Somewhere along the way someone decided they like to dance and move their bodies, but they couldn’t be away from Facebook. After all, if you’re out doing some great you want everyone to know about it in your status. Pulling out your phone and typing in a status can be a drag. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just move your body to update your Facebook status? Well you guessed it—a new technology known as the LikeBelt makes this possible. No, I’m not joking.
The belt was created by design and development company Deeplocal. The way it works is this: If you’re walking down the road and see something that you like and you want to Facebook “like” it, all you have to do is thrust your hips into the direction of what you like. This thrust will then register with your android smartphone and let all of your Facebook friends know what you “like” at the very moment you have decided you like it. You can see a photo of the LikeBelt taken from Deeplocal up above.
The Technology behind the LikeBelt
The hardware uses what is called near-field communication technology (NFC). You have an NFC antenna taken from an NFC-enabled Android phone, put it on a belt buckle, and then little NFC chips are placed around things you want to “like.” Now there are obviously not NFC chips everywhere you’re walking down the street or in your house, but the idea assumes that they are everywhere. These little chips certainly can be everywhere, but this will of course come with popularity. In other words, the idea is that you can walk down the street with this belt and update your Facebook, but it’s not yet entirely possible.
These NFC chips are known as RFID tags that are simply coded in an NFC format. I am not technological engineer, but if you’d like more information visit Wired, a leading technology news website. An Android app will then read the NFC chips and register the action.
The Uses of the LikeBelt
As strange as the whole concept may seem, the masterminds behind the idea offer some interesting real-world application examples. According to the Wired article, Deeplocal sees it as a way to simply understand people’s preferences easier. This could potentially work in a few scenarios:
- Dating/Bar Scene
- Retail Stores
- Advanced GPS technology (it can show you exactly where you are in a crowded room, mall, or other populated area)
For those who think that technology is taking over the “real world,” the LikeBelt is their worst enemy. It is certainly one of the more off-the-wall ideas that technology has seen in a while, so most would agree that the popularity of this little belt will likely end at the prototype stage. But then again, isn’t that what people said about status updates in the first place?
What are your thoughts? Do you think this could be engineered to be something useful? Would you use the LikeBelt?
Amanda DiSilvestro is the Editor in chief for Plan, Write, GO. She has been writing about all-things digital marketing, both as a ghost writer, guest writer, and blog manager, for over 10 years. Check out her blogging services to learn more!
Originally posted on October 27, 2019 @ 8:00 am