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The mode where it sits on a monitor and displays a status ("on call") is very interesting. I think that could be simplified into a product unto itself -- but it would need to priced at "office toy" level -- so around $20-$40 USD.
First the Nintendo alarm clock and now a sign that says "busy" - But it's hackable! You nerds will buy anything
I got a giant usb-controlled traffic light at my first job in Germany for a customer project. They just let me keep it after the project finished, which made me repurpose it as a busy light and it worked wonders except that one person who didn't get the hint. Not exactly this but close: https://www.cleware-shop.de/USB_Tischampel_360
A bit dystopian turning people into a taxi-like system where you need an indicator to tell if they are vacant or not. Regardless, I'm struggling to know the audience here. Is it an employee in the office? If that’s the case, it won’t solve any problem because most of the disturbances happen from your boss either calling about something or asking you to join another useless meeting. Your boss won’t care about your sta…
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Our old Plantronics phone headsets had a TRS jack which would connect to an optional status light. It would light up when the headset was on a call. https://www.headsetsdirect.com/product/poly-busy-light-strai...
My old company used these more recently: https://busylight.com/
The first time I saw this was some friends of friends who were trying to make it into a startup. They quickly discovered that their users liked the idea of a busy light for the office, but didn’t like to update it on or off throughout the day. So after the first few days people just defaulted to leaving it marked as “busy”. Within a week or two their coworkers realized that the light was always on busy, so they started asking if they were really busy.
At that point, the entire busy light idea had been defeated.
This product looks more versatile. Being able to automatically tie it to meeting status or set pomodoro timers could make it more interesting.
However, I predict the same fate: Eventually people will realize the light is busy when the person isn’t really busy, and then return to the old habit of interrupting to ask if they’re busy.
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Hi, Pavel Zhovner here, Flipper Devices CEO. Yes it's our product, but it's not ready for announcement yet, so we keep it secret. Right now, we are working on implementing Matter smart home protocol and will slightly change the product concept.
Put a CO2 + temp/humidity sensor in there and it's a no-brainer. The sensors could be nice to hack on too.