Using Technology To Do The Wave For You

from the we-can't-even-stand-up-any-more? dept

Wed, Dec 22nd 2004 2:24pm — Mike Masnick

If there ever were a story made for the "Too Much Free Time" category, this one is probably it. A year in the making, yesterday was the unveiling of the very first SMSWave. If you're a sports fan, you're probably familiar with "The Wave" whether you like it or consider it to be ruining the sport (there are some who feel that way). This is where everyone in the stands is so bored by what's happening on the field that they stand up and sit down one after another in a pattern that makes it look like there's a wave going through the stands. Well, apparently that wasn't good enough for some people, who decided to update The Wave for the digital, mobile age. They set up a system where fans SMS their seat location to a specific phone number. The system then calculates where everyone is, and sets off their phones flashing and making noise in a pattern to make a similar wave effect in mobile phone noise and sound. Sounds lovely, right? Even better, they've now patented the idea, so don't go around trying to copy it yourself. Please. We'll all be better off.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

1 Comment

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

D.R., 23 Dec 2004 @ 7:04pm

Lag and Jitter
I would assume that there is enough random delay and out of order delivery problems with SMS, particularly across multiple carriers, that this would not work.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]