Question

I am starting a company and we are putting a small OS on a "USB keychain" device that will autorun your personal email, documents, applications, and calender. Is this cool? Does this exist?

Asked by: harbender

We would like to provide you with a small USB key chain that has 10x more features than traditional storage including email, applications, documents etc... and all these would autorun from the key.

So...

When you plug in the key, a GUI is launched, like your PC desktop, that you can navigate from and choose what you want to do.  It's basically a mini PC, but using the host PC as your own.

There are two things I would like to get out of this.

1.  Is this cool?  If it is, who would buy it, or who would we sell it too?

2.  Is this already in the market, and who is selling it?

thanks,

Har

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Asked On
2003-09-24 at 10:29:30ID20747779
Topics

Miscellaneous Hardware

,

Hardware Components

Participating Experts
7
Points
130
Comments
13

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Answers

 

by: TodosPosted on 2003-09-24 at 10:49:07ID: 9422677

I think its not that easy to put into the market....the problem is, you still need a pc.
What pc will be used? What hardware?  what drivers are installed? What connection with internet is available?

These are problems that you will encounter when running programs of a key....I think running an OS is totally out of the question, simply because you would require extra software to boot from the key itself....

I think people will choose for PDA`s instead of a solution like this, simply cause they have it all:)

Just my opinion:)

grtz

 

by: sudhakarmorlaPosted on 2003-09-24 at 11:12:38ID: 9422845

Yes, I agree with Todos. Here the main question arises is that ....Which operating system is this key supporting ?
What are the device drivers to be installed..?

And while bringing into the market..
  does it support any system to where ever we go ...? I mean do we need to carry our laptop always to connect this key ..... or  can we connect this key to any system in browsing centers etc..

and what type of key is it......? Is it a pheripheral that stores our username and password for our corresponding email - ids or applications....   or is it an software driven device which encrypts our profiles in our pc with an external device like this key and decrypyts whenever we require....?

sudhakar

 

by: ViRoyPosted on 2003-09-24 at 11:37:33ID: 9423047

lol if someone provides you all the technical know-how and you market it...
that person can sue for ownership rights ;)

might wanna use some investment money for research and development :)

 

by: ViRoyPosted on 2003-09-24 at 11:44:43ID: 9423108

if you were to break your questions into small subsections such as, how do i write a eprom chip to interact with windows?
then work out the usb tunneling, then work out the gui features and so on

but if you ask, hey... how do i make this product?
you just marketed someone elses un-patented idea that they are obviously the majority contributor.

 

by: TodosPosted on 2003-09-24 at 11:48:36ID: 9423139

Viroy,

I dont think the question is about how to make the product, but how people see it in daily use. Im not sure about the use...i think people are more interested in complete solutions like PDAs that do the job.....

 

by: ViRoyPosted on 2003-09-24 at 11:53:17ID: 9423173

it sounds cool, depending on price...
however it might be patented... all you have to do is call the patent office and get a patent search request form (in the phone book, government section)

once the search is done and if you are eligible...
you can then put a business plan in motion and make proposals to investors = $$$

looking for a strategic business specialist? ;-)

 

by: TodosPosted on 2003-09-24 at 12:01:32ID: 9423232

hehehe....you know one ViRoy:)....lol

 

by: publicPosted on 2003-09-24 at 13:09:18ID: 9423715

In other words you are trying to sell a USB storage key with some preinstalled software to run on WInnt5+. Is this the idea?

 

by: altman80Posted on 2003-09-24 at 15:03:10ID: 9424428

It's not a bad idea but I don't see it selling. unless:
1. you get it so that there are machines set up all over the place (with no OS on it and will boot from the USB device)
2. You are able to create an OS on this USB device
3. Make it so that the user goes up to this machine, plugs it in and it will immediately load up their email and other apps.
4. Make it affordable
5. Make it easy to use

Other than that I don't see it working.  It does bring up a neat idea though that you could have a computer that is running an email program (for instance Outlook) and then when they run outlook it looks for the address book and other stuff on the drive that the USB drive would always be assigned to.  Have everyone carry around the email information in this USB device and then they can plug in to any computer run outlook and it will take the data from the USB drive.  

 

by: mirorPosted on 2003-09-24 at 22:01:08ID: 9425992

See this link http://news.com.com/2100-1004_3-5062987.html?tag=mainstry
I have to agree with the experts above the whole story is
how much $$$ ?   how much  easy  ?  how much safety  ? and also no need for another os (micros$$$ft)
The idea is very nice, perhaps you can try with a mini linux version on it ! Good luck

 

by: HavalchyPosted on 2003-09-25 at 01:37:08ID: 9426831

We had students here at the university of Surrey, UK that have came up with similar product, but unfortunatly they found it very difficult to get any interest from investors due to it being too much platform dependent and also if your proposal is to have a large storage that runs an os inside another os, it could be cool in the security sector, where by you have host machines that are completly bare and the level of security would depend on the Key you have with the applications being stored in that key.

This was what the students came up with for their project, and it did not sell too well.

Look at specific industries that might need this, such as having a complete interface language such as having a host pc and a key that has Arabic, Latin , Hebrew etc,

that way you have 2 non conflicting OS languages.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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