When I last visited Cambridge, England, I thought the street signs were pretty good. Rather than display how far away things are, they tell you how long it will take to walk to them: far more useful.

An informative street sign, but maybe not as informative as it could be?

But a new idea, called Points, goes way beyond that. It can display all sorts of useful information, as you can see in the short video below, and read in the article about it (also below).

It strikes me that this would be a great topic to explore in class, with questions such as:

• What does it do?
• How does it do it?
• What are its advantages?
• What are its disadvantages?
• Is it just a gimmick or is it genuinely useful -- for example, do you really need  a street sign to tell you what’s trending on Twitter?
• How might it cope with several people wanting different information at the same time?
• Would it be cost-effective for a local council to set these up? Perhaps they would need to be sponsored by companies?
• Would they be vandal-proof?
• Could a similar idea be adapted for use in schools, hospitals, airports?

Lots to think about here I think.

Anyway, here’s the video.

And here’s the article: Points