Alap's

Alter-ego

I experiment with a range of mediums and tools to solve problems, but mostly for fun! Have a look at some of my latest personal projects

2023: OMA app

An idea inspired from some basic values learnt from Berlin. A offline solution to help make meaningful connections in real life. It focuses on respecting privacy, going offline and connecting with real people. P.S. I learnt swiftUI for this project :)

Meet people offline

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Showing people with some basic info in your vicinity of about 2 meters. Keeping it real.

Future consideration: Lounge chat & local business offers

Abstract

For hundreds of thousands of years, humans only communicated in person, but in just the past fifty years they have started also communicating online. Today, people communicate more online than offline. What does this shift mean for human social life?

Problem

Online ‘filter bubbles’ are created in which people become intellectually isolated.

Reduce feelings of social connection and understanding of others’ thoughts and feelings.

Passive use of social media has been associated with increased loneliness and lowered well-being.

04 Greater anonymity

05 Wider dissemination of content online

Proposal

Provide opportunity for developing new offline relationships.

Connect offline on individual or community basis by passion or interest. Collaborate with others and organize social groups or movements. Help neighborhood business in-situ.

Online introduction to kickstart offline interaction.

When someone is shy or not used to (introverted).

Consent to avoid unwanted offline interactions.

When someone wants to focus or doesn’t want to be bothered.

Consent first

Request to say “Hi” in real life. Only proceed when you know that the other person is ok to be intruded.

Mini chat

A quick chat to co-ordinate where to meet and find each other more easily.

Feature to block the annoying user, just in case.

Community keys

Want to meet your colleagues or natural wine enthusiasts in the open world? Community keys are for you.

Details

100% offline,

100% private

The app can function completely offline by using BLE technology. Hence protecting privacy, identity and conversations of people.

Impact

Introduces a new way of social networking which is offline

Improves quality of connections and social life.

Avoid unwanted attention, disturbance or stalking

Eliminates barrier of internet.

Eliminates privacy concerns.

Simpler design which focuses on getting users offline and improve their social lives

Helps local business connect with their customers independently and in situation

Available tech

Bluetooth (BLE)

Direct Wi-Fi

P2P messaging

Future expansion

Local business offers

Location lounges for businesses

Event partnerships (low connectivity areas)

2023: OMA typeface

I had fun creating a logo for a OMA project earlier this year which I extended to a complete typeface. Hope you enjoy some of these artefacts. Email me for vectors >>

2023: Aiaiai

One tool to rule all. This project was born out of frustration due to abundance of tools but disconnected and repetitive. This tool tries to bring your year's priorities into one place through your team's OKRs to personal development goals. Helps you organize, manage and measure progress. And to close the loop, helps you generate a meaningful yearly report.

Maintain familiarity

Do not introduce completely new design. Rather use familiar patterns from regularly used tools

Patterns reused from Google tasks and similar tools like Trello, Taskflow, etc

Adaptive

Task representation and action associated adapt to the type of task/item it is

Progressive disclosure

Keep your board clean by only seeing relevant information at a glance. See more details and actions as you go deeper

Task mapping made easy

Using AI map tasks to relevant project lists automagically

Share your quarterly highlights

Make it easy to export your quarterly highlights to Grad. Get it well written with the help of AI

Define your work style

Make your view dense or define what information and actions you want at a glance.

Dark maps

Your neighbourhood watch.

This app was focused on curating location based content within private and public groups in Berlin. Covering areas which are usually not financially beneficial for corporates but useful for the community. Like recycling items from the street, local events, gender neutral toilets, old-cozy-bookshops, etc.

Tags

#events (24)

#free (24)

#sale (24)

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List

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Matter party

passkey: whiterabbit bla blaaa bla bla blaaa blabla blaaa blabla blaaa blabla blaaa blabla blaaa bla

1km away

8 min ago

Flee Market

Every Sunday

1km away

8 min ago

Matter party

passkey: whiterabbit

1km away

8 min ago

Matter party

passkey: whiterabbit

1km away

8 min ago

Matter party

passkey: whiterabbit

1km away

8 min ago

Matter party

passkey: whiterabbit

1km away

8 min ago

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Every sunday bla bla sunday bla bla sunday bla bla sunday bla bla sunday bla bla

1km away

8 min ago

2022: XR experiments

I believe slowly the medium through which we experience our physical or digital daily lives will become slimmer or invisible. There are some experiments I played with to design and visualize it.

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AR Outfits

While most of the things are manageable from home, trying on clothes before buying is still tricky. Here's an idea on not just trying on what fashion items Zalando SE has to offer, but also mixing and matching it to create a perfect outfit.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMWzQrvI59H/

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Replace cars

All my life I have always disliked cars in cities. They takeover our public spaces, make us plan our day around traffic, cities planned around roads and of course the pollution they cause.

With this project, I am trying to re-imagine the cities and neighborhoods without cars. How would have they evolved? A simple experiment to replace cars in our live camera feed to start with. Using ML to detect cars.

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Faceless

came from an idea to protect privacy or introvert-cy. ;)

But still had fun building this. The filter segments the human out in camera and identifies expressions from the face. Following expressions are supported - straight, smile, talking & angry.

Project link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKhMwkMqiOM/

Insta filter

Snapchat filter

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AR Fashion Finder

I have been wondering what could be the easiest and most accurate way of finding fashion when you see something interesting on streets or on TV.

Here's how I image a possible solution

A powerful image recognition engine could identify object type.

Not just the fashion item but also identify what makes it unique by identifying its distinct attributes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPdM57RI-B5/

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AR Fashion Attributes

This came out of an idea of bridging the gap between the physical and online store for fashion. There are so many problems we face between these experiences which includes trying out the outfit, know more about the details and fashion details. In the time of corona this would become even more beneficial to get these experiences right at home and share with your friends. https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17868207791259681/

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Clock

Since the invention of the clock, we have been looking at it to get an idea of where we stand on the scale of time. We analyze the past, ponder on present and plan the future every time we look at the clock.

Every time you look at the clock, more relevant information is augmented on your reality (calendar, weather, etc).

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Wristwatch

We are wired to check our wrists for time.

Our smartwatches have limited screenspace to show us all at a glance. Here’s how we can augment the experience. And yes interact with it!

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AR Frame

How about we had access to all the breathtaking art in the world right in our homes?

Here’s how I imagine art frames in our homes that can be updated regularly to enjoy the best of the art world.

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Planter

The smart vision/eye can identify the objects and provide relevant information about it. It can further assist you on what possible actions or instructions needed in the scenario.

In this case, it identifies plants and tells more about it. Can also check for precipitation from the health of the plant visually and instruct you to water it.

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AR Coffee shop

Here’s my approach to extending the reality into something assistive and intelligent.

1. Identify an object

2. Understand the context: Your location. It’s mid-day. Weather is sunny and 24 degrees.

3. Understand user: Your next meeting starts in 5mins. You use Apple Pay to order at this cafe regularly and your regular order is cafe latte.

4. Provide necessary information and actions: Show the status of coffee and your location. Give an option to reorder the coffee.

5. Get out of the way

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Music

When the future is augmented!

—

Imagine yourself 5 years in future with an eyewear which is capable of identifying objects in reality and present relevant information and controls depending on your context. Whether you are at home or public space, helping and guiding you without being obtrusive.

In this example I start with a simple object, that is my speaker. When I look towards it, it presents me relevant options to control my music.

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Psychedelic Fur

90% of all ideas are shit!! This is just one of those fun experiment.

I discovered a patch for detecting edges with lights called #sobelfilter. Wanted to experiment with it.

In this case, I used the sobel filter alongside swizzle. Also used person detection to switch the swizzle effect for colour cycle. And finally camera distance to increase the speed when someone comes closer.

Try out this filter: https://www.instagram.com/ar/1235687160119962

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Weather

For ages we have been looking at the skies for checking weather. It’s comes naturally to us. Let’s use the same gesture to augment more information.

1. Eyewear/Smart glasses: Look up to check the weather info

2. Mobile phone: A simple gesture of picking it up and point it to the skies should instantly show weather info, with no unlocking needed.

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AR Biking

By far the most exciting idea I had recently was to build an augmentation for bicycling experience.

1. Check your speed

2. Directions and destination marking

3. Time to destination

4. Time remaining to cross the street

This project is still in progress....

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Fitness

Recently Apple launched Fitness plus and it extends the possibilities of how digital and physical collaborations.

I tried to take it further with me outdoors. Wouldn’t it be great if we could have access to all necessary information and tools on the run without touching our devices/screens.

2021: Bites app

We jump around multiple apps, devices & widgets for information. Which can get maddening. So we designed “Bites” for all your information needs, simplified into one page.

Designed to use only 5mins of your day. We bring you a day’s story without clutter or chrome

Privacy first. No account so no data tracking

Play the page while you

brush your teeth, have breakfast or take a stroll. Just ask Siri to “Bite me”.

More control to you

Manage and layer your bites to get that perfect flavor

Sunny af

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°C

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12 km/h

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38 %

15:04

Directions

Home, 2.4 kms

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Publin transport

12 mins

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Drive

12 mins

Co2 emission

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Bike

12 mins

413 cal

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Walk

12 mins

413 cal

Work, 6 kms

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Publin transport

12 mins

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Drive

12 mins

Fitness

Move

267/300 cal

Exercise

12/30 min

Stand

6/12 hrs

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Steps

54.939

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Heart rate

66 BMP

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Sleep

10hr 12 mins

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Flights

4 floors

Headlines

Biden to be inaugurated as 46th president as Trump leaves Washington

4 min ago

Netflix Co-CEOs Reed Hastings & Ted Sarandos Optimistic About Theatrical Windows Collapse & Rival HBO Max Day & Date Model

1 day ago

Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen calls for "big" action at Senate confirmation hearing

4 min ago

Stocks

AAPL

Apple

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ABEA

Alphabet Inc Class A

702.46 (-2.04)

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Weekly design standup - FD

in 4 mins

Creative Mornings: Map making

in 6 hrs

Madhur’s anniversary

in 2 days

Dinner with Sophie

in 4 days

Solids

Tech stacker: If you are working in tech, there’s a fair possibility that you test on multiple devices and your desk is a mess. And who doesn’t love a minimal, organised and well functioning desk? So out of frustration I thought of trying to design my own. Started with few initial sketches. Something which solves my purpose by also delightful to look at on my desk

Email me for 3d file >>

Desky: I was playing with developing a wireless charges which exposes all technical aspects but also allows all devices sizes to drop in for charging

Tskyart

I had been experimenting with diffusion model to generate individualistic motion art from the existing wall arts in the office, based on prompts which are a combination of individual expression and company values.

2016

Third wave, Bangalore has always been one of the favorite artisan coffee shops. The idea was to help build a community for coffee lovers as well as improve the in-shop expereince.

What’s brewing?

One Year Celebration

It has been an incredible year for us at Third Wave. We celebrated our 1st anniversary for Third Wave Koramangala & also opened our 2nd in Indira Nagar.

2 min ago

RSVP

It’s hot outside, come get yourself a Kombrewcha

2 min ago

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2015-17

Me along with 2 other team members founded this startup for pre-schools and parents to communiate more effectively for comprehensive growth and safety of children.