Proverbial Wallets | Hacker News Reader

Proverbial Wallets

eco.media.mit.edu

22 pointsanonfunction13 comments

Totally useless non-invention.

We receive emails, SMS and mobile app alerts already. And those we can see even after the fact, unlike some BS wallet vibration while we were, say, driving.

At first sight it may be useless (in this form anyway) but I've read that people tend to spend more by having credit cards because you don't have a physical reminder of how much money you have left, it is just a digital number. I'm predicting that in the future we will have solutions to bring back some physical stimuli to our digital transactions.

>I'm predicting that in the future we will have solutions to bring back some physical stimuli to our digital transactions.

Who will than benefit? Not the store, and not the credit card company.

Don't leave it for the mega-shops (goog, aapl, amzn) to create. After all, casinos use tokens instead of cash for a reason....

The next generation will see SMS and mobile phone push notifications like horse and buggies. Not to say I think this experiment has any real world market as a product.

>>SMS and mobile phone push notifications like horse and buggies.

So, get it through an additional device, right? How easy and sth next-gen that is then?

"Exhibited at Ars Electronica 2009".

It also resists opening when your account is low, and inflates or deflates depending on how much you have in your account. It's more an art project I think...

Haha I didn't see that! It absolutely is more of a thought experiment than a real product.

What I need is a wallet that delivers a small electric shock any time I buy something from Amazon or iTunes. That would retrain my brain from thinking, "Oh, it's only 99 cents, why not" to "I don't need to zap myself for yet another todo list app."

I have the equivalent of this already: my bank sends an SMS on every transaction.

The wallets actually do a lot more than that. Besides vibrating when your bank account makes a transaction, they will make it harder to open when money is tight, expand and shrink when you have more or less money respectively.

It's about being intuitive and using metaphors to create "Proverbial wallets that allow it's user to experience a financial sixth sense".

Yes, I'm aware the idea involves more than that. I just wanted to point out my phone is already being explored for this.

And make it harder and more injury inflicting, especially for those who keep in the back jeans pocket.

Besides being useless, it's absurd too!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com