The Trifecta Initiative for Interdisciplinary Health Research (a collaboration between the colleges of Engineering, Nursing, and Communication Arts and Sciences) have joined with WKAR to present the 2019 Health Grand Idea Challenge. How can we use NextGen to benefit the community?
Watch Dean Prabu David explain the challenge from the Media and Innovation Lab. You have until March 11th (midnight) to submit your idea on how NextGen TV could be used to promote health. Your idea doesn't have to be long (200 words or less). Check out the information below and submit one or more ideas! We are giving away Android tablets and Amazon gift cards for the best ideas.
Prizes and Awards
A panel review consisting of two individuals from each of the three Trifecta Initiative colleges will review all submitted ideas.
Awards will include:
- Best Student-Led Submission
- Best Faculty/Staff Submission
- Best Idea to Assist Health Practitioners
- Best Idea for Improving Community Engagement
- Best Idea Promoting Health with Gameplay
Prizes will include:
- 5 new Android Tablets ($200)
- 5 Amazon gift cards at $100 each
- 12 Amazon gift cards at $50 each
Rules
Announcement Day: February 27
Submission Deadline: March 11 (midnight)
Anyone can submit an idea for the chance to be recognized. However, prizes will only be awarded to MSU registered students or employees (part-time/full-time, faculty/staff). One individual may win more than one prize (submitting multiple unique ideas) but cannot win more than $300 worth of prizes.
How Do I Develop an Idea for the Challenge?
- Familiarize yourself with the NextGen TV capabilities on this website to ensure that your idea would fit the capabilities of the technology.
- Brainstorm to develop an idea that uses the new technology toward improving health outcomes. Your technology could present itself in many different ways (including, but not limited to):
- Devices that could be used: smart phone, TV in house, TV in car, tablets, etc.
- Organizations that could use it: public health agencies, academic researchers, health insurance companies, non-profit foundations/associations, etc.
- Information that could be gathered: Time spent watching, viewing habits, responses to interactive prompts, user profiles (like Netflix) depending on the device used .
- Health areas it could be used for: depression, addiction, demographics (racial, gender, economic, geographic).
- A couple of quick example ideas could be:
- Video game which encourages physical activity
- Standalone medication monitor with interactive information in any location
- Take-home post-surgery device which guides exercise and medication compliance until the next appointment
Come up with an idea that uses the new technology toward improving health outcomes.
The technology could present itself in many different ways:
- Devices that could be used: smart phone, TV in house, TV in car, tablets, etc.
- Organizations who could use it: public Health agencies (gov’t), academic researchers, health insurance companies, foundations/associations (American Lung Association, etc.).
- Information it could gather: Time spent watching, viewing habits, responses to interactive prompts, There may be user profiles (like Netflix) depending on the device used.
- Health areas it could be used for (including, but not limited to): depression, addiction, health disparities (racial, gender, economic, geographic) .
A couple of quick example ideas could be:
- Video game which encourages physical activity.
- Stand alone medication monitor with interactive information in any location .
- Take-home post surgery device which guides exercise and medication compliance until the next appointment.
How Do I Submit My Idea?
Submit your idea via the website below. You will need to provide your name(s) and contact email (including your MSU unit). You will also be asked to answer briefly each of the following questions (200 words or less):
- Describe how your idea uses NextGen Broadcast technology to improve health.
- Describe how ATSC 3.0 would make your idea special or more successful than current technologies (e.g. audience measurement capabilities, interactive content on the go, access to audience without data/cable)?
- Describe how your idea would impact community health. (What do you think the significance of your idea is? Who would be helped? What problem does it solve?)
- You will also be asked how much you will want to be involved in the development of your idea if selected. (We will host a future brainstorming and development event where the chosen ideas will be discussed; teams will be created to further develop the ideas, potentially receiving pilot funding.)
What is NextGen TV?
Based on a new set of digital TV standards called ATSC 3.0, NextGen TV adds internet-style information and interactivity, plus advanced technologies, such as 4K ultra high-definition video and multichannel, immersive audio, to over-the-air television broadcasts.
The US is currently using the digital standard ATSC 1 to broadcast. ATSC 3.0 is a new standard that has been developed to use the broadcast spectrum much more efficiently. It will be up to broadcasters to decide how to use the extra bandwidth. It can be used for even more beautiful pictures and sound (4k or 8k video and 24 channels or audio) or it could be used in standard HD with many more channels offered to viewers or it could be used to support all kinds of applications and datacasting for research or backchannels etc. It’s a hybrid, combining RF broadcast with IP (which allows the geo tagging ability). Another key benefit is that it is a much stronger signal, so it’s very mobile (live TV in your moving car). There’s still some debate as to whether this will take off, as it’s not being mandated by the FCC and it will be expensive for broadcasters to make the switch. It will have to be consumer driven (the original switch from analog to digital was mandated by the FCC and broadcasters received money to help make it happen). It allows for low cost, high quality broadcast with great reach (even in your basement).
As the only public broadcaster granted an experimental ATSC 3.0 license by the FCC, researchers at WKAR are exploring NextGen TV. By leading the way as the first public media station to pioneer work on next generation public broadcasting and harnessing our campus expertise and resources, we will be in a position to test the most powerful innovations for public good outcomes, such as in education, health, local public affairs, news, emergency broadcasting, autonomous vehicles, and Internet access to low income urban and rural communities. This could usher in not simply a new television standard, but also a new generation of public broadcasting.
We need your ideas on how this new technology could be used to improve health outcomes! These can come in the form of smart and connected communities; improving interactivity, two-way communications over the IP broadcast channel as well as the design of hybrid broadcast and Internet applications; experiments with health, medical and emergency communication; services for autonomous and semi-autonomous devices and vehicles; secure two-way communication for the Internet; and more. We would welcome opportunities to discuss this potential.