Where
Things Work RightWhere
Things Work Right
** New ideas added 05/25/08 starting at number 311.
311. World of Warcraft Psychiatrist -
An avatar for the addicted.
There was an article in the paper recently about women who feel like widows
because they're spouses have
been sucked into the world of computer-gaming and stay online for 18 hours
or more at a time. A smaller
percentage of men also feel the same way when their wives get sucked into
the games (the ratio is about 70/30).
This is idea is for there to be a computerized avatar specifically designed
to watch for addictive behavior and
confront the character online, reminding them that tasks in the outside
world, like feeding their kids, need attention.
If the gamer ignores the reminder then the psychiatrist could attach wires
to their avatar and give it a little electroshock,
disabling it for a couple of hours. I'm sure there are more amusing ways
the psychiatrict avatar could bring the
addict back to reality but I'll let someone else think them up.
312. Immigrant Wizards -
Clash of the avatars.
After reading about the variety of online games out there and the rise
of player-created content it occured to me
that it might be interesting if someone created a gateway between games.
The gates could appear as normal doors,
caves, hatches, etc.. but when you went through them you'd find yourself
in another game. You might be a wizard
in one who suddenly finds himself in a full-fledged firefight in Halo.
Avatars in Everquest could find themselves suddenly
in World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft avatars could suddenly find themselves
in Halo. This would open up a whole
new market for player-created content because you'd need new weapons to
offset whatever weapons were being used
in the world you stumbled into. It would also be interesting to see
what happens when a soldier decked out in full metal
gear with his buddies in one game are suddenly confronted by a wizard who
dropped in from another. To sum up, this
would be a gamegate along the lines of stargate.
313. Cellphone Honker
When cellphones collide.
Since many areas refuse to ban the use of cellphones while driving we could
at least make them safer by equipping them
with a proximity warning system. The system would track the distance
between a cellphone in an oncomming car versus
any that were moving perpendicular to it. If the perpendicular phone
kept moving so it would enter the path of the oncomming
car a loud honking sound would be emitted into the earpiece of the cellphone
being used by the perpendicular car. If they
stopped moving the honking would stop and they could continue their conversation
(assuming they didn't stop right in the path
of the oncomming car). Phones that were being used by cars legitimately
merging with traffic would need a more sophisticated
algorithm to determine if the user was likely to cause a collision.
314. Octupus Vacuum
Because I hate lifting chairs out of the way.
This would just be a regular vacuum clearner with a bar across the front
that contained several retracted appendages until you
reached a spot where there was a chair or something else you didn't feel
like moving out of the way. At that point you'd press a
button and the appendages would roll out on extenable tubes and swirl around
whatever was in the way like mini roombas on a
leash. When the area was clean you'd let go of the button and the
appendages would retract again, transferring the air intake back
to its normal route.
315. Commercial Storylines
Get rid of the choppiness.
One of the thing that's irritating about commercials is that they jump
from one thing to the next in spastic leaps. I might pay at least
a little more attention to them (a little, not much) if they were connected
into some sort of storyline. For instance, there's one about
Plavix saving the fire chief from a blod clot and another about firemen
relying on Dell batteries when they were in dangerous situations.
They could connect the two by showing the same scene where they're running
out of the building and going up to fire chief Jim who
was still there to greet them because he hadn't been felled by a blood
clot thanks to Plavix. If nothing else the seques might make
commercials more amusing.
316. Stop the Stink
Microwave burnt smell detector.
This idea is for a simple sensor to be added to microwave ovens that could
pick up on the continuum between well-done popcorn and
burnt popcorn, and automatically shut the oven off before it reached the
high end of the continuum. It could save cities like Seattle from a
lot of the false fire alarms they've been getting..
317. Shark Alert Surfboard
Something to do while waiting for waves.
I don't surf but I think if I did I'd probably wonder what swimming below
me every now then. The Shark Alert Surfboard would answer
that question. It would have a new kind of fish finder embedded in
it near the front, with the screen being flush with the board's surface.
It
would be programmable using a remote controller so no dials or buttons
would be needed. Unlike other fish finders this one would have a
size selection feature. You could set if for anything from 1 to 100
feet. Once set the fish finder would display a blank screen until
it found
something that was the same size or bigger than your setting. At
that point it would show you the fish, flashing bright red to catch your
attention.
Depending on how big it was and what you thought it might be you could
either just stop dangling your arms and legs in the water, or paddle
like hell for shore.
318. Mood Teeth
Grillz with attitude.
Since teeth grills are becoming more and more popular it's time to take
them to the next level. This would be an LCD-enabled grill that could
contain a downloadable set of teeth tones. Pressing a small button
on the one covering a molar would let you flip through the teeth tones
until
you found the one you wanted. For example, if you were mad you could
hit the button with the side of your tongue until the grillz was a bright,
blood-red color. Or had each tooth displaying a flame. If you
were playing with your kids you could have a bunch of smiley faces pop
on and off.
319. The Soccer Ball Universe
Where's the other bald spot.
One of the ideas making the rounds of cosmology at the moment is that the
universe might be shaped like a soccer ball. Instead of exiting the
universe when you reach an edge you'd just come back into it at the exact
same spot on the opposite side. Astronomers are looking for matching
clusters of stars in opposite directions now to see if they can confirm
the theory. It seems like they might be able to accomplish the same
thing by
looking for a billion light year wide bald spot in the opposite direction
of the one they've already found. (This spot is devoid of stars.)
320. Baby Train
Modular strollers.
I recently heard a story about a woman who has 3 kids aged 2, 1 and
a couple of months old. She can't afford a three-seat stroller so
her travel
options are pretty limited. It seems like the cost of these strollers are
high because the market for them is low. A modular stroller design
should
make things more affordable. The base unit would be a single stroller.
Additional units could be hooked on as needed, sort of like a train, with
the body of each being locked together and the wheels being free to roll
the way shopping cart wheels do. This way manufacturers wouldn't
have
to go out on a limb when forecasting how many double and tripled strollers
to make. They'd just make the base and a reasonable amount of add-ons.
The parents would also get the added benefit of not having to buy a smaller
stroller when one of the kids gets too big. They could just unhook
the
modules as they become unnecessary.
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