美國發明智能錢包 幫助人們理性消費

Financial transactions have grown increasingly abstract, encouraging wasteful and unwise purchasing habits. Researchers at the MIT Media lab have invented three different wallets - the Bumblebee, the Peacock and the Mother Bear - to help shoppers save money。

The Bumblebee wallet contains a vibrating motor that buzzes whenever the owner's bank account has a transaction. The length and pattern of the buzzes correspond with different kinds of transactions. The Peacock wallet expands and contracts depending on how much money is in a bank account。

The Mother Bear, which contains a hinge inside that is connected to a bank account and can be programmed to respond to a monthly financial goal. When money gets tighter, the hinge makes the wallet harder to open, creating a meaningful reminder to stay on target。

All these three wallets are sturdy enough to survive being sat upon. Each one utilizes a mobile platform called Hands and Fingers. The "fingers" are microprocessors that are embedded in the wallets while the "hands" are the corresponding software that runs on a mobile phone. The wallets communicate using Bluetooth。美國“探索頻道”6日報道稱，隨着金融交易日趨虛擬化，人們的消費習慣也變得大手大腳且不理性。麻省理工學院媒介研究室的研究人員發明了三款錢包——“大黃蜂”、“孔雀”以及“熊媽媽”——以幫助人們實現理性消費。

據瞭解，“大黃蜂”錢包內設振動裝置，主人的銀行賬戶一有交易記錄該錢包便會震動，而震動時長和模式依據不同的交易類別發生變化。“孔雀”錢包則能根據賬戶存款多少膨脹或者收縮。

“熊媽媽”錢包內設一個與銀行賬戶相連的電子拉鍊，並同時與主人的每月收支計劃綁定。賬戶存款“吃緊”時，錢包的拉鍊也隨之“咬緊”，意在提醒主人牢記本月收支計劃。

這三款錢包都很牢固，人們坐在上面也沒問題。而每個錢包都使用了一種名爲“手與指”的移動平臺。“指”即內置於錢包的微處理器，而“手”則是在移動電話上運行的綁定軟件。而錢包與(手機)的“溝通”則通過藍牙實現。