add or comment other users on the app. Information on food and its users' are compiled to be shared with one another. All the information on food and its scents and pictures are located on a bigger host server. The client using the application is accessing that information, which creates a network.

By allowing several people to use this application online at the same time, this is a form of network. Food FTW has a website and its web protocol goes through steps between the client and server to draw information. Also, a website cannot exist without its very own IP address. An IP address is a set of 4 bytes. The IP address needs a domain name. foodftw.com is its domain name. The application is used on the phone but the website allows users to access it through the computer and present information in a more convenient way.

At the Food FTW headquarters, our computers will become a client/server network. Multiple hardware, clients, etc can be accessed through a host computer because it becomes a server. It will make producing the application more convenient as it allows the workers do their work from anywhere. Also, it cost less to have multiple physical hardware and computers.

Final Post

Entrepreneurial Idea Overview:
If you ever wondered what that delicious wafting smell is coming from, the Food FTW App can detect what food it is through the newest iTouch/iPhone generation's smell sensor. The app can also identify food by pictures. The app has a database of all kinds of cuisine with information about them making it a handy tool for food lovers who enjoy discovering and learning about the food they eat.

Due to my love for food and hobby of documenting what types of cuisine I have tried, I wanted to do create something technological related to food. I also read of the smell censor being possibly made. I thought it would be really cool if there was an application that could incorporate the usage of a smell sensor with food. So that was how Food FTW App was created. It also includes being able to detect what the cuisine is through the camera of the iPhone.

As the idea progressed over time through the different blog posts, I realize that the smell sensor might be difficult to create. Instead, I felt like I continued to emphasize the Food FTW App as more of a database of looking up food and connecting people on similar taste in food because that has a practical chance of being possible. It was also one part of social media it could be related to. People could also share what they are eating and recommendations of what food to try. To encourage usage of Food FTW, I wanted ads to show people having fun with the sensor.

The other technical parts involved cloud computing, the system unit, and databases. While we were given the  task of creating our product, it meant having to learn how to incorporate the usage of different technology to make it possible. Databases would help organize the massive amount of information on food. The Application itself is a database for people to search and identify cuisine. Photoshop and 'bits and bytes' are used to enhance and promote the creation of this product.

The comments were helpful and made me realize how I could make the product better. Some of the ideas like using cloud computing to store scents was creative because I did not even think of that! It made me see how my application can be used to help other applications or software and expand its use of scents and not just for food. It also made me see how I forgot to include scents as storage because I was not sure of how that type of information can be stored.

The project made me realize how many different factors and ideas have to be put into to make this application a possible reality. To make this a reality, there needs to more research and experimentation of making a smell sensor. Once a practical prototype is achieved, then there is a chance for the smell sensor to be made onto gadgets, etc. Also, picture detection is slowly improving. Facebook's face detection is one example of how it can identify faces. Hopefully, something like that can be done for different types of objects so the idea of detecting food through photos can be achieved.

Lecture Post: Databases

Entrepreneurial Idea Overview:
If you ever wondered what that delicious wafting smell is coming from, the Food FTW App can detect what food it is through the newest iTouch/iPhone generation's smell sensor. The app can also identify food by pictures. The app has a database of all kinds of cuisine with information about them making it a handy tool for food lovers who enjoy discovering and learning about the food they eat.

Lecture:
The Food FTW App contains detailed information on many different types of food. A program that is used to sort its information and names of food are databases. Databases like Oracle easily and quickly manages complex data and do queries. There is so much information that using a database will ease the work of having to look and specific each cuisine into a category.

The database is not only used for sorting food but usernames, locations, user's data, pictures, nutritional facts, and statistics. The database will efficiently keep track of users without repeating names Multiple users have access to the data allowing Food FTW to continuously work on improving and adjusting its information to be accurate for its users.

Storing mass amount of information does not work unless we do something we the information. Organizing food by its name, cultural origin, ingredients, scents and other facts is what the App itself offers so the work of a database enhances the application. SQL is the database language designed to categorize data through a statement. Using a database is just one of many tool's Food FTW uses in creating its application.

Blogger Review

Blogger's URL: http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/23/what-games-are-consoles-are-sinking-get-to-the-lifeboats/

The blogger of this post in TechCrunch is Tadhg Kelly and he is a video game designer. Tadhg is known for being involved in many game projects and having different roles with developing video games and technology. Not only that, he is a lead designer at companies like BSkyB and Lionheart. Also, he is a producer and creative director. Right now, he spends his time creating social games for various companies.

TechCrunch is a blog that includes a wide range of topics related to technology. For this post, he talks about how console games are declining in popularity. When the information of the PS4 was out, people were not intrigued or care about its release. Kelly says there is not something that makes the console seem innovating and a lot of effort just to connect with people. There is not something similar to the well-liked Wii control offered for PS4. Instead, a new thing called microconsoles is becoming popular because they are cheaper, powered by Android, and easy to develope by yourself.

I like how Kelly gives a reason that the game console's popularity is declining. Blogs tend to be opinionated but Kelly still manages to offer a lot of information and facts to support his reasoning. He divides up his post with several sub topics that are related to one another. But one thing I do not like is that he is a sort of negative about the video game console. Some people are old-fashioned and still prefer the classic controller and console set. At the same time, I think technology is always changing and innovative so it is not surprising that these new "microconsoles" could become the next thing.

Lecture Post: Cloud Computing, Photoshop, Bits & Bytes

Entrepreneurial Idea Overview:
If you ever wondered what that delicious wafting smell is coming from, the Food FTW App can detect what food it is through the newest iTouch/iPhone generation's smell sensor. The app can also identify food by pictures. The app has a database of all kinds of cuisine with information about them making it a handy tool for food lovers who enjoy discovering and learning about the food they eat.

Food FTW App will incorporate the usage of cloud computing by using online storage. Cloud computing offers resources like storage and softwares through the internet without you having to download it onto your computer. Considering how much information and pictures that Food FTW needs to store, online storage is a practical and convenient way to store a lot of info without having to purchase a huge physical hard drive. A problem with cloud computing would be that if the service provider is down, it will affect the application and make that go down too.

Food FTW will also use Photoshop to create patterned backgrounds and enhance images to be put on its website. Since the database of food will have images of food to be used, Photoshop will help make those pictures look better and give the website a seamless and modern look with the varieties of picture editing options on its software. The patterned backgrounds will make the website and application look fun and colorful.

And lastly, bits and bytes can be related to Food FTW because a bit is a number when combined another bit creates a byte, eights numbers that is encoded with information. Bytes are how computers process information and to create and maintain the application, the computer's bytes are a way for data to be converted and sent. This allows communication between the human and computer in order to process what I need to do for the application.

Competitive Analysis

Entrepreneurial Idea Overview:
If you ever wondered what that delicious wafting smell is coming from, the Food FTW App can detect what food it is through the newest iTouch/iPhone generation's smell sensor. The app can also identify food by pictures. The app has a database of all kinds of cuisine with information about them making it a handy tool for food lovers who enjoy discovering and learning about the food they eat.

Competitor 1 URL: http://www.foodspotting.com
The Foodspotting is an application that allows users to share pictures of food they tried at a restaurant. The picture of that specific food is located on a map. So if someone wants to eat sushi, they can type it in the search bar and various pictures of food is pinpointed on the map, indicating those restaurants. What's different from the Food FTW App is that the application is a database of food with a comprehensive amount of information. Foodspotting just has pictures of food and its restaurants while Food FTW includes the use of a smell sensor and picture detector. But both of the apps have a common purpose of users looking for food to explore and wanting to share what they have tried.

Competitor 2 URL: http://evernote.com/food/
The Evernote Food is an application that links to a various amount of food sites where the user can look up recipes and save it to their favorites. Also, there is a restaurant guide which the user can look up restaurants to go try. Also, the user can save the food they've tried by taking a picture of it and labeling it. The similarities with Food FTW is that it has all the functions of Evernote. Food FTW is better because the recipes are not a separate category like in Evernote. There is a page about that one specific food which links to recipes, restaurants, saving it to favorities, and keeping track of what you ate. Food FTW is more versatile compared to Evernote.

Competitor 3 URL: https://forkly.com/
Forkly is an application that lets you find restaurants to try depending on what you like and dislike. The user can also look up food to try and share pictures of food they have tried. Users can follow friends, celebrities and chefs. What's similar to Food FTW is that Forkly includes a social sphere by allowing users to follow others users about food. Forkly does not have recipes like Food FTW. In general, Food FTW offers a lot of what many food apps have but within one application while still being innovative.

Lecture Post: The System Unit

Entrepreneurial Idea Overview:
If you ever wondered what that delicious wafting smell is coming from, the Food FTW App can detect what food it is through the newest iTouch/iPhone generation's smell sensor. The app can also identify food by pictures. The app has a database of all kinds of cuisine with information about them making it a handy tool for food lovers who enjoy discovering and learning about the food they eat.

Lecture:
The system unit of the Food FTW App is the iPhone and iTouch. In the next generation of the iPhone and iTouch, the components within it are faster and more advanced. Since it contains new features like the smell sensor and picture detector, the quad-core processor is upgraded to a revolutionary 'hard-core processor'. With the amount of information that is contained in the Application's database of food, the app itself uses multiple programs to interpret out what type of food the odor is. The 'hard-core processor' efficiently carries out these tasks.

Memory is another important part of the system unit for the application. The App requires storage within the hard drive because when detecting pictures and odors, those types of data are stored. The iPhone may reach to be 80GB while the iTouch may be 110GB. The App accesses that data and produces information about them. It is important to have a lot of memory because the App itself uses different programs running at the same time.

Apple products themselves uses a solid state drive that is not susceptible to shock and has reduced access time. The Food FTW App offers a variety of things to do related to food  and as an App, it requires to be on the most updated and latest components in order to work. Food FTW was made according to how well the gadget it is on can support.

Lecture Post: Social Media

If you ever wondered what that delicious wafting smell is coming from, the Food FTW App can detect what food it is through the newest iTouch/iPhone generation's smell sensor. The app can also identify food by pictures. The app has a database of all kinds of cuisine with information about them making it a handy tool for food lovers who enjoy discovering and learning about the food they eat.

Social media plays an important role in people's lives as a way of communication and interaction. The Food FTW App itself is a form of social media as it allows its users to review and rate the food they have tried. Users can become friends with other users through similar taste in food and send each other messages. 

The App is not limited to just itself and its website, but users can connect their Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and a variety of other accounts to share what they are eating or recommendations to other users on those websites. This connection is a way of promotion and may make users from those website want to use the Food FTW App also. On Twitter, they can write about anything related to the app with #FoodFTW.

Not only that, the Food FTW App will be advertised through several websites. It will have its own Facebook page. On its Facebook page and Tumblr blog, it will post different kinds of food people should try. Its advertisements will promote the usage of the smell sensor and picture detection. If users send invites for non-members to successfully sign up, they can get coupons from a variety of restaurants. For its Youtube page, it'll have commercials showing how people's eating has changed and having fun with the smell sensor. Users can also submit videos of themselves trying a food they have never eaten before and reviewing. Food FTW's presence in social media will promote the message to be curious of the smells and sights in different food, encouraging them to use the app. 

Food FTW App

You are walking outside and all of sudden a delicious smell is in the air. Have you ever wondered what food it is coming from? Well with the Food FTW application, it can detect the aroma and tell you what the name of the dish is! The newest iPhone/iTouch generation will include a smell sensor that can identify different odors. Also, if you do not have any idea of what the food over there on display is, snap a picture of it and Food FTW can look it up for you.

Our application has documented over a million types of cuisines, making it a handy tool for food fanatics who like to know what they are eating or try out new things. Registered users can also add in food that cannot be found on the list. Each food contains detailed descriptions like its name, background, ingredients, cooking directions and nutritional facts. Food FTW also includes a map that you can locate restaurants of where the dish is being served. So if you are craving for Pad Thai, look it up and Food FTW will tell you where can get it! Users can also review and rate food they have eaten. The application can recommend similar dishes of a food and match up other users to be friends with based on how similar their tastes in food are.

Food FTW will revolutionize the way people see and eat food again. Users can keep track of what food they ate. The application lets you look for food based on information of your eating habits, nutritional preferences, body weight, and health stats. For example, you can put in how much calories you want to eat in a day or the types of food to avoid.