OMG! where has this been all my life?!

[calmloki]

Costco ad for items that feed our passions. they say.

http://www.costco.com/.product.100129796.html?&EMID=B2C_2014_1201_CyberMonday_haba#product-tab1

Now I'm dumb and thought this was like bluing in the laundry and resulted in whiter teeth that way, but no. These bluetooth enabled toothbrushes give "realtime feedback", so while you are brushing your teeth you can check your Iphone and discover that, yes, you are actually doing that. You can also check your iphone to find out if you DID brush your teeth already today (handy for seniors) - much better than watching the facial expression of someone you are exhaling on. As with the fitbit, you can check your iphone to see if you have brushed your teeh on a regular basis - maybe it could forward that news to your dentist or - better yet! post the news to your Facebook account!

"Bluetooth communication between brush and smartphone provides real-time feedback on brushing habits, helping you achieve amazing results"

 

[RetireBy90]

Great catch. Not sure how we lived without it. Since it is at Costco, how many you have to buy? A set of 10?

 

[audreyh1]

Lol!

 

[Live And Learn]

The really interesting thing is ... people will buy it !

 

[bjorn2bwild]

It'll cost you an eyetooth - $135!

 

[Calico]

Is this a joke? Or an Onion article? I read it, and it looks legit, but I just can't believe it is real.

If it is real, I know of one extended family member who will be first in line to get one.

 

[jabbahop]

the next one will have gps so it can tell you if you spent enough time on each tooth!

 

[FIREd]

It should send a daily email report to your dentist.

 

[imoldernu]

This was funny, at first... but then...
Since I are a senior, and gettin' there with memory problems, I can see some possibilities.

How about a chip... in a calendar... on the medicine organizer, the vacuum, the dishwasher, the mailbox, telephone, in short , on everything that should be done on a schedule, by a senior who lives alone.
A pre-planned schedule that responds on a bracelet "notifier".
Telephone call to check in with daughter on Monday and Thursday.
Church on Sunday
Medication on schedule..
Washing machine schedule
Day and date

... and many many more things that we oldsters tend to lose track of. A one time set up, by self, or by a care provider or relative... to establish the kind of regimen that becomes evermore important as we age.

So, today, the toothbrush... tomorrow... who knows?

 

[FIREd]

This was funny, at first... but then...
Since I are a senior, and gettin' there with memory problems, I can see some possibilities.

How about a chip... in a calendar... on the medicine organizer, the vacuum, the dishwasher, the mailbox, telephone, in short , on everything that should be done on a schedule, by a senior who lives alone.
A pre-planned schedule that responds on a bracelet "notifier".
Telephone call to check in with daughter on Monday and Thursday.
Church on Sunday
Medication on schedule..
Washing machine schedule
Day and date

... and many many more things that we oldsters tend to lose track of. A one time set up, by self, or by a care provider or relative... to establish the kind of regimen that becomes evermore important as we age.

So, today, the toothbrush... tomorrow... who knows?

I suppose you can set up an electronic calendar with alerts for all this (works well on a smartphone or a computer). I receive calendar alerts to remind me of appointments and of weekly tasks that I tend to forget about, like watering house plants.

 

[chilkoot]

I am reminded of an observation made once by the late George Carlin: If you nail together two things that have never been nailed together before some schmuck will buy it from you.

 

[imoldernu]

I suppose you can set up an electronic calendar with alerts for all this (works well on a smartphone or a computer). I receive calendar alerts to remind me of appointments and of weekly tasks that I tend to forget about, like watering house plants.

Yeah... And we have a calendar on the refrigerator, but forget to look at it.. and when going to the bathroom in the morning, take a shower, but forget the medicines. Tuesday comes and it's easy to forget to put the trash out. Most of the people I know who are as old as or older than me, aren't too adept with their computers, mostly email, if that, and most have regular cell phones, so I'm thinking a bracelet that cues the important things, "Take your pills"...and interactive chips in places where a reminder may be in order... as a "ding" when leaving the house, to remind about locking the door.

Dunno, doesn't sound crazy to me.

As my mom and DW's mom always used to say... "Someday you'll get old, and then you'll understand."

 

[HFWR]

In Texas we have "bluetoof"...

 

[M Paquette]

Yuk it up, but... It's gonna happen anyway.

Cheap Bluetooth modules are available now for as little as $5.99 for a single unit. When you order these suckers in lots of 10,000 and put the part on a preexisting circuit board with a controller (as found in some electric toothbrushes, LED lamps, car keys, etc), you're looking at a $1.05 price, plus the board space for the chip and antenna.

That's cheap enough that you'll see Bluetooth capability showing up in many under-$20 products in the next few years. Some of the wished for products are already out, but the prices have not started down the sigmoid curve from early adapter to WalMart customer yet.

 

[MBAustin]

ROTFL!!!

Thanks, I needed that!

 

[Walt34]

Gad, I'm 64, never heard of this and now knowing what I have been missing I am amazed that I still have all my teeth. How could that have happened?

DW and I walked around a large mall today (went to dinner nearby) and were once again amazed at all the "stuff" for sale that we somehow miraculously manage to survive without having. This wasn't the local mall, this was the gigunda mall in the nearby Big City. It is a monument to consumer consumption.

 

[calmloki]

Yuk it up, but... It's gonna happen anyway.

Cheap Bluetooth modules are available now for as little as $5.99 for a single unit. When you order these suckers in lots of 10,000 and put the part on a preexisting circuit board with a controller (as found in some electric toothbrushes, LED lamps, car keys, etc), you're looking at a $1.05 price, plus the board space for the chip and antenna.

That's cheap enough that you'll see Bluetooth capability showing up in many under-$20 products in the next few years. Some of the wished for products are already out, but the prices have not started down the sigmoid curve from early adapter to WalMart customer yet.

And that bluetooth connectivity will play into the internet of things - a la Nest thermostat. Much good but at a cost in loss of privacy - we'll be trading privacy (which will result in increased police protection via surveillance because we all want to be safe - and hey, the technology is there...) for safety. More things which are good ideas will become mandatory (like helmets), and the more things that are mandatory the less freedom we will have. And all because somebody got the bright idea to stick bluetooth in a toothbrush. By cracky - I'll luddite along with yellow teeth and a fuzzy stick before the government learns how long and when I brushed my fangs.

 

[Gumby]

People are really going to regret all this inter-connectedness when Skynet becomes self-aware.

 

[heeyy_joe]

Does it send a report to my dentist too?

 

[ERD50]

This was funny, at first... but then...
Since I are a senior, and gettin' there with memory problems, I can see some possibilities.

How about a chip... in a calendar... on the medicine organizer, the vacuum, the dishwasher, the mailbox, telephone, in short , on everything that should be done on a schedule, by a senior who lives alone.
A pre-planned schedule that responds on a bracelet "notifier".
Telephone call to check in with daughter on Monday and Thursday.
Church on Sunday
Medication on schedule..
Washing machine schedule
Day and date

... and many many more things that we oldsters tend to lose track of. A one time set up, by self, or by a care provider or relative... to establish the kind of regimen that becomes evermore important as we age.

So, today, the toothbrush... tomorrow... who knows?

I've actually put some thought into a product like this (though I'm not motivated enough to do the work to bring it to market)...

My thoughts were a little 'box' with a very easy to use interface, and a bunch of physical 'tags'. One type of tag would be 'active', with a beeper/timer /communication in it, another 'dumb' tag would just have a nice human-readable ID#, and a bar code for the 'box'.

So let's say you want a reminder in a week that the open milk should be tossed. Grab a 'dumb tag', scan it at the box, push the "one week" and "one time" reminder button (there would be simple buttons for elapsed hours, days, weeks, etc, and direct date entry) and then make a simple voice recording " Milk will be one week old ". Affix the 'dumb tag' to the milk jug (you would need a variety of little attachment do-hickeys to make it convenient to attach the tags to various shaped objects, rubber-band straps, clips, wire-ties, etc).

A week later, the 'box' would alarm, and announce the tag ID# and play your recorded message. There would also be a simple 'review' button, to review what is coming due.

The 'active tags' could serve to help locate whatever it is you needed to do, as they could beep on their own (and could hopefully play the voice recording as well, I hate tracking down beeps in the house).

-ERD50

 

[Midpack]

Crazy, a solution looking for a problem...

 

[rodi]

I've actually put some thought into a product like this (though I'm not motivated enough to do the work to bring it to market)...

My thoughts were a little 'box' with a very easy to use interface, and a bunch of physical 'tags'. One type of tag would be 'active', with a beeper/timer /communication in it, another 'dumb' tag would just have a nice human-readable ID#, and a bar code for the 'box'.

So let's say you want a reminder in a week that the open milk should be tossed. Grab a 'dumb tag', scan it at the box, push the "one week" and "one time" reminder button (there would be simple buttons for elapsed hours, days, weeks, etc, and direct date entry) and then make a simple voice recording " Milk will be one week old ". Affix the 'dumb tag' to the milk jug (you would need a variety of little attachment do-hickeys to make it convenient to attach the tags to various shaped objects, rubber-band straps, clips, wire-ties, etc).

A week later, the 'box' would alarm, and announce the tag ID# and play your recorded message. There would also be a simple 'review' button, to review what is coming due.

The 'active tags' could serve to help locate whatever it is you needed to do, as they could beep on their own (and could hopefully play the voice recording as well, I hate tracking down beeps in the house).

-ERD50

I coach FIRST lego league robotics... Every year they have to come up with a themed invention (not to do with robotics or legos). A few years ago the theme was food safety. My son's team had an idea for a smart label/smart fridge. Basically food labels would have the expiration date built into a barcode. As you scanned the food (or if you used a membership card at the supermarket it would send it to you device) it input the expiry date. The fridge would have a panel to notify you when things were close to expiration. Your device (phone, computer, google cloud, whatever) would also notify you.

No need for bluetooth.

FWIW - they rejected this idea and went with a different invention... but they had it pretty well thought out before choosing a different idea.

 

[calmloki]

I've actually put some thought into a product like this (though I'm not motivated enough to do the work to bring it to market)...

My thoughts were a little 'box' with a very easy to use interface, and a bunch of physical 'tags'. One type of tag would be 'active', with a beeper/timer /communication in it, another 'dumb' tag would just have a nice human-readable ID#, and a bar code for the 'box'.

So let's say you want a reminder in a week that the open milk should be tossed. Grab a 'dumb tag', scan it at the box, push the "one week" and "one time" reminder button (there would be simple buttons for elapsed hours, days, weeks, etc, and direct date entry) and then make a simple voice recording " Milk will be one week old ". Affix the 'dumb tag' to the milk jug (you would need a variety of little attachment do-hickeys to make it convenient to attach the tags to various shaped objects, rubber-band straps, clips, wire-ties, etc).

A week later, the 'box' would alarm, and announce the tag ID# and play your recorded message. There would also be a simple 'review' button, to review what is coming due.

The 'active tags' could serve to help locate whatever it is you needed to do, as they could beep on their own (and could hopefully play the voice recording as well, I hate tracking down beeps in the house).

-ERD50

SWMBO uses her iphone as a reminder - simple (for her) fast memos that alert her to auctions going off, birthdays, when to do about anything (we know when the milk has gone of when it curdles in the coffee). Of course no clips or tags or bar codes or box IDs, but you can't have everything.

 

[athena53]

I am reminded of an observation made once by the late George Carlin: If you nail together two things that have never been nailed together before some schmuck will buy it from you.

Particularly true at Christmas. "Well, we KNOW Grandpa doesn't have one of those, so let's buy that for him."

I've lived without it this long, although I do use a Sonicare at my dentist's recommendation rather than a plain toothbrush. I think I'll continue to live without it.

 

[aja8888]

This was funny, at first... but then...
Since I are a senior, and gettin' there with memory problems, I can see some possibilities.

How about a chip... in a calendar... on the medicine organizer, the vacuum, the dishwasher, the mailbox, telephone, in short , on everything that should be done on a schedule, by a senior who lives alone.
A pre-planned schedule that responds on a bracelet "notifier".
Telephone call to check in with daughter on Monday and Thursday.
Church on Sunday
Medication on schedule..
Washing machine schedule
Day and date

... and many many more things that we oldsters tend to lose track of. A one time set up, by self, or by a care provider or relative... to establish the kind of regimen that becomes evermore important as we age.

So, today, the toothbrush... tomorrow... who knows?

Google calendar is my lifesaver...