Bluetooth Squirrel to handle calls
delegated to stuffed animals if pioneering work from the MIT Media Lab comes to
fruition. The pic shows a 6″ tall novelty toy that can be
responsible for handling incoming phone calls. The squirrel is aimed at solving
the problem of mobile phones interrupting important conversations by ringing at
the least convenient moment. The solution is two-fold: firstly, the squirrel is
capable, through extensive animatronics, of attracting attention to itself by
sitting up, opening its eyes and gyrating manically. Secondly, and this is the
more alarming aspect, the squirrel will engage in conversation with the incoming
caller to establish the importance of the call based around keywords and the
caller ID (presumably saying "answer the phone or you’re fired" will get the call put straight through).
There’s no indication of how exactly the squirrel will converse with
the caller but I really hope it’s nauseatingly cute. The clever part is that,
in order to fit all this ability into so small a device, the squirrel is Bluetooth
enabled so that the real processing aspects are handled by the computer and not
the squirrel itself. So it is effectively just a computer program and a weird
alternative to a ring tone or vibration function, oh well, at least there’s a
rabbit version in the works too…
Read via Blueserker
