Michael Hunter
2014-08-14 08:34:34 UTC
The world's first virtual shopping center opened in Korea. All the
products are just LCD screens that allow you to order the items by touching
the screen. When you get to the counter, your items are already bagged and
ready to go.
I don't get it. What's virtual about driving to a store, walking all over the place to find the tooth paste, and caring the groceries from the car up the front steps in the rain?products are just LCD screens that allow you to order the items by touching
the screen. When you get to the counter, your items are already bagged and
ready to go.
I think there's a store in Canada where you can buy your groceries on-line and they deliver - no retail space at all, just delivery trucks running from a warehouse to a chain of houses and apartments. Another benefit of doing it on line is the virtual store can be organized based on your most often purchased items. You could be done in ten minutes without having to go out in the rain, park the car, or wait in any line at all.
The catching waste basket is another odd one. I know it is a novelty item but what I think the world needs is more inventive thinking rather than superficial updates. What's in your can? Could we eliminate that thing so there's less garbage? Dannon recently created a new packaging design eliminating the need for a plastic lid. It doesn't seem like much until you consider Dannon produces almost a third of US yogurt sales. The innovation saved the company on production costs as well as reducing garbage. The catching can is a cool gadget but it doesn't really effect life. It's still a waste basket. It doesn't turn garbage into compost or compress it into bricks, or use nano-tech to decompose it into solar cells. It doesn't do anything - except it's cool. It would be funnier if it jumped out of the way or made disgusting eating noses.
I'd like to see fewer new bells an whistles on old ideas and instead have real innovation. Don't give me a car that gets forty miles per gallon, fix it so I don't need a car. I don't want better socks or a better mattress or exoskeletons on my solders - that's not the problem the problem is war. Make something new that changes the world (hopefully for the better).