Last week I made my (6th Annual) pilgrimage to the Quad Cities (border of Iowa & Illinois, along the Mississippi River) to present sessions at the Casablanca Video Editing Conference 'March Get Together'. I thoroughly enjoyed me time there and loved teaching the two 2-day workshops and the six sessions during the conference. On the way home, while waiting for my connecting flight in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport I noticed two interesting technology applications/innovations: Circular TV If you frequent airports, you've seen many a 'Hudson News'. These small shops sell magazines, newspapers, candy, souvenirs, etc. Outside the one in O'Hare (between H and K terminals) is this cool circular TV. I suppose I should have heard about this in some article or on TV but to just stumble upon it was surprising and cool. The image was very clear and captivating to see a whole screen more or less wrapped around a pole. The only downside I could imagine if you were following a subject (like a football player running down-field - you'd have to walk all the way around the column to see the image). And reading text, like the captions on the bottom is problematic. Hmm, maybe it these circular TVs become more prevalent TV news providers would have to stop flooding our screens with all this text! The 2nd innovation I saw firsthand was a smart invention that truly serves a useful purpose. This device places a plastic wrapper on the toilet seat and when you wave your hand above the black sensor at the back of the toilet seat, it moves the wrapper around the toilet seat (in a counter-clockwise direction) to provide you with a clean plastic wrap.
It works quite well (I just want to be sure the wrap is not recycled and is truly on a reel that must be changed). I debated taking a picture of the actual toilet but decided against that, so the shot of the instructions on the wall (posted at right) will have to do.
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