Text-triggerable tent is Orange brainwave

PROOF OF CONCEPT more than a serious commercial product is the best way to describe this text-triggerable tent. It really does work though and everybody we spoke to wants one.

The TextMeHome dome was actually created for the Glastonbury music festival by Orange (which sponsors that particular event). Fortunately, the INQ's tent testers were able to extract the dome from Orange in time for last weekend's world music festival (Womad) in Reading, England.

The idea is breathtakingly simple. After downing several pints of Batavia organic lager and/or pints of hot'n'spicy cider, it is quite common for festival participants to forget exactly where they've pitched their tent.

So what do you do? Easy. You send a text (SMS) message to the mobile phone built into the dome. A little electric motor then raises the tent's antenna and a dinky red light starts to flash away. The edges of the tent also glow orange and there's a light inside the tent which flashes too. Trust us, you can spot it.

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Review: TextMeHome Dome
Supplier: Orange
Manufacturer: Design Stream
Web: www.designstream.co.uk
Price: n/a

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Indeed, the INQ can vouch for the fact that you can see the light from three fields away (although the antenna could do with being a bit longer). The dome automatically stops signalling after about 120 seconds. So as you get closer you can text it again, to get a precise location.

One reveller immediately wanted to borrow the dome, having been forced the previous night to call his daughter's mobile and wake her up to guide him back to his tent because he was completely lost. Incidentally since the unit switches itself off after a brief interlude, so, were there to be multiple domes in the same field, you could still work out which one is yours from the minute or so delay between sending the text and the antenna extending itself to start flashing.

The reality is that in its present form, the dome is unready for commercial production. The base unit - which contains the 'intelligence' plus the guts of a mobile phone - is not only bulky but requires two entirely separate mains chargers. Plus you need to charge it for 12 hours before leaving for the festival.

The combined electric antenna and flashing light unit fits into the tent top but again was rather on the heavy side. Assembling the various bits was actually very simple. The INQ's Tony Dennis had far more of a struggle assembling the tent itself.

Orange has very definitely identified a niche for such a product. The INQ would suggest that to reduce the size and bulk of the antenna unit the flashing light could be dropped. The central unit needs much tighter integration and maybe it could flashing a specific pattern, depending on the text message it receives. Besides that, it's an obvious winner. µ

The antenna needs to be a bit longer

Intel outside. Centrino promo bag nestles against Orange dome

The INQ's Tony Dennis struggles to put the dome up

Warning: sleeping in the dome can seriously affect your fashion sense, as INQ hackette, Hilda Breakspear, discovers

The Orange TextMeHome Dome