iCard Provides Real-Time Racing Info On GBA

garfnodie writes "A company has started offering for rent or purchase a device, called iCard, which, when hooked up the Nintendo Game Boy Advance can give you real-time information about your favorite racers at popular car racing events, such as National Hot Rod Association(NHRA) or Le Mans. The official iCard site has more information." Although this interesting idea debuted a couple of months back, press coverage on it seems to have been light.

Comments

It's a shame about Bluetooth...

[RevAaron]

For me, this is the kind of stuff that bluetooth was made for.

For instance: folks that wanted this information could whip out their phone, PDA, laptop, GBA, battery-powered toaster or whatever, look for local data streams, pick "Current Race Info" and have at it. The issue of range could be easily solved by having repeaters and amplified signals. Stuff like this- event or building/region-specific info- could be put on a specific channel for this kind of use.

In addition to live racing info, you could have stats on the racers, the car, their sponsors, etc. This could be something you had in every sport. When I'm in a movie theater, the signal could carry information on when the movie started and ended, so that the morons in the theater that don't turn off their ring have it done for them. When I'm in a building with which I am not familiar, I couuld get maps. All of these things are doable with current hardware- we just need the software. And while a dozen companies create these kind of solutions, each with their own proprietary protocol, hardware and software, we could have it all with one standard.

Other folks bring up a good point: how many folks want to buy a GBA and the card to use this way? Even renting just the card (for GBA owners) or the whole unit seems like a stretch, unless the price was very reasonable. But then again, maybe I'm under estimating racing fans, it's not something I am interested in.

I really wish more phones supported bluetooth. Specifically, the cheap phones, the ones most folks have, the ones that you get free with a plan. That kind of support is needed for it to really take off, IMHO.