We’ve all held up the Netflix Prize as a key example of how to use online prizes to drive collaborative innovation to improve predictive science. But this week, I encountered two stories that show a unique intersection of the gaming field and innovation in different ways. One, from MIT Technology Review describes how companies are using games to drive new innovative thinking. Some use games to train workers in new systems, others are used to reward “players” for channeling new ideas for improving the business. The other from NPR’s All Things Considered (click the link for an audio file and the online transcript) showcases the winners of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. The students worked with researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to adapt the Microsoft Xbox Kinect game system hardware system - a sophisticated camera and laser tracking system that monitors and processes movement by the game players – in order to create an accurate and cost effective system to analyze human gait and identify abnormal walking patters. The idea was to improve medical diagnoses and physical therapy, and possibly help contribute to advanced prosthesis design.
So what do these stories illustrate? We all know that taking cool technologies that were developed for other applications and re-purposing them for new uses is what Open Innovation is all about. But these examples show how open innovation continues to manifest itself into new areas and becomes adopted both by young students to further their education, and by big companies to foster improved employee engagement.