December 2009
9 posts
Down with the monopoly: Scientific Publisher...
Come on, disk space is practically free these days. Server where scientists can upload research papers so anyone can download them for free. Come on, $30 to read if orally administered baking soda increases race horse performance, with not a cent of that going to the author…wha!?
Obvious use of an idea that I want right now:...
For a useful reference manual, you need to be able to quickly get to the topic you’re trying to review or equation you’re trying to look up. This is PERFECT for a touch screen with a slick collapsible interface. Allowing an engineer to have all of his references, with all of his notes in digital form, able to upload/back up would be great.
Maybe the business would be some software to...
Idea: Music box player piano
Just that. A mini mechanical piano that uses keys to move levers to excite the teeth on a music box comb. Ideally, it would allow recording and playback with a few solenoids tied to the keys. That way, you could record and play back your own music.
Obvious Idea: Suspension Power
For an electric/hybrid vehicle:
Use an electromagnet placed in the suspension to recharge the battery, or apply power to the motor directly (whichever is the most efficient). The current from the electromagnet would be the current going to the electric motors.
An additional benefit would be electronic control of the suspension “dampening” forces. Since the maximum force would be at...
Idea: Rotational micro ratchet
Maybe useful for MEM’s.
I saw a TED show about a man with a broom handle and a weight. The weight had bristles so, when the handle was vibrated, the bristles would “ratchet” against the handle and move the weight up.
I think it would be better use rotations for this concept since you wouldn’t have to add tension waves.
Bristles would be angles and make contact with the...
Idea: The Wall Of/Off Topic!
Something like a digital picture frame that listens in on your conversation using fairly crappy (crappier the funnier the results) voice recognition to try to get a gist of what you’re talking about. Whatever the topic, it would show relevant pictures and video (probably muted) about whatever it heard.
It could use youtube, flickr, google image search, etc.
Ideally, it wouldn’t...
Idea: Auto Drift RC Car
Little RC car that drifts by itself. Would need a gyro or accelerometer and electronic compass. Would end up being a stability control system.
It would be intended for kids that couldn’t actually drift an RC car, but could let them have fun before they got bored (more likely) or help them learn by having different levels of assistance.
And yes, people already drift RC cars…although,...
Idea: Online bill pay service
Middleman service that charges $10/month or so to pay your bills, with a nice, easy to use “click buttons to pay” type interface. Bank interface sucks, plus you have to log into your account…which I hate to do since I don’t trust that my computer is hacked-free…and there’s no reason to log into a secure account like that just to pay a bill. Since you’re...
Idea: Average Animals
I saw an interesting project at http://www.faceresearch.org/demos/average. You take multiple images of people that are mostly of less than average attractiveness and make very good looking people.
It would be interesting to see what average animals would look like. This could be extended to families of animals and up, possibly to find what the average animal looked like for a given phylum or...