It seems like new technology is popping up at an ever-increasing rate these days. Companies are releasing products that serve more purposes, function faster, and simply provide more interaction between the user and device than ever before. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a new device that served a multitude of everyday useful needs and provided a large amount of accessible information, all with one easy to use interface? Well now there is.
It seems like new technology is popping up at an ever-increasing rate these days. Companies are releasing products that serve more purposes, function faster, and simply provide more interaction between the user and device than ever before. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a new device that served a multitude of everyday useful needs and provided a large amount of accessible information, all with one easy to use interface? Well now there is.
Introducing Points, the latest technology from New York-based tech company Breakfast. On the surface, Points looks like any other New York street sign, yet underneath lies an advanced computer capable of providing users with seemingly infinite information.
According to a recent article published in Wired Magazine, Points “is a high-tech version of a low tech tool.” While the sign serves its generic purpose as just that: a sign, it can also be used for everything from giving directions, to the nearest coffee shop, to telling the user when the next bus will be arriving at a certain stop.
Points is an “easy-to-use complicated” device. According to the Wired article:
“Here’s how it works: At eye level, passers-by will see a menu of different content categories that will allow them to choose what Points displays on its arms. Ranging from transit to dining, to food or even news, users simply have to push the category they want and Points will pull in that information based on the APIs and RSS feeds that it has been programmed with. Right now Foursquare, Twitter, public transportation APIs and news RSS feeds are the main sources, but the software can ultimately be programmed to pull from any online data source available.”
The 9-foot tall pole features three arms that are capable of rotating towards the direction of whatever the user is currently looking up, 360 degrees. For example, if the user looked up directions to Montréal, one of the robotic arms would turn towards Montréal, whatever direction that might be.
The device is currently still being developed in its entirety and only one sign is currently available for use in Brooklyn, but many more are on the way. Places like Dubai and Las Vegas have approached Breakfast with interest in renting the machines for a fee and maybe one day permanently installing the signs around the cities.
The ability of this sign to show such a vast amount of information in a timely manner and in public areas will surely impact the way people socialize. While many people use apps like Twitter and transportation apps on their smartphones to look up this info, Points is in it for the interaction.
Social media agencies and consumers will no doubt find new uses for this device. The possibilities for advertising on the machine, I feel, is something that will eventually come to the sign especially if businesses begin using the device in offices or outside buildings. It’s also only a matter of time before other apps start signing on to the machine. Social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn would be able to easily stream data to users. Perhaps even multiple social networks could be checked at once all with the click of a few buttons while waiting for the bus.
If everything goes smoothly, Points will be a vast hub of information with limitless possibilities for people all across the world.
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