New
Device Lets You Text Your FridgePrototype digital
post-it note displays SMS text messages07 December
2002 
The
Appliance Studio, a Bristol based innovation firm, announced the txTboard,
a new digital version of the post-it note stuck to the fridge or the
front door. The txTboard is a slim self-contained
device built around a colour touchscreen that is intended to hang on
the kitchen wall or communal areas in the home. It displays SMS text
messages sent to it from mobile phones, enabling members of a household
to keep in touch with family and friends back home from wherever they
are. txTboard, a brainchild of The Appliance Studio’s
founder Bill Sharpe, came from The Appliance Studio’s innovation
programme on new information appliances – things that make digital
technology useful in everyday life. It was inspired by user research
carried out by Professor Richard Harper, Director of User Understanding
at The Appliance Studio, and arose from ongoing observational and analytical
research into mobile phone usage. txTboard is a
fully-working prototype, ready to deploy into field-trials. www.appliancestudio.com/research/txtboard.htm | 
