Liz and I have been playing this game of adding and crossing social trends with ubiquitous computing technologies to see where things can go. A couple of months ago, we were introduced (by new parent friends of ours) to the Happiest Baby on the Block book. One part of it is the idea that infants calm down when presented with a lot of white noise, because it's like the kind of sound they hear in the womb. You can even buy a CD of white noise that features 3 different white noise flavors:
This CD includes 3 tracks of calming white noise. First it is fast and vigorous to get a crying baby's attention. Then it is moderate to gradually guide your fussy baby to calm. Finally, it is rhythmic and womb-like to keep your infant calm and sleeping longer.
This led us to think, "well what about all of that Baby Einstein Mozart stuff? How does that fit in with this brave new world of infant audio?"
A brainstorming session on a drive led to some ideas. Here's one:
A baby-sized digital satellite (XM/Sirius) radio headphones that dynamically detects Baby's mental state (happy, crying, sleeping) based on simple noise level/audio processing and switch between XM radio stations designed to provide the appropriate sounds for the baby's internal state, anywhere on earth. A subscription model that takes the child's age into account can automatially switch between stations that are appropriate for the child's development level when selecting the right music, or special subscriptions can be made for kids who have sensory integration dysfunction, which is apparently also helped by listening to specific types of sounds.
Did you see this?
Heh. I didn't say we were going to build it, but it's eminently doable (and perhaps desirable to a certain market, which is our point) using current technology.
Yikes. Will you be able to pick up your new Huxley-tech at the Ministry of Hatcheries and Conditioning?