 |
|
|
|
  
Another Bluetooth enabled idea coming out of
the MIT Media Lab is the Cellular
Squirrel that acts as a sort of conversational
robotic secretary. The Cellular
Squirrel will engage the caller in a discussion
first to ascertain the urgency of the call and then
compare it to the words being used in whatever face to
face conversations or discussions you are currently
engaged in (ie a meeting, interview,etc). The caller's
phone number is taken into account (whether it is
family, work, or another category in your contact list)
as is the tone of the caller's voice. The squirrel then
will notify you through non-verbal communications (gaze,
posture, small gestures) to indicate there is a call and
the urgency or importance of the call based on the
information it has gathered. The goal is to keep the
phone from interrupting at inappropriate moments during
the day. The call can be answered through the squirrel,
which has a speakerphone set up in it. If you, the user,
do not react the squirrel will go back to sleep.
Not only does the squirrel use animatronics and
other technologies, but is also uses a Bluetooth Class 1
dongle to make connections to a pc and to the mobile
phone. I guess it is better than that horrible ringing,
but I can still imagine that a suddenly shaking stuffed
animal, aside from conjuring up images of a stuffed
animal exorcist, would be a distraction to everyone
involved in a conversation, meeting, or interview. The
conclusion here, though, is that it is still infinitely
cooler than Furby.
Videos
of the Squirrel, Bunny, and Parrot [I couldn't get
the squirrel videos to work, but the Bunny video
Sequence [MOV, 14905kb, 52.28 secs] works great and
shows the bunny go from sleeping state to awake and to
sleep again when the user doesn't interact with
it]
via Mobile
Burn
|
|
| |
|
|
