Technology for everyone?

In my below stories, I will skip the brand names of the products.

Technology is all around us and we need to deal with it.
Can we make it work better for us? Probably yes :).

1. Vacuum Cleaner:

I have already a second-generation vacuum cleaner that should work, but it doesn't as it is advertised. What was the wrong with the 1st generation one you might ask?
Hmmm, it was not a vacuum cleaner, but rather a brush cleaner running around the house and moving dust around, not collecting it. Funny enough my dog, Lilly, Jack Russell Terrier, liked to sit on the top of it and "travel" around the house.
The second generation is better, it has a suction and collects pretty well the dust, wow, you might say, but there is always a but :).
The advertisement and manual say it can avoid obstacles, and it does avoid them, as long as they are white or bright in color obstacles. So when it is dark or a bit reflective it hits an obstacle, and it doesn't do that once, but at least 3 times like it would not notice that there is an obstacle like a leg of furniture or wall. I have a feeling that it wants to force the obstacle as each time it is stronger judged by the sound that it makes.
An application that comes with it works well with an Android phone, but with iPhone, doesn't connect well, but let's leave that part as we wanna focus on the vacuum cleaner.
I can schedule nicely 7 am cleaning with an app. I am already awake for 2h and probably walking in the forest with my dog, so doesn't matter to me. But what happens if I have guests that would like to sleep a bit longer and they are actually on another floor, but still can hear it. Sure I can re-schedule cleaning in the app, but I thought I bought a vacuum cleaner that avoids obstacles, didn't I :)?
It has infrared sensors on the front, it has contact sensors all around, it has ultrasound sensors, in a front-wheel drop sensor in case gets close to drop-like stairs. So all should work, but it doesn't. So I get used to the bumping as I am not there :). It does otherwise a really good job.

2. Mop Robot:

It took me some time to decide which one to buy, and I have chosen well. I am really happy, as my mopping skills are terrible and I always leave visible stains :). So ok I am happy, could do a better job, probably yes, but I didn't choose a model with all sensors. And I am OK with bumping into all obstacles around, but this time it does this nicely, soft, and once. The material which is used around the chassis is rubber-like so the sound is not that loud as in the case of the above vacuum cleaner, so it can be done quietly. Hey, vacuum cleaner guys can you please take an example from my mop :)?
Mop actually does a perfect job in like 97%, close to walls and legs of furniture that I cannot move need to be cleaned manually, but that is OK.

3. Now let's get out of the house and let's see what could be done outside. Navigation in the e.g. grocery shops.

This example can be used in any shop. I came up with this idea during the time I was working for Cisco and when they were introducing a new technology back then called Beacons. It has nothing to do with bacon :). It is a low range, low power kind of Bluetooth communication. They were promising that in the area of 100m2 you could place 1,000s of devices and it would work, reality was slightly different, interferences from so many devices and other radio signals limited this to 100 devices. We are talking here about the year 2008 and I would call it the first IoT device. OK, some of you might argue that M2M based on GSM signaling was one of the first IoT devices. OK agree, but with Beacons, you could go much smaller and didn't use that much power, it could have been built into a price tag display, which I consider small and power-efficient.

What could be done in the stores with such devices at that time?

Usually, someone who cooks buys the products and knows the shop and where to find those products. What happens when this someone cannot go shopping and you have to go instead? You will be lost and spend lots of time trying to find those products. And what happens if this product is not in the shop? Any suggestions will end with calling the person who created a list to ask if you can buy something similar? Imagine having a list of products that you need to buy and all products being mapped. Additionally, you will get info that this product is not available, but there are similar products that can be purchased instead and you can update the route. This gives you the possibility to stop wandering around the shop, but to have navigation like, with route planning shopping, where you could decide that first, you will pick up heavy products and at the end of your shopping journey you will pack only light products on the top. OK, I know the owners of the shops might not be happy with such a solution as wandering around the shop makes you buy more and not always needed products :).

What can be used now and in the future?

You do not need such Beacon devices anymore as Augmented Reality (AR) will manage all your needs and doesn't require any devices to be placed.

Benefits:
- shop owners do not need to have pricy Beacons and they can stick with their current price tags;
- actual info if the product is placed on the shelf and quantity by using integration with their stock platform;
- info of what customers are looking for in this shop.

The technology behind it is already available:
AR glasses are still the future, but people can use their smartphones which will guide them by using AprilTags on the floor/walls/furniture, as a reference for, where you are and where you should go next.

Customers know if the product is in the shop, they can easily and quickly find the product.
Going further it can speed up the process of payment as the customer can scan the codes of the products that it is buying from the list and outside of the list - this solution is already working in shops, so adding it to the app on the smartphone should be not that complicated.

A similar solution can be used, in not-automated warehouses, to find products quickly.

The applications for usage of this solution are endless.

4. Postal service:
I have a few addresses where my post is coming and I cannot be in all locations at the same time.
What if there would be a system that would allow me to receive all letters in one place?

I am under NDA with this idea of mine, so cannot write too much about it here, but I believe you get the picture of usability. I know, you might say that email can solve this problem, but how many times have you deleted "that" email or you have moved to a new email provider and all emails are gone?

Lately, I was looking for this one email.
My emails are sorted/filed properly, but I didn't remember when I received this email and what was the subject or copy in this email. Took me a few hours to find it, lucky me, but I could have all that in a few seconds.
All of us have access to a few payment gateways for our mobile, internet, utilities, etc... What if all could be in one place with a single pay now button?
When you change providers you just remove/add a new one to the list and all would be paid without a need to switch between them.

5. Coming soon ...