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I know it gets over-referenced here on HN but the old Henry Ford "if I asked people what they wanted they'd say a faster horse, not a car" quote is pretty appli

by dev1n 10y ago

I know it gets over-referenced here on HN but the old Henry Ford "if I asked people what they wanted they'd say a faster horse, not a car" quote is pretty applicable here. This obviously doesn't make much sense to us, putting a wi-fi chip on a wine bottle, but I'm sure people back in the 1900's didn't realize why it was important to have a four-wheeled vehicle with an internal combustion engine in it. I think we should be celebrating the fact that technology has come so far that we can feed the data collected from a wine bottle automatically to the computer in your pocket.

JamilD 10y ago
This is more like asking for a horse with a shiny, touch-screen, IoT saddle.
- techdragon 10y ago
  Except an IoT saddle could actually be useful because it could record horse riding related metrics that could contribute to improving the health, fitness and comfort of both horse and rider.
  - dooptroop 10y ago
    Except in the real world where said metrics wouldn't integrate meaningfully with the dozens of other devices that collect similar "useful" data into their own proprietary little gardens of infrastructure. Obsolesence and device defects - I can imagine a saddle has a useful life of a couple of decades. What are you really going to measure here beyond GPS and accelerometer data? The temperature and humidity of the saddle/horse interface? The strain and weight on the saddle? That'll allow you to report useful stuff like "your horse is tired and about to overheat", "you are to fat ride this horse", and the ever popular "this saddle is the wrong size for current horse/rider combo, please contact a sales representative". All the while taking in the views through the new and improved augmented reality interface on your smartphone, or hmd. I mean why even have a horse at that point, it seems if you don't want to pick up on the communication from the live animal your riding, why not get a mud-bike.
    - techdragon 10y ago
      I never said "very useful". I just wanted to highlight how an otherwise throw away idea might have some merit and wasn't the most stupid idea ever.
  - JamilD 10y ago
    A faster horse is also very, very useful. It's not revolutionary. I can get 90% of the relevant information from my phone.

by dev1n 10y ago

JamilD 10y ago

This is more like asking for a horse with a shiny, touch-screen, IoT saddle.

techdragon 10y ago
Except an IoT saddle could actually be useful because it could record horse riding related metrics that could contribute to improving the health, fitness and comfort of both horse and rider.
- dooptroop 10y ago
  Except in the real world where said metrics wouldn't integrate meaningfully with the dozens of other devices that collect similar "useful" data into their own proprietary little gardens of infrastructure. Obsolesence and device defects - I can imagine a saddle has a useful life of a couple of decades. What are you really going to measure here beyond GPS and accelerometer data? The temperature and humidity of the saddle/horse interface? The strain and weight on the saddle? That'll allow you to report useful stuff like "your horse is tired and about to overheat", "you are to fat ride this horse", and the ever popular "this saddle is the wrong size for current horse/rider combo, please contact a sales representative". All the while taking in the views through the new and improved augmented reality interface on your smartphone, or hmd. I mean why even have a horse at that point, it seems if you don't want to pick up on the communication from the live animal your riding, why not get a mud-bike.
  - techdragon 10y ago
    I never said "very useful". I just wanted to highlight how an otherwise throw away idea might have some merit and wasn't the most stupid idea ever.
- JamilD 10y ago
  A faster horse is also very, very useful. It's not revolutionary. I can get 90% of the relevant information from my phone.