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.

With all the latest wireless technologies (RFID, Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi) available these days, it’s interesting to imagine how they might be combined into new applications with consumer electronics to create hybrid uses. Some of the ideas in the list below are serious, some just for fun. It’s not so much the wireless technology nor the consumer electronics in use that is new but the application and hybrid methodology. (If you’re sure that some of these applications exist, drop a comment.)

1. Wi-Fi + RFID skateboard. Parents that are tired of calling their kids in for supper can send a text message to this skateboard: supper’s ready. If your kid doesn’t come home in a few minutes, use the RFID tech in your handheld reader to locate them. (One company is already using RFID to track golf balls.) GPS is not necessary, unless your child is prone to going outside of 10-30 metres (33-100 feet). You could go one step further and set up a Wi-Fi speaker that plays a gentle, non-startling tone if your child drags his/her heels. The tone means that they have minutes before a servo-mechanism locks the wheels of the skateboard. You can then watch their return progress on a computer monitor using RFID or Wi-Fi based triangulation. (Or GPS for longer ranges.)

2. Office doorway monitoring system. An access monitoring system that adds an entry to an RSS/ Atom web feed whenever someone enters an RFID-enabled doorway using their smart passcard. The  security person live-monitoring the feed on location on a computer screen would see a default picture of that person. If the default pic does not match the appearance of the person on a video monitor, entry would not be granted. [There are systems that use more sophisticated means using biometrics, but they are costly.] The web feed would be published on the Internet but be password-protected. It could then be accessed by authorized company employees from remote locations for whatever reason. (Use your imagination.)!

3. An SED Wi-Fi digital camera that auto-posts pictures to an online gallery, along with voice comments. These would be a boon to photobloggers that don’t want to waste time monkeying with a blogging platform and podcasting software. The photog would preview a pic, then press a button to publish live. Of course, the execution of this method either requires that the camera is enabled with a Wi-Fi cellular plan, or near a smart PDA with Wi-Fi, or has Bluetooth and is near a laptop with Internet access. So in the worst case, the photog records audio comments for each snapshot and stores everything on a memory card. Then, when they are able to connect to the Internet, they can auto-publish approved pics and audio. Voila, an audio-photo podcast. (Note: Wi-Fi cameras that can upload to a laptop or desktop computer are either already out at the time of this writing, or will be out soon. However, none of them connect directly to the Internet. Hence, the SED - Service-Enabled Device - designation.)

4. Internet-enabled iPods and iVods. These, like the camera above, are SEDs. Imagine being able to directly download audio or video content from the Internet without having to go through a laptop or desktop computer.

5. RFID-enabled VIP passcards for nightclubs. No more waiting in the cold night, shivering. Just smile and wave the RFID passcard, and you’re in. Get yourself access to special cubbyholes and get to know that special someone a bit better. Automatic frequent partyer points, anyone? Similar smart passcards might be useful for box seats at a sporting event, opera, or play. Add SED capability to a special home-based reader device, and you can purchase tickets easily. Bye bye scalpers.

Got anymore ideas? Devices you’d like to see? Or not see?

Tags: unwired, wireless tech, RFID, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, digital camera, biometrics, SED, ipod, ivod

[Warning: Sensitive material ahead.] For over 20 years now, there has been a loose group of people in the United States who, if they have their way, will influence the government into using RFID (Radio Frequency IDentificaton) technology to track human beings. The little I know of this group comes from one of my college professors in the mid-1980s. According to him, this group’s agenda is to have all newborn babies in the USA given a subcutaneous tracking chip, similar to the ones now commonplace for household pets.

Their rationale is that such RFID chips would help prevent kidnappings as well as help busy parents monitor their children, in case they wander away. Unfortunately, there’s just so many things wrong with this whole approach. Besides turning civil liberties on its head - humans become cattle to be branded and herded - such chips will never stop a truly determined kidnapper. These chips would only be implanted on certain specific parts of the body. Kidnappers might decide to forcefully remove a chip under duress, thus causing physical harm that may not have happened otherwise. Consider also that after-the-fact evidence shows that an extremely high percentage of kidnappings in the United States and Canada are actually conducted by an estranged parent, or accomplices thereof. I’m not sure that RFID will help in this case.

As for the argument that these RFID chips will help monitor children, I have two questions. Firstly, how about actually paying attention to your children? No, that would be too hard, and would take out too much time from your busy schedule. Well, how about not having children if you’re too damn busy to ever watch them yourself? But, besides that, I still don’t understand why these chips have to be inserted into our bodies, instead of as part of, say, clothing or watches or jewelry. For every argument pro-sub-cutaneous, I can show you why it’s flawed and unnecessary. On the other hand, I am all for devices that can be worn on the body - as opposed to implanted - such as Kidspotter, worn like a watch.

Some people might argue that using these chips will create jobs. Sorry, but should these jobs be created at the loss of civil liberties? Like all new technologies, RFID will affect a lot of jobs but it will also create a lot of jobs over the next decade. None of these jobs can be justified if it means products that are implanted on our bodies, without our permission, for the purpose of tracking humans. This is not 1984, nor should we ever let this happen.

Technorati Tags: technopedia, tech pedia, RFID, tracking humans, digital identifcation