5 More Wireless Tech Inventions That Don’t Exist Yet

In a previous post, I talked about 5 wireless tech inventions that don’t exist yet. Some were serious, some fun, and some nonsense, as one reader pointed out in the comments. Here are five more ideas that use one or more forms of wireless technology that some designer/ inventor might just be dreaming up. Feel free to comment: cool or crap?

1. Laptop TV. Sounds like something that should already exist, right? Haven’t seen it. You can get a TV capture card that runs on your desktop, or an external unit for a laptop. But both of these require running coaxial cable. And sure, if your laptop can connect to the Internet, you could download some shows – especially if you live in the US. More recently, you can get streaming TV over your smartphone or smart PDA. That’s ticket. Except for my laptop. That way, when I’m sitting in the local university library, I can watch CNBC live and blog about the market news real-time. One possible solution is a wireless cellular card, although don’t know if this will actually work.
2. Multi-purpose RFID wristband. Let’s face it. Most people hate math,
   and adding up your shopping bill as you go browsing through the aisles of your fave supermarket is something you probably don’t do. Sure, you could carry a calculator, but that’s too much trouble for most people, especially when you’re buying produce by the pound. So what if you could just wave an RFID-enabled wristband at the item’s price and have the price added to your running total? A Niagara Falls, Canada lodge is using an RFID wristband to give guests ease of use of the services, but I’m talking about something far more sophisticated and even stylish. I’m talking about something out of a Buck Rogers movie or Jetsons cartoon, but for which all of the necessary technologies already exist. It would have a flexible electronic paper display, and could be used for numerous other RFID applications including movie passes, bus passes, a watch, an MP3 player, streaming TV, a GPS device and more. I’m not asking for much, am I?
3. In-home navigation system for wheelchair-bound citizens. An array of RFID tags would be used as a sensor grid to perform collision-detection and steer wheelchair back on course. While it’s possible that these could also be used in hospitals, some hospitals have restrictions on radio wave use because of sensitive and expensive medical equipment. The auto-nav wheelchair may not be too far off, though. A German company is actually using such a system using multiple RFID tags embedded in flooring to control vacuum cleaner robots. (In that article, it’s mentioned that their system could be used to transport wheelchairs.) Using RFID is more accurate and less costly than using GPS or infrared technology. Similar systems could potentially be used to create robot-controlled lawnmowers or even auto-piloted cars.  At least on closed courses such as a theme park.
4. Fine-tuned fire alarm sprinkler array. When a fire occurs in a manufacturing plant or any office, the entire sprinkler array usually goes off, causing unecessary water damage to areas that probably were not in danger. A special RFID-enabled grid of heat/ smoke sensors could communicate with each other and control which sprinklers to turn on. In Japan, they are already considering disaster-recovery procedures that use special RFID tags with heat- and vibration-sensing abilities. These RFID tags would be dropped from helicopters over the disaster area.
5. No ticket, no shirt – RFID dry cleaning tags. Thanks to Fujitsu of Japan, your clothes can be washed, dried and ironed while carrying an RFID tag. Now, if this technology was extended to be used at commercial dry cleaners/ laundries, you my not have to worry about losing your laundry ticket. There are a couple of ways that this could be achieved, but the simplest might be that your RFID-enabled cellphone transmits a code (that you make up) to the laundry’s RFID reader. That reader, also a writer, writes your code to a tag, which gets attached to the piece of clothing. The reader/ writer system would of course first check that the code was not already in use. When you return to pick up the clothing, you wave your cell phone or smart PDA in front of the RFID reader, and your clothing is easy to locate.

Related posts:

1. 5 Wireless Tech Inventions That Don’t Exist Yet
2. Careers In The RFID Industry
3. Viruses Worm Their Way Into RFID Technology
4. We Are The Robots – Tracking Human Beings With RFID Technology
5. No Change For The Bus? Just Smile And Wave – RFID + GPS Meets Public Transit

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