h a l f b a k e r yI like this idea, only I think it should be run by the government.
add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, best, random
news, help, about, links, report a problem
browse anonymously,
or get an account
and write.
register,
|
|
|
PDA PDF GPS
Displays books appropriate for your surroundings | |
Wander into the bathroom with your PDA in hand and it automatically switches to a category of ebook suitable for toilet reading.
That was my initial thought. Then I realised that it could only display your left handed reading material in an appropriate circumstance. Such files would be hidden from
view anywhere except in your sordid den.
Walk into a train station and the appropriate maps and timetable details are summoned up.
And so on...
Was originally thought of for offline reading of PDF's, etc, but could be expanded to include online capability where available.
[link]
|
| |
//a category of ebook suitable for toilet reading.//
might depend on who's holding it |
|
| |
[edit] Oh and, RFID - GPS won't work in-doors |
|
| |
Triangulation of mobile phone mast signals might
work indoors though but maybe not with the
accuracy needed for this application. |
|
| |
A someone who tends to keep different books in
different places, especially a thick academic book by
the bedside so I can gradually work through such
weighty tomes, I'll throw it a bun.[+] |
|
| |
If I went into my bathroom, I'd want reading suitable for the bath, not the toilet. |
|
| |
GPS generally doesn't work indoors (I've personally tested this on several smartphones) and cell tower triangulation isn't nearly accurate enough for such an application. What this means for the idea is that it won't work as intended. As soon as you enter any large building, the GPS fix will almost certainly be lost, and cell tower triangulation will likely have the phone thinking you're in a building half a mile away from your actual location. In-building, room-to-room location-based services just aren't available with current smartphone technology. I'm going to have to call Bad Science on this one. |
|
| |
It could work with Bluetooth, but only in rooms that are equipped for it. Infrared might work, but is becoming an increasingly rare feature on mobile phones, and has such a short range you'd have to swipe the port on your phone across a port on the door of whatever room you're entering, which also requires suitably equipped rooms. |
|
| |
I think these should be given, or sold cheap, to employees
by large companies, like Blackberries, and for the same
reason: easier to keep tabs on the workers. Whoever did
your annual performance review would discuss the
statistics of your bathroom breaks. |
|
| |
Might not the idea work better with an MP3 player than
with a PDF reader, though? There's a wider range of
locations to which particular music is appropriate than for
reading matter, and I could imagine the people who
obsessively organize music playlists getting really into
programming this invention. |
|
| |
Hmm, I should maybe invent something else first. Indoor GPS! Just implant an RFID tag under your skin and attach scanners to every doorway in the world. Can't see any problem with that. |
|
| |
There are quite a few location sensitive apps on the Android OS. |
|
| |
Example is this: http://www.twofortyfouram.com/ |
|
| |
I can't find it, but I'm sure there is one about that is programmable to load programs at different locations. |
|
| |
But some of the information you want to display on your PDF
GPS PDA might be sensitive or confidential. It would be
better to have a PGP PDF GPS PDA. |
|
| |
Or have people sign a PDF GPS PDA NDA. |
|
| |
And if it were also the merchandising tie-in for a popular
Roald Dahl book, it would be the BFG PGP PDF... oh, never
mind... |
|
| |
Tmassey, that app uses GPS and/or wifi. It's called Locale, and I
use it every day to shut my phone's volume off at work.
Wouldn't work for this purpose. |
|
| |
I wonder how often the GPS would force it to change
genres if I were cruising at 30,000 feet? |
|
| |