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The Vocera Communicator
For about a year now, Vocera has been field testing their version of Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s com badge. Their initial market is healthcare, but they are now testing it with the US military. The idea is the same as the com badge; touch it, say who you want to talk to, and then speak with them. The technology behind it sounds simple enough, too.
Discussion: What do you think the practical uses of a WiFi-based communicator are? The range is just 802.11x range, and the scope is just LAN for now. How could it be used other than as just a really cool toy?
Obviously, the healthcare people are excited about it; pagers and cell phones don’t cut it for the instant communication they need, and I guess regular walkie talkies don’t cut it. The ability to touch it and ask for the nearest anesthesiologist is a huge feature.
I think that an international company like the one I work at with a global ‘internal’ network could find it useful. Ask it “where is Bob Smith?” and it returns “Malmö Sweden, building Nordenhuset, 2nd floor” and then speak to him immediately without long distance charges. Nice.
Theres always the benefit of them being connected though wifi. Say if your company would like to keep track of things,i’m sure everything could be logged…you know, just in case.