Ahead of the Curve

I finally have it. I have an idea which I sincerely think will be feasible and practical and yet will be the wave of the future. As far as I know, it hasn't been done yet and it CAN BE DONE. I am going on record by putting it here so that when, in 3 months, Google makes a bajillion (that's a one with a squidillion zeroes after it) dollars on this, you will all know that I thought of it first. Hashtag that, baby.

So here it is. You go to a central site, subscribe (for free) and enter information about yourself - yes, some personal, but nothing that you haven't already posted in 10 other places. Name, age, occupation, location, hobbies, news stories you like, musical tastes, pets, relationships. All in one place. Instead of having a profile here or there, the cloud now has a snapshot of you in all dimensions of your personality, from your religion to your shoe size.

The service then spits out a qr code thingy for you. You take it, print it out and maybe even laminate it.

When you get anywhere (especially if you travel) there is, in addition to the ubiquitous video screen, a scanner (like the lens of a camera phone). Pass your qr code in front of it and type in (touch screen) a password (or use some sort of biometrics for security) and the screen then puts out info tailored for you. Video news on the topics you follow, tourist information tailored to your tastes and of course (have to pay the bills...) ads addressing your purchases and preferences. The radio then plays music you like and the screen recommends restaurants in line with your tastes.

For the tourist this would be invaluable. You can change your profile before the trip to put in "special requests", you can use it along with a guest login to access basic info on other people (like before a date, the women could give the guy a limited password to her account so that he will know what kind of food she likes, what allergies she has etc). Sort of like Facebook but in real life.

Yes, the stuff you put into your profile is voluntary and not confirmed, so it could be false, but if you use it to inform yourself so that your radio gives you just what you want to hear while you ride the subway in the morning -- the songs you like, the news stories about the industry you follow, the scores of whatever teams you follow -- giving true info would help. The content is a series of aggregated material pieced together from all the mainstream news services that something like Google news uses already, but assembled with the occasional ad to be personalized to you and only you.

Groups could make group qr codes so a business could control what employees listen to in the office or watch on TV. Schools could also so when a class takes a trip, content can be filtered into hotel rooms.

This CAN be done. We have camera phones that can scan qr codes. All this needs is a dedicate lens that connects to a single cloud based server, and your identity travels with you. This is MY IDEA. If you use it and get rich and famous, show a little love to me.