3 ms·

YCRFS 4: New Ways to Use Live Video

45 points by pg 17y ago

rokhayakebe 17y ago
-Traffic monitoring. Partner with a few delivery companies, and you can start to push live traffic feeds to the web. Start in one city to test feasibility, then grow. -Maps. Let people register to record a trip from their home to work. Send the package, they set it up on their dashboard, record the round-trip, then send the package to the next location. -Secret shopping. Boy, do they treat people poorly at some places. Please take a live feed, so employees can be fired or rewarded on the spot. - Recording Clubs live, so I know what it looks like before I go and spend 10 bucks to get in and find it empty.
- abstractbill 17y ago
  Recording Clubs live We have http://justin.tv/dnalounge http://justin.tv/dnalounge - that one has worked out pretty well, but obviously jwz isn't your average club owner. I'd love to see someone start a jtv-based business that helps all the other clubs get online (but I have no idea what YC would think of it - just in case that needs to be said!).
  - RK 17y ago
    Live music is the first thing that I thought of. It would be cool for bands to be able to stream their shows live on their own sites, facebook pages, etc.
    - pg 17y ago
      We would be very interested in a startup that let bands make extra money by streaming their shows.
- shrike 17y ago
  The traffic monitoring idea could work on its own. UPS & Fedex already tracks their trucks (I think). If you could buy access to that data you could publish detailed drive time info for a big part of the developed world. The data from FedEx|UPS wouldn't have any privacy issues around it; easy for them to implement a feed, no really advanced new tech involved anywhere in the process. I think the majority of the work would be licensing/business relationship stuff. I'm not sure who you could sell the data to? Set yourself up to be acquired by Google/Navtech/XM Sirus? Something to think about.
  - rokhayakebe 17y ago
    Let's say you partner with a few pizza and taco delivery companies in San Fransisco. They record the traffic on the go, and the feed gets pushed to the website. It could be useful to have a snapshot of traffic before leaving home/office. I think it is easier to cut a deal with small shops, than big Fedex. Forget traffic, what if we simply wanted a safer world, and decided to record what's happening in the streets while driving. This live feed can make the world such a better place.
    - shrike 17y ago
      The problem there would be two-fold. A smaller business probably wouldn't have GPS tracking already implemented so our startup would have to be involved with the capitol cost of equipping their vehicles with that hardware at $400-$500/vehicle plus the apps/infrastructure to aggregate and upload the data to us. Also I think the coverage would be spotty/sporadic. Who orders take-out in the morning? There goes the morning commute customer base. FedEx, UPS have trucks on the road 24/7. Also the time involved in the bus dev working with 200-500 pizza|taco|Chinese restaurants would be huge. Three data sources (FedEx, UPS, DHL?), a few tens of millions of consumers accessing the data via two or three methods is doable. I just can't figure out how to make make any money on it. As to the make the world a safer place I do not accept the argument that more cameras = safer world. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/06/ukcrime1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/06/ukcrime1
      - gojomo 17y ago
        Cell towers already have this info -- and the volume should make up for the imprecision, as by now an overwhelming majority of vehicles in motion must have an active cell phone inside. So video is overkill for traffic monitoring. See also Dash Navigation: http://www.dash.net http://www.dash.net
        jacquesm 17y ago
        totally OT: Gordon, I sent you email regarding the lists, they are ready for download did you receive the mail ? (my internet connection is on the blink, great moment for it) Jacques
shrike 17y ago
I wonder if the augmented reality tech that Yelp is using on the iphone could be overlaid on a Justin.tv stream. Anyone watching a stream could click on a business in the video and connect to their site|Opentable|Yelp. If we could get solid object recognition working we could link to Amazon product pages (revenue!!) or such. Find a bottle of Pepsi|Coke in a stream, click on it, get a coupon for .50 off your next Whopper meal with a large soda. (revenue??)
- abstractbill 17y ago
  I'm pretty sure this is technically possible. Eric and I both worked hard to get around Flash's often insane security stuff and make sure the bitmap of the video stream is available if you want it. So you should be able to just grab the bitmap periodically, do some computation on it, and then overlay whatever you want in a Flash layer that sits on top of our video layer. I think jtv augmented reality apps would be great!
steveplace 17y ago
My web presence is getting drawn more and more to live video, and my current solution works...sort of, and I'm always looking for better alternatives-- but it's good to see other alternatives that aren't just out of the box. I know the justin.tv guys are on here, would love to ping some ideas off you and make some connections.
- abstractbill 17y ago
  Feel free to email me - bill@justin.tv - if I'm not the right person to talk to, I can help you find whoever is.
  - steveplace 17y ago
    mike emailed me, thanks
recampbell 17y ago
It's not much of a business idea, but I've recently been thinking about a way for communities (esp in high crime areas) to do an online neighborhood watch. IE, neighbors put webcams in their front windows and the site presents combined (customizable) views of these webcams a la security camera displays. What if Grandma could email the police a security camera sequence showing who vandalized the library? You could even imagine communities providing bounties for any tips leading to a conviction, so kids in India can protect Walmart parking lots for us.
- jtvdeveloper 17y ago
  There's an effort to use Justin.tv as a neighborhood security watch at Ourblock.tv, which is the successor to Adam's Block (if you remember that news report a while back) However, the team coding the site all have full time jobs, and development is moving slowly (but steadily).
tectonic 17y ago
For those interested, here is a link to the JT API: http://apiwiki.justin.tv/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page http://apiwiki.justin.tv/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page
dang 3y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20091101135021/http://ycombinator.com/rfs4.html https://web.archive.org/web/20091101135021/http://ycombinato...

45 points by pg 17y ago

-Traffic monitoring. Partner with a few delivery companies, and you can start to push live traffic feeds to the web. Start in one city to test feasibility, then grow. -Maps. Let people register to record a trip from their home to work. Send the package, they set it up on their dashboard, record the round-trip, then send the package to the next location. -Secret shopping. Boy, do they treat people poorly at some places. Please take a live feed, so employees can be fired or rewarded on the spot. - Recording Clubs live, so I know what it looks like before I go and spend 10 bucks to get in and find it empty.

abstractbill 17y ago
Recording Clubs live We have http://justin.tv/dnalounge http://justin.tv/dnalounge - that one has worked out pretty well, but obviously jwz isn't your average club owner. I'd love to see someone start a jtv-based business that helps all the other clubs get online (but I have no idea what YC would think of it - just in case that needs to be said!).
- RK 17y ago
  Live music is the first thing that I thought of. It would be cool for bands to be able to stream their shows live on their own sites, facebook pages, etc.
  - pg 17y ago
    We would be very interested in a startup that let bands make extra money by streaming their shows.
shrike 17y ago
The traffic monitoring idea could work on its own. UPS & Fedex already tracks their trucks (I think). If you could buy access to that data you could publish detailed drive time info for a big part of the developed world. The data from FedEx|UPS wouldn't have any privacy issues around it; easy for them to implement a feed, no really advanced new tech involved anywhere in the process. I think the majority of the work would be licensing/business relationship stuff. I'm not sure who you could sell the data to? Set yourself up to be acquired by Google/Navtech/XM Sirus? Something to think about.
- rokhayakebe 17y ago
  Let's say you partner with a few pizza and taco delivery companies in San Fransisco. They record the traffic on the go, and the feed gets pushed to the website. It could be useful to have a snapshot of traffic before leaving home/office. I think it is easier to cut a deal with small shops, than big Fedex. Forget traffic, what if we simply wanted a safer world, and decided to record what's happening in the streets while driving. This live feed can make the world such a better place.
  - shrike 17y ago
    The problem there would be two-fold. A smaller business probably wouldn't have GPS tracking already implemented so our startup would have to be involved with the capitol cost of equipping their vehicles with that hardware at $400-$500/vehicle plus the apps/infrastructure to aggregate and upload the data to us. Also I think the coverage would be spotty/sporadic. Who orders take-out in the morning? There goes the morning commute customer base. FedEx, UPS have trucks on the road 24/7. Also the time involved in the bus dev working with 200-500 pizza|taco|Chinese restaurants would be huge. Three data sources (FedEx, UPS, DHL?), a few tens of millions of consumers accessing the data via two or three methods is doable. I just can't figure out how to make make any money on it. As to the make the world a safer place I do not accept the argument that more cameras = safer world. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/06/ukcrime1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/06/ukcrime1
    - gojomo 17y ago
      Cell towers already have this info -- and the volume should make up for the imprecision, as by now an overwhelming majority of vehicles in motion must have an active cell phone inside. So video is overkill for traffic monitoring. See also Dash Navigation: http://www.dash.net http://www.dash.net
      - jacquesm 17y ago
        totally OT: Gordon, I sent you email regarding the lists, they are ready for download did you receive the mail ? (my internet connection is on the blink, great moment for it) Jacques

shrike 17y ago

I wonder if the augmented reality tech that Yelp is using on the iphone could be overlaid on a Justin.tv stream. Anyone watching a stream could click on a business in the video and connect to their site|Opentable|Yelp. If we could get solid object recognition working we could link to Amazon product pages (revenue!!) or such. Find a bottle of Pepsi|Coke in a stream, click on it, get a coupon for .50 off your next Whopper meal with a large soda. (revenue??)

abstractbill 17y ago
I'm pretty sure this is technically possible. Eric and I both worked hard to get around Flash's often insane security stuff and make sure the bitmap of the video stream is available if you want it. So you should be able to just grab the bitmap periodically, do some computation on it, and then overlay whatever you want in a Flash layer that sits on top of our video layer. I think jtv augmented reality apps would be great!

steveplace 17y ago

My web presence is getting drawn more and more to live video, and my current solution works...sort of, and I'm always looking for better alternatives-- but it's good to see other alternatives that aren't just out of the box. I know the justin.tv guys are on here, would love to ping some ideas off you and make some connections.

abstractbill 17y ago
Feel free to email me - bill@justin.tv - if I'm not the right person to talk to, I can help you find whoever is.
- steveplace 17y ago
  mike emailed me, thanks

recampbell 17y ago

It's not much of a business idea, but I've recently been thinking about a way for communities (esp in high crime areas) to do an online neighborhood watch. IE, neighbors put webcams in their front windows and the site presents combined (customizable) views of these webcams a la security camera displays. What if Grandma could email the police a security camera sequence showing who vandalized the library? You could even imagine communities providing bounties for any tips leading to a conviction, so kids in India can protect Walmart parking lots for us.

jtvdeveloper 17y ago
There's an effort to use Justin.tv as a neighborhood security watch at Ourblock.tv, which is the successor to Adam's Block (if you remember that news report a while back) However, the team coding the site all have full time jobs, and development is moving slowly (but steadily).

tectonic 17y ago

For those interested, here is a link to the JT API: http://apiwiki.justin.tv/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page http://apiwiki.justin.tv/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page

dang 3y ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20091101135021/http://ycombinator.com/rfs4.html https://web.archive.org/web/20091101135021/http://ycombinato...