On this web page, you will
find some things that don't currently exist (at least to my knowledge),
though I think they
should. However, I'm not an engineer or a businessman, so I
won't be making any of these ideas reality on my own. But if you
want to
do it, I encourage you. I don't even ask for any of the money or the
fame. I simply want my ideas to make a significant positive difference
in the world.
Extended
Turn Signals
Imagine the
following situation: You're driving nice and fast in the left lane of a
major highway, enjoying a good song on the radio. Then you see a sign
indicating that your exit is one mile away. Oh no! You have to cross
over four lanes of traffic in less than a mile.
You immediately
activate your right turn signal,
check your mirrors and look over your shoulder. Wonderful... The lane
on your right is clear, so you move over.
Now there's a
truck in the next lane who is
currently in your blind spot. Since there's nobody ahead of you, you
push the accelerator. In a few seconds, you have cleared the truck, and
you move into the next lane. That's two down, two to go.
Now you have a
similar situation: there's a sports
car in your blind spot. Again you hit the accelerator. But the driver
of the sports car sees your right turn signal, so he speeds up to keep
you from getting in front of him. With a sigh, you tap the brakes to
let him pass you, and then you switch lanes.
This time, the
convertible on your right is slightly
ahead of you, but there's plenty of space behind it. So you tap your
brakes and let the convertible pass. As you're about to switch lanes,
you suddenly see that the car behind the convertible has sped up in
order to prevent you from getting in front of him. You shout curse
words at him as your exit passes by.
Does that scenario
sound familiar? But what can be done
about it?
Well, here's my idea. Let's add a second right turn
signal (and a second left turn signal) to your car. The meaning of a
single
flashing light doesn't change; it means you want to switch lanes or
turn. But if you activate both of the lights on the right (or left),
that doesn't mean that you just want to switch to the next lane. It
indicates that you want to move to the next lane AND THEN switch lanes
again or turn. Then, wouldn't that SOB in your blind spot be more
likely to let you enter his lane in front of him, since he knows that
you'll be moving to the next lane soon, and he'll be able to speed up
after you go? And how about that convertible? If he knew you were
trying to exit, and he saw the exit just ahead, he might have had
compassion and let you through. Or, more likely, he might have been
worried that you would do something stupid in order to catch the exit,
like swing across both lanes when there was barely enough room to do
it. He might wisely drive a little more defensively until you were gone.
Another way the additional turn signals could be
used would be in a situation where a stoplight has two lanes for
turning left. If you are in the rightmost of these two lanes,
approaching the stoplight, and you have your left turn signal on, it is
ambiguous. It could simply mean that you will be turning left at the
intersection. Alternatively, you might be signalling a lane change to
the left, before your reach the stoplight (and then, of course, you
will turn left at the intersection). In any event, the additional signal
provides you with the ability to give more useful information to the
drivers around you.
Networked
Clocks
Personally, I
don't understand why they're still selling clocks that are unable to
receive a signal from the network to tell them exactly what time it is.
It really annoys me when the electricity goes out, even for only a few
seconds, because it means that I'll need to set several different
clocks around my home. The battery-powered clocks are unaffected by an
electricity outage, but they run slow, so I have to reset them
periodically, too. But I never have to fix the clock on my cell phone,
because it gets the exact time via wireless signals. Now I ask, why
can't all clocks do that?
Smart
Snooze
The snooze button on alarm clocks is
a clever idea, but there are times when you keep pushing the snooze
button whenever the clock rings, so that the time you wake up is
indeterminate. I would like to have an alarm clock that works in the
following way. Suppose I want to get up at 6:00am. So I set my alarm
clock for 6:00am and go to sleep. Then, the alarm clock actually begins
to ring at 16 minutes to 6. If I really don't want to get up yet, I'll
hit the snooze button. Then it rings again at 8 minutes to 6. I can hit
the snooze again if I want to. The next ring comes at 4 minutes to 6.
Then the alarm times are 2 minutes to six, 1 minute to six, 30 seconds
to 6, fifteen seconds to six, 8 seconds to 6, 4 seconds, 2 seconds, and
1 second. And if I have actually pressed the snooze button all ten
times, the snooze button will no longer stop the alarm's ringing, so I
can't get in any more sleep. And so I'm up by 6:00am, just like I
planned.
Friendly
Car Horn
Current car horns are only capable of
blaring. Although the driver can control the volume and the duration of
the blare, it's still a very unfriendly sound. I think the blare should
only be used in case of emergencies, such as when a truck is moving
into your lane while you're in his blind spot. But if you see a
friend and want to say hi, you should be able to use a much more
pleasant tune. And when the car in front of you hasn't noticed that the
light has turned green, is it really so urgent that you need to make
his heart jump? Also, there's no need to startle anybody else who
happens
to be in the vicinity.
What I would like is a way for one driver to communicate with another
driver. Now, given the prevalence of road rage, I don't think they
should be able to say whatever they want in any tone and volume.
Instead, I would suggest a limited set of messages that can be sent,
all of which are polite. Here is an example conversation between two
drivers. (Translating it back into road-rage language is an exercise
left to the reader.)
Honda: Pardon me. Would you
mind changing lanes for just a minute? I would like to move past you.
Toyota: I am very sorry, but I have decided not to do you
that favor.
Honda:
Please understand that I am in a bit of a hurry. Would you please do
what you can to help me reach my destination quickly?
Toyota:
I am very sorry, but I have decided not to do you that favor.
Honda: Please understand that I am in a bit of a hurry.
Would you please do what you can to help me reach my destination
quickly?
Toyota: I am very sorry, but I have decided not to do you that favor.
Honda: Please understand that I am in a bit of a hurry.
Would you please do what you can to help me reach my destination
quickly?
Toyota: I am beginning to feel a bit distracted. I would
appreciate it if you stopped talking to me for a while so that I could
focus on my driving.
Honda: I am very sorry, but I have decided not to do you
that favor.
Toyota: I thought you might want to know that I am shutting
off my communicator device. Goodbye for now.
Opposite Reaction Car Horn
Don't you hate it when a driver gets
mad and blows his car horn so loudly that it makes you jump? How
inconsiderate. And dangerous. Even if he wasn't angry at you in
particular, you still get the same effect. Well, I think it would
discourage
this kind of thoughtless behavior if all cars had an opposite reaction
car horn installed. It would work like this: Whenever the driver blows
his horn, then at some
random time after that, the horn will blow inside his car with exactly the
same sound as before.
Sex Radio
There are sports radio
stations,
religious radio stations, news radio stations, etc. But now,
you can tune in to WXXX (or KXXX) and you'll find the sex station.
There, you'll hear call in shows with people talking about sex, sex
lessons,etc. And, or course, through all of this, you'll hear people
moaning and screaming in the background. If you just want to hear the
talk, then turn off the left speaker. Alternatively, if you're only
interested in the sexual sounds, turn off the right speaker.
Autoflush
Toilet
I think we can agree that those
public toilets that flush automatically can be very annoying, because
they often flush too early. So, if you're sitting on the toilet, you
get
an undesirable splash at random times. It's because the trigger isn't
terribly accurate. I think that the trigger should be connected to the
stall door,
so that the toilet doesn't flush until the door is unlocked.
Elevator
Chairs
For you people who are so lazy that
you take the elevator instead of the stairs, I bet you'd like it if
there was someplace to sit in the elevator. Well, what about attaching
a fold-up seat to the back wall. When you want to sit, you pull it
down. It's long enough for three or four people. And then when
everybody stands up, it springs back against the wall.
Light
Belts
Mommy, everybody at school has a
light belt. You wear it around your waist just like a regular
belt, and then the colorful lights on it start flashing. You can choose
from different light patterns and various flash sequences. My best
friend has pink lights that spin in circles around her. Another boy I
know has one
that flashes a red ring, then a white ring, and then a blue ring. But
what I really want is the one that slowly spells out my name in
different-colored letters.
Head-Supporting
Chairs
Ergonomic chairs are a great
invention, but why don't they extend further up in order to support
your head comfortably. In cars, they could replace the upper parts of
the chairs, which are too far back to comfortably rest your head on.
What are those things for, anyway.
Washer-Drier
Machine
I can't believe that we still have
separate washer and drier machines? Is there something I don't know
about that makes it impossible to connect them? I want to dump my
clothes in a basket. Then, at the push of a button, they automatically
move into a washing machine. When that's done, they get pushed into a
drier. And then they're finally dumped into another basket, all clean.
How about three or four baskets at each end, so that I can line up all
of my loads in advance?
Water Horn
I wonder if it would be possible to
design a musical instrument filled with water? So the sound would
vibrate through water instead of air. Would it be possible to design
the instrument so that you can play beautiful music with a unique
sound. Perhaps the instrument needs to be totally immersed in water,
and the listeners need to be underwater to hear it.
Weighted
Straws
You know how, when you put a straw in
a glass or can of cola, it won't
stay down? The bubbles push it to the top. Isn't that annoying? But if
the bottom of the straw was made heavier, wouldn't that prevent the
straw from floating?
Facing
Shower Heads
One of the things that lovers usually
like to do is shower together. But when they do, only one of them can
stand right under the water at a time, while the other has to hang out
in the cold. But if there were two shower heads, one at each end of the
bathtub, then the shower heads could be adjusted so that both people
are in the water all the time. Also, what if a
married couple want to shower at the same time? The standard way to
deal with this problem is to have two showers. But imagine starting the
day by showering with your spouse, even if you're only there to clean
yourselves.
Caffinated
Toothpaste
Do you need that cup of coffee every
morning? Well how about if your
toothpaste was spiked with caffeine? That would not only encourage you
to brush your teeth, but you could also get out of the house and head
to work faster.
Wireless
Leash
I can't run nearly as fast as
my dog can. So in order for him to
get the exercise he really wants, I like to take him to a relatively
safe place and take him off the leash. This is usually okay, because
he's trained to come when I call him. The problem is that he thinks
that obeying the "come" command is optional. So if he's doing something
he thinks is more important, he'll choose not to obey my command. Now,
if he's on
the leash, one quick pull of the leash is sufficient for him to get the
idea. Okay. Sometimes it takes two tugs. What I'd like to have a device
that would cause his collar to pull backwards whenever I press a
button. Even better would be if the collar would pull him in the
direction that he should go to get to me. But if it only pulls the
collar backward, that should be sufficient to draw him away from
whatever it is that he is busy doing.
Heated
Dolls
As I understand
it, the purpose of a doll is to aid a child in imagining that he or she
is a parent. And toward this end, dolls are given features like the
ability to cry or to pee, to make them more like real babies. Well it
seems to me that a significant difference between babies and dolls is
that babies are warm, while dolls are cold. So why not manufacture
dolls that are automatically heated to make them feel much more like
babies when they are hugged? Along the same lines, stuffed animals
could also be automatically heated to make them so much more huggable.
Pipe
Pointer
Sometimes,
professors will carry a pipe when they give lectures. They might not
even be smoking. They just point to the board with the end of the pipe.
Well, why not put a laser pointer in there?