Trash can in India turns garbage into 15 minutes of Wi-Fi
- 8 years ago
MUMBAI, INDIA — Music festivals are notorious for bad Wi-Fi connectivity and littering. Luckily, two Mumbai entrepreneurs have created a solution: a trash can that offers Wi-Fi in exchange for garbage.
The project came to fruition when Raj Desai and Pratik Agarwal, the 26-year-old co-founders of startup ThinkScream, attended the NH7 Weekender music festival in 2013. At the event, the pair noted connectivity issues when it took them hours to locate one another due to the lack of Internet connection.
"Pratik and I got lost and it took us two hours to find each other," Desai told CNN Money. "It struck us that we needed to come up with a solution for people to stay connected at these events."
They also noticed the immense amount of trash littering the festival grounds.
Their solution was a four-feet-tall plastic bin that offers 15 minutes of Wi-Fi in exchange for trash. The bin (which costs about $1,470) is equipped with an LED screen. When you throw something in it, the screen flashes a unique code to access 15 minutes of Wi-Fi (which works within a 164-feet radius).
The project was funded by Agarwal and Desai, with support from the Indian operator MTS. The Wi-Fi trash can was tested at three festivals held in Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore in 2014.
While there are currently no smart bins deployed, with the exception of test models at events and colleges, Desai has been approached by private companies and government agencies to see how the bins can be deployed in large cities like Mumbai.
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The project came to fruition when Raj Desai and Pratik Agarwal, the 26-year-old co-founders of startup ThinkScream, attended the NH7 Weekender music festival in 2013. At the event, the pair noted connectivity issues when it took them hours to locate one another due to the lack of Internet connection.
"Pratik and I got lost and it took us two hours to find each other," Desai told CNN Money. "It struck us that we needed to come up with a solution for people to stay connected at these events."
They also noticed the immense amount of trash littering the festival grounds.
Their solution was a four-feet-tall plastic bin that offers 15 minutes of Wi-Fi in exchange for trash. The bin (which costs about $1,470) is equipped with an LED screen. When you throw something in it, the screen flashes a unique code to access 15 minutes of Wi-Fi (which works within a 164-feet radius).
The project was funded by Agarwal and Desai, with support from the Indian operator MTS. The Wi-Fi trash can was tested at three festivals held in Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore in 2014.
While there are currently no smart bins deployed, with the exception of test models at events and colleges, Desai has been approached by private companies and government agencies to see how the bins can be deployed in large cities like Mumbai.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more! Subscribe now for daily news animations that will knock your socks off.
Visit our official website for all the latest, uncensored videos: http://us.tomonews.net
Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj
Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f
Get top stories delivered to your inbox everyday: http://bit.ly/tomo-newsletter
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Twitter @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS
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Instagram @tomonewsus http://instagram.com/tomonewsus