A large, wall calendar sized TFT display hangs on the wall. It has twelve thin buttons on the left hand side, marked form January to December, and five buttons a the bottom marked 1 through 5.
Shown on the display is the current month in the form of calendar squares. Also shown is the time of day (controlled via radio waves from your nearest atomic clock), and weather forecast. The current date is highlighted on the corresponding calendar square.
The buttons marked 1 through 5 are so that each member of the family (max. 5, of course, but people can double up) can have their own personal space on the calendar. I could be Mum, 2 could be the baby, 3 could be Teenage Son, 4 could be the Dog, and 5 could be the Family. Each section would store different engagements or important dates/events to that person/bundle-of-joy/greasy-rebel/mutt.
Data would be entered by way of a stylus, similar to the manner in which data is entered into a PDA or equivelent.
The calendar would automatically update each year, to save you from buying another calendar for the family ever again.-- tyskland, Nov 06 2002 FOLED Flexible Organic Light Emitting Device "Plastic Sheets" http://www.universaldisplay.com/foled.phpCould be what CrumbsDM was linking to. [hollajam, Oct 04 2004] hey, where's dad's square. I would croissant on this but fairs fair dad comes before the friggin' dog.
and I want my horoscope (capricorn)-- po, Nov 06 2002 tasteful poses, Nick?-- po, Nov 06 2002 po: Dad can have a Calendar button. Those given were just examples. With homes becoming increasingly filled with single parent families, and mothers getting the custody the majority of the time, it makes sense in the general view to have the above as an example. But again, they are just examples. You may make them who so ever you wish, that is why the buttons themselves are numbered, not named.
Nick@Nite: I never said it was an improvement on a regular wall calendar, but since you ask... Current family wall calendars allow only a very small region of space for each family memeber, in the idea above, each family member gets their own full and complete calendar within the electronic structure. One can easily run out of space on a regular wall calendar, as i am sure such as busy person as yourself will appreciate. With the electronic wall calendar, you just keep on writing, and it will be added to a list available by a double tap on the relevent calendar square. In any case, if you get your calendars free from a variety of sources, then obviously you wouldn't buy this product, so i don't even know why you're complaining.-- tyskland, Nov 06 2002 I'm having trouble visualizing this. What's a TFT display?-- snarfyguy, Nov 06 2002 In short, TFT is a modern, high-quality, LCD screen.-- bristolz, Nov 06 2002 As there is currently no real alternative to TFT, and as i feel that i don't have the technical knowledge to create and alternative, i shall remain stead-fast and sure beside the TFT display, until something better comes along.-- tyskland, Nov 06 2002 5 buttons is large-familyist. Some of our nearby friends are in a family of 6, one of my team leaders comes from a family of 10. Don't do buttons, have configurable options.-- PeterSilly, Nov 07 2002 As much as I fully embrace the wall of web, the major downside is bandwidth requirements for mpeg, quicktime, realvideo, et al at larger - even *just* 1280 x 960 displays would be pretty chunky *or* would have to lose a large degree of sharpness.-- thumbwax, Nov 07 2002 Instead of a TFT screen, you could use a video projection unit onto a blank white wall, with a "glove" pointer or maybe some sort of lightpen.-- 8th of 7, Nov 07 2002 I like the idea of the fibre-optic screen, but not the flexible part. I personally feel the need to have something more substantial than a flimsy piece of cloth. But to each his own.
petersilly: The family of ten can buy two calendars... Although options could be added to a calendar one model up.-- tyskland, Nov 07 2002 // How is this an improvement over the regular wall calendar? //
Everybody knows that electronic means to do simple things are always better for some nebulous reason... just ask 'The Sharper Image' catalog... Totally marketable. Makes you wonder why this isn't baked.-- RayfordSteele, Nov 07 2002 [CrumbsDM], I couldn't get your link to fiber optic flexible screens to work. No viable hits on google either for my two searches.
[tskland], There will soon be a flexible organic screen available. Not sure how soon though. I imagine it's more sturdy than card stock calendars if your not too set on a picture frame proportioned screen.
See [link]
[Rods Tiger] when you mentioned organics were you refering to the technology behind this? I assumed your comment wasn't hatstand.-- hollajam, Nov 08 2002 The nice thing about a calendar is that the display can be built in pieces. That means lots of little cheap displays instead of one great big expensive one. Might actually be a real product idea....-- pocketweasel, Nov 08 2002 is that a weasel in your pocket or......?
sorry, couldn't resist it. as you were...-- po, Nov 08 2002 You could also have some kind of option that would highlight conflicting engagements in the different peoples' schedules. This could be really useful to parents' planning driving schedules etc...-- catfish25, Nov 10 2002 I love the idea of an electronic calendar. I believe it would be a better idea not to hang it on the wall, but being able to "magnetize" it onto the fridge.
Another improvement to the original idea is to include electronic address book and notes for storing cooking recipes.
Weather forecast should be an optional priced item, as not many people would care having that feature. At least, not me.-- tly, May 13 2003 Great idea, would be helpfull in a business inviroment.-- backyards, Feb 16 2004 To get around the TFT cost, you don't have to use the high-end stuff. Just get some cheapy, low-res 14" LCD display. Its just text and lines, it doesn't need to do high-quality graphics (maybe do that in a high-end model).
Regarding why do it at all (vs. paper calendar): You can put recurring stuff in the calendar and don't have to copy it each year when you get a new paper calender.
The reason I'm here is because I saw this in the background in a movie or commercial and thought, "Hey, that's cool, I gotta get me one of those." Unfortunately, it must have been just a prop, because this is the only relavent hit I got in my search.
Somebody please make this, and hurry! I'd be willing to pay up to $200 for one.
In case you're thinking... get a PDA, I would really prefer having a nice big dedicated display hanging somewhere obvious that I can examine at a glance. I don't need to carry it around everywhere and I don't want to be scrolling through each day on that tiny screen.-- notme2, Aug 12 2004 It's the kind of thing that an ebook type touch display could handle, so that it could magnetically attach to the fridge and run for a few years on a battery (or solar cells).
I just can't seem to find a paper calendar that I can write much on. This idea would be a great alternative.-- Ling, Nov 30 2013 random, halfbakery