Slashdot Mirror
Smart Badges For Better Meetings
Roland Piquepaille writes "In an article appearing in the November 15th issue of New Scientist, we're told that the 500 attendants of the last Pop!Tech conference were carrying intelligent badges to put around their necks. EurekAlert! has released a version of this article, "Hello, will you be my friend?" These nTAGs, distributed by the nTAG Interactive company, contained personal details about their wearers. And as the nTags can communicate with each other via infrared links, they are able to send alerts when they see a good match between two owners. This doesn't come up cheap: expect $40 to $100 per badge per day, depending on the event. More details and references are contained in this overview which also includes pictures."
Everyone works out regularly, they have a 12" thingie and are millionaires.
Infrared? I think that a line of sight would be a lot more difficult to get with a badge that you are wearing around your neck. Wouldn't Bluetooth be better for this application? ooh, FP? please?
...before these sorts of badges are cheap enough to become everyday-use items. Imagine wearing a smart badge when you go out on the town, that tells other badges what you're looking for - say, whether you're looking for a one-night stand, or for Mr./Ms. Right.
Don't get me wrong - I think the idea is obnoxious... but when did that ever stop the yuppies?
- Peter Ravn Rasmussen
Whitfield Diffie, an engineer at Sun Microsystems Laboratories in Palo Alto and the man behind the concept of public key cryptography, felt that the devices were an invasion of privacy. He created a stir by hacking into his nTAG to put it into sleep mode. And to the delight of some delegates and the frustration of others, he set up his device to do the same to any other nTAG it talked to.
reminds me of the time i used my laptop to 'give a cold' to my cousins furby via it's infrared port between it's eyes.
Buy some ordinary badges and spend the money saved on Beer. People will you will find will be much more friendly ... ;)
Great!
Now I don't actually have to talk to people to know I am uninterested in them.
This is going to simplify my life a lot.
Wax on, wax off baby!
Why are they using clumsy Infa Red? Why not Bluetooth? I'm sure it'd improve it a lot.
/.er's think.
And no, Bluetooth is not dying like most of the USian
they were handed an intelligent tag the size and weight of a PDA to wear around their necks
Skip the PDA and install it straight into a cell phone.
So long as the goverment doesn't start chipping people we're ok. But I actually like the idea, if you goto a bar and are looking for a 1 night stand the device can automatically hook you up with another person, or if you're walking down the street and have your device set to lonely it can alert other people to your presence and make some new friends. In otherwords, a couple hundred years ago you had a town of 100 and knowing everyone was an eventuality, not a chore. Nowadays, getting to know everyone in a town like mine which is suburbia and has 10k people, even knowing your neighbors down the block is a chore because you never need to meet them. Devices like this can strengthen the social fabric and networking in a community and undo the damage television has done to the trust relationships in our society by breaking the barriar.
Alternativally, I can see advertising companies abusing the devices to get PI and marketing data. Normally I don't care if marketing departments market stuff directly to me when I'm looking for a gadget. If I can save a few hours of hunting around the web when I wanna buy something then I'm a happy camper, and it's always neat to be on slashdot and find a binary clock in a banner ad so long as I can turn the banner ad's off, but I'v got a problem with the shady bastards who will get my CC numbers and not tell me when they are charging me or try to get my money in a semi-legal way or who think harassing me is a good marketing tactic.
Candy-Coated Knowledge
Not meaning to add to the "why not bluetooth" posts already here, but how effective will infrared be for this sort of application. If you are facing someone who is turned away from you, your two badges won't have line of sight. I wonder whether they chose to use infrared solely based on the cost. Let's not forget the bluetooth licensing fees, either.
"Smoking helps you lose weight - one lung at a time" -- A. E. Neumann
We dont need no stinking badges.
As I recall, several years ago things like this were the rage in Tokyo. Aparently they had three settings; Want to Talk, Want to Hug, Want to Get Down and Dirty (in Japanese obviously), and came in a male and female model. If someone of the opposite sex with a matching setting walked close, both devices would vibrate, you then had to look through the crowd for the other person looking through the crowd.
I don't know if I like *this* particular use of embedded computing, but it's nice to see the technology moving along. Just wait until the technology is more useful. You know, something like a book car you can take around with you swipe by a book's tag or ISBN number that remembers to order the book for you later.
"Just make sure to put a skin color setting in the tag, so I don't have to be bothered with black people who think they have the same interests"
-- Andy Coufman, W.A.S.P CEO
'I was looking for "dinner" with a nice man, it's just they only had *interests* listed in the tags, not vital statistics like age sex and body type, what a joke'
-- Nacy Regon, blonde secretary
"I was like dude, there is no catergory for favourite open source OS - how am I supposed to pick up chicks with this if I don't know their favourite OS?"
-- Sam Towald, unix consultant (read unemployed) and part-time demi-god of the MUD world "Xenophobia Cryptographica"
"I really like these tags, they are really useful in meeting other homeless people to exchange tips on public defacation without being arrested,and places to sleep that aren't cold or noisy - and the best part is, they are so cheap that almost all my homeless mates have them"
-- Reddy Junior III, homeless
'I too like the tags, as being a scienBologist I am often abused by other people for being a "psycho loonie", which I find offensive, and I would like to meet other scienBologists without all the trouble of dropping the "I'm Bologist" line in the middle of a date (which isn't as bad as saying to the person opposite they have body thetans attached to their soul left-over from the dark reign of emperor Xenu, but hey, some people just don't want to see the truth). Overall it's perfect, all it needs now is a kool-aid dispenser!'
-- Will Fratman, scienBologist and loney accountant whose parents denied him uncensored internet access when he was young.
This is an entirely fictional account not representative of reality, all names used are fictional and no liability is accepted for accidental similarities. You can tell it's fictional because scienBologists don't have any freinds who aren't scienBologists in real life.
While the idea of these things is good, they make it very difficult to avoid people you'd rather not waste your time with. The loud, twitchy, obnoxious, guy everyone is trying to stay away from better not have the same likes and dislikes as you - or 'Beep! Beep! Beep!' the badge will let him know you are a potential friend.
With the Internet and the cell phone, the main technological problems of human communication have been solved. If you want to talk to someone, no matter where they are (even in developing nations in time) you can. But in our every day lives these things don't really add very much to what we have always had. Few people have friends who they have met electronically.
Many people with all the cell phones and internet connectivity they want are often incredibly lonely, unable to meet people in their own neighbourhood with whom they can identify and form meaningful relationships. Human beings like company, and a computer screen will never be as good as face to face comradery. So many writers have lamented how modern communications are making us more lonely than ever.
But the same technologies can bring us closer together. Devices like the one described, personal servers, and future telephones will act as our agents, letting us 'see' the friendly faces in the crowd. We'll know when a friend is at the same party, or at the same movie, we'll know when another avid Slashdotter is nearby, and we'll be able to find the kinds of people we want to find.
I predict these devices will become commonplace. The multitude of devices you have on your body will act together to notify you of who is around you. They will be seen as essential.
And for those that panic about their 'privacy', well, remember that like all electronic devices, you are in control of the switch. You don't like it, well turn it off!
Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don't need badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabron and ching' tu madre! Come out there from that shit-hole of yours. I have to speak to you.
B. Traven, The Treasure of The Sierra Madre
I thought we used the secret handshake in order to greet each other though...
This is probably going to make it even harder to collect all kinds of plastic toys to bring home for my kids. Are there other reasons to go to a conference?
I've been dreaming of a similar device like this for many many years. My device would be a bit more intelligent, and allow me to tell my device which girl I like. My device would contact her device. If she happened to be interested in me too, the devices would interchange a couple of data, like her hobbies, so I'd know what to start a conversation on.
Bert
PC manufacturers are guilty of perpetuating monopoly abuse by M$ until they include a partition with Linux pre-installed
What if people started wearing themse tags all the time, and the receivers became ubiquitous, maybe with an earpiece. Say you're at the grocery store, and you pass by someone you don't recognize, like a long lost relative, or that friend of a friend. Perhaps that one Halle Berry lookalike who is really into Linux. A conversation starts that might not have, possibly changing your life.
But seriously. Perhaps it could lead to a sort of in-person IM or friendster..."hey, you on aisle 9, are you really into Everquest, kittens, and bondage? Me too!"
Of course, there's the risk of spam, hacking, and stalkers...
Actually, didn't someone propose just this sort of thing with cellphones?
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
the idea behind making people pay for "tags" that would alert investors/suppliers to eachother at a price is a good idea. It would weed out the "just browsing" people.
..." tag would show how much of an interest a particular wearer is REALLY looking for a accomodating solution, (as in a guy wearing a "I NEED A GOOD WATCH" tag, then the "SWATCh/FOSSIL/ROLEX" people can be alerted to a VERY (as comapred to just a "POTENTIAL/WISH I COULD AFFORD") good sale oportunity.
how many times have you, as a "sales associate", asked "can i help you with something," Just to be replied with "oh im just looking/browsing". It can get quite annoying.
So charging for such tags seems quite acceptable. In regards to the price per "tag", the higher the price for each "im looking for
- You're not paranoid, they really are after you.
Badges Badges Badges Badges....Mushroom Mushroom.
see that as "breaking the ice", but it is much better to over come fears and talk to women or whoever you are trying to talk to. i find it better to actually talk to someone. being rejected just makes you stronger
$40-$100 per day? Even in Hong Kong Dollars, that's way overpriced. For US$100, you can get a brand new Palm Pilot with infrared, so all you need to make it an nTag is an oversize clear pocket protector and some software. Alternatively, for under $100, you can get a Bluetooth-equipped Java-capable phone, and somebody could easily enough program one of those to do the job.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I remember going to Java One years ago (4 years maybe) where every attendee got a Java Ring - it's a Java processor that's embedded into a ( signature-type ring)
Basically, everyone's coffee preferences were stored on a central database, and to get the coffee you liked, you just touched the ring to the receptor. These days you'd use bluetooth I guess.
The ring idea was quite cute though - it was powered by the receptor, with the binary communications channel being rectified internally to produce power as well as transmit information. Ok, so you couldn't do that with bluetooth, it'd have to be always on, but there's probably still something you could do...
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
Believe it or not, people actually have the inborn ability (instinct) to find compatible people around them. Adding this technology will only serve as a device to exclude undesireable contact moreso than to find desireable interaction.
"Oh sorry, I'm really only interested in people who, like myself, have intimate first hand knowledge of the X-Men's superpowers."
In the end, you will have the same groups interacting as they always have, and the ego stroking will show no deviation from what has been seen before. It will just be more efficient.
And for those guys looking for meaningful one night stands, you'll still be spending the night with your old friend "Rosie Palmer".
Maybe they should just concentrate on keeping everybody awake by distributing badges that administer electric shocks or something.
holy shit.
we already have no idea how to talk to people who have different ideas to us. hell -- we're so scared of them we'd rather bomb them than talk to them.
now comes a device which can pretty much guarantee we can now go our entire lives never having to talk to another person with a different to us.
"you mean i can set this thing so that i only ever meet people who believe in the creation theory??? yeee haaar!!"
this is the reason we're in the shit that we're in people. don't you think it's time to use technology to help us start including... not excluding?
prof. h.
Badges?
We don't need no steenking badges!
Often you want to speak to a few specific people at a conference. These badges could help you find that person by asking other badges "have you seen Mr. X?" Other badges might reply "no" or "yes, just 15 seconds ago." The system would thus act as a warmer-colder guidance system. And if the bages had internal location tracking (maybe via a low-level RF field in the venue) then the badge could even report where it was when it saw Mr. X.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Why is this insightful? It says $40 to $100 a day. This guy gives one $100 solution and one solution 'under $100'. How is that cheaper exactly? You just offered the same damn prices.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
These things are pretty old but i think they are doomed to corporate events at most - mobile phones will assimilate this in no time with bluetooth/wifi etc its just a software download. Then it will all start to expand with mobile filesharing etc (hm more memory or a laptop required) and the best part is the RIAA will be stumpted over this for a while. Its one thing calling an ISP and threatening them but people wont as readily accept arrests on the streets until the RIAA spins it and makes it seem like it has something to do with terrorism. Remember folks dont talk to strangers and share files unless your an unamerican scumbag terrorist!
Already most phones around have some sort of wireless (apart from the main one d'uh) support so this could take off because in the end phones are just another bit of hardware we can take advantage of with software.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
or do these things make an attempt to void eyecontact between people?
Learn something new.
I was like at this conference, and I just tried to make friends but their badges went beep beep beep beep and like everyone was gone. And I was like, "Duh." And so I had hack my badge but I had to rush so it wasn't as good. And it was a really good conference too...
It seems this could be a great device for speed dating. Instead of a random arrangement of table, the badge could match religious beliefs, divorce status, conversion status, and number of children wanted. Hell, for the less religious it could even match income level, type of car, size of house, and whether sex on the first date is possible. People could walk around the room until the badges make a match. Instead of seven minutes perhaps 4 will be enough. Along with the rules, this could be a boon for people who desire the ultimate pragmatic relationship.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
We are all all wearing these tags--we are all dorks, after all.
There are zillions of clues you get from people's appearance; no electronic gadget can come even close.
Smart Badges for better Mortage? That's what I read.
I'm getting paranoid because of all the spam.
NoSuchGuy
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
Well, there is always the Hanky Code. Christians have adapted it to their own needs.
I'm sure we could develop a business-oriented and geek-oriented hanky code as well. No batteries required.
Gaydar. Nuff said.
I can just imagine an unscrupulous spammer walking around convention centers scanning for badges, picking up their e-mail, phone and home address then selling this off to some penis enlarging-mortgage selling-credit card consolidating company.
Or better yet, sending those messages directly to the badges
Next thing you know, Symantec will be selling Norton Anti-virus Badge Edition to filter it all out.
Who doesn't love spam?
Um, this was done by a group of MIT folks back in '97! The web page includes design, assembly instructions etc.m etag/
http://web.media.mit.edu/~fredm/projects/me
The first thing I would do is eliminate all of my personal details in the badge to prevent less savory characters in the room from harvesting my light for SPAM purposes.
I can also imagine being asked "excuse me, but can you, er, bend your knees? I'm short and our badges aren't making contact.". Conversation started, badge unnecessary?
Finally, take a couple junk TV remotes. Tape a button down on each. Distribute these in the room and voila! Instant badge-DOS attack!
you won't be needing any phonIE device to smell which way the wwwinds of change are bullowing at gale force/farce.
no moretoll 'man' can win this daze.
active members of the creators' newclear power, & planet/population rescue initiatives are easy to identify by their remarkable lack of greed/fear/ego based behaviours/intentions/motives.
consult with/trust in yOUR creators... get ready to see the light. talk about a 'meeting' worth attending?
These things will never stop beeping at a Star Trek convention because evey one will have one intrest and it's the same one.
"There are zillions of clues you get from people's appearance"
Yes, and a lot of them are stereotypes which are often wrong. Haven't you ever met someone via the Internet first, and realized on meeting them in person that you would have crossed the street to avoid them if you had gone by appearances?
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
at comdex this morning. Considering the money people have to fork out just to check out the exhibits. It would make me feel better about it. You could program the thing to vibrate if you are about to walk past an exhibit or conference that lines up with your interests. BTW, this internet keyboard TV thing "ONCOMMAND" that they have at the Marriott SUCKS. It's freaking infrared so it misses half the damn things I type and it locks up frequently. Of course, it is based on an embedded microsoft OS. Maybe I'll heckle BGates about it at the keynote shortly. Seeyall there.
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
MU1BAB2: "Hello, AccountingUnit 1A41. I am MaintenanceUnit 1BAB2.
AU1A41: Hello.
MU1BAB2: Did you process last quarter Financial Reports?
AU1A41: Yes. It was hard. I like Wonder Brand bread.
MU1BAB2: I drive a Mizah Acutron 12. Its drives real good.
The other obnoxious thing to do is the reverse pager. See someone who strikes your interest, and beep yourself so that she can hear, and give her your best, "Are you tired? because you've been running through my mind all day."
I give that line because if you really try this stunt, I'm sure that this is the only line that you've got.
So heavy that they slapped your chest like a pair of binoculars as you walked. So confused that in a long conversation with someone they'd light up in recognition over and over again, thinking that you'd gone and come back. Impossible to read despite a huge screen, forcing the *main function* of a badge, giving your name and affiliation, to be relegated to a little (also unreadable) paper sticker at the bottom.
All in all the laughingstock of the conference. New Scientist must not have been there.
Back in 1981, that is, 22 years ago, during a computer show, I did put my HP-41C calculator in my shirt pocket which I had programmed to show my name.
Both solutions given are priced per the devices lifetime as opposed to per day. I would say that makes the suggestions quite a bit cheaper unless you buy that cheap shit "Made in China".
I few years ago I saw it on TV - a small gadget that had the data (your preferences) and when you pointed to another one (through infrared) it would display the score (1 to 100) of how compatible you are.
all our friends to be like us?
Some of my dearest friends do not like the same things as I do. I have friends where we discussed opposing views on politics, religeon, life.. I like people I can discussed opposin view point. It is the only way to grow as a person.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Something like this was tried in Japan about ten years ago, as a dating device. It didn't work.
I'm looking forward to the next stage, where the badges will do all the communication, so I can be sociable while browsing the web, without noticing.
In the 1961 science fiction novel by Brian Aldiss, The Primal Urge, a new craze sweeps Britain. All over the nation, people have Emotion Registers, which show a red colour when the wearer is sexually aroused, installed in their foreheads. The results are a breakdown of society's "morals", as people give in to their sexual urges.
Now, this isn't exactly the same thing (and what is at issue here isn't so much sex as questions of privacy), but the comparison is interesting.
Aldiss himself cites the story as a sort of companion to his The Male Response (1961). Both books were banned for "obscenity" - The Primal Urge in Ireland, and The Male Response in South Africa.
- Peter Ravn Rasmussen
Also, part of being compatible with someone is having your differences and working around them together. Yet you'd never know about those differences you could work around if you decided to filter out that type of person.
This device looks extremely useful, or rather the concept of it, but it will never be a substitute for real social skills.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
-- insert joke about badges being smarter than people attending meeting here --
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
This is an RF/ID application. In this particular instance it's benign and perhaps even useful, but I can see plenty of ways to abuse the technology.
Each player downloads a random collection of BS phrases from a central server, and the cards (using voice recognition, natch) automatically tick off each phrase as the management utter it.
The card will flash 'HOUSE' on completion of its list, confusing the management and providing a welcome respite to all players.
oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
A friend has a local pub with a similar idea.They have a Traffic light party two or three times a year. You wear Green, Orange or Red.
:-)
Green is for Go for it, hit on me, I'm here to score, Red is for Back Off Buddy, I'm not interested and Orange is for try your luck, results will vary.
I was there one night and there was a guy in a bright green suit, getting lots of attention
I couldn't find any information about the hardware on the site, but what I really want is a very cheap tag that can be used by the wearer to respond to multiple choice questions asked by a speaker. Presumably you could do this by using a button to activate one of a few printed RFID elements at a minimum.
The other use cases I wanted to support are inputting free text answers to questions, and also as a way of meeting people who can answer your questions one-on-one at a conference. The nTag seems to be close but too expensive as is, it would be more worth it if they had a membrane keyboard in there.
I was at a conference about a month ago that was using these devices. They are pretty handy but the IR communication needs to be a bit smarter. Its great that the device shares information and makes it easier to find a common topic, but while you are talking to this person the device keeps communicating non-stop. Talk to a person for 1/2 and hour and it will keep flashing shared interests or people that you should talk to that have similar interests. The best part was that the device can be flipped up so that you can read it and it becomes a PDA. The conference schedule, questionaires about the conference and the option to trade e-business cards are at your finger tips.