Deja VoIP – part 3
In the concluding chapter of my talk at BarCamp Ottawa2, I demonstrated the marvelous SoundBeam as part of the Great Technology, Horrible Products series. Here’s Baxter wearing the infamous Nortel Neckset!
The technology was awesome developed by a brilliant inventor, Andre Van Schindle. He modified the cones of speakers and messed around with some fancy phase shifting to produce a very narrow focused beam of sound. The SoundBeam was born and 150 prototypes were built.
The neckset sat on your shoulders. You could hear sound as clearly as if you were wearing headphones. But you weren’t; it’s a cool feeling listening to a phone call or voice mail and still be able to hear sounds around you. The beam was so precise that someone standing beside you would not hear a thing even in a quiet room. The technology was manufacturable and relatively inexpensive so why don’t YOU have a SoundBeam today?
First problem Nortel wanted to make it into a phone; a cordless phone with 46/49 technology poor quality, bulky electronics, limited range. Also the design was awkward it wasn’t one size fits all! Finally the functionality was limited, no dial pad, you still had to be beside a phone to initiate a call.
The product was sunk before it became a product. Most of the Beams were destroyed. Many people tried to apply the technology to different applications. Lisa Fast, the SoundBeam’s product manager worked tirelessly to try and find this technology a product home, but to no avail.
Right now, I’d kill for a Bluetooth Soundbeam for either my laptop or iPod! (oh right I don’t have an iPod.) Does Santa read blogs?
Recent Comments