TILTS: Remote kill switch for video games
When my kids play with their Nintendo DS, I’m convinced not even an earthquake could get their attention. Often I find myself repeating myself over and over until I finally demand they pause or turn off their games to listen to me. And even this is not a simple task.
I can’t possibly be the only parent who experiences this. So here’s a technology I’d like to see (TILTS) that should solve the problem.
I would like to see a video game remote kill switch. It would work something like this. When I first buy the switch I would synchronize it to each of my son’s Nintendo DS’s. This should be easy to do since the Nintendo DS already has the capability to wirelessly share games with another Nintendo DS in close proximity. This is an important step as I wouldn’t want my kill switch to affect the neighborhood-kid-next-door’s Nintendo DS.
Or would I?
How it would work
Anyway, once my switch is programmed, it would act as a complete override to the video game unit. If I have something quick to say to my kids, I could press the pause button on my kill switch and immediately each game console would go into pause mode. If the allotted time I have given my kids to play their Nintendo DS expires and they still keep playing, I would graduate to the kill switch which immediately disables or powers off the game systems.
Oh sure, comment away about how I should be a better parent in the first place and not let my kids play video games. But there are some parents out there reading this right now who would run just as fast to the store as I would to get one of these. You know who you are. Admit it.
Disclaimer: Technologies presented in the Technology I’d Like To See (TILTS) series are based on my original (and sometimes delirious) thoughts. I present them here to the public only because I can not afford to implement any of them myself. If you steal borrow one of my ideas and end up filthy rich because of it, please remember where you got the idea and throw a little love my way. Something like a BMW or a big fat check would do just fine.
