GLOBAL – The Nokia Locate Sensor concept from NRC is one of those topics that continues to resonate with many of you, and is certainly a subject that has gripped the team here on Conversations. If you’re coming to this fresh, let me bring you up to speed. Last month we asked you for your suggestions on possible alternative uses for the Nokia Locate Sensor – the idea being purely for us all to dredge our grey matter for some smart ideas that we’ll then attempt to run past the NRC team responsible for Nokia Locate Sensor, simply to get some feedback from the people behind this pioneering research project.
Having gathered together a heap of interesting ideas from Conversations readers in mid-February, towards the tail-end of the month we ran a poll to herd your collective opinions on the top three ideas that we should present the NRC team with. The results have been counted, so click through to find out which ideas we’ll be running past the Nokia Locate Sensor team and hoping to get feedback on.
In the top slot is the idea of making it Nokia Locate Sensor an ‘extension to Nokia Morph’ (the future technologies idea developed by NRC and Cambridge University Nanoscience Center). Next is the idea of Nokia Locate Sensor being used as a ‘child monitoring tool’. And the third idea we’ll be taking to the NRC team responsible for Nokia Locate Sensor is using it as a ‘bike ride tool (with Sports Tracker)’. Scroll down further for more info on each idea.
Over the next few weeks we’ll pursue some feedback and do our best to engage the Nokia Locate Sensor team on the issue of alternative uses for the basic lost-and-found concepts that are being applied.
So what sort of response do we expect from the NRC team responsible for Nokia Locate Sensor and where will this lead? Fact is, I don’t know, it’s totally open. What I do know is that many of you are keenly interested in this area of development and the notion of how it could enhance our mobile day-to-day experiences, so with that in mind we’re going to continue following this thread, and I hope you’ll continue to enjoy the ride.
Here are your top three ideas in a more detail, as originally voiced your comment suggestions.
Extension to Nokia Morph Concept
David Olorundare: “It could follow use of the ‘morph’ concept, allowing my whole enviroment to be connected to it… It would be powered by several power sources simultaneously & intelligently based on the immediate circumstance: by green energy, the environment, sound energy, a slim battery, or by mechanical movement of where its placed .e.g. attached to the wrist. By all these it will enable the locator to be used in a number of cases: Anticipate and track disease outbreaks across populations… Protect endangered species and natural resources / Monitor the health of aging, disabled, and remote individuals and communities / Share real-time data about weather and environmental hazards / Plan roads, transit services, utilities, and urban systems /Domestic use; for communicating and interacting with all ‘connected’ devices&appliances: allowing the creation a truly intelligent environment / Help in data mining work, to gather information during analysis / Act as a language translator, to interprete language between any two people of different background;allowing the bridging of sociological and geographic gaps and barriers.”
Child monitoring tool
Nuno Pereira: “I think this technology could be used to keep track of kids in day nursery (+4years old)…”
Alcatraz: “Keeping track of kids in shopping malls. There is no bigger gut-wrenching feeling than letting your kids hand go for 1 minute then suddenly discovering they’ve wandered off and you can’t see them.”
Bike ride tool – linked to Sports Tracker
Dion O’Neill: “I’d like to use one of these on bike rides. I often drop my brother when we are riding and it would be great to have a warning go off when that happens so I know to slow down and wait for him to catch up. Link it into Sportstracker and then it could tag the places I drop him, as well ! A additional signal when the sensor comes back into range would also be great.”
Your thoughts, as ever, below.