It really seems to me that we don’t provide enough access for disabled people to things we take for granted.

Well, hopefully this tool from Inclusion Solutions will be one more step in the right direction.

“Quick serves regularly serve more than 50 percent of their business through the drive thru. But according to the National Center for Health Statistics, there are an estimated 36 million deaf and hearing-disabled people in the U.S. who are left without that option.

The OrderAssist includes a button that hearing-impaired customers press, informing employees that they’ll be pulling forward and ordering at the window on a print-out menu. Most drive thrus “force [deaf] people to use a system that doesn’t work for them,” says Patrick Hughes Jr., founder and CEO of Inclusion Solutions.”

Pop Up Lifestyle™ is about providing for people in their comfort zones so they don’t have to go out of their way to get to your product, business or service. Perhaps you don’t even know how many of your differently abled customers are unable to “get to you”, or give up because it’s too hard.

Every whopper and fries will be hand-delivered to your door within 30 minutes or less using “new delivery packaging technology” engineered to keep your food warm from the grill to your gullet.”

Ok I’m gonna go against the grain here. Every article I’ve read about Burger King exploring home delivery has been fairly negative. Eg: “Just what this country needs: a Whopper and fries delivered to its front door.” or “disastrous for a country struggling with an ever-expanding collective waistline.”

Look, I know we have an obesity problem but I don’t think it rests solely the QSR industry to fix it.  There’s many factors at play – especially psychological and societal reasons. Furthermore, where’s the personal responsibility? You don’t have to dial that delivery line!

Here’s a recent study that found that the highest percentage of fast food customers are actually middle class families with fast paced and activity-packed lifestyles… Not the poor and unhealthy, as many people think is the case.

Here’s a blog I wrote about that.

This is a perfect example of Pop Up Lifestyle™. It’s literally fulfilling the Human Truth™ which is: “Meet me where I am.”™ You may think I’m not railing on this because I can be lazy sometimes and I love Whoppers. Fair enough. Like I said, you don’t have to dial the number. I personally wont dial it all the time, but for that “once in a while moment” when I don’t want to get dressed and leave my comfort zone- I’m all for it!

“NeighborFavor, a site that lets college students earn cash by helping each other with their shopping. Focusing primarily on fast food and grocery delivery, NeighborFavor lets college students see where their friends are going shopping and then request that one of them pick something up while they’re out. Along the way, they must indicate not just what they need and when they need the items, but also how much of a “tip” they’re willing to pay for that convenience. Once a neighbor has accepted the request and delivered the needed items, payments are made via PayPal and neighbors can rate each other’s performance. A 3-digit PIN is assigned to each favor to ensure that payments are made accurately as agreed.”

Filling The Void™ is about finding a solution when you can’t do, or get, what you really want. The Human Truth is: “It’s what I do to get by.”™ That’s a sentiment I remember very well from college days. NeighborFavor is plugging into the needs of students. It’s a company that helps them deal with what they lack, which is usually: time, food and money.

“Out of Nature is an innovative carpet collection that emerged from a desire to bring the rustic beauty of nature inside as part of a building’s interior design. The collection’s expressive, photographic design adds character to a room, as well as providing good acoustics and comfort underfoot.  Out of Nature is available both as a wall-to-wall concept and as customized carpet. The collection consists of 14 different designs and is manufactured from 100% polyamide in ege’s HL 910 quality, a very high-quality and hard-wearing carpet.”

Ok so, we have photo-realistic carpets inspired by stones, wood and natural textures. This is a simplistic example of Green Echo™ design. Green Echo™ is about imitating nature, and we often see many high concept examples of biomimicry in this wave.

However, it’s not always about science and technology.  Sometimes, this wave just encourages us to simply draw inspiration from the beauty of Mother Nature. After all, she is a spectacular muse.

Well, Jeep hopes that enough gamers are obsessed enough with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to pony up $40,070 for the Wrangler that is featured in the game.

“The Call of Duty Wranglers come in black or silver, with semi-gloss black wheels. The exterior is tricked up with Call of Duty graphics on the fenders and spare tire cover, a special “power-dome” hood and a batch of goodies from the Mopar accessory bin, including a winch-ready front bumper, rear bumper, rock rails, tail-lamp guards and fancy fuel-filler door. If that’s not enough, buyers can have the dealer add more Mopar goodies including a Warn winch, 2-inch lift kit and five-spoke wheels. The interior gets Call of Duty logos galore: on the black seats, the dash, the grab handle, the Mopar Slush Mats and the rear cargo mat.”

Even the TV ad mimics MW3 with detailed elements and routes taken directly from the gameplay. Virtual Merge™ is about the virtual world meeting the actual world. So many people’s online and gaming habits intermingle with their sense of “self”. I’m sure we will see many more companies giving fans a chance to “represent” irl (in real life).

“The rising trend of TV ownership has been leveling off in recent years, and now the number has dropped from 115.9 million homes in 2011 to an estimated 114.7 million in 2012. As TV Barn pointed out, that’s a 1 percent decline despite the number of households rising. TV ownership among the key adult 18-49 demo also declined, and even steeper (down 2.7 percent — a downtrend that started to a slight degree in 2010 and then accelerated this year). Plus, the percentage of homes without a TV is at the highest level since 1975 (3 percent, up from 1 percent the previous year).”

The Virtual Forest™ wave is about the internet being a requirement. Personally, I could live without a TV but living without internet is inconceivable. There is so much TV content that is available online anyway -that’s ready to watch whenever I like.

Sony, Apple TV and Xbox 360 are capitalizing on this kind of thinking and are set to take your TV to the next level, so don’t throw out your TV set just yet.

‘A new era in entertainment begins where all your entertainment is together in one place—your games, movies, TV shows, music and sports,’ said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. With this update, Xbox 360 system owners will experience Kinect voice control integrated with Bing search, making your TV and entertainment experiences more social and personal than ever.’

That’s right, with the new software update Xbox 360 system owners will be able to talk to their TV, Siri style, and request what show they want to see and…BAM… it will retrieve it for them. Apple is also planning voice command technology.

The Human Truth™ of the Virtual Forest™ wave is: “I live my life plugged in, there’s no logging off.”™ With more and more of our household devices becoming integrated with the internet, that statement is truer than ever.

An Instructables’ user who’s known as dimovi, has figured out a way to turn an old LCD into a privacy monitor with content visible only to the person wearing a pair of special glasses (which he also made). Old LCDs are fairly easy to come by these days. By following a his (apparently) simple steps, your screen will become “for your eyes only”. Anyone else will only see a white screen.  Click here for video.

According to dimovi, all you need for this hack is paint thinner (or some other solvent), 3D glasses, as well as an X-Acto knife. The key is polarized film, which is normally used to filter backlight from what’s actually visible on the screen.

iBuiltit is a wave where we find clever people that identify a hole in the market. They want something that doesn’t exist yet, or is out of their price range. These DIY’ers strive, in often ingenious ways, to build what they desire. The Human Truth is: “If you won’t find a way, I/we will.” There have been some instances of hacks that have gone on to make millions because it’s an idea that takes the marketplace by storm. The “why didn’t I think of that” syndrome.  However, many people who embody the iBuiltit wave are simply happy to have something that fulfills their needs.

I was impressed a while back by their cool QR code virtual shopping wall that turned up in south korea subway station. Commuters waiting for their train can scan the code of any product they would like to purchase, adding it to their online shopping cart. After the web transaction is completed on their smartphone, the products are delivered to the user’s home within the day.

Well, now they have integrated AR (augmented reality) technology into their online shopping. They have launched a cool way to “view” before you buy that doesn’t underestimate the adoption rate of their online shoppers.

“The technology requires a browser plugin. After that, consumers have to use a “marker” like a Tesco catalog or club card to active the augmented reality (AR). Users can then hold up images from the catalog to their computer’s webcam to see a floating 3D version of the product.”

For anyone who’s intimidated by this process they have made a very accessible and easily understood video to ease them through the process. View it here.

The Virtual Merge™ wave is where the virtual world meets the actual. The Human Truth™ is: “ I’m in the real world, and I’m bringing the internet with me.”™ I know for a fact my world is “virtually merging” more and more all the time. One of the main benefits is convenience… something we all find helpful these days.

Furthermore, not being able to “see” a product fully is one of the main reasons why people prefer to shop instore, these kind of ideas may well bridge that shopping gap. Kudos Tesco.

However, they went the “keeping up with the times” route, and I’m not really convinced.

“Facebook fans in the Netherlands to vote for their all-time favorite VW model with a chance to win it – currently, the T1 model is leading the Beetle. The winning car is referred to as a Fanwagen and is equipped with Facebook aspects such as the ability to print out your friend’s latest Facebook status updates; view a map that has plotted all your friends’ hometowns; receive birthday notifications and even adjust your relationship status on the license plate.”

It’s being referred to as the ‘most social car ever’. Am I missing something?

The only thing listed that my phone can’t do is display my relationship status on the license plate… which as a single gal, I’m not sure is a wise way to go.   Anyway, the Virtual Forest™ wave, where the Human Truth™ is: “I live my life plugged in, there’s no logging off”, is filled with examples of products, brands and services that want to keep up with the social networking trend. For good reason I suppose, it is a huge trend. But perhaps we are reaching a level of saturation that one would be establishing a point-of-difference if they didn’t follow the herd. Just a thought.

Well, London-based apparel brand Topshop has come up with a service that will feel like all your Christmas presents have come at once:

“Topshop’s personal shopping team will handpick gift items, based on a buyer’s requirement, and wrap each item individually. If the buyer approves of the selection, the wrapped presents will then be shipped out and arrive at the receiver’s doorsteps on Christmas Day. For a minimum spend of £200, Topshop’s personal shopper service helps shoppers cut precious shopping and decision times, taking the stress out of the festive shopping season.”

I wonder why Topshop aren’t offering this handy service in the USA? Perhaps it’s because they mainly sell through Barney’s Dept. stores over here. They might not currently be able to handle the demand of the American market? I think it would be huge! Because even though shopping concierge services exist here, they are usually considered out-of-reach luxury services. Most people end up spending way over $250 on presents for everyone, so I consider this well within reach of a lot consumers.

Choice Choke™ is about making choices easier. Topshop has demonstrated that they understand the Human Truth of this wave, which is: “I don’t need more choices, I need help choosing.”™ Lets hope other savvy brands are ideating ways to make overwrought consumers lives a little easier this holiday period.