[Stupid Idea Series] Wearable E-Commerce

Gregory Alan Bolcer (gbolcer@endTECH.com)
Wed, 03 Nov 1999 05:56:36 -0800

So, I was sitting in front of my closet yesterday trying to figure what the power
tie du jour is supposed to look like for my hour plus trek down to
CommerceNet'99 [1] in San Diego and I start thinking about grocery stores, amusement parks and
movie box offices video game arcades. I started thinking about wearable [2]
e-commerce. When you think about it, any place where people stand in line
is a potential place for automatic, wireless settlement. Also, anyplace
where someone immediately sells you a ticket and then you walk 5-1/2 steps
just to give it to some kid who tears it in half is a really strange madness.

Imagine my surpise when a television commercial comes on, shot from the security
camera perspective, showing this long haired guy in a grocery store stuffing
big slabs of meat from the freezer and other things into his long black coat.
The whole things made to look like a grocery store shoplifting up to the point
when the security guard stops him on his way out and tells him that he forgot
his receipt from the little walkthrough checkout. I have no idea what they
were selling, but it was a really cool commercial. When you think about it, there's
a million or so companies you could start around a good working knowledge of Bluetooth.

Greg

[1] http://www.commerce.net/cn99/
[2] http://wearables.stanford.edu/

-- 
Greg Bolcer
email: gbolcer@endtech.com
web: http://www.endtech.com
work: 714.505.4970
cell: 714.928.5476
fax: 603.994.0516