Our Utopian Ideas

The Problem

Not exactly a business idea. It's more of product I'd like to use myself.

My living room is the most computerized place at home. With 3 PCs, an XBOX, TV and stereo set the room is meant to be a place a guy would be willing to spend 110% of his spare time in.

The trouble is that sometimes I kind of want to use all the a/m equipment at once. I.e. chatting with a friend over ICQ while trying to nail a Silent Assasin rating in just another level of Hitman: Blood Money on the XBOX. Supposedly I could run back and forth from one piece of equiment to another but that's not very efficient use of your time. (Married ones will understand me - in those rare cases when your family is away you just HAVE TO make a good use of your time)

The Solution

I would certainly appreciate some kind of device -- a scoreboard -- that would communicate with PC and display various configurable stats, like:

• Number of unanswered IM messages
• Number of new mail messages
• Todays AdSense revenue
• etc.

The device does not have to be built on OLEDs - just a simple LEDs- so it's as cheap as possible. The LEDs have to be bright enough, so you can see the numbers in the dark (you know - to put one in your sleeping room, too, so you can check your "stats" at 3am if you wake up suddenly).

Device can be equipped with Bluetooth or WiFi connection for easy communication with PC. It should be able to accept info from multiple PCs.

Ability to produce sound signals would be a also appreciated. (you know - those ICQ "uh-oh's" have to be heard in bathroom, too)

And yes - the device has to be under like $60.

Anyone knows such device? Wrap up a couple for me.


API

The device drivers and software should have an open API. This way we would see a lot of independent plugins popping out.



It could also be able to read specially formatted RSS feed off the Web. Some people would create interesting services like live match stats, weather reports, news tickers, jokes, you name it.


Updates

06/19/2006

I came across this device. While the screen is abviously too small and there are no wireless connection options, this device is a step in the right direction.