If you’re one of the few people in the world who haven’t yet the Da Vinci Code, you’ll be fascinated to know that the masons were started by a bunch of stone masons in Bavaria – where I now live.
They’re also famous for being very secretive, rolling up one trouser leg and being blind-folded during the initiation ceremony while having a sword pointing at their throat.
Oh and the funny handshake, which presses on one of the other man’s knuckles with his thumb. Which knuckle he presses indicates what degree or stage of development that Mason has attained. So now you know.
Anyway, this secret handshaking is no longer necessary if a gadget featured on the wonderful We Make Money Not Art is to be believed. The iBand is a device worn on the wrist (a bit like a sweat band) that allows wearers to exchange information when they shake hands.
The bracelet (still a prototype) stores and exchanges information about you and the persons you meet. The data gathered is reflected on the bracelet itself and can serve as a reminder or as an ice breaker for further conversation.
The circuit board and battery lay under the wrist and an infrared transceiver is positioned near the back of the thumb. A handshake is detected via IR transceiver alignment combined with hand/wrist orientation and gesture recognition.
To use it, you first have to enter personal information into a kiosk, which stores it and assigns a unique ID number to your iBand. When you shake hands with another iBand wearer, ID numbers are exchanged and stored. When you return to the kiosk, you can read a list of new contacts collected in the database.
I think these short term communication devices (like this or Bluetooth) might be the next big thing in social networking.
It beats being stripped naked, roasted over an open fire, being pelted by Catholics while singing “Rule Britannia”. Oh no, that wasn’t the masons, that was just sweet memories of an English public school initiation ceremony 🙂
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