The Hindu Business Line : Retro power

YOU know how bosses are. Well, if you are a boss yourself, you know how your loved one is: A marked inclination to ask you to do what he could have done for himself; an unexplainable fear, maybe even terror, of new technology; and, haranguing you for sleeping on the job.

Aparna Rao, a student of the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Italy, has prototyped three different products as part of her thesis, Household Objects in the Act that might well help with your boss' problems.

Rao writes at her Web site that she encountered the first problem — a marked inclination to ask other people to do what one could do oneself — with her uncle, who was always asking people around the house to dial a number out of the landline and give the receiver to him. She has sorted him out now with the Uncle Phone. It is a two-metre long retro phone — one of those with a rotary dial — and it will be quite difficult for the same person to dial and talk even if he wanted to. The phone (pictures at the Web site: http://people.interaction-ivrea.it/a.rao/) looks impressive and now your boss knows how to keep his distance and how to put you in place.

She had encountered the second problem — fear of using new technology — with her mother, who wanted to keep in touch with the family through e-mail but feeling diffident using a computer and also feeling bad that she was out of an information loop. She has a simple solution: a typewriter that can send e-mail.

She has modified a Olivetti typewriter into this e-mail-sending machine by having sensors recognising the press keys and another sensor to recognise when the sheet was pulled out of the typewriter so that the message could be sent. The typewriter sends the message to a computer that in turn sends the e-mail. The receiving e-mail option wasn't incorporated, but is easy — connect the typewriter to a printer and voila!

Rao writes that the last problem — of controlling sleep — was something she experienced herself.

She wanted to prototype a gadget that would show people the stage of her sleep and would indicate whether she was ready to be woken up or not. This initial idea was later modified to create a clock with no face that will ring when she has had enough sleep.

Sensors attached to a pillow send the information on movements and activity level that indicate the stage of sleep, and triggers off the alarm when the person is ready to wake up.

So, wake up when you are fresh and ready, show respect by keeping your distance, and keep a toolkit ready, and a couple of typewriter ribbons handy in case your boss has a problem sending e-mail.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Cool comfort

Wearing it on the sleeves

Superman of finance warns Spidermen of Mum-boy

Retro power