Londons Smart Bins

[Diagro]

There is no way to identify a person its just a device. Zoo who cares

 

[Marmot]

Your life is already filled with advertising, it's absolutely everywhere. Who cares if it suddenly becomes more relevant? If it stimulates the economy through increased consumer spending then I'm all for it.

 

[yhack]

Your life is already filled with advertising, it's absolutely everywhere. Who cares if it suddenly becomes more relevant? If it stimulates the economy through increased consumer spending then I'm all for it.

Except they could combine it with other information, interpret everything wrongly, arrest you for something you didn't do. Advertising? Nice try, NSA.

/paranoia

 

[unwashed potato!]

I never turn WiFi off . When in town I really notice that LTE kills the battery, so always would prefer my phone to be scanning for wireless networks to join.

if you never turn off wifi how do you know it's not wifi using the battery? connected wifi may not take up much battery but one that's constantly finding new connectors could be killing it, along with the added use of 4G.

 

[Westyfield2]

if you never turn off wifi how do you know it's not wifi using the battery? connected wifi may not take up much battery but one that's constantly finding new connectors could be killing it, along with the added use of 4G.

Fair point. My logic was that sat in the office connected to our WiFi my battery is fine, but when the office WiFi is playing up or I step outside losing the WiFi and kicking it onto LTE my battery just drains.

 

[Tefal]

didnt the government go mad a google for doing just this?

 

[Guest2]

If one shop was notified that a regular customer had started buying their breakfast elsewhere, for example, it could flash up an advert telling them about a special offer when they passed the bin

I quite like this idea. E.g. I stop going somewhere, give me something to go back for

 

[Conscript]

I kind of find it a bit depressing that we live in a world where fantastically awesome technology like this is being employed just to show adverts that I pay no attention to

 

[Kosmiche]

So it shows a advert when I walk up to the bin based on stuff I'm interested in?

So everyone knows that I'm obsessed with my little pony, excellent.

 

[Hyburnate]

So it shows a advert when I walk up to the bin based on stuff I'm interested in?

So everyone knows that I'm obsessed with my little pony, excellent.

No I think that they use all the information to get a demographic of what people whom walk past it like.

 

[uvarvu]

Opt out here if you want out.

 

[Kosmiche]

No I think that they use all the information to get a demographic of what people whom walk past it like.

If you look at the bin theres a tv on it.

 

[mattyfez]

any way to have a desktop icon on android to toggle Wi-Fi?
rather than having to access the settings menu?

edit: never mind: fixed

 

[JBod]

this seems rather interesting. just had a little look. do you basically just have to go to certain points and the system says you control it ?

Sort of, great game. Thread over in mobiles about it:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18521850&highlight=ingress

I wont go into detail here but it is a augmented reality game where you capture portals situated in real life locations by walking closer than 45 metres to them - often places of interest or transport links - create links between portals and fields. There are two sides struggling for control, the enlightened (green - aka. The Snotlings) and the resistance (blue - aka. The Smurfs). The score is world wide, you can see what is going on say in New York or Moscow or Melbourne from a website http://ingress.com/intel (need to have an account to see).

 

[Fenris]

Reminds me of Minority Report, just without the creepy eye scanners.

 

[mrk]

A bit of a misleading opening.

The author states that it's using "your data" without giving the full backstory until later so naturally the average reader will use that headline grabbing opening to forward on to their mates and cause some kind of scare that these bins are nicking the data on phones when they're not.

Essentially this is a non issue story.

 

[Malevolence]

Smart Bins, pah! If they were so smart then they wouldn't be sitting around on street corners all day, they'd be up and about eating litter.

 

[Nexus]

Not really sure how exactly its going to target people with Ads.

My only guess is that say for example the data from a bin determines roughly that X amount of people each day go to a coffee shop nearby to it. The rival coffee shop around the corner though perhaps doesn't get so much foot traffic. The company behind these bins then informs the rival coffee shop that by perhaps paying them to advertise their business or deals on the bins may gain them more customers who come around the corner because they know its there or want a cheaper product.

I don't really see what they can do otherwise. Effectively at the moment it sounds like a cross between somebody selling snake oil and a glorified digital version of somebody with a sandwich board pointing out the business around the corner.

 

[anything I don't mind]

Best comment on the url: This is a rubbish idea.

 

[StriderX]

DDOSing Bins...wow.

The times we live in.