Help me brainstorm and build my kitchen calendar idea

March 16, 2006 3:36 PM

What equipment and tools do I need to build an electronic calendar?

My family needs an up-to-date calendar in our kitchen. We always forget to pencil in our appointments and special events. After much thinking and fantasizing, I figured out what I want. Now I just need help physically building the thing.

The perfect kitchen calendar is a light weight, very thin, flat screen monitor, connected to the Internet to access a Web based calendar. Of course, the extra fancy version would have really cool features: 1.) wireless; 2.) mount on refrigerator door; 3.) screen saver with motion detection (from a distance, you get a tranquil nature picture and when you walk close enough the calendar appears to remind you of the day's schedule); 4.) data entry via stylus.

However, just using today's averagely available, moderately priced technology, what exact equipment and tools do you recommend to turn the basics (not necessarily the fancy version) of this idea into reality?

posted by chase to computers & internet (3 comments total)

You could get a tablet PC that would do just about everything you want. Don't know if you'd want to rip in to your refridgerator door to mount it flush (insulation problems might ensue), but they're thin enough to mount directly on top.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:40 PM on March 16, 2006

A Nokia 770 would be pretty much ideal for this; failing that, any large screen PDA with WiFi. Or stalk eBay for one of the original internet tablets like the Fujitsu 510.
posted by blag at 4:55 PM on March 16, 2006

You sound like the target market for 3Com's Audrey. Kind of hard to mount on the fridge, but you COULD do most of what you want - And unlike a Tablet PC or 770, you can pick up an Audrey for around $100.
The stock machine probably does some of what you want, but a modified image would let you modify the interface more. (The proximity thing might be doable with X-10 hardware, but seems like more trouble than it's worth.)
posted by Orb2069 at 7:15 AM on March 17, 2006