Ambient Devices

make coolio "orb" that changes color based on some indicator you sign up for

http://www.ambientdevices.com/

have considered it as support for QuietCare: this could be cool for non-primary family-CareGiver - you want to be "in the loop", but not be "on the hook"

base service is free (after you buy the hardware) including permanent access to "standard" channels of data - market indices, Idea Futures, weather forecast, Terror Alert status; to have premium choices of channels (e.g. your personal stock portfolio) you pay $80/year

• which means our clients would have to pay that premium

data distribution is "broadcast over pager network"

custom data distribution

• orb owner has to register serial number with you/Ambient Devices

• you do HttpGet to submit status/msg for that serial number

• one challenge in doing this parallel to other interfaces (website, pager messages) is to consider when/how state changes.

  • For instance, when you send a text-page alert, it's just a 1-time 1-way event: if that defines a certain state, does your orb state ever change if you never send another message?

  • You might have stick states in your web interface, but does the same timing of state reset apply? For instance, if you expect users to only visit your website once or twice a day, then you want the status to "stick around", but then they have that orb they're (maybe) seeing all the time, maybe you need to reset the state more quickly? Of course, their behavior does vary, so does the same timing always make sense? There's no "clear" button on the orb to send a message back upstream...