Auto Switching Radio Stations

Today's idea addresses a problem that only some people will have with some stations in some locations.

Certain smaller stations will have multiple frequencies depending on your exact location relative to your local urban center. The station is served on different frequencies in different areas. The North suburbs might have 102.1 while downtown might have the station on 95.5 for example.

These tend to be, in my experience, smaller less popular stations.

The result is that you can be driving along and have the station die out or become unclear. If you wish to continue listening to the station it requires you to switch over to the other station. This can be problematic if you stumbled across the station while surfing for something to listen to (and thus do not know that they have multiple frequencies), or if the station used more than two frequencies so that you need to figure out which one will end up being most clear.

Digital radio signals can let the radio know the station name and name of the song and artist currently playing. It would also be possible for the signal to have alternative frequency information embedded into it. If the signal detected noise from static (something your radio can already do, this is how it autotunes), it would quickly check the alternative frequencies to see if any of them were clearer.

This could also be used with syndicated radio shows that are being hosted on multiple stations. If the signal of the station you were listening on grew too weak, it could automatically check the signal of other stations hosting the show at that time.

This would increase the cost of the radio (just like digital radios cost more). It would need a bit more hardware to figure out how to flip frequencies, and it would likely need multiple tuners (to allow it to check the other frequencies without interrupting what you are listening to). However, these costs would not be too great. They would also lay some of the hardware groundwork for another one of my ideas, a radio Tivo.

Ultimately, as I said earlier, this would only be useful some of the time for some people. However, when dealing with these types of small stations, retuning into them is very annoying. I feel that the people who DO have to deal with this would greatly appreciate the functionality, and it would almost certainly help the listenership of these small stations.

Remote Entry Key Fob Meets Cell Phone

In reality remote entry key fobs for car do not save all that much time. However, people use cars enough that they seem like a great convinience and luxery. However, they are not perfect.

The first problem is the space they take. In a multi-car household their size can make it difficult to have the 'keys' to every car on your key chain. The other problem that I have observed stems with how people use them. If the driver is slow with taking out his keys and unlocking the door, passangers may need to wait for the door to be unlocked. While this is not a huge inconvinience it can be anoying.

There is a solution to both these problems.

If cars were designed to unlock their doors in the presscence of a coded bluetooth signal, your cellphone could be used to enter your car (bluetooth is the type of wireless signal that cellphones use to communicate with headsets). Infact if the car was equiped with a keyless ignition system (as many luxery cars are) the cellphone could also turn on the car. All of the sudden you don't need any keys for your car.

There would be nothing preventing a single cellphone from having the codes for multiple cars. In a multi-car household with multiple drivers, there would be no need to make multiple copies of multiple keys so that everyoen would have a set. It would be as simple as punching the codes into everyone's cellphone. Right here, money is being saved. There would be no cost to enter the code into multiple cellphones. The process could even be 'automated' just requiring the press of a 'pairing' button, just like with bluetooth headsets.

This also could solve the second issue I mentioned. Since the 'clicker' has been replaced with the cellphone which has a rechargable battery, it's ok if it is running all the time. The cellphone could automatically send a 'lock' signal as you walk away from the car and could automatically unlock the door when you got near. There would be no need to wait for the driver to take out and press the button. As long as the driver was within range (likely 10-15 feet based on bluetooth specifications). This continuous transmision method would cause the cellphone to eat through its battery faster; bluetooth consume power. But this feature could be made optional.

As far as security, there would be no reason why it would be any less safe. The methods used to prevent people from currently 'capturing' your key fobs security code work just as well with a cellphone (click here is you are interested in why your keyfob won't likely open up anyone elses car http://auto.howstuffworks.com/remote-entry2.htm).

This idea is also provides a perfect way to apply an earlier idea of mine. Some time ago I mentioned the posibility of 'Car Logins' (http://dailyinnovention.blogspot.com/2010/06/car-logins.html). Basically the idea was to allow the car to remeber the seat positions, radio presets, and mirror positions of individual drivers. These prefrences could easily be stored in the cellphone.

This would not require people to have cellphones with special hardware. All it would require would be a software download. Also, many cars allready have bluetooth hardware installed to facilitate handsfree phone calls. It should be obvious that this would be easy for car manufactures to impliment.

The only real problem I see with this idea is the eventuality of having a dead cellphone battery. If someone replaced all of their keys with their phone they could be locked out of their car. This could be mitigated by including a small secondary battery (like those used in key fobs currently) with the sole purpose of unlocking car doors when the main battery is dead. Of course if cellphones had preemptive low battery warnings as I discussed yesterday, this wouldn't be a problem.

All in all, I would love to not worry about keys. Being able to opperate multiple cellphones as long as I had my cellphone on my person is something that I would definetly be willing to pay for, and I suspect, is somethign that many others would pay for as well. Combined that with 'car logins' and people are looking at a great increase in convinience. Even at a modest price, being able to avoid copying keys could still save money. And as for the auto industry? It wouldn't cost them much more in the manufacturing process, and they could definaetly market it to cell new cars.

Preemptive Low Battery Alerts

Most cell phones will warn you when the battery is low. This can range from beeps and chirps to blinking lights. However, what happens if your battery does not reach the low state until you need it. These warnings are a lot less useful than they could be because they do not give you any warning until the battery is already low.

This ends up being a problem in numerous different ways. Perhaps when you head to bed your battery is 'charged,' and thus your phone does not provide any warning. But that charge may not be enough to last the eight hours until you wake up. By the time you get up, the battery may all ready be dead (thus your phone won't be able to give any low battery warnings). You then might not realize the state of your battery until you grab your phone to head to work. By that point it is too late to charge your phone before your commute.

What would be far more useful is a low battery alert that lets you know that your battery will be low before it is actually low. This way you have time to charge it.

For those on a regular schedule, there could be the options to enter in when they go to bed and when they wake up into the phone settings. If when you go to sleep the phone predicts that the battery will be low by the time you wake up, it could give you a warning so that you can let your phone charge overnight.

Phone software could allow users to enter in periods of time in which they would be unable to charge the phone. If it thinks its battery will run low during these time periods (based on idle power usage), it can preemptively warn you.

If people wanted to avoid their phone constantly beeping the early warning system could be based only on a warning light. The light could shift between yellow, orange, and red.

The really nice thing about this idea is the ease of implementation. In most modern cellphones all it would take is a simple software update to add in this feature.

As it is, low battery warnings are frequently of little use. If you are not at home, or soon will not be at home, such that there is no time to charge the phone, then all the warning does it let you know you will not have the use of your phone. The roll battery indicators should play is to allow you to preemptively charge your phone before its a problem. They don't yet do this, but they easily could.

Customized News Traffic Reports

Most local morning news programs have a segment on the traffic. This makes sense. These programs often air before people begin their commute to work and can provide valuable information to make a commute easier.

However, it involves sitting through whatever traffic information they report even if it does not apply to your commute. There is also the chance they do not cover the route you take.

As I have mentioned before, digital television makes it possible to deliver customized content to viewers. Traffic reports are a perfect application for this.

When setting up your cable box, it would be possible to enter in the routes that you take on your commute. The traffic report on any news report that supports the feature could explicitly cover the roads pertinent to a viewers commute.

Once television providers and networks begin fully realizing the potential of digital television delivery we will begin seeing a whole spectrum of customized content on television. Customizing content is good for the viewer and thus good for the provider.

Automated Snow Removal

I have recently acquired a Roomba. It is a robot that can automatically vacuum the floor. I have to say it works fairly well. But it got me thinking, what other tasks could similar technology be applied to.

There already exists similar products for the purpose of washing floors, cleaning pools, and mowing lawns. However, the coming winter made me think, what if there was a robot that could remove the snow from your driveway for you.

Snowblowers greatly ease the task of removing snow from the driveway, but they still require you to work in the cold elements.

Creating something that could accomplish this task would require overcoming a number of issues. Because of how daunting these problems may seem at first, I am going to take some time to address the major problems as I see them one by one.

The first problem is that outside there are no walls to provide guidance for the device. A method of keeping the snow removal on track would be needed.

The best way to accomplish this, as far as I am concerned, is by installing a guidance system along side your driveway. Imagine a system similar to that of an invisible dog fence. Systems like this are already used to guide snow plows along dangerous mountain roads where visibility can not be relied upon.

As far as how the snow removal robot would actually remove the snow, it could function just like any actual snow blower. However, if this method was used, it introduces a new problem. Without a person pushing it, the robot would need a powerful drive system. Instead a lower power scaled down system would likely be better. Rather than trying to get the snow all in one pass, it would be easier to do it in multiple passes. This would not require as strong as a drive system.

However, once again that introduces a different problem, the robot would have to be light enough not to crush the snow into ice during an early pass.

With this in mind, it seems that the robot would need to be designed to remove the snow as it is falling before it has had a chance to pile up. This would allow it to be have wider weight limitations, have a lower power drive train, and have a lower powered snow removal system.

The last final problem that I foresee is safety. You would not want a snowblower to be driving around by itself with no concept of where any nearby humans were located. I also feel that this is the largest problem. Even if a product could be made that solved the other issues, it would be meaningless if it was horribly unsafe.

Any method of visual detection would be unreliable in adverse weather conditions (such as when it is snowing) and thus must be discounted. The system can also not rely on any sort of transmission device attached to people (because people may not be wearing them).

A workable answer would be a bumper system (similar to that of the Roomba). A bumper would be in front of snowblower robot and would detect collisions. The system would then be programed to stop the snowblowers actuator upon collision with an object.

The bumper would need to be a foot off the ground to avoid being triggered by snow on the ground. It would also need to be much wider than the snowblower itself. If it was not, it could be possible for someones foot to get under the robot without their leg triggering the safety bumper.

This would not be a perfect system by any means. My proposed safety system would not protect a person lying down in front of the robot. However, snowblowers as they currently exist are not perfectly safe either.

As much as I would appreciate such a product, I am also realistic. Each of my proposed solutions include any number of engineering challenges. Even if these challenges were solved, it could be highly probable that it would not be fiscally profitable to produce and sell.

Ditch the Caps Lock Key

Some people will likely disagree with me on todays post. However, it does not change the fact that I do not like the caps lock key.

Rarely have I ever needed to use the caps lock key. However, if it was simply a matter of not using the key I would not be posting about it. The caps lock key is a 'relatively' large one and finds itself next to the 'A' key. If I had to guess I would say that less than ten percent of the time that I press the caps lock key is intentional. The other ninety percent is they key being accidentally pressed.

Having caps lock accidentally turned on causes all sorts of problems. The simplest problems involve needing to delete a few lines and retype them in the proper case. The more annoying form these problems take is trying to determine why a password is not working (when the answer is that caps lock has inverted the case).

For me the caps lock is a nuisance and a hindrance. This is especially true on laptops with smaller keyboards than standard desktop keyboards. I would be more than happy if the caps lock key was removed or replaced with something else.

But what about the benefits of the caps lock key? Well the only time I have ever needed to type something in all caps I have been using a word processor. Most word processors make the task of changing the case of typed text a trivial matter even without the caps lock key. Functionality is not really lost there. I can think, off the top of my head, of at least three keyboard shortcuts that I use far more frequently than caps lock (discounting accidental uses): ctrl+i (italics), ctrl+b (bold), and alt+tab (switch window). If the caps lock key was changed to perform any of these functions it would be more useful in my opinion.

The people who would really loose out without the presence of a caps lock key are those who use the caps lock more than they should. If you have spend enough time on the internet you have likely encountered someone who has made a forum post in all capital letters. It's incredibly annoying and it's the caps lock key that makes it so easy for them to do this. Removing the caps lock key would discourage at least this form of annoying behavior.

All other things being equal I would choose to purchase a keyboard without a caps lock key over one with such a key. To some this may seem like a trivial matter. However, after accidentally hitting the key today while entering a password, I stopped and asked myself, "Why is this key even here?"

Gestured Based Lighting Control

We are entering an area where it is possible to control electronic devices through hand gestures alone. A example of this in use can be found in an upcoming version of the Android phone OS (http://www.pcworld.com/article/198552/touchless_gesture_control_coming_to_android_devices.html). The Xbox Kinect is another example of this technology being put into practice. The company that developed the hardware for the Xbox Kinect is planning on eventually releasing a version for interacting with a PC.

Once this technology becomes more mainstream there will likely be a flood of ideas for potential uses. However, I would like to take this moment to discuss an idea that I don't think is an immediately obvious application, gesture controlled lighting.

It is important to keep in mind that most new input technology is 'buggy.' Voice control is still iffy at best. Anyone who has called a customer support line that utilizes speech recognition likely knows that there is plenty of room for improvement. It is important to keep this in mind. The best use cases for this technology would involve simple gestures and few commands. To control a light you only need one command, a command that switches the light between on and off.

Ultimately, I would want to be able to turn a light on and off with just a flick of the wrist. Using gesture recognition technology, I should be able to a light on across the room by snapping my fingers at it (using sound recognition and listening for a snap could actually improve the accuracy).

To make such a system a reality all that would be required would be a camera somewhere in the room (possibly attached to a lamp) and a computer system to process the video feed captured by the camera. The price (initially) would likely be high for individual lights. It would likely be more economical if it was installed into a room as part of a home automation system.

Now some people might say that wanting something like this is lazy. I say its wanting convenience. Being able to turn a light on and off (instead of needing to unplug it) is another similar convenience. For that matter, wall mounted light switches so that you do not need to use the lamps switch is similar as well. This is simply an extension of that idea.

People still buy 'clap ons' and touch activated lights. Its obvious that people wish to pursue convenience where it is available, and I think that in the near future that this should be one way in which our lives can be more convenient, even if it's only by a small amount.

Built In Smoke Detectors

In any given home the smoke detectors are in a fixed location. Based on the home layout there are certain places in which a detector is going to be found (such as near the stove). Yet, in most cases, smoke detectors are dinky plastic things screwed to the ceiling. They seem to be built under the assumption that people are going to be wanting to move their smoke detectors around from place to place.

This is a problem. The most common reason smoke detectors fail is because their batteries are low. The reason they have batteries in the first place is because they are non permanent fixtures in the home.

There is an easy fix for this. Smoke detectors can be built into the ceiling of homes and apartments. They can draw power directly from the electrical grid. There would be no need to have batteries. There would never be a question of "is there a smoke detector there?"

The easiest thing would be to install them while the home is being constructed. However, if there were electrical lines in the ceiling installing it after the fact would be no harder than installing a ceiling fan (easier in fact). As far as costs go, such a device would not run much more expensive than a regular smoke detector. However, the companies who manufacture smoke detectors would likely want to jack up the price because they would not sell as many in the lifetime of a home.

Similar systems already exist in commercial establishments. There is no reason they should not exist in homes.  They could save lives.

Integrating Social Networks with Television

I would like to preface todays idea with a disclaimer. I am not a fan of social networking. I have never used Twitter and I maintain my Facebook account only out of a sense of obligation. However, I do try to keep track of the trends so that I can understand the online social climate. I am well aware that many people are fans of social networks. I am also aware that for savvy businesses, social networking can prove to be profitable.

If people are talking on social networks about a television show, its essentially free advertising for that show. It's in the interest of television networks to allow fans to talk about their shows. Every delay between a person watching a show and then posting about it online will reduce the number of people actually post. Today's idea is to break down some of the barriers between the television and the 'cloud.'

Imagine a cable box with an extra button on the controller. Pressing this new button would bring up an on-screen keyboard allowing the viewer to enter text. While not the best input method, it could work for short messages (a few sentences long) much like most 'tweets.' A person could easily update their twitter account while watching TV.

If the box was compatible with social networks that support tags, the cable box could automatically label the update with the name of the show being watched. A Facebook button on the remote could automatically update a person's facebook status to let people know what show they are watching. Another button could list the show as an interest on their profile.

This could even allow for a "I'm bored button" in which the TV would change to a random program currently playing that you might like based on other TV shows that you have listed as liking.

Now this is pretty much all doable just using a computer. However, the point is that removing the necessity of a computer will increase the amount of people who will network about any given show.

Integration would not need to simply be with existing systems. There could be a button to allow the viewer to punch in a number of stars. Such a simple act (presumably it could be done with a single button press) would likely see frequent use.

A large drive with technology in the past years is to make social networking more seamless. A focus of many phones is to allow people to network no matter what situation they are in.

TV networks win. If this idea where to come to fruition they would get greater exposure. Cable networks win.  If they offered this system its something they could use to negotiate better deals with networks and could also attract new subscribers. Viewers win, at least those that like social networking. The only people who don't 'win' are those who don't care for social networking, but they never have to setup their box for it (entering in their Facebook and Twitter username and passwords for example).

Rather than issuing new cable boxes, this idea could also be realized through an 'add on' box. Most cable boxes that I have seen have a USB port. Presumably I/O information could be sent through this port (perhaps with a firmware update) to allow a 'Social Networking Box' to find out what show is currently being watched. The Social Networking Box could have wifi to connect to the internet and come with a special remote control designed with its unique purpose in mind while still allowing regular TV watching.

The only real problem I could imagine is when there are multiple people in the same family. However, ultimately this is not a real problem. This is not the first time I have suggested having multiple profiles on one device (see my Roku/Netflix suggestion). When taking any social network actions a menu could pop up asking which profile to take the action under. These could even be password protected if the user desired. There could also be profile buttons on the remote. There are any number of other ways this problem could be solved as well. Ultimately a creator of such a device would want to experiment with various techniques of allowing profile selection to find which works best.

DC Providing Surge Protectors

Laptops, external hard drives, and desktop PCs have something in common. They all internally run on DC power. In desktop computer AC power is converted into DC for the computer to use by its power supply. In laptops and external hard drives this conversion takes place in the power cord. In particular it happens in the 'power brick' part of the cord.

There is another thing to note about their power sources. The specification of their DC power (the voltage and amperes) are all very similar from device to device. This is because, inside, their hardware is all more or less the same. For example, if you own an external hard drive, you can easily crack the case open and install the drive itself into a desktop or laptop computer (depending on the size). The similarities in power sources are why some companies can sell 'universal' adapters. Really the only big difference between them is the shape of the plug.

Yet all of these devices have their own methods of transforming AC into DC. If two or three family (or more) members have laptops, that can create a large amount of 'cord mess.' However, at any given time, perhaps only one laptop needs to be plugged in. But if another laptop does need power, one can not simply switch cords.

I would like to see a surge protector that has a built in 'power brick.' It would be able to provide the necessary Direct Current to power a laptop for example (this is more than what could be provided through USB).

To plug a computer into the surge protector, a lightweight cord with a compatible plug would be all that would be required. If laptop manufactures could get their act together, their could even be a 'universal power plug' form. After all people 'agreed' on the three pronged outlet.

The surge protector could then easily be used to power a different laptop, or a external hard drive, or any other DC powered device.

Something to keep in mind is that this is also a 'green' option. Rather than having dozens of power adapters around the house, if a single power inverter could serve for many of your devices, there will be less electronic waste when devices are thrown out.

It would raise the cost of the surge protector. There is no way around this. However proprietary power adapters tend to run around $60-$75 dollars. The generic inverter that could be used in the surge protector would likely run cheaper. In the long run this may even save the consumer money. If they are not needing to purchase replacement adapters, it could be worth the cost (In my lifetime I have needed to personally purchase at least 4 replacement adapters because of shorts that developed in their cords. They where shoddily designed, but because of the propitiatory nature of the devices I was using, I had no choice).

However, there is an important thing to keep in mind. Surge protector manufactures could likely make more money by following this. Consumers could save money and gain convenience if this was possible. Device manufactures could even eventually cut manufacturing costs (if such a surge protector was likely to be in every consumer's home and they no longer needed to package devices with power adapters). But I could imagine that device manufactures would see a drop in profits. They obviously make some amount of money by selling power adapters (I do not mean to say that manufactures conspiring to force consumers to purchase an overpriced adapter. They are simply businesses, and business strive to make a profit).  For a manufacture it could perhaps be a loosing proposition if adapter plugs became 'universal.'

Like many other things, I suspect that this idea will not become a reality until money begins to talk. Either consumers would need to make a desire for simpler power management clear, or some company would need to broker an agreement in hopes to strike something big. However, in the meantime I can still imagine how nice it would be to have a surge protector that I could simply plug things into without worrying which cords go to which things.

USB Surge Protector

There is a huge plethora of devices that can be charged through USB ports. Enough that when I am at the airport I notice USB outlets for people to use for charging. Despite this, in our homes we still need to use 'bulky' adapters.

For a long time now surge protectors have had a place to plug in phone cords. They had grown with the times and provided a way for people to protect their modems from electrical surges. However, I would like to see them grow with the times again and offer USB ports for people to charge their mobile devices.

I did a Google search after thinking about this and the closest thing I could find was the following: http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Mini-Surge-Protector-Charger/dp/B0015DYMVO

I don't really consider that a 'full' surge protector. It was designed with travel in mind so people don't need to take their adapters with them. However, why should I have to worry about the adapters while at home. I would like to seem something like this, but in the form of a full strip surge protector for use at home.

There are two large benefits to this. One, you no longer need to worry about the power adapter for any device that can charge through USB. Two, you no longer need to deal with adapter plugs potentially blocking outlets.

I recently saw an article about how to install USB charging ports into wall outlets. Why in the world are they not part of full feature surge protectors? The convenience should be obvious.

It would increase the cost of the surge protector a bit. The protector would need to convert AC power (the type that comes from the mains) into DC power (the type delivered through USB). However, I think this cost would be well worth the additional functionality and would not be hard to market. Virtually everyone has a cellphone. Virtually every cellphone can charge via USB. People would have a use for this feature.

Ultimately, I think it is only a matter of time before we start seeing this become a standard feature in surge protectors.

Tomorrow's idea is going to directly pick up where this one left off. Personally, there is a lot more I think surge protectors could be doing to make life more convenient.  So if you want to play a little game, try to guess what feature I am going to suggest be added into surge protectors tomorrow.

More Entertaining Exercise Machines

Today's idea directly follows from yesterdays.

Many exercise machines at gyms are equipped with lcd screens to watch television and headphone jacks to listen to the TV programs. Using this only to watch TV is a rather limited use of the hardware in the machines.

Rather than needing to take my e-book reader, or an mp3 player to the gym, why can't the exercise machine fill this roll for me. They are already trying to serve other entertainment jobs.

With a little extra computer hardware much more could be done with the displays and headphone jacks. For example why not let the exercise machine be able to play mp3s. It could support flash cards with mp3s. Or perhaps there could be an online service that could be registered for in which users could upload their music and access it from the machines.

Likewise, a person could easily read their e-books on the machines without need for an extra device. Most people likely wouldn't take advantage of this, but some probably would. It could even be marketed to parents as something that encourages their children to read.

If we want to get really fancy, it could have a limited web browser. This use would have additional challenges, but they are nothing that could not be solved with a little thought.

There is obviously a demand for exercise machines at gyms that provide something to do while working out. I see people using the TVs and watching various programs. Why not give people the option of doing something other than just watching TV. Yes it will cost more to add in this functionality, but it also costs more to add in the TVs in the first place. I know I would definitely appreciate such a feature.

E-Book Reader Remote

For a long time now I have wanted to read while exercising on a treadmill. However, up until recently I have never been able to make this a reality. The issue I had with trying to read paperbooks for example was two fold. The first problem is keeping the book open. Keeping the book on my page generally requires the constant use of one of my hands which is awkward while exercising. The other issue is the font size. If the book is being rested on the treadmill's or exercycle's control panel often times its further away from my eyes than I am used to. At this longer distance the words are too small for me to read.

I found a solution recently that works amazingly well. I brought my Kindle to the gym. For those of you not aware, the Amazon Kindle is an electronic device that uses an e-paper display. It is designed to read e-books. There is no need to hold it open to a page as it displays the same page until the 'next page' button is pressed. This solved the first issue. It also allows the font size to be increased fixing the second issue. The cherry on top is that I am also able to put my music on the device and listen to it while reading and exercising.

It almost was perfect.

The problem was the 'next page' button. I was constantly needing to lean forward and press the button. It was not nearly as bad as needing to hold a book open to a page, but it was still disruptive. More than physically disruptive, it broke the mental mindset that I had while exercising.

I was thinking for awhile what a good solution would be. Putting page turning on a timer would be no good. There were a few intense points in my workout where my mind drifted and I found myself needing to reread pages.

Likewise voice activation would not work well. There is too much background noise, and people would quickly get tired of saying "next page" over and over again.

So I decided the best option would be if the device had a remote control. All it would really need to do would go forward and backwards in a book.

To be useful and not a burden or hindrance the remote would need to be small. I almost feel that working it into some sort of sports glove would work best. Clenching the hand could be the next page signal.

Ultimately all the various manufactures of e-book readers need to do is make their device capable of accepting remote signals from paired devices. The design of remotes could be left to third party companies. This could open up their devices to a whole range of new uses.

For example, there is the situation already discussed above. However, another use situation could be allowing a lecturer to discreetly keep his or her notes on the e-book device. For beach goers, the device could be safely kept in a sand/water proof transparent case while still allowing control through a cheap remote control.
I'm sure there are a number of other cases where having a remote for an e-book reader would be useful.

While it may not be intuitive, after all who ever would want a remote control for a book, e-book readers are NOT books. That is why people are willing to shell out money for the devices. However, I know that I would be willing to personally pay a decent sum for this ability in a device.

Snap in Light Bulbs

Screwing in light bulbs generally works just fine. You twist a bit and then the bulb stays in. The process has also given us hundreds if not thousands of "how many blank would it take to screw in a light bulb" jokes. However having to screw in light bulbs is not always ideal.

This thought came to mind while looking at a celling fixture. To change the bulbs I need to stretch out and stand on the tip of my toes. I can certainly accomplish this task. However, it is an uncomfortable pose to maintain while unscrewing the old bulb and screwing in the new one.

It occurred to me, why can't the light bulbs simply snap in? If the sockets were designed with a ridge, the bulb could just latch onto it. The bulb would be constructed with a plastic base (or one of flexible metal if melting is a problem). To remove the bulb a person would just squeeze the base. It would become 'thinner' and be able to move past the sockets ridge. At that point the bulb could slip back out.

People could be concerned that the base of the bulb would become distorted over time causing a bulb to slip out. This is only likely if a person is installing and removing the same bulb multiple times. In the vast majority of cases, light bulbs are installed once and then left until they burn out.

Where this really has potential is in light fixtures in tall ceilings that normally require a poll to change. The poll would still be needed (you have to be able to reach the fixtures after all), but there would be no twisting required.

As mentioned, modern light bulbs are no sort of terrible tragedy, but this seems like a simple redesign that could make changing them a little bit less work.

Digital Equivalent of CB Radio

If you ask most people they would probably tell you that the days of  citizen band (or CB as it is more popularly called) radio's popularity is over. It has been phased out with other, more efficient means of communication. The digital era has made things such as podcasting and text messaging as easy as a press of a button.

However, most forms of digital communication do one of two things. They connect you with people you know, or they connect you with random strangers across the globe. Most forms of digital communication have little regard for geographical location. After all, why should the technology limit it self with such a restriction.

The role that CB radio served in communication has yet to be replaced with a digital equivalent. Many people still use CB radio. However, it has lost the appeal it once had with the mass public. If you want a way to wirelessly connect to strangers in your area (perhaps to hear about road conditions), CB is still the best technology. But it does not have to be.

In the past I have discussed a bit about Ad Hoc networks and wide area WiFi. The details are not overly important, but basically these are techniques that can allow a number of devices to connect to one another over a relativity large area (in some cases over the distance of a city).

There are a number of reasons why these types of networks can be installed (they do exist in some locations).  If a city was equipped with an existing wide area network, a communication protocol could be created to take advantage of it.

This could have a number of advantages over existing CB radio. For one thing it could allow for 'chat rooms.' Even though it could be using voice communication, people could split off into rooms based on what they are using the 'Digital CB' for. For example, there could be one room primarily occupied by people on the road driving and another for people who just want to chat.

This would prevent 'frequencies' from getting 'cluttered.' In fact, if properly engineered, the network could support an arbitrarily large number of chat rooms (in practicality there would be network limitations, but the number of users would likely become an issue before the number of rooms was a problem).

Such a system could even allow people to set up Digital CB profiles. CB handles would simply become usernames. If it was not a privacy concern the network could also give a rough distance to other users.

As the years have passed more people have complained about 'garbage' being on CB radios. This is another area where going digital could help. With a digital system one could easily block any users who are broadcasting useless chatter to you.

Now it is possible, and perhaps even preferable, to 'go digital' without the use of large area WiFi networks. In a sense it would simply be like digital radio. This has pros and cons. The main pro is that such a system could operate even where there was not an existing infrastructure. The con is basically that you would loose out on some of the functionality. Ad Hoc networks would be a type of compromise. This is basically where peoples radios would create a web of communication. Person A's radio might relay a signal through person B's in order to get a message to person C. This method is used to extend internet service in some undeveloped areas where it might not otherwise be available

Perhaps this form of communication, talking with strangers in your geographical area, is a thing of the past. However, it seems to me that one trait of the last two decades is exploration, the exploration of every possible means that there could be to conceivably communicate with one another. People are constantly trying to find new ways technology can let them communicate, and it seems to me that no one has tried this. It might not take off. It is simply reinventing an old form of communication, but wasn't that what email was to begin with?

Double Sided Paper Towel

It would be nice to see a paper towel that was better at scrubbing.

I imagine a towel with two layers. One would be the traditional absorbent material paper towels are usually made with, the other would be a rough material much like that used in the scrubbing side of some sponges. To manufacture them one could even try making rolls of 'ultra-thin' sponge with a rough scrubbing backing.

Each sheet would be thicker so you would get less on a roll. However, it would serve almost as a one time use roll of sponges.

The use application I envision is when some nasty gunk needs to be scrubbed up. The double sided paper towel could be used to scrub it off and then soak up the water. When done a person would just throw the sheet away.

If one were to use a sponge, in many situations they would want to throw it away immediately afterwards even if the sponge is new.

You would not want to use such a product to dry your hands. However, it seems like it could fill a valuable roll amongst cleaning supplies right along side other products such as Clorox wipes and sponges.

Garbage Cans with Removable Bottoms

I think it is safe to assume that most people use garbage bags in their kitchen garbage cans.

However, when throwing away heaver items, or when the can is full, it can be hard to remove the bag. The bag can be hard to lift out of the can either due to its weight or just being stuck.

This is not a show stopping problem by any means. I will also admit that a little bit of forethought can avoid the problem. However there is a solution.

If kitchen trash cans were constructed with removable bottoms the can could be lifted up over the bag. The mechanism for making the bottom removable is not critically important. There are any number of ways to create one. In fact is surprises me that I have not seen a garbage can like this before.

Such a trash can could make trash removal easier for those who have physical difficulty lifting a bag out of a can due to an infirmity. It also means one other important thing. Cleaning a garbage can would be as simple as popping off the bottom and running it through a dishwasher.

It's not a major problem, but the solution is trivially easy.

Window Sensors

How many people with central AC have been in the situation where, after running the AC all day, they realize a window somewhere in their home had been opened the entire day. For me this doesn't happen often, but when it does its like a slap in the face. An open window with the AC running is a great way to waste power.

One of my posts was regarding automated windows in the home that could open or close in coordination with the AC. The large problem for this idea to see a lot of use was cost. This idea is not for a system that would close the windows for you, but for one that would at least tell you if windows are open.

A simple sensor on each window could send a signal to the thermostat. If the AC is on and a window is open a warning light would turn on. This could help prevent the occasional screw up and make it so a person would not need to stop and ask "hmm, are all the windows closed?" Perhaps most important in today's economy, it could save money by helping you ensure all your windows are closed.

An interesting thing to realize is, these sensors already exist in many people's homes. Many home security systems are capable of sensing if a window is open. All that would need to be done is to feed this information into the thermostat.

Instillation into existing homes would not be a complicated process. The cost of installing it would also be relatively low. This is especially true when you consider the fact that depending on where an open window is located relative to AC vents and the thermostat, an open window can significantly hurt the ACs efficiency. Adding in this functionality is simply a smart move.

Better Keyrings

Keyrings are another example of something that has been pretty much the same since it was invented. And like many other cases it is not because there is no room for improvement.

Keyrings most certainly work well. For the most part they do their job. But removing or adding an item from a keyring is far more trouble than it should be.

Now there has been some 'recent' innovation with keyrings. The split-ring-key (http://www.amronexperimental.com/Split-Ring-Key.html) merges your house key with your key ring. But the 'ring' part of the keyring is relatively unchanged.

I've put some thought into HOW I would improve upon the keyring. Some ideas I threw out because, although good, they were too different. In order for people to adopt it, a new and improved key ring would need to have some resemblance to what people are comfortable with. That means maintaining the ring shape.

Other ideas where thrown out because they involved changing the keys themselves. In order for this to work we would need to get everyone who makes keys to agree on this.

Ultimately I decided that a key ring inspired by earrings would be best. They do, after all, manage to stay on ears. The keyring would be a metal hoop with a small gap (like an earring). On end of the hoop would end in a segment with grooves in it so it could act similar to a screw. The other end would have a rotatable washer that could lock onto the grooves. To lock it you would simply squeeze it together and twist. The same action could unlock it.

Simple as that.

However, the fact of the matter is there are simply dozens of ways this could be accomplished. We continue to use the type of keyrings we use, not for an inability to craft better ones, but because we settle for something that ''works.' But why settle for mediocrity when something better is so easily obtainable.

Smarter Commercials

I just saw on TV a commercial for AT&T highspeed internet. Basically the commercial was trying to convince me that their service is faster than whatever service I have and that I should make the switch. But here is the thing. I already have my internet from AT&T. In fact they provide my cable as well.

I feel that if I am going to see a commercial or ad, it might as well be pertinent to my life. This is why I don't mind the targeted ads online. Online advertisers have figured out the game. An ad tailored to the viewer is more likely to result in a sale.

With modern digital cable it is more and more possible to customize commercials to the viewers.

It would require cooperation between the cable providers and the television networks. The providers would need to put forward the technology backbone and the networks would need to change they pitch themselves to potential advertisers.

Let's imagine a hypothetical toy retailer. They are looking to expand their advertising. They already have commercials on all the channels specifically targeting kids. They have a choice between two networks. Network A will just try to show their commercial to all viewers and charge accordingly. Network B will only show the commercial to some viewers, but can get away with charging less (because they can show other commercials to other viewers). The catch is that network B will be showing their commercial specifically to families that have a history of watching kid friendly networking.

It would be simple for cable companies to collect viewing histories to help target commercials. Combine this with other traditional ways of collecting information (like browser cookies) and commercials could be shockingly well targeted.

How effective is it to show commercials for feminine hygiene products to a bachelor, or toy commercials to someone without kids? What if you could be confident that commercials for retirement planning would be showed to people in the age range that they would be considering retirement?

That AT&T commercial, rather than trying to sell me their internet, instead could have been a commercial thanking me for using their service.  Imagine seeing a commercial along the lines of "Thank you for using XXXX as your cell phone service provider. We are dedicated to giving you the best service at the lowest price possible. As always, if you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact us." No information would even need to be gathered for such a commercial. The cellphone company would just need to cross-reference their customer database with the customers of whichever cable services have these 'smarter commercials' in order to figure out who to target.

There is not much preventing this from becoming a reality. There would likely need to be some additional technical upgrades made to existing cable systems, but I think the increased efficiency in advertising would more than make up for the cost. The biggest concern many people may have is the 'invasion of privacy.' The thing is companies don't need to gather any additional information. Referring back to the opening of this post, presumably AT&T knows I receive my internet through them. Is it an invasion of my privacy if they use this information that they already know to customize a commercial for me? Once again, ultimately, if I am going to be watching a commercial, it might as well be pertinent to my life.

Improved Laptop Power Jacks

I have seen a phenomenal number of laptops die because their power jack stopped working. I have also had a large number of power adapters develop a short and need to be replaced. I know I am not alone in having this problem.

The issue is poor design. Laptops have received power from outlets the same way  since they were created. There has been very little variation in how power cords feed into the computer. Virtually every laptop I have seen uses a circular connector. History has shown that this does not work very well.

If the connector comes straight out from the computer there is a good chance the cord will end up being bent frequently. This leads to a short in the power cord requiring that it be replaced. It seems that L-shaped circular connectors do not tend to have this problem as much. However, I am uncertain why these types of connectors are not more universally used. I suppose they provide slightly less freedom in terms of what direction the cord can lay.  I think that this is a small price to pay for not needing to replace an often seventy dollar cord.

However, even computers with L-shaped connectors tend to have their jacks die. The problem is that the jack needs to be soldered onto the motherboard of the computer. Over time, after the power cord has been plugged and unplugged and twisted many times the solder connection begins to wear. Eventually a short develops inside the computer.

The easy solution is to not have a solder connection. Rather than have a jack, a computer could have two metal connectors directly on the motherboard exposed through a slot. A power cord similar in design to the type of plugs we use with AC outlets (only with the prongs lying in the same plane) could be used. The cord would then come in direct contact with the connectors on the motherboard.

A short could develop in the cord (though the chance of this can be reduced based on the design as mentioned above), but the chance of internal damage to this 'jack' or perhaps I should say non-jack would be minimal.

Ultimately we are stuck with an infective, easy to break, design of power jack simply because it is the way power jacks have always been made. However, I never believe that this is a good excuse not to inovate.

Detergent Dispensing Washer

Today's idea is not groundbreaking, but it is still something I would like to see.
It would be mildly convenient if washing machines had a detergent 'tank.' The tank could be filled when empty, and the washer would automatically add the detergent to the wash. Basically it would remove a step from the process of doing the wash. This makes doing the laundry faster (for the person) and easier.

It also means that a container of detergent does not need to be stored somewhere.

The system would need to be designed such that water could run across the tank's surface to prevent the build up of detergent scum. It would also require a method to let an operator know when the detergent was low. A low tech solution to this second requirement is a prominent transparent side to the tank such that the operator could visually see how much detergent was left. There could also conceivably be a more high tech system to actually alert and warn an operator when detergent was low.

As I said above, this would not be groundbreaking. But it would shave some work off of a frequent chore.

Automatically Universal Remotes

There is no good reason why every device in an entertainment center has a different unique remote control. Ultimately it is because each manufacture simply does their own thing and there is no standard.

However, if a standard did exist for RC signals, every remote would suddenly become a universal remote. That is to say, if every TV used the same off signal as every other TV, if every DVD player used the same play signal as every other DVD player, a Sony TV remote would work equally well with a Toshiba DVD player.

Currently universal remote controls need to be programed in with the codes of the devices that you wish to control. This is a tedious process (though some higher end ones streamline the whole thing a bit). If there was a universal standard there would be no need for this. Every remote would, simply by nature of being a remote, serve all of your devices.

Certainly there would be some cases in which a device might have a unique feature that would not be supported by remotes from other devices, however this is frequently the case with universal remotes as well.

All this would require is for some of the major manufactures to agree to a standard. This may not seem feasible to some. However, this does happen all the time in the tech industry. Manufactures are constantly agreeing on security and encryption standards. Electronic communication standards are another big one, and ultimately communication is what we are talking about: communication between a device and remote. Sometimes it can take awhile for companies to agree on standards, but it can and does happen.

The problem is that manufactures need an incentive to do this. Improving customer experience is not enough if it does not mean an increase in profits. Consumers would need to demonstrate that this is a feature that they would want. If consumers voiced a preference for devices conforming to a communication standard to ones that did not, perhaps then manufactures might see profit in agreeing on RC codes.

Static Dust Pan

I do not mind sweeping the floor. But my least favorite part of the whole task is getting the dirt into the dustpan.

Ultimately it's just rather difficult to get the dust to reliably go into the pan.

Looking at the dust pan it is something that has not really changed much in the time since I have been born. There has to be room for improvement. Below is my take on a possible way to improve this old tool.

Dirt and things like pet hair tends to be attracted to things that are statically charged. It would be possible to create a metal dustpan that could be charged by a device in the handle. The device would be battery powered and would statically charge the metal of the pan (there are a number of ways to create a device), but I will not go into technical details. Hair and dust being pushed into the pan would naturally want to stick in it.

When dumping dirt into the garbage the device could then discharge the pan allowing the refuse to fall into the garbage.

Ultimately there is not much to this idea. Its simply a straight forward take on possibly reforming and improving an old standard of cleaning.

Linking Forums with Social Networking Accounts

More and more people are needing less user accounts. There are more and more sites that that users can log into with their gmail or Facebook account. Some sites just make your login name be your email address.

This tends to be useful for both the user and the providers of services. Users do not need to remember additional information and it becomes easier for them to access the sites they care about. For the sites themselves, it increases their traffic flow.

However, it seems to me that this unification of systems has not touched forums. Every forum account I have is completely unique and independent from one another.

It would be nice if, Facebook for example, created a system to associate compatible forum accounts with a Facebook account. From one webpage a user could see responses to his or her posts on all of the forums he or she uses. Someone who likes to check on their different forums daily would have no need to login to multiple sites.

This is the type of ease of use that the internet has been developing for years now. As I said above we can already see similar things happening with other types of content. I have no doubt that eventually I will see a system like this in place. However, there is probably more than just spare pocket change for the first major social network to implement this well.

Ad Delay

Ads are fairly common on the internet. They also tend to be the way that some sites make the majority of the income that keeps them running. This is part of the reason why I do not normally use extensions such as Ad Block. There have even been a few times where I have seen ads that have been useful for me.

The problem is, today many ads are flashy and contain dynamic content. Loading these ads can take up valuable memory and bandwidth. More importantly, on an older or slower computer (such as a netbook), they can temporarily freeze up the computer.

These ads have pushed me to using Ad Block on my netbook, and that is not good for anyone. Because of the design of these ads, sites and the companies who make the ads are 'loosing out.'

But what's the solution. Less dynamic ads are less likely to have people click on them. Is it a lose-lose situation? I don't think it has to be. If web browsers, sites, and ad makers worked together they could be tagged as low priority. Before the computer would attempt to load the ad, the site would need to be completely loaded first. Furthermore it would only load if there was free CPU time to do so.

So perhaps if ads were voluntarily delayed, they wouldn't be blocked. The big reason many people block ads is because of the performance hit. Remove the performance hit and remove the need to block ads.

To encourage advertisers to take this road, extensions like ad block could perhaps be able to make an exception for delayed ads in the preferences.

Anyway, it just seems to me that people are loosing money that they don't have to.

Removable Microwave Panels

Microwaves are great. But inevitably they will get dirty. Over time food will splatter over the interior and eventually coat it in unappetizing crud.

There are covers that one can use for their food to prevent the splatter. These are not necessarily 100% and also require you to actually use the cover. Of course even if you are fastidious in their use, you also need to convince anyone else that uses the microwave that they are a good idea.

Cleaning a microwave is a unpleasant task. Ignoring, for the moment, the unpleasantness of the crud it is difficult. It requires scrubbing surfaces at uncomfortable angles. It can be really quite tiring in fact.

However, it would not be difficult at all to make it such that the interior plastic walls of the microwave were removable. It would be a simple task to design them such that they just snapped into place and came out just as easily.

When they were dirty an owner could remove them and just stick them into their dishwasher. They would want to avoid microwaving until they put the panels back (to avoid dirtying the interior surfaces. But that is a small price to pay to avoid having to clean it by hand.

This would not require people to change their habits (as a cover does), but yet it allows for the microwave to be kept clean. I can think of virtually no drawbacks other than a slight increase in microwave cost. It wouldn't be foolproof of course. If you spilled something in the microwave, it could get between the panels and coat the interior surface (requiring you to clean the thing by hand). But it would keep splatter at bay.

Now many people may not care about the cleanliness of their microwave. However, I suspect those people are not looking too closely when their microwave is dirty.

Track Fans

Today I continue in contemplating ways to keep homes cooler without simply turning on the AC.

Track lighting can be an attractive, unobtrusive addition to a home. What about 'track fans'?

Its basically what the name says. A track is installed along the ceiling and fan units can move along it.

Clever design could make them visually appealing, and their location saves floor space from standing fans and avoids a tangle of cords.

Essentially these track fan units would be like miniature directional ceiling fans.

Finally, there is no reason that these could also not have the lights still in them. Basically you could have a fan blade spinning around a light bulb. They could server to both light and 'cool' your home.

Home Automated Windows

I was sure this already existed. However, searches on the major home automation sites did not turn up any hits.

The idea is automated windows.

Whenever we turn our AC on or off, we need to run around our house like headless chickens closing or opening all of the windows.

An automated thermostat control could judge the exterior and humidity and based on user preferences decide if the AC should be on, the AC should be off and the windows closed, or if the AC should be off and the windows open. A signal would then open or close the windows.

Now the first thought I had is, perhaps these aren't sold as a solution because a lot of older windows can be a bit tough to open. Maybe stuck windows makes this too unreliable. But then I realize, if you are going to be dumping money into a home automation solution, it would not that much of an additional cost to replace the window tracks and fix the windows up.

So what are the best ways to go about making a window that could open and close by itself? Ultimately I think you would need to play around with a bunch of different ideas and decide which one has the best mix of reliability, low cost, and ease to install.

However it seems that there are a couple of general categories that would bear investigation:
Hydraulics/pneumatics - They could be attached to the top of the frame and pull the window up, or be embedded in the wall beneath the frame and push the window up.
Cable with motor - A cable or cables would attach to the top of the window and go up to the top of the frame. A motor could wind up the cable and pull the window up. This option seems like the easiest to install in an existing home as it could just be bolted into the top of a window frame.
Teeth and gears - If the side of the window was covered in 'teeth'  and there where powered gears in the frame, they could push the window up or down. This seems like perhaps the best option, except for a few problems. One, it requires space on either side of the window to be free for installing the necessary parts. Two, it seems like the one most prone to injury if a finger was caught in the teeth.

Tying this into one of my previous ideas, it seems like if it was combined with Integrated Window Fans it could create the ultimate automated climate controlled home.

Perhaps getting this to work would be expensive. But home automation is already expensive. I am just shocked that the major home automation companies do not offer a solution already.

Riding Lawn Mower Trimming Attachment

I was in the hospital visiting a relative when I saw an interesting sight. It seemed to be a riding vacuum cleaner driving past in the hall. The thing that really interested me was the fact that the driver had a hand held attachment. He held a hose that he was using to get the spots along the walls. This got me to thinking.

On riding lawn mowers, often you can not adequately get the trim. You often need to grab a push mower or weed-whacker to complete the edging. Not only does this take longer, it negates part of the convenience of having a riding lawn mower.

It would not be a difficult task to create a weed-whacker that could 'clip on' to a riding lawn mower. The weed-whacker could even draw power (through a cord) from the lawnmower.

When you reached a point that the lawnmower could not properly deal with, you whip out the whacker attachment. If it had a long pole/handle you could do use it from the seat of your mower. Once you were done with the edging, you would just turn the whacker off and fasten it back into place.

This wouldn't be a huge convenience, but I bet its marketable.

Credit / Debit Card Memos

When you write a check, you can jot down a memo on it. This small 'feature' can make it much easier to keep track of what the check was written for.

The problem is, most people don't use checks most of the time anymore. I cannot count the number of times when I was looking at my statement and asked myself "what in the world is this charge?" I then need to go through all my receipts and try to figure out what I was doing around that time. Over 90% of the time they turn out to be legitimate charges. Perhaps I went to a gas station and they routed it through some company in India, or maybe I ordered something online and the charge went through some company in England. Sometimes the names on the statements seem to be little more than random letters, being an acronym for some organisation.

Whatever the reason, the names on a credit or debit card statement are frequently of little use when attempting to track down charges. The ambiguity can make it difficult to be responsible and aware of what is being done with your cards.

There is a simple solution. Credit card and debit cards could allow you to enter memos when using them.

This would be easiest to implement online. Whenever there is an online 'purchase' forum, there simply would need to be an extra box to allow the user to type in a quick note for themselves: "B-day gift for mom","New laptop case","Online Magazine subscription." Basically something to help a buyer remember what those lines on his or her statement represent.

It would be a little harder at stores and gas stations. After all, you don't have keyboards on hand there. You do however, have keypads to enter your pin. Numeric keypads are how people typed text messages for years before phones came out with full keyboards. If I counted right it would only take 6 key presses to type in 'gas' at a gas station. Or perhaps a person simply enters in a 3 letter combination that is their own secret signal to themselves that the charge is legit. It is not the most ideal of ways to do it, but it is relatively easy to implement.

The hardest would be at places like restaurants, where you had your card over. The best way I can think of in this regard is for them to have a 'memo' line underneath the signature line. They would then need to scan that in and send it to your credit card company.

Most places would not need additional hardware. It would simply be a matter of updating the software that deals with the cards. If people don't want to take advantage of it, they would not need to. But for those that did, it could greatly simplify the 'balancing of their checkbook.'

Ultimately this would require two things to happen. Credit and debit card companies would have to put in the system to support this. Then stores, gas stations, online retailers, and restaurants would need to support it as well. The second point would be the harder to enforce. A credit card company could easily require online retailers to have a memo form (or otherwise would not honor any charges) because updating online checkout would simply be a matter of adding one line of code. For other stores, they could provide 'Memo Secure' stickers for retailers to advertise that they are helping customers protect themselves.

Its something that could take awhile to be implemented. But then again, it took awhile for debit card or even credit card support to become widespread. The only way the system will improve is if we begin working to improve it.

'Three Things' - An Educational TV Show

There is a game that tends to be used as an icebreaker when a bunch of people meet one another for the first time. Each person says three things about themselves. However, only two of the things are true. Everyone else needs to guess which one the person made up.

This game could be converted into a TV game show fairly easily.

The average person tends to have a large number of preconceived notions about science that are simply false. Sometimes it happens because a news outlet reports misinformation, or at least unverified information. Other time people fall victim to illusions because of Hollywood. Other times, its simply because the universe doesn't always work in an immediately intuitively obvious way.

The show would be a game show with prizes. Each question would give them 3 options. Sometimes the options would just be facts. Other times they would be clips from a TV or print news source. All the choices would discuss some scientific principle. It could range from statements as simple as 'There is no peer-reviewed experimental evidence linking mercury to Autism' to something like 'tests have shown astrology to be no more accurate than random guessing.' News and print clips would of course be longer.

One of these statements would be incorrect. For news clips, rather than faking a clip, they would take archived footage of a news channel reporting non-science as science. The contestant would need to correctly choose the false statement.

After the answer was revealed, the show would spend a minute explaining why each true fact is true and spend time 'debunking' the false science.

In between questions the show could explain what the difference between pseudoscience and science are, what it means to be peer-reviewed, why 'certification' doesn't mean the same thing as 'credible' and other issues that the viewers may not necessarily know.

I envision such a show as a combination of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' and 'Myth Busters.' Such a show could easily be educational and entertaining. To introduce drama you could include many of the 'lifelines' from Millionaire (probably not the 50/50 lifeline unless you added a 4th true statement). You could also include one lifeline where the contestant is given additional information related to a choice of their choosing that is guaranteed to be factual.

This same format could easily be applied to topics beyond science as well. It could also easily translate into a computer game.

As long as the show was well directed, I could see it being a smash hit.

Bluetooth Enabled Hearing Aid

From people that I know who use hearing aids, I have heard that using phones can be a problem. Apparently in many instances hearing aids are unable to pick up the sound of the phone really well.

One of the reasons that phones can have trouble with hearing aids is because the hearing aid is converting the sound a second time. It is a bit akin to trying to listen to a phone where on the other end the phone is set next to another phone and the sound is coming from that other phone.

However, there is no reason that second step of audio transmission can not be skipped.

I do think that there is a solution. Many people now use Bluetooth headsets while on the phone. In addition to being more convenient than wired headsets, the sound is often clearer than talking on the phone regularly. It is definitely in the realm of possibility for a to feed audio directly to a Bluetooth enabled hearing aid. This would allow for a step where the sound can be garbled to be skipped.

This could work with either a cellphone or specially equipped home phones.

This idea could greatly improve the ability of some individuals to talk on the phone. However, one issue is the 'target' demographic. This solution could require some 'complicated' setup. Bluetooth devices do not automatically pair up and require a bit of configuration. Unfortunately, many of those in the target demographic with weak hearing tend to be uncomfortable with complicated technology.

However, this hurdle is nothing that a focus on user friendly design could not handle.

Better Website Censorship

I am going to start off and say I do not entirely agree with the ethics behind this idea. Or rather, in general I disagree with censorship intended to limit free speech, and this idea would make censoring people who disagree with your viewpoint easier. However, in the same vein of free speech and following the intentions of my website, I am making this post.

There are many sites that censor aggressively. They have admins and automated bots scowering forums and comment sections on their site. They remove any comments that do not agree with their stated viewpoints. They remove anything that questions their logic or the validity of their arguments. Some sites will report blatantly false information as accurate and prevent anyone from saying otherwise on their site.

Inevitably, if the site is remotely popular, this will spawn a backlash. Perhaps people will discuss the censorship on another website's forum. In some cases entire sites are devoted to the suppression of free speech on just website.

Ultimately, the reason this happens is because people are aware that their freedom of speech has been impinged upon. The best way to do this is simply not to let them know they have been censored.

On many sites, when an admin removes a comment it can be a teaching moment. A person can learn 'ok, foul language is not accepted on this site,' or some similar lesson. However, if a site is removing comments because they criticize the site, they are not going to change the posters mind by doing so. Instead the poster will see that his comments have been removed and become incensed.

The way to deal with this is rather than removing 'undesired' posts, simply hide them. The only user who can see a hidden post would be the user who made the comment. There would be no indication to this user that the post has been hidden. He or she has no immediate reason to assume that they have been censored.

Likewise rather than banning someone, he is silenced. Only the admins would be aware of this, and to the silenced user his account would seem to work like normal. However, all of his posts would automatically be hidden. Any personal messages he sent to other users would never reach their recipients. A user who has banned but never realizes it may not be so quick to create a new account to 'troll.'

Now a user who has been 'censored' may eventually grow wise. If he or she has multiple accounts they will catch on quickly. However, the reason many people create multiple accounts is to work around bans or previous censorship. If they are blissfully unaware that no one is reading their comments, they may never bother creating a dummy account.

The other way in which they may grow wise is if they notice that people never seem to respond to their comments. However, it is not uncommon to make a comment on a website and have no one respond to it, even if they can read it. People often skim longer posts and threads and miss some comments. Depending on the situation, I could see a large period of time passing before someone finally caught on. They could, for some time, simply think the other users are bad at reading or paying attention.

If the site wanted to be really tricky, they would have bots that would create automated replies to any threads that a 'banned' user would create. He or she would be the only user who could see these replies. Effectively it creates a labyrinth of a subform to trap 'trolls.' They may eventually learn of the deception and escape, but until they do, they have been neutralized.

To throw people of the trail the occasional thread could be deleted traditionally and the occasional user could be straight up banned. For example if someone used fowl language, they may even expect to see their post removed, and doing so could keep them from being suspicious. The deception, hiding their posts from everyone but them, could be reserved for only the posts that dissent from the viewpoint your site promotes.

Now there could be even larger backlash if users discovered that this technique was used. However, sites that are already censoring opposing viewpoints are already facing disparaging remarks on other sites and this could let them avoid that. Yes, it is deceptive, but many sites do not mind deceptive. Would I ever use such a system on this blog? No. Of course it may be hard to figure out.

On a lighter note, the method of 'silencing' users rather than banning them could be effectively used even on sites that do not try to limit people's expression. Yes, it is still deceptive, but all sites have to deal with trolls. And sometimes a troll isn't someone who disagrees with you but is a legitimate jerk who is disrupting a site and needs to go.

Extended Museum Exhibits

As time goes on more and more people have 'smartphones,' or at least phones with abilities traditionally attributed to smart phones.

While some organizations have begun to take advantage of this fact, many more have not. I will be discussing some ways in which the capabilities of modern phones can enhance old entertainments such as a museum.

There are several ways in which this idea could work. On its most simplest level an art museum, for example, could release a phone app for their museum. While wandering through the museum the phone could figure out what exhibits you are looking at. This could be done in any number of ways including RFIDs, WiFi, bar code scanning, or even image recognition of the exhibit itself.

The app would then pull up additional information about the exhibit, or information related to it. I know I have been in situations at museums where I wish I had had more knowledge at my fingertips beyond what was provided by the signs and placards in the museum. In our theoretical art museum the app could allow you to bring up a bio of the artist, find the location of 'related' paintings, or perhaps see pictures of other paintings by the artist not on display.

Depending on how the exhibit identified itself, this information could either be transmitted from the exhibit itself, or more likely from central server that the app would reference.

Other 'museum like' locations could take advantage of this. A zoo for instance is a prime candidate. The app could pull up all sorts of additional information on the animals on display. It could even mention the 'personal' histories of these animals for those who were interested: when they were acquired by the zoo or born for example. If the zoo had cameras in the animal's pen, perhaps people could then watch the video feed on their phone.

Now, much of this could be accomplished with signs. But it seems to me, the more signs and more text at any given exhibit the less of it will be read on average. This would provide additional information to those who desired it. It is very similar to renting a set of headphones to listen to an audio tour at a museum. In fact, I see this idea as a natural evolution of those audio cassette tours. It would not even be unreasonable for a museum to charge for this app. 

In addition to providing additional information the system could be interactive. The app, in its settings, could perhaps allow for an 'age' preference. This could allow for content to be better targeted to demographics. It would make it easier to create an exhibit that would be both 'kid friendly' while interesting to adults. 

I mentioned earlier that there were several ways that this could be implemented. Now, each museum could make their own custom apps, but this would be inefficient. A great opening for a new product would be for a single company to make such an app (and hardware to be installed at exhibits) and market it to museums. The product could be called something like "Museum Plus."

A unified system used by multiple museums would reduce deployment costs. It would also be better for the end user, as they would only ever need to obtain and learn how to use one app rather than a different one for every museum they attend. I feel the potential profit in marketing such a system worldwide could be quite impressive.

While this idea will not revolutionize anyone's life, it is these incremental steps forward that marks mankind's progress towards  fully integrating technology into out daily existence.

Dream Recording Clock

The best way to remember your dreams is to get in the habit of writing them down when you do remember them. Doing this regularly will cause you to remember more of your dreams. But this can be difficult early in the morning, especially if you are groggy.

My idea is for an alarm clock, that after waking you up, automatically starts an audio recording. So instead of having to grab a pen and paper, you can simply dictate your dream. The system will save the recording to an mp3 file that can then be transfered to a computer.

This little push may be all that some people who want to have better dream recall need.

As an added feature the clock could allow a person to record a message on it before going to bed. The message would be a reminder to do something in the morning. Then, when they are done recording their dream, the message will play. This could be a useful feature just by itself for people that tend to be forgetful while still waking up.

Ultimately something like this would be a niche product. However, I think its a niche that a large enough number of people would appreciate.

Electronic Tupperware

Tupperware has not changed much over the years, but it could be a lot better.

For me Tupperware has two problems. One, at times it can be difficult to know/remember what is inside the Tupperware (especially if you were not the one to 'pack' it), and two, it's easy to loose track of how old the contents are.

My idea is to have Tupperware lids with a slot to 'clip on' cheap LCD displays. The displays themselves do not need to be anything fancy. Really they just need to be capable of showing a single line of text.

A consumer would purchase a 'keyboard' when they first invest in the Tupperware. The keyboard/keypad would be magnetic and could stick onto a fridge. There would be a slot where the displays could plug in. When a display is plugged in, the consumer simply needs to enter in the label they would like to be displayed. To make things more convenient the keypad would automatically append the date to the label.

Simply by looking into the fridge a hungry person could know what was in each container and how old the stuff was.

The displays, when not in use, would dock with the keyboard and would likely be magnetic themselves. The keypad would then charge the batteries that power the displays. As for how the keypad gets this power itself? Perhaps it could be charged off of batteries as well, or integrated into high-end fridges and just draw power from the mains.

The amount of engineering to create such a product would be minimal. Ultimately the key would be in marketing it. But to me at least, this product is useful enough that all you would need to do is let people know it exists.

Restaurant Wait App

After thinking about my last idea for a bit I came to a conclusion. While it would be useful and some places would be honest, there needs to be accountability or else many places will simply fudge the wait times as they do now.

There is a fairly straightforward solution, an iphone or google droid app.

When a restaurant quotes a wait time, the user boots the app and enters in the quoted time. The user then presses another button when they are finally seated. Based on GPS coordinates the phone will try to identify the restaurant and suggest the location, but if it is wrong the user can enter it in manually.

This information would be uploaded to a website and restaurants would be ranked by not only their actual wait time, but also their honesty.

There is also sorts of ways the information could be displayed for users. It could show break downs based on time and day. It could also rank the restaurant with the times normalized by different metrics.

If a particular restaurant is all ready in the database, the average wait and honesty score of a restaurant would come up when the user starts the app.

While it would still be possible for restaurants to manipulate the data, it would be much more difficult and they could not simply 'lie.'

The app could even support comments and reviews of places along with average price per person in order to be a complete solution.

If people used this app, less than honest restaurants might begin to see customers turning away from their door. This method of accountability could encourage honesty with wait times and allow the method I outlined the other day to work to its full potential.

Online Restaurant Wait Time Report

It's annoying to drive up to a restaurant and see a huge number of people and just know there is going to be a long wait. The restaurant probably loves the business, but there is a down side for them. After this happens a couple time at the same restaurant I become less inclined to going back even in the off-hours. They just lost a customer. However, if I knew for a fact there wouldn't be a wait, I might still be inclined to go early. Or if I knew that the wait usually died down past a certain hour, then I might consider pushing back my dinner.

Many restaurants are already digitalizes table assignments and food orders. They punch in when people are at a table, and enter in when they leave. Its not hard to imagine that this information could be entered into an algorithm and converted into a 'wait time.' This information could then be dynamically updated on the restaurant's website.When trying to decide where to go to dinner, you could just load up the websites of your favorite websites and see who has the shortest wait.

If they wanted to be really helpful they could provide past averages based on hour and day. So perhaps at 4 pm on a Thursday night, you see that they have a 45 minute wait at the moment, but usually by 6 pm its only 10 minutes. So you decide to do a later dinner.

I could even imagine people creating a website that would spider crawl the restaurants in the area and reports all the wait times at places to eat within a 25 mile radius of your address.

Now restaurants could just lie. It seems to me that they already do this when you ask how long the wait is. Its obvious why. They don't want you to leave, and if you hang around for a bit, even if the wait is twice as long as they said, you will probably end up staying until they seat you. But if they were honest on the site they might ward customers off before they even arrive. However, I am of the opinion, that they are sacrificing long term business for short term business when they lie about the wait.

A system like this would reward places that can keep the wait time down and are honest about it. The wait will become a point in their favor. If they honestly report when their busy hours are, some people who might just walk away when seeing the wait may instead show up at a less busy time. Meanwhile if a restaurant is always reporting fake wait times, well people will hopefully catch onto that fairly quickly.

Some restaurants would need to upgrade their computer systems (or install them completely) to be able to get something like this to work easily. A system that could not be automated would likely be too much work for a restaurant to be worth it.

I think this could be a great feature. It could help make the decision of where to eat, and I could imagine choosing a restaurant that reports its wait time over one that does not. Ultimately there is very little preventing many restaurants from setting up a an Online Wait Time Report system right now.

Scam Review Site

There are various sites where people can report scams, but thats not what this idea is about.

If you are familiar with Snopes I envision a site in a similar vein. If you are not familiar with it, basically it is a site that investigates and either debunks or confirms urban legends.

The Scam Review Site basically would do the same thing but with scams.

They would look at as seen on TV products, email Scams, and basically anything that seems to good to be true. They could classify things either as Dangerous Rip Offs (for scams that will steal your identity), Total Rip Offs (for scams that charge you for nothing, or contain hidden fees or hard to cancel subscription), Partial Rip Offs (for scams that sell things that sort of work, but not nearly as advertises), and finally Real Deal (for things that seem like scams but aren't).

The site would rely on a combination of independent investigation and user feedback. Ultimately there are likely too many scams out there to deal with them all, but the site would focus on the 'popular' ones of the day.

A good tag line for the site could be "When it seems too good to be true." And that is basically how you would want to market it. The idea you would want to market is that if someone is online and sees something that seems absolutely amazing, and they ask themselves How can they offer such a great deal!, they will then go to the Scam Review Site to find out what the real deal really is.

As I mentioned earlier I have seen websites that talk about scams, but nothing that seems to be comprehensive. And definitely nothing as recognized as Snopes is in its field of urban legends.

It might take a while for the site to gain momentum, but if made accessible and properly marketed, I could envision it being a big hit.

Cruise Control Pacing

This idea is a spin off yesterdays.

Often times as driving I find myself on cruise control and behind another car. I am frequently perfectly happy staying behind the car.

However, there is a problem. I may find myself creeping closer to the car. So I slow down the cruise control by one increment. But now I begin lagging behind. So I increase it a bit, and once again begin creeping up on the car. It is especially frustrating while driving long stretches on fairly open roads.

A nice feature could be a 'pacing' button. A Doppler Radar installed in the front of the car could measure the speed / distance to the car ahead of you and attempt to match speed with it and maintain a steady distance. It could even modify the distance to allow for proper braking time, if need be, based on the current speed.

The system would of course need to have a delay. Otherwise a car speeding by could send your car speeding up. It would have to only react to a signal that has been detected consistently for the last thirty seconds or so.

One issue that this idea could have would be with people who use radar detectors. If the guy in front of you has a detector he may suddenly slow down out of concern that police are nearby, and that could be annoying.

I could also see this idea adding a not-insignificant cost to the cruise control system. This minor improvement may not be worth the cost.

However, if it could be done for a reasonable price, it could remove another annoyance from the road.

Dynamic Cruise Control

Cruise Control is a nice feature.

It makes driving the car less work and more fuel efficient.

However there are certain times when it is annoying to have to adjust it. One of these is when the highway curves. Generally when taking any significant turns you want to reduce your speed to continue driving safely if the road is not banked.

I would like to see a cruise control system that would dynamically reduce the speed while the wheel is turned. When the driver straightens back out the speed would pick back up.

The system would likely have a threshold so that it would not activate while passing another car. The system could also include a sensor to detect if the car is at an angle. This could be used to tell if the car is on a banked road. If the road is banked the system would not have to reduce the car's speed as much.

For people who did not like the cruise control automatically adjusting the speed a switch under the dashboard could turn the feature on and off.

A dynamic cruise control could make using cruise control more convenient and safer.