Product: Memory Aid
Contextualizer   (+3)  [vote for, against]
Wrote a note in my diary, this morning...

'To do' lists are all well and good. I'm disorganised. I need organising. I'd use them all the time...
...if only I could remember to look at them.

The Contextualizer would allow you to input items with not only a priority but also a context. This context would generate a 'to do' list that was customised to your current circumstances.

For example you could input something that (in plain text) would go something like this. 'Next time I meet John tell him about that thing with the canary.' A week later you are in the bar having a quiet drink. John walks in and, after a brief radio conversation between your contextualiser and his bluetooth underpants, your contextualiser vibrates discretely in your pocket. If you took it out of your pocket you would see the message on the screen but the vibration is enough to remind you. "Hey John," you say, "Remember that custard-yellow canary..."

Alternate contexts:
•Things to look up when I'm next on the web. The Contextualizer listens for the clacking of the keys and the clicking of the mouse. By the amount of text being typed it knows that you're surfin gand not typing an email to Aunt Agatha.
•Things to remember when I'm going on holiday. Enter all those things you wish you had on holiday knowing that next time you're packing you Contextualizer will remind you of them.
•Odd jobs that I know I'll only get around to if I'm bored. Hit the "I'm bored" button on your contextualizer and it will come up with a short list of jobs that you can do in your current location as well as one or two displacement activities that might while away the time.
•That book I was going to lend to Jim next time I go to see him. You tell your Contextualizer that you're off to see Jim (more formal meetings would be gleaned from its diary function) and it says, "Don't forget to take him that book."

Now, there are some advanced 'to do' lists out there that can take location into account making some of this baked. Some of the advanced functions I'm talking about need a high adoption of wireless technology as well as some adaptive reasoning from the device skirting close to the territory of the WIBNI. Hopefully I've plotted and described my course well enough for you all to understand where I am going and to avoid those two barbed hazards.
Ah, time for a coffee. Must remember to...
-- st3f, Sep 16 2002

Bluetooth Underpants http://www.halfbake...etooth_20Underpants
Well, hippo did ask. [st3f, Sep 16 2002]

How do you 'surf gand'?: It sounds like fun.

But seriously I want one of these. I have been known to return to the house (after setting out for university/work) up to 5 times in one 10 minute period, to collect keys, sunglasses, MD player, hat, jacket etc. I would want my contextualiser to have a major alarm function that activates when leaving the house, but before the door closes.

BEEP BEEP, DO YOU HAVE YOUR KEYS?! BEEP.

Croissant
-- Zircon, Sep 16 2002


This has potential: if any of my friends are foolish enough to leave their mobile phone lying around, I pounce on it and set a reminder on it to them that they are fools (or other such comic event).

With the conceptualiser I could wreak a whole new mischief.

Thats a point - you could introduce this functionality into a PDA without too much trouble.
-- Jinbish, Sep 16 2002


It could also, by connection to bluetooth undies on your washing line, monitor outdoor temperature and tell you whether to pack a coat before leaving house.
-- Zircon, Sep 16 2002


now hang on one cotton-pickin minute, accessory-mineral-boy. That (first anno) sounds like exactly what I wrote in an annotation to <lg_scratches_head...> umm </lg_scratches_head...> digital handbag. Explain yourself.
-- lewisgirl, Sep 16 2002


Seriously, I'm innocent guv, only just read the digital handbag because you mentioned it, but can see similarities in lg/zr annotational content. Great minds huh?

BEEP.
-- Zircon, Sep 16 2002


Tell us more about these Bluetooth underpants.
-- hippo, Sep 16 2002


OK.
-- st3f, Sep 16 2002


Tell us more about how you get bullets in your idea text.
-- Zircon, Sep 16 2002


ALT + 0149 on the numeric keypad (windows).

alt+8 (Mac).

Will not display on all operating systems.
-- st3f, Sep 16 2002


This is sort of baked becuse my PDA runs a huge cross-referenced Excel spreadsheet which is my ToDo list, full of macros, which does all of this apart from the external syncronisation and environment sensing - I have to put that in myself. So it would be nice to have a purpose built version. Croissant.
-- 8th of 7, Sep 16 2002



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