While running shows backstage this summer as a stagehand, there were many times I had to be on headset to communicate with the rest of the tech staff to coordinate moving set pieces and other activities according to cues in the show.

Our headset system consisted of the actual headset itself, with a mic and an earphone over one ear, which connected by wire to a box you wore on your belt. This box had a single button on it which, if depressed, enabled you to talk to everyone else on headset. Those boxes themselves were all wired together at a location I never saw.

The habit using a headset forms after regular usage is that when you want to talk to somebody, you press the button first, and then make sure it is unpressed when you’re done. This works well enough, except for the fact that a backstage area can be quite chaotic, and not everyone who tries to talk to you is actually on headset. What I found myself doing, quite accidentally, is trying to communicate with an actor or whoever was standing right in front of me (not on headset) by first pressing the button on my headset. It just became a habit.

But one night, I realized that maybe this kind of habit formation could be quite useful. For example, what if I had some kind of device you wore, which would allow you to press a different button depending on who you wanted to open a communication channel with. It would be like one of those Bluetooth ear pieces (which I dislike very much, by the by) meets some kind of system of assigning buttons, actions, cues or other types of triggers - maybe gestural - which would automatically connect you to or send information to a specified party or location. Maybe a system like that would allow you to wiggle one of your little fingers and connect your datastream to your girlfriend. Stamping your left foot twice on the heel might allow you to talk to your best friend who lives in Australia. Stuff like that. Nevermind linking together physical gestures into some kind of omnipresent interface system which allows you to record, tag, store and send perceptual information…