Better Decision Making With Your Pocket PC

[Brad Adrian]

<a href="http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&amp;platformId=2&amp;productType=2&amp;catalog=0&amp;amp;sectionId=0&amp;productId=28954">http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&amp;platformId=2&amp;productType=2&amp;catalog=0&amp;amp;sectionId=0&amp;productId=28954</a><br /><br />The folks at <a href="http://www.3dnetproductions.com/">3D Net Productions </a> have announced a new version of their PocketAI software, a tool for decision making. <br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/adrian/pocketai.gif" /><br /><br />"This unique decision wizard turns your PDA into an artificial intelligence thinking machine using boolean and fuzzy logic. Now you have a decision helper useful in a variety of decision making situations such as personal decisions, business decisions, buying decisions, etc. "<br /><br />I've played with this for a while and it is kind of interesting. Basically, the user enters in decision critieria; if shopping for a car, they might be "color," "speed" and "cost." Then, you enter weights for how important each criteria is to the decsion. Finally, you score the candidates according to each criteria, and the software calculates the "winner." It's not necessarily the kind of thing I'd use for simple decisions (although PocketAI does come with a "Magic Eight Ball Mode"), but it can help make choices a bit more objective.

[toshtoshtosh]

Then, you enter weights for how important each criteria is to the decsion. Finally, you score the candidates according to each criteria, and the software calculates the "winner."

Wow!! Complex fuzzy logic!!. *cough* weighted average *cough* ;).

[Brad Adrian]

Wow!! Complex fuzzy logic!!. *cough* weighted average *cough* ;).
Yes, I'm not familiar with the inner workings of the calculations, but it seemed like the weighting is fairly straightforward. Maybe I can get the developer to add some comments about how it works.

[Rob Alexander]

Nice idea. Poor implementation. As it stands, this is just a toy. A full-featured product along these lines might be useful if it let you 1) enter as many criteria as you want, 2) have different weight and scoring scales, 3) assign any type of evaluation scale, and 4) control the relationship between weight and score. Granted, you could do the same thing in Pocket Excel, but sometimes it's nice to have a dedicated application. This isn't it, though.

[Brad Adrian]

This might not be a high-powered enterprise tool, but I think somebody who is really trying to decide between say, three or four vehicles to purchase might find it helpful.

[Rob Alexander]

This might not be a high-powered enterprise tool, but I think somebody who is really trying to decide between say, three or four vehicles to purchase might find it helpful.

Gosh, I wasn't thinking of the enterprise, just as an individual user. I don't know about you, but before I lay out $20k+ on a new car, I generally compare more than five characteristics. But maybe that's just me. :wink: I will certainly admit, though, that it might be useful in deciding whether to buy a Snickers, a Kit Kat or a Milky Way when you're at the speedy mart filling up on gas. :lol:

[Lauren]

Thanks Brad for the good review. You may see the calculations that are being performed from the Answer screen. There is a little blue button on the right of each alternative's result. Pressing it will pop-up a dialog displaying how it was calculated.

To answer some of the other comments, sure this isn't very deep fuzzy logic. But it doesn't need to be to achieve usefulness. "Keep it simple..." I will not talk here about future developments but remember, this is only version 2.0. The application needs to start somewhere and Pocket PCs also have limitations. But if using it is too complex, people won't bother learning how it works. This is a mass product, not a product targeted to a small and speciallized niche market. It needs to be simple, readily understood, and cheap to buy. There isn't anything else like this on the market you can buy today.

The ability to enter more alternatives and criteria is certainly something that would be welcome. Then again, simplicity (not overwhelming novice users) and Pocket PC limitations (screen size, power, available memory) are to be considered. Version 1.0 only had 3 alternatives and 3 criteria that could be entered. So it's going in the right direction... Anyway, someone who really understands logic calculation methods, would have no problem knowing how to break down the decision problems, or combine the various elements to accomodate what their mind is set to achieve with the product.

Regards,
Lauren
Developer