[c7b]

Some suggestions:

- Not sure what they're called, but I've seen a lot of fully automated outdoor "locker stations" for packet deliveries

- Power bank "banks" or charging stations for smartphones in indoor spaces like malls

- QR codes on stickers/ads in public spaces are a sort of bridge between the physical and digital worlds

[HarHarVeryFunny]

In some Asian countries electric scooters with swappable battery packs are very common, and they have roadside battery swap stations where (for a subscription fee?) you can take a freshly charged battery and leave your old one. Seems like a great idea.

[toyg]

Just went through Orlando airport and saw something called "power rod" that is basically that for small power banks: you drop your depleted bank and pick up a fully charged one. If I were a US-only traveller, I can see myself using it.

[pibaker]

> QR codes on stickers/ads in public spaces are a sort of bridge between the physical and digital worlds

They are already like that for at least a decade. The last time I visited London the phone booths all had ads for escort services pasted inside.

[Jenk]

> - Not sure what they're called, but I've seen a lot of fully automated outdoor "locker stations" for packet deliveries

Drop boxes!

I was part of a team prototyping these some 20 years ago. I highly doubt we were the only team doing so, but we were certainly unaware of any commercially available/deployed stations at the time. I was writing the software, in particular the orchestration of the locks and event bus for the transmissions.

Lots of fun from trying to fathom how undocumented solenoids operated, to trips to various countries for remote and environmental testing, and destructive tests simulating someone driving a truck into an installation (i.e., by deliberately driving a truck into one!)

The nerdiest moment was taking a mainboard model that we were getting intermittent faults with and recreating the exact environmental conditions to recreate the problem. This involved incubating the mainboard in a sealed environment chamber to control temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure. The fault was bit-flipping because electrons were jumping rails when the microchip(s) were cold and damp.