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."
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
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!
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
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.
Again... It's just a guess. I think the whole idea is just dreadful to begin with, but whatever floats your boat. (I certainly wouldn't pay for it.)
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.
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.