s1037989
commented
8 years ago Well thought out idea! Here's what I really like about it:
Everything you've laid out can absolutely be done, and with off-the-shelf equipment! Here's the thing: you might get dozens of replies pointing you to some website that sells the RFIDs that you need to set it all up and make it work. Yes, you could do this, today. You could go to Tile and order your stuff and use their app and configure your stuff and set up everything you want and implement your idea exactly.
... orrr you could buy a kit with all the equipment and a app especially designed for the moving process. Way easier. Why are Apple products so great? They didn't invent much of anything they sell, but what they do they do with the customer focus being number 1. Could they sell you an off the shelf phone with some OEM software and tell you to download some software so you can configure it the way you want? No! They make sure everything works just right and does what you expect that it should do.
Doodle is a simple app I like to refer to for this idea. It's just a scheduling app. It's so simple. Every ERP in the world has its functionality built it. But then Doodle decided to build their own and focus on the users. There's a lot more better and modern examples nowadays, but the general idea is that the best success by companies is to take one piece of business logic and focus on it and make it done right. So yeah, Tile and its ilk and tying it together with IFTTT etc works but not awesomely and not easily and not quickly and not reliably. Why should you have to put it together yourself?? You want a solution to your problem, not another DIY project to solve your once-in-a-blue-moon problem!
- I believe that everything should be connected to the Internet. Whatever it is, I want to communicate with it. I want to tell it what to do and I want it to tell me what it's doing.
- I believe that every business-logic-function should be professionally packaged and not expect people to coerce other multi business logic functions into doing this one thing well.
Arduinos are great, but I have to coerce them into doing everything!! That's by design of course. But my point is, we can't and shouldn't keep relying on hand-crafting Arduinos to always do our bidding. You want a device to turn on the coffee maker and order my coffee when the supply runs low? You shouldn't have to DIY. Your coffee maker should simply do that.
I love it. I love it for so many reasons, for more than the obvious problem that it solves. I love this problem for the opportunity it presents for successfully developing an idea from start to finish and needing participation from so many other disciplines.
If this packaged solution doesn't exist yet, it will. The world is currently developing every single single-business-logic-function today. It's going to take a looong time to get them all as the list is nearly literally infinite. I've become a big fan of this current trend for many reasons. To develop this app, for example, is great because it provides the hands-on training for making this a repeatable process.
I love the opportunity that your idea presents, and indeed, I love the problem that your idea solves as well. I hope to see some ideas and progress around this!
While thinking ahead to moving this summer (to a house, not out of state or anything), this thought keeps coming up in my brain: I really hate moving. Why do I hate it? The packing, lifting, and setting up a new place. There are always things you can't find and can't remember what box it was in and then you have to remember if you put it in the basement or attic or maybe in the spare bedroom you hadn't touched yet.
It would be nice to be able to say to yourself "Self, where in the world did the salad spinner go in this move?". You could easily pull up a database and search for it and it will let you know what box id it is in and even the general location of the item.
What I would love is a system where you can easily place RFID chips on boxes and input what the contents are into a database. This would be an app or website that has a program to integrate with this. Scan the box, list what is in there, and be done. I was thinking almost something like a "moving help" box that includes the wand, chips, labels, and the reading chips that let you know where your items are and makes it very easy to track down what you need. (The wand to read the chips could potentially be replaced with an app.)
In the new place you are moving to, mark a corner of each room with a reading tag (is that a thing?) and the tag will mark the box in the program to be at that location.
This would also be nice to use in a reverse way where you would scan a box and mark it as "unpacked" and it could removed the items from a specific column. This way, 2 months down the line when you have your spouse tell you that they haven't seen something since before the move you can let them know it was unpacked. Or, for a more practical use, tell you if you lost anything in the move and can start to track down the box.
I'm pretty sure this is already a thing for large quantities and companies, but how could we utilize it on a smaller scale for people like me who don't want to open every box to rinse some lettuce? I really hate moving.
Profiting from this would be from the sale of hardware, advertisements on the website, or even a fee to use bonus features; such as us having a free version and a paid version.