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.
...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
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
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.
"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!
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.
$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".
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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!