The COVID-19 pandemic reared its ugly head in the United States back in January this year and it has changed all our lives, including how each of us thinks, makes decisions, and acts.
One big decision that people have to deal with is, since the COVID-19 virus remains on surfaces of various things that are touched by person after person, what do people touch, or avoid touching?
While a solution is to just avoid touching things, the conundrum with this choice is how do you interact with various electronic products without having to actually touch the equipment?
While many, many new technologies, products, and services have been introduced to help us deal with the pandemic, one technology that is ready to make a breakthrough is touchless technology.
Touchless Technology
Commercially, touchless technology has been around since 2010 when Microsoft introduced it with its Kinect for Xbox 360.
However, because of the possibility of spreading COVID-19 by touch, there is an increasing interest in touchless technology. Furthermore, the technology now being pursued does not involve wearing gloves or any devices containing sensors, but instead interprets human hand gestures.
This was evidenced this month when Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport announced the rollout of new touchless passenger-related equipment throughout the Atlanta airport. The new, touch-free “Gestures” devices obtain input from passengers via hand gestures.
The manufacturer, Avius, says such contact-free systems will become more important to society as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Technology that eliminates touching would enable people to interact with electronics the way John King on CNN uses his “Magic Wall” to display election results or how weather reporters display various screens of information when providing their forecasts.
Gesture Recognition
Touchless technology and gesture recognition are part of the rapidly evolving Computer Vision or Machine Vision arena that permit electronics to understand images or visual input, similar to
how a human does, and take the actions that are being indicated.
Both Intel and Microsoft are at the forefront in the development of gesture recognition involving such areas as touchless multifactor authentication (MFA) and using gesture recognition for performing surgeries.
BMW already uses gesture recognition in some of their cars to allow drivers to control their audio, phone, and camera views.
Even further, Swedish company Tobii Rex has developed various eye-based tracking devices that enable people to use their eyes to interact with a computer.
Since health care experts predict the COVID-19 pandemic will not be totally neutralized for about 5 years and that there most likely will be another pandemic in the next 10 or so years, the use of touchless technology and gesture recognition will be relevant for a long time.
Mining and Developing Innovations
Because the development of this technology is a highly complex effort, it clearly was not an easy process for Microsoft, Intel, and the many other players in this market to develop it to its current state. These efforts involved exploring many new ideas to determine their efficacy in the interpretation of human hand gestures or eye movements.
To be successful in the arena of touchless technology, people will have to think of new ideas, evaluate them, and then effectively develop them.
The three steps immediately above are applicable not just to the development of touchless technology, but to any company that wants to apply innovation to its operation.
As successful, innovative companies know, a systematic approach to mining and developing innovations is required at any time, but even more so during this pandemic. This is because people are being exposed to new and different situations, therefore innovation and problem-solving is at the front of their mind, and if a company provides an easy way to capture their ideas, it will reap the rewards.
So, what process is necessary to ensure your innovation initiative is truly effective and stays on track?
Innovation Pipeline Management
The intended outcome of embracing innovation in a company is to create an ongoing stream, or a pipeline of quality ideas, that can be translated into game-changing innovations.
A key component in establishing a 21st century innovation program is a system to capture, incubate and commercialize the organization’s new ideas for innovation. The use of a system to manage your overall innovation efforts results in what we call Innovation Pipeline Management.
Whether it is done piecemeal or by use of a software package, this tracking system should be part of the proper infrastructure that needs to be put in place to support a company’s innovation efforts. The use of a systematic and formal idea collection and processing system will enable an organization to make innovation an integral part of their operation. Listed below are two aspects this system needs to include.
Idea Collection
Conceptually, the system should be founded on the premise of using a singular tool for collecting ideas from many sources, both inside and outside the company. Using a comprehensive (360°) approach to innovation that was discussed in previous newsletters, the system should collect innovations from Customers, Employees, Suppliers, and the Public.
The ideas are then screened and evaluated for merit and relevance to the organization’s overall strategy and objectives for innovation. Ideas can be passed to other persons in the company for their input and evaluation. Once a go or no-go decision is made, the system should provide for assignment of resources and creation of a team for development of the idea. Ideas that are not currently pursued should be retained and catalogued for future consideration.
A good example of this is Swarovski, an Austrian crystal and jewelry company, where the idea collection system starts with the gathered ideas being sent to a group for initial evaluation. Besides performing an initial evaluation of the idea, this group is also empowered to flesh out a raw idea or enrich it by making it more robust.
Idea Evaluation
Once an effective idea collection system is in place, various approaches can be used to determine whether ideas merit further consideration. For instance, Google and other successful innovative 
companies utilize a crowd-cheering approach where submitted ideas are posted for all employees to vote on or cheer for the idea. Ideas that are top vote-getters are then pursued.
Alternatively, a group of people or one appointed person for each area of desired innovation can evaluate the submitted idea and provide input as to the next step for its development.
Bear in mind that in developing a system to manage the flow of ideas through the innovation process, training on and the use of various innovation tools, as was detailed in prior newsletters, is absolutely foundational.
Training your personnel on how to be innovative in the first place, and secondly training on the use of an innovation tool set, is paramount. Some companies have put in an automated innovation collection system without this necessary innovation training and received few positive results.
Where to Start
First, an idea collection system should be put in place to collect ideas from both inside and outside the company. Ideally, a comprehensive 360° approach should be used to solicit ideas from Customers, Employees, Suppliers, and the Public. A key component of the system needs to be its ability to keep the idea submitter up to date regarding the status of his or her submission.
Then, a system needs to be implemented that utilizes either a group of people or one appointed person to evaluate the submitted ideas for each area of desired innovation. Alternatively, a crowd-cheering approach can be used where ideas are posted for all employees to vote on or cheer for the idea. This evaluation process is necessary for the proper functioning of an innovation pipeline management system.
If you would like assistance with the implementation of an innovation pipeline management system in your company or organization, please contact us using the information below so we can be a resource to you in this critical area.
Fountainhead Consulting Group, Inc. is an Innovation and Business Planning firm. During the past 17, years we have shown over 1,200 companies how to achieve their goals by using our unique, comprehensive, and systematic FastTrak Innovation Program™, Innovation Academy™, and Structure of Success™ methodologies. Using the components in these methodologies, each month we examine an aspect of how to transform your business or organization into a true 21st Century enterprise.
Office: (770) 642-4220
www.FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
George.Horrigan@FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
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