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Ask HN: What API to the physical world do you wish existed?
Inspired by the recent post on the startup that turns your emails into physical letters, I was wondering what other opportunities exist like this. What service do you wish you could initiate online (through an API or otherwise) that would have a real-world outcome?
- pknerd 15y agoAn API to pick best developer who can write code on my behalf :-)
- rokhayakebe 15y agoA bit different. I think every person should have their own API. Something standardized. This would be all their data and different methods/permissions to access it. Furthermore you should be able to host/move this data where ever you like. Any service can have read and/or write access to your API depending on your preferences.
- petervandijck 15y agoYou want to live in the Matrix?
- dinde 15y agoI want search functionality at the grocery store.
- avianchaosx 15y agoGoogle is pretty much working on this: telling a car to go where I want it to go.
- sathishmanohar 15y agoGeoLocation for Keys. (literal keys)
- garethsprice 15y agoThere's a few devices like this out there, usually with a limited range and audio-only alerts though: http://www.amazon.com/EZ-FIND-Item-Design-Electronic-Locator/dp/B004FVFGMW/ref=pd_sim_e6 http://www.amazon.com/EZ-FIND-Item-Design-Electronic-Locator... Full geolocation would be quite a bit harder, what would be the use case where you'd need to, say, plot the location of your keys on a map?
- sathishmanohar 15y agoYeah.. Totally Agree.. Geo Location is like absolute file path (absolute co-ordinates on the map), but, relative path (relative to the user) is more sufficient here..
- declancostello 15y agogoogle search on books - on the back cover. I'd like a digital wall paper on my walls so that I could change how my walls look every day.
- buddydvd 15y agoPrices of auto services local to where you live (e.g. oil change).
- dhpye 15y agoundo If you are truly God, please implement ASAP
- rohit89 15y agoHa, wouldn't that be a useful function. Extremely dangerous as well. I could see people using it and violating causality in ways unimaginable.
- glimcat 15y agoMore thermodynamics than causality. Most physical processes are reversible.
- codedivine 15y agoReminds me of the games Achron and Braid.
- xd 15y agoMy brain.
- ghotli 15y agoyeah i'm working on that one. soon enough friend.
- jroseattle 15y agoAn Errand and Task API. Child shuttle/delivery API. Hardware store parts-in-stock API. And, because I'm in Seattle....a Weather API (with CRUD capabilities.)
- techwraith 15y agoCheck out task rabbit for the iPhone. Real life task API. Haven't had the chance to use it yet, but looks pretty cool.
- DanielRibeiro 15y agoOr on their site: http://www.taskrabbit.com/ http://www.taskrabbit.com/
- chewbranca 15y agoHrmm... sat here thinking about the question, then thought 'a weather API would be nice, let me see if anyone else already answered that'.. ctrl-f weather.. oh great, the one guy who mentioned a weather API is also from Seattle.
- jroseattle 15y agoI think this is simply validation of the idea...
- senthilnayagam 15y agoGet realtime satellite pictures of any geo coordinates as shown in Hollywood movies, govt/military probably has access to it, but if it was available then people can see how humans are treating earth and its ecosystem, this can lead to sustainable development and can help a lot in natural disasters
- drpancake 15y agoWe're not too far off: http://urthecast.com http://urthecast.com
- viscanti 15y agoI'd like an API for places that have bad customer service. Ideally, there would be an automated boxing glove set on the customer service representative's desk, that I could tap into in the case of bad customer service, and I could bop them in the face. There's been several times when I'd like to reach through a computer or phone and hit them (Note: I'm not an especially violent person). Those companies could monazite the process and make money off their poor customer service (There's been times when I'd definitely pay for that).
- wuster 15y agoa "Like" or "+1" button for employee interaction?
- phzbOx 15y agoOr the inverse.. if you've got a good service, you opened up your iphone and just click "Nice service"; it's indirect publicity. You could go one step further and click the name of the employee. So, it'll be a kind of "Employee of the month" in a less cheesy way.. customer decides instead of the boss choosing someone.
- Neuromantic 15y agoChicks, man...
- wuster 15y agoyou mean... a... Woman Decoder?
- delinka 15y agoNo need to decode if you can call API methods, receiving proper replies. You start learning (reverse engineering?) the subject's behavior based on responses to methods. OK, I'm thinking as I type. The API must represent a functional system (i.e. function calls do no have side effects, produce the same output given the same environment) for RE to work. The first million iterations of such an API would not 'feel' functional because humans tend away from rationality (insert gender-prejudiced joke here.) I suspect that once you get down into the tiniest bits of the human system (quantum behavior in brains, if indeed that's even necessary for consciousness), you can get much more functional results. Then, that gets us into eliminating chaos (replacing it with knowledge) in complex systems. Consider: knowing how that precise collection of molecules (that tasty roasted meat, whose chicken was raised on marigold petals but once ate a bug or three) will affect the digestive, circulatory and nervous systems of a human; initially when the odor affects the receptors in the nose and ultimately after digestion has done its job and delivered all the tiny chicken bits to cells in the human body. And between those times, how anticipation from delayed gratification ("we'll wait for Grandma to arrive before we eat") affects the effects of the food on the human. And from here, chaos theory... I pontificate muchly and pointlessly, but it was fun.
- jamii 15y agoShopping. Plenty of places in the UK have online shopping with home delivery but the interface is terrible. If they published an API someone could do a proper job of it. I would pay a fair bit of money for a weekly box of food with a list of recipes for each day so I don't have to make decisions. Even better if I can thumbs up/down each meal and the system learns what kind of food I like.
- ltamake 15y agoThis. Most online catalogues are awful.
- ZeroMinx 15y agoI'd say Ocado is good! Would love for them to have an API though..
- revorad 15y agoI am working on a shopping site - http://giniji.com http://giniji.com. It only has laptops right now but I am looking at adding other categories too, including food. I would love to hear more about the kinds of things you'd find useful (email in profile). I am also based in the UK.
- tomfitzhenry 15y agoI am a web developer at Ocado. I have forwarded this on to my boss. Realise, of course, that this isn't simply a matter of releasing an API. I do like the idea of a system that learns recipes that you [probably] like, and sends you their ingredients and a recipe every few days.
- ig1 15y agoI assume that it's doable one way or the other, there are a number of third party sites like MySupermarket which can automatically add products into your basket on different supermarket sites. I'm guessing they do so either via URL hacking or XSS, but it should be fairly easy to figure out.
- derrida 15y agoThe Human Body. Oh wait. We already have one.
- mike-cardwell 15y agoI'd like to be able to pay other people to phone up companies on my behalf to do things like closing accounts or changing my address on accounts. Ie, so I could go to a website and fill in a quick form with the following info: Phone water company X on phone number N Close my account Information you might need: My name is Y, my account number is Z, my address is A and my password is B I hate having to speak to people whos job it is to try and stop me achieving my goal, ie cancelling accounts. And having to wait on hold, and having to phone back when the call queue is shorter. etc I guess you could create a dedicated API wrapped around Mechanical Turk, and then stick a website in front of it.
- wuster 15y agoI'd like a trustworthy and central repository for my current billing/mailing address that all the big companies simply "subscribe to". When I move, the update should be pushed to every bank/magazine/delivery company.
- waffle_ss 15y agoIn an ideal world this information would be stored in an OpenID attribute.
- noarchy 15y agoAlmost sounds like how a credit report can work. I've had my current address appear on mine without any effort on my own part. Once one company gets it, it seems to propagate.
- SeanNieuwoudt 15y agoI think https://www.trustfabric.com/ https://www.trustfabric.com/ does that.
- jeffool 15y agoI'd combine this, the grandparent's post, and the example given in the original post (along with it's inverse, making physical mail available digitally,) into the ultimate personal correspondence service.
- wuster 15y agoDVRs. For when I space out in long lectures or meetings =)
- jeffool 15y agoDefinitely my cable box/DVR. Not only for better search (and ANY starch of OnDemand material.) It does such a horrible job of "DVR" functionality it's sad. Constantly clipping shows despite setting it to record minutes early/late. Sure, I probably just need to get Google TV or Tivo, but you'd think it wouldn't be a Herculean task, y'know?
- saulrh 15y agoObject retrieval. Little helicopter UAVs that can buy you a pencil or a granola bar, or pick up a flash drive or some paperwork from your house, and fly it out to you.
- gnurag 15y agoWe'd slowly turn into that lost human civilization from Wall-E.
- DanielRibeiro 15y agoLearning: A matrix-like api would be just great.
- rohit89 15y agoA find() method for physical objects that'll return co-ordinates of where it's located. Very useful for locating people as well.
- anujkk 15y agoI guess it can be done using some combination of RFID/Building Map, GPS/Google Map and an app(mobile/tablet/web) to manage it all. We need cheap, mini(or sticker like)RFID/GPS systems, so that we can just stick it to the items we want to track.
- kevinburke 15y agoIt would be nice to call someone's car.
- medwezys 15y agoIt's not very realistic, but my body health status API would be awesome: see what vitamins or minerals does it lack, body temperature, level of cholesterol, blood pressure, levels of hormones. That would allow to create insanely useful and impactful applications!
- 8plot 15y agoYes, this! For years I have been complaining about how silly it is that I know far more about the day to day condition of my vehicle than I do about my own body.
- basman 15y agoPartial solution: http://www.bodymedia.com http://www.bodymedia.com
- jonnytran 15y agoYes, the fact that I have to physically go to a doctor is absurd. I want real-time feedback of how bad (or good) the meal is that I'm eating right now, as I'm eating it. I want to get warnings and reminders of the vitamins and minerals that I'm low on. Even hydration. Everyone says that if you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated. Getting in the habit of staying hydrated is hard work. Little help here? I suspect that most of this stuff will have to wait for nanobots. Any way we can do this sooner?
- 8plot 15y agoI don't think we need to wait for nanobots, the technology is already here now to accomplish real-time monitoring. Here is one example for blood glucose monitoring implant: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-07/wireless-implantable-glucose-sensor-could-revolutionize-diabetes-treatment http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-07/wireless-im...
- jonnytran 15y agoImplant is 1.5 inches wide and half an inch thick? No thanks. I'll wait for the nanobots.
- webgambit 15y agoI want an API to tap into time itself. Eventually, I'd want to be able to travel through it, but in the beta I'd settle for just the ability to pause it whenever I like. :)
- ShabbyDoo 15y agoNot sure that this really counts as an API, but I'd like a converter between things in my life which require polling and a push sort-of interface. Here's an example: I ordered some things from eBay, and I'd like to confirm that they arrived in one piece. After clicking "buy it now", I have to somehow remember to confirm within a couple of weeks that the items arrived. I used to add a calendar task N days out with a note like, "ensure delivery of XYZ". However, I've fallen off the wagon on this of late. The fundamental problem is that there is no ebay-originating tickler event which lets me know that it's time to validate delivery. As an analogy, I think I'd like a way to add cron jobs for my life. Imagine your phone asking you, "Hey, did your package arrive?" If you affirm delivery, nothing more happens. If you say no, a task gets added to your todo list to figure out what went wrong (wife mis-placed package, etc.). You can also say "bug me later." I'm not sure that I've done a good job articulating what I want, in part because I only have a vague notion of what would help me out. I do know that keeping all sorts of "polling lists" in my head (or even in a calendar/todo list) is very stressful. I'd love to offload the work of remembering this stuff to a trusted assistant. What other things in life are missing async callbacks? - Cancelling X service before it auto-renews next month/year/whatever - Generally, any task with the word "confirm" in it - Audit-related tasks such as making sure my client writes me a check for the amount I invoiced. One could implement basic "tickler" functionality at first without any back-end integrations and then build one-off interfaces for common use cases -- for example, use the eBay API to observe purchases I've made and add ticklers based on the auction's stated delivery dates. Maybe this service also grabs tracking numbers and digs a level deeper for you. "Remember to grab your package from the front porch -- there's a 90% chance of rain tonight!"
- phzbOx 15y agoA simple todo list with a "later" option could do that. I.e. you write "Receive package" (Report in 2 weeks) So, your todolist is empty but you can safely remove that task from your mind as it will remind you in any due time. (I.e. 2 weeks in this example)
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- moe 15y agoMoney.print(currency, amount) → Banknote or nil
- neilk 15y agoI'd like each parking meter to have an API. When you park, you tell your phone what the API endpoint of the meter is, via QR code or whatever. Then you can continue to monitor it, and pay the meter, remotely. Or if there are ordinances forbidding parking more than N hours it alerts you. Probably wouldn't happen as cities are addicted to parking ticket revenue, and there are unionized meter readers.
- andrewtbham 15y agoParking meters are often designed to Make long term parking inconvenient and make short term parking available.
- drewda 15y agoSee Streetline, a spin-off from PARC, that's been installing metering systems around San Francisco and Los Angeles, among other locations: http://www.streetlinenetworks.com/ http://www.streetlinenetworks.com/
- sfgfdhgfdshdhhd 15y agoSQL. UPDATE people SET iq = iq + 50; SELECT position FROM objects WHERE name = 'my damn socks';
- Meai 15y agoWell I'd like a search function. I'm sure it's possible somehow, you need cameras everywhere and / or microships in everything.
- phzbOx 15y ago"Search into what I'm currently looking right now". I'm at the library, I need to find the number "x8iz8x7c8z" somewhere.. meh, lost of time. I'm at the grocery store searching for a particular cheese: "Search moz". I'm driving and I want to find a particular street.. "Search [street-name]" and when it's in my vision, it'll be shown. Basically, a small camera on my ear or something that watch in real-time with AI to recognize text. And then, a small 'bip' + a red light pointing to it.
- lubujackson 15y agoIn other words, you want to be the Terminator. Join the club.
- phzbOx 15y agoI'd like to be able to ask a question to the planet (Or at least anybody who's ready to answer it right now). So I ask: "What's 2.2kg in lbs" (0.10cent) Someone on their computer just google it, type the answer and receive 0.10cent. So basically, it's IRC + Stackoverflow but in real-time and you pay to get the answer now without searching. People could wait for the metro or the bus with their phone and see the questions and could click [answer] if they know the answer (or know how to get it really fast) or [next] to get another question. Ideally, an expert in a field could make real money in situations where he/she would lose their time. Waiting in a queue to pay? Just answer 1 10$ question. Waiting at the metro/subway? Answer a couple question. Looking for the name of a street? Lost? Searching for ketshup in the grocery? Just ask and put your price.
- jeromeparadis 15y agoSounds like Amazon Mechanical Turk.
- goo 15y agoAardvark did this: http://vark.com/ http://vark.com/
- phzbOx 15y agoCool but sad :( http://blog.vark.com/?p=379 http://blog.vark.com/?p=379
- RomP 15y agonot really an API, but related: touchless/cardless ATM: an App on my phone which I can use to find the nearest ATM and make a withdrawal. It knows my account credentials. I tell it how much cash I need. The app generates the transaction, encodes it in the QR code. I show the phone screen to the ATM's camera. The ATM dispenses the cash, takes photo of the person receiving the money and attaches it to the transactions log/statement. No germs exchanged, no risk of skimming, more security (password vs. 4-digit pin code), no need to carry the ATM card around.
- lamby 15y agoYou're worried about catching germs from an ATM?
- arohner 15y agoGoogle Maps for retail stores. (Standing in a store): "Is X in stock?" "on which isle is X located?"
- arohner 15y agoWhat are the (non-spoiled) contents of my refrigerator?
- theitgirl 15y agoI would like: 1. An API to connect to non-profits and donate to them. 2. An API to retrieve college textbook information..like what are all the courses for the fall semester and their required textbooks.