The MIT-developed Proverbial Wallet appears similar to an ordinary wallet except for the slightly odd looking apparatus in the middle. That’s where all the action happens, though.
Aside from holding your money and plastic, three variations of the Proverbial Wallet each do three main things: One vibrates when you make a purchase using an RFID-enabled credit card, one grows and shrinks in girth depending on how much money’s in your bank account and, perhaps coolest of all, one becomes harder to open the lower your account balance gets.
But why? According to the project:
“In our consumer culture, there is a disconnection between financial decisions and consequences. Most of us are not diligent about balancing our checkbook or watching our account balances. When we purchase a product, we don’t know whether we’re spending beyond our means. With credit cards and online banking, our idea of money has become abstract, and the transaction experience does not reflect the amount of money involved.”
These wallets still appear to be in the concept phase but would apparently use the Bluetooth connection on your cell phone to relay bank information. The vibrating and growing ones sound cool but that one that gets harder to open definitely has legs.
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