Let’s riff on the animal senses for a moment, and get 3 more ideas.

Echolocation is a sense of closeness.

This is a World War II listening ear, by the way. It’s made out of concrete, on the coast of the UK. They’d listen into it to hear approaching aeroplanes, before radar. (Image source)

I would liken echolocation to the proximity sensors used to help some cars park, or that really weird feeling you get when somebody is standing too close.

The Blackberry lights up the screen and gets ready on as you take it out of its holster, with no unlocking the keypad—that’s a sense of closeness right there.

Let’s continue the theme of us using our senses to move a body through the world, and apply this to tvs—I was writing this in my front room, so I was looking at my tv, which is why I say this.

My tv shouldn’t have a remote control. Instead, I should have a hand that I use to reach into the world of the television unit. But already have a virtual glove into cyberspace—it’s my mobile phone.

Okay, my mobile phone should be my remote; my girlfriend’s phone should be her remote. Anyone who comes round who doesn’t have a phone can use buttons on the tv. If my remote – and the tv – had a sense of closeness, I would be able to set it up so that it showed the tv programme guide whenever I approached it after some time away, or approached it and pressed a single button. That’s idea #6.

Matt Webb, S&W, posted and presented on 2006-06-01