I reached into my pocket after lunch today to grab my little case of dental floss. Looking down at my hand, I realized I had actually pulled out my cell phone.
Which got me thinking. Why do we combine some functions into a single pocket-sized box, but not others? We now have one device that handles phone conversations, text messaging, email, and surfing the web to find the nearest restaurant.
Why don’t we have a phone that helps you floss your teeth? Is this merely due to a limitation of technology, or is there some unconscious cultural resistance to taking that final step, one last valiant stand against putting every aspect of our existence into a single miniaturized plastic case?
Your phone might not help you floss your teeth, but the darkened screen of a smartphone does make a remarkably good mirror if you need to check whether any food is stuck in them after lunch. An unintended use of the technology I’m sure 😉
Two of the most frequently used apps on my phone are the flashlight apps; one turns the screen white, the other turns on the (remarkably bright) camera illumination LED.
It would probably take only a minor tweak of the camera optics to use the phone as a very nice magnifying glass.
The potential customers of floss phones will be {people who like cellphone} intersect {people who like dental floss} intersect {people who want to use their cellphone to floss their teeth}. Why would manufacturers want to invest in something that’s more complicated yet has smaller market?
Um, because it would be funny? 🙂