Inventions
Last night, I was trying to get to sleep (why is that so freaking hard to do lately? I used to hit the pillow and then Zzzzzzzz) and I started thinking about various things my father claimed to have 'invented'. Although completely unverifiable because the ideas stayed in his head, the list is quite impressive. My mother has corroborated some of these claims, admitting that he did, in fact, think of it first.
- Tethered pacifier for babies, so when they spit it out it just hangs around their neck instead of hitting the floor.
- Screw tops for soda bottles, when they still needed a bottle opener
- Flip-tops for toothpaste, upon seeing the flip-top brilliance of Hunts Tomato Ketchup. It took them years to do this after he thought of it.
- Coining the term "Whiz" when referring to urination
I know there's more, but I can't think of them at the moment. Anyone else have crazy "My father invented..." stories?
For posterity, here's some of the things I myself claim to have "Invented," although the ideas will stay lodged in my brain until someone else patents them and bets the farm on the idea. I wonder, is there something like a GPL for patents?
The "Sorry Light"
What is road rage all about? Are all of us really this angry? What is it about other drivers that piss us off so much we risk not only our own lives, but killing others around us by flying off the handle in our $10,000 death traps?
Walking the streets of New York for a few years has taught me the answer: communication. Why is it that people can walk crowded streets, get jostled, push others (gently) when they need to get by and/or get on a train, and yet we're not all knocking eachothers lights out? The simple fact that we can, and generally do, say "I'm sorry."
This little idea could potentially end road rage for about $10. A small, green light (LED+green bike reflector) which you glue to the back of your car, accompanied by a small remote control which is placed conveniently either on your dash or on the "spoke" of your steering wheel.
Pressing the button lights up the green disk on the back of your car, indicating to your fellow travellers either "I'm sorry" or "thank you," in context.
Sure, the assholes would abuse it, but it still lets off some steam to think that, maybe, they didn't mean to cut in front of you, or misjudged the distance. It's also nice to get a big wave from someone when you let them in - this would make "waving" all that much more common, since it will be safer and easier.
The Synapse System: type anywhereI really should get a patent for this one, before it gets stolen. I'll say right here that all work on this page is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.. There's more information available through the links at the bottom of this page if you're interested.
The idea: RFID tags glued onto your fingernails + bracelets with three sensors each to triangulate the position of the tags = type anywhere, any time, without a keyboard.
Minimal signal processing hardware and a clever algorithm should be able to translate the motion and position of the individual RFID tags into keystrokes, which can then be transmitted via IR or bluetooth to a palm, cellphone, or any other PDA. A small, wrist worn display can show conversations as they happen, keeping your chat convenient and silent, and avoiding VR headset or HUD technology to be a necessary part of the equation.
The cool parts:
- Type anywhere with speed and accuracy using the familiar Qwerty layout.
- Silent, almost motionless communication
- Unobtrusive hardware make system ideal for all day wear.
I've got a few others, like a "warning system" for cars which allows you to rate the other drivers around you, but they depend on either nation wide mandates for equipment to be installed, or voluntary participation on a mass basis (possibly spurred by potential insurance reductions?) but, since most of my other ideas are half baked, I'll leave them undocumented.
