Where
Things Work RightWhere
Things Work Right
** New ideas added 03/15/05 starting at number 173.
173. The Dorian Gray Computer Monitor -
Control your stress now for a better you later.
The Dorian Gray computer monitor would have a running picture of how you'll
look in the future if you maintain the
stress level a sensor built into your mouse is registering. A camera
on the monitor would combine your current
appearance with the stress level to produce a dynamic picture of the future
you. If you don't like what you see, you
can relax and a less wrinkled version of you will appear. Kind of
a visual biofeedback machine. See link for an
example of the kind of program that will make this possible.
174. Right-handed Races -
Taking advantage of handedness to set new records.
People who bet on horses have recently begun to take handedness (which
the horses have) into account when
placing their bets because it's been shown to have an impact on how they
perform on different tracks. Since most
human track events are run on racetracks in a counterclockwise direction
it would be interested to run a few
clockwise to see if taking advantage of our handedness would set new records.
175. Kick Start Lawnmowers -
There are pull-start lawnmowers where you pull on a chord to get them started,
and electric ignition mowers where
you turn a key to get them started, but there aren't any kick-start mowers
as far as I can see (they'd start the same
way you used to kick-start a motorcycle). This would provide an option
that could be priced halfway between the
pull-start and electric start versions for those can't afford an electric
start model and don't want to pull a muscle
getting the manual model started.
176. NCMM News Channel -
Not Covered by the Major Media News Channel
There are a lot of non-mainstream news sources on the net (guerilla news
network, above top secret, news is free,
etc...) but no non-mainstream news shows on TV, at least not in the U.S.
Even the net news sources contain a lot
of redundant material.
A new cable TV channel could fill in the gap. Its sole purpose would
be to provide news stories that haven't been
covered by the major media in the country the channel is broadcast from.
For instance, stories on the BBC that
weren't covered by either NBC, ABC, or CBS in the U.S. would be shown on
the U.S. version of this channel,
along with other stories from other countries. The British version
would show stories that the U.S. (and other
countries) covered that the BBC didn't cover. If any of the stories
were picked up by one of the local major media
outlets then it would immediately be dropped from the NCMM channel.
This way we'd get to see news that didn't
make it into the top 10 or 11 daily stories that the major channels were
able to deliver during their limited on-air time.
177. Invisible Houses -
They can't break in if they can't find the door.
If Bill Gates can have the wallpaper inside his house change according
to his mood, then there's no reason other rich
people couldn't take the next logical step and make their whole house invisible
using adaptive camouflage (see link).
That way when they turned the system on any would-be burglar would have
a hell of a time finding the front door,
giving them fair warning that someone was trying to break in. If demand
for these systems was high enough maybe
their price would come down enough for us all to afford one. That way when
you looked down any street all you'd
see is scenery - no houses.
178. Eskimo Crow Farmers -
An opportunity waiting to be taken?
Since crows have shown that they can be taught how to fish maybe Eskimos
could rise above the poverty level by
using them to create ice-fishing farms. The Eskimos would cut the holes
and set the lines, then leave the crows to
tend them. A single crow could watch far more lines than a single Eskimo.
Part of the proceeds from the fish crop
would go toward paying for whatever kind of treat it takes to keep a crow
happy and fishing.
179. Ferrofluidic Beds -
Wake up the hard way.
Instead of waking up to an alarm clock a timer would be built into this
new version of a waterbed that was filled with
ferromagnetic fluid instead of water and which would slowly, or quickly,
harden until it was rock solid by the time the
alarm was set to go off. The rate of hardening could be adjusted via a
second dial designed for that purpose.
Just thought of another feature - the bed could be sectionalized similar
to the ones of the market are now so each
spouse can adjust their side to the level of comfort they desire. If the
same feature was incorporated into this bed then
a different alarm could be set for each side of the bed, thereby letting
whoever gets to sleep late continue sleeping
instead of getting woken up by an audible alarm.
180. Regions -
Combining favorites from each region.
Unlike restaurants that specialize in a category of food (steakhouse, fish
house, etc...) or an ethnic variety of food
(Chinese, Thai, etc...) this restaurant would cater to people who moved
here from somewhere else. Its menu would
include one or two items from each region in the country (or countries,
depending on how high the immigrant
population was). There would be Cleveland Chili, Philly Cheesesteaks, New
England Fried Clams, etc...
181. Pavlov's Dancing Shoes -
These shoes would be for people who wanted to learn how to dance for special
occasions like weddings but didn't
want to go to all the trouble of actually taking lessons. When the music
started a microphone in the heel would
determine what kind of song was playing and the dance step that would best
suit it. Then it would start sending
vibrations inside each shoe so you'd know which way to move it. A pulse
on the left would tell you to keep moving
that foot to the left until the pulse stopped. A pulse on the right would
tell you to move the foot to the right. A pulse
on top would tell you to lift your foot, a pulse on the bottom to put it
back down. The shoes would also keep track of
how far apart they were so they didn't end up making a short man do a split
during a serious dance. I know these
wouldn't be very romantic but at least you'd look less dorky.
Since the shoes would know what dance they were supposed to be doing they
could compensate for reaction time
by giving the signals a second or two ahead of time. They'd know whether
or not they were keeping up with the music
too so they could dynamically adjust their cues.
182. Phone-controlled Traffic -
A 6-month experiment aimed at speeding up traffic.
I was watching an animation the other night of cars traveling on a circular
highway. It showed what almost everyone
knows - that cars head into the jam faster than those leaving the jam,
increasing the size of the jam itself. It also
showed how changing lanes works on a similar principle to cause jams -
the car you jump in front of has to slow
down while the car in the lane you just left can't speed up as quickly
as you do.
With that in mind, here's the experiment. Right now in California, among
other places, they're monitoring the location
of cellphones on the highway to help spot jams as they occur during rush
hour. The same technology could be used to
detect lane changing (your position would get noticeably out of alignment
with the 2 or 3 lanes of traffic represented
by the rest of the signals) and a temporary law would be enacted to ticket
people who changed lanes more than 'x'
number of times during rush hour. The tickets would automatically be mailed
to the homes of those who owned the
cellphones. If an accident was causing a jam so changing lanes really became
necessary then the monitoring program
would cancel all outgoing tickets for that time period. A 6-month trial
should be long enough to see if this speeds up
rush hour traffic. Sensors that already exist on many highways measuring
average speed could be used to provide an
objective evaluation on the merits of this idea.
183. DEET Sheets -
There are a lot of people living in hot climates who can't afford central
A/C but who can afford sheets. This idea is
for a new line of insect repellant sheets that would help them get a better
night's sleep. The sheets would be treated
with the same odorless chemical as the the clothes in the Buzz Off clothing
line (see link), keeping mosquitos and
other irritating night biters away.
184. Easter Island Bonus Heads -
Your own personal Mt. Rushmore.
Forget the blue ribbons, cheap plaques, and bronze trophies - if I've done
something good for a company I want an
award that will last longer than a couple of hundred years. This
new business would provide one. For the right price
they'll let companies buy a spot on a mountainside for the face of the
employee(s) of their choosing. If you're rich
enough you could even pay for your own spot. That way thousands of
years from now people will still be able to see
what you accomplished.
 |