Slashdot Mirror


English Teenager Invents a Better Doorbell

Several readers have written with word of a new doorbell, invented by 13-year-old Laurence Rook. What's so special about a doorbell? This one lets you answer the door from wherever you can receive a call from its embedded 3G chip; to your in-person caller (facing the doorbell), that means it sounds like you're answering the door over an intercom system, even if you're really across town. Pretty clever way to make it harder for a thief to know if a home is actually occupied, though Rook says that he initially just wanted a system to avoid missed packages.

8 of 363 comments (clear)

  1. Horatio sez... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    When it comes to the working world, it seems that Lawrence Rook... *sunglasses* ...has got his foot in the door.

    YEAAAAAAAAAAH!

  2. Re:UPS Rings Doorbells? by guybrush3pwood · · Score: 5, Funny

    What does he do, instead? Just parks and gives you 60 seconds to notice him and storm out of the house?

    --
    Perhaps I'm trolling, perhaps I'm not.
  3. A perfect method to warn the British by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    It's what Paul Revere would have used.

  4. Re:Slashdot could do better! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Then when people show up at your door, they download the app?! Brilliant! Android users can keep iOS users away, and iOS users can keep Android users away, and no one has to deal with the remaining riff-raff.

    You know what might be better though? If you gave every doorbell a number, and then you could just enter the number of the person you wanted to talk to.

  5. Meh ... by lennier1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Call me once it's possible to remotely zap Jehova's Witnesses and other annoyances.

  6. Re:UPS Rings Doorbells? by toygeek · · Score: 1, Funny

    I know someone who lives in a rural area and has about 7 dogs and other animals. The UPS guy is a wuss and is afraid of dogs. He throws their packages in the desert next to their house, leaves them in the road in front of the house, and in general does everything he can to avoid going on their property. One package sat in the desert for 2 weeks before it was found. Another nearly got run over.

    Whats funny is that the guy complained that one of the dogs "tried to bite him" and so he kicked it. I know the dogs, the worst they could possibly accomplish is death by licking.

  7. Re:He invented this? How come I had one before he by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes, the spectrum was nice and clear back then.

  8. Re:UPS Rings Doorbells? by greentshirt · · Score: 5, Funny

    I caught one once too. I still have him.