Absent-mindedness and the latest invention from Lyndsay Williams (Ixp-Note)

Absent-mindedness is not recalling something at the moment that your really ought to. All of us can multiply examples of human memory letting us down in absent-mindedness, from forgetting to drop off the DVDs at Blockbuster on your way to the grocery store to arriving in the family room only to forget why you went there.

For e-memory to help with absent-mindedness it is not enough to just retain more memories. There must be also be an e-reminder at the appropriate time or place. The coming e-memory revolution will include many e-reminder product product offerings. I’m already utterly dependent on reminders from my SmartPhone for appointments.

Now Lyndsay Williams, the inventor of the SenseCam, has come up with a new invention that does e-reminders. It is called Ixp-Note. Ixp-Note is a smart sticky note. This sticky note doesn’t just stick there, waiting to be absent-mindedly ignored at the critical moment. When the time comes, Ixp-Note lights up and makes a sound. Today, my dentist gives me a reminder card for my next appointment. Maybe someday it will be an Ixp-Note, blinking and getting my attention when I need to be reminded of the appointment. And I like this idea Lyndsay has for Ixp-Note:

“Finding lost property, examples are mobile phones, MP3 players, cameras, passports, spectacles, books that are easily lost. An active label Ixp-note on a mobile phone can detect via it's sensors (e.g. touch, motion , temperature and light) that a phone has not been picked up after a certain time, e.g. 24 hours. It will only then then start to sound to attract attention. On picking up the phone, sound automatically stops and is reset for another 24 hours”

Lyndsay, can you make a version that will call my phone after a time interval? Then I can be reminded by stuff I am not near.