6A: Identifying Opportunities in Regulatory and Economic Trends

Four Opportunistic Trends:

• Trend One: Biometric Security
• My mind first jumped to this opportunity after reading it from this specific article. Modern technology continues to evolve and find ways to assist and in some cases invade day to day life. Which is why I believe there exists an economic opportunity to improve antiquated homeowner security measures. With biometric enhanced doors and security systems perturbing all standard means of breaking and entering, I believe the customer base would be upper middle class suburban families all the way to the higher economic sector of things like banks and firms. It would be difficult to develop a standard U.I and servicing price, but it is heavily exploitable as there exists no current market for it. I saw the idea for this opportunity since I've always been pretty into security systems and wanting to make a futuristic one.
• Trend Two: Biodegradable Straws
• This specific opportunity relates to both economic and regulatory changes, but I would argue more towards regulatory (Source here). With topics like global warming steadily rising in our society and talks of renewable energy being the way forward, many fast food companies and restaurants alike will have to comply with upcoming policies, and marketplaces more inclined to shop conscientiously with green companies. McDonalds is even moving away from plastic straws and onto paper straws shortly, which proves that this opportunity exists on a huge scale. This products primary customers would be dinners and people going out to eat, and with shareholder backing a full on production of paper straws would be very easy to accomplish. The reason I saw this opportunity is because of the devolving politics and the increasing pressure from top scientists warning of humanity's consumption, and plastic being the biggest contributor.
• Trend Three: Smart Glasses
• The economic opportunity I identified through here and brief look at the current generation smart devices. The technology is there to create smart devices in the form of TV's, Refrigerators, and even watches, so it's a natural extension to go to something like glasses.  The customer base would essentially mimic the current buyers of smart tech but for those with a need for glasses or hands of displays. The endeavor would definitely be difficult due to the ability to make the chips and a passable U.I , but it is doable with effort and backing. I saw this opportunity due to the equally cool but less tech heavy glasses like the SnapGlasses, and realizing the only thing necessary was innovating a unique processor for the features.
• Trend Four: Waste Vaporizer
• This regulatory opportunity definitely follows along with waste disposal regulation, and takes a spin on it with some innovation. The opportunity surely exists as detailed in this article, and talks about using plasma to vaporize trash and convert it into gas. The opportunity surely exists due to the fact that American landfills are as polarizing as they are full. Customers would be the solid waste authority and other government waste disposable agencies. The opportunity is unimaginably hard to realize due to the process being incomplete, but with proper research and implementation the profit margins would be inconceivably high. I realized this opportunity as early as when I went on a field trip to the dump and they spoke on the need for technology to assist with human waste.