Where
Things Work RightWhere
Things Work Right
** New ideas added 01/15/05 starting at number 138.
138. Saving Superman -
Let's keep bed sores from killing the next one.
Driving down the highway today I started wondering why truckers never get
bed sores on their butt. The answer
of course is because they keep shifting position. From there it was
a small leap to Superman, aka Christopher
Reeves, and his recent death as a result from complications arising from
bed sores. It seems to me with all of our
technology it shouldn't be too hard to create a thick, weight-sensing mat
that could sense where the most weight
was currently being applied against it and gently shift the body to put
that weight on other spots every hour or so to
keep bed sores from forming. A carseat type mat could also be created
along the same lines for use in wheelchairs.
These devices would quickly pay for themselves when used on paralyzed patients.
Nursing homes would have lower
labor costs because they wouldn't have to manually turn patients as often,
and insurance costs would go down as the
number of deaths by bed sore decreased (fewer lawsuits).
Speaking of money, rich folks wouldn't be satisfied with a common mat though,
so we could create half of a
sarcophagus to cradle them and shift them over a greater side-to-side and
front-to-back range.
139. Speaking of Stars -
It's time for a night-sky makeover.
Tradition gives constellations names based on what the ancient saw when
they looked up at the sky. Seems like it's
about time we had a pair of night goggles that could take in the view and
connect the dots to give us new pictures
(for those who don't want to use their own imagination). If the pictures
were amusing enough we might even
remember where the stars are supposed to be the next time around.
140. After-the-fact Security -
Nullifying the advantage of stolen uniforms.
There was an article in the paper the other day noting that 1000 Canadian
security uniforms and badges had been
stolen and some of them were showing up for sale on eBay. There's an easy
way to make them useless to terrorists
and the like - just sew RFID tags into the remaining uniforms and put scanners
at the entrances to secure areas. If
someone tried to go through without a tag, or they'd sewn their own tag
in with a number that didn't match one of
those on a secure database, then an alarm would be sound. They make these
tags strong enough to go through
sterilizers now so there wouldn't be much chance that they'd get damaged
in a washing machine or dryer (that's how
they track reusable surgical gowns now).
141. The Gecko Fire Escape System -
The attached link describes how polymers were used to imitate a gecko's
clinging ability. It cautioned against trying
to climb a building by making a pair of gloves out of them though because
the pads would wear out after a few steps,
so to speak. We don't need gloves to get out of skyscapers during
a fire though, we need mats with gecko-like
fibers on both sides. During a fire the mats would roll all the way
down from their rooftop cases to the ground, their
undersides forming a tight bond with the walls of the skyscraper as they
went. As soon as they were completely
unrolled people trying to get out of the building could open the windows,
release a narrow catwalk built into each
windows casement (designed as either a fold-out or slide-out), walk over
to the mat, and then crawl down it. Since
there would be plenty of surface area available they could make sure each
body part was securely attached to it
before moving an arm or leg. Fire drills would have to be held ahead
of time to get people used to these fire escapes.
Maybe they could practice by climbing up the building.
142. Freshwater Chunnel -
A project in Boston nicknamed 'The Big Dig' has been in the news lately
because of the numerous leaks that have
sprung up in the huge tunnel they built beneath the city. In Tampa,
Florida there's a de-salinization plant that's costing
a lot more than was projected due to unforeseen design problems.
If we put the two troubled projects together there's an idea that England
and France might be able to use if water
shortages are ever a problem - enhance the Chunnel so it can double as
a de-salinization plant. It would surely be
more cost-effective than the plant they've built in Tampa. For one
thing, saltwater wouldn't have to be pumped into
the plant. The water pressure above the Chunnel would force it down
into pipes added to the Chunnel. The pipes
would have filters on them, using reverse osmosis to convert the saltwater
into freshwater. Other than the pipes, all
we'd need to do is build a pumping station on each end of the Chunnel to
pump the freshwater out (via new pipes
that were built into the Chunnel, not the Chunnel itself of course).
If the intake pipes were put near the center of this system then we'd also
have a more economical way to get rid of
the salt that's been extracted. Periodically the intake valves could
be reversed and the pumping stations re-directed
so water flowed backwards to flush the system out of the system.
Then ocean currents would carry the salt away to
keep piles of it from building up near the pipes.
143. Forced Sanity -
For the schizophrenics we love.
A common problem with severe schizophrenia is that the people who have
it stop taking their medication once it
starts working. One of the reasons they do this is because as soon
as they feel normal again they don't think they
need it any more. In severe cases they have to be hospitalized for
their own protection (and sometimes our
protection in the case of paranoid schizophrenia).
We could fix this problem just by combining two technologies - the ankle
bracelet designed for people on house
arrest and the ultrasonic patches designed for drug delivery. The
bracelet would have a 30 day supply of medication
in it that would automatically be administered through the skin without
needles (see link for details). At the end of the
30 days the patient would come in to get the bracelet refilled. How
can we be sure they'd do this since they don't
refill their prescriptions now once they start feeling good? Simple - we
make them feel not good after the 30 day
period is over. You see, there'd be two drug chambers in the bracelet,
one for whatever drug they were supposed to
be getting, and one for a drug that would make them feel slightly nauseous
after the 30 day period was over (once a
day at random times). The discomfort they felt would be similar in
intensity to morning sickness and would be enough
to get them back in for a refill. (In answer to the question of why
we don't just give them pills and let the bracelet
take over after 30 days - they'll simply toss the pills.) By creating
a medicine bracelet that worked like we'd be able
to let people with severe cases of schizophrenia back out on the street
again without fearing for their safety or ours.
Given the choice between being locked up or being let free with the bracelet
on, I think the schizophrenics would opt
for freedom too.
144. Dragonfly Hat -
We're just about there.
Considering the rapid progress we're making in the area of miniature flying
robots (see link) and the ability to control
them using Bluetooth technology, it seems like we should be able to keep
mosquitoes away by disguising a couple of
these mini-robots as dragonflies and have them continually fly in circles
around us. The flight pattern would come from
the wireless control built inside the rim of the hat.
145. The Moon's a Balloon -
Even I don't like this idea.
Take one dirigible, paint it black, and mount a huge, moon-shaped sign
on it, complete with the shadings you'd
normally see when looking at the moon. The ship should be able to
go high enough to make it indistinguishable from
the real moon to a casual viewer. Every now and then a man appears
on the moon waving a flag that says 'Buy
brand x beer." The price of having this ruin the night sky might
be partially offset by the romantic aspects of having
two or more moons floating around up there (although that little guy popping
up might kill the romance).
146. Nerd Safety Zone -
Not everyone is cut out for the gang life. Even the gangsters will admit
this. There are always little brothers, little
sisters, sons, or daughters who just don't have what it takes. Some of
these kids are extremely smart though and
could succeed in another environment. The Nerd Safety Zones would be that
kind of place.
Here's how it would work. The leaders of each gang would be given the chance
to send any of their younger siblings
(who qualified with an above average intelligence) to a new school in the
Nerd Safety Zone. There would be several
houses in the Zone for these kids to live in while they were going to school
there and each house would be staffed by
one or more of the grandparents who came from the same area (giving the
old folks a source of income). Both the
school and the houses would be surrounded by a high wall to prevent accidental
deaths via drive-by shootings. Gang
members could visit their siblings whenever they wanted to with the understanding
that no weapons or fights were
allowed inside the compound. Part of the sales pitch to the gang members
would be that by letting their brothers and
sisters get an education and a way out of poverty their siblings could
help move their mothers to a better
neighborhood down the road once they were out of it themselves and earning
a good living.
Sounds more than a little idealistic but who know, it might work.
147. Window Sharing -
Change neighborhoods with the flick of a switch.
These windows would show you what you normally see outside in normal mode.
In shared mode though you could
pick a house anywhere on a world map (like that used to show where halfbakers
live) and the scene outside your
window would immediately change to whatever's outside the house you chose,
(directionally mapped and
frame-adjusted so it makes sense) . The technology for doing this could
easily be adapted from that used in the
invisibility cloak seen in the link below.
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