No. 0022 - Conversation Pacer

I'm all against awkward moments, especially the ones that commonly occurs in office places as you may have notice the office theme in some of my invention ideas. This week, I wish to take on the awkward short talks that you may have as you are going from point A to point B.

I work in a very big office place, which means there exist an intricate network of hallways. So intricate, that there are numerous combinations of routes that I could take simply to go from the front door to my desk. However, on any given mornings, I would walk in the front door along side with co-workers that I know somewhat well. To be courteous, sometimes the person would start a little short talk as we are walking along together. However, on some occasions, those little short talks can spawn into a longer conversation. Can't you see the dilemma here?! I have no idea where the other person sits! I have no idea where he is going? One day on a similar situation, I kinda got stuck to this "little more than a short talk" conversation from the front door as we are approaching the first big intersection of hallways. I needed to turn left but as for him? I had no idea. I didn't know if I should slow down or stop to complete this conversation that isn't going anywhere. Eventually, he went straight and the conversation just ended with him muttering something as I physically removed myself from the conversation to the left. Another time, I was walking with an intern having a somewhat lengthy conversation. I thought we had the same destination until I made a right turn as he went straight. I didn't even realized he was gone until I was almost halfway down the hallway. So I suppose I was talking to myself from the turn on to the point of my realization (how embarrassing).

Wouldn't it be nice to have a conversation pacer. The pacer will somehow know of your destination and be color coded relative to the distance between you and your destination, let's say red means "getting closer". So the next time you walk into the front door, just look for the green lights and walk with them instead. In fact, you can talk your little heart out with the greens but as for the reds, I wouldn't even bother to say hi to them. Also, if you can see their lights are slowly turning red, then you know it is your queue to wrap things up in order to avoid a dropped conversation just as I have experienced.