Inventors Wanted (Add To The Wishlist)

krugdm writes: "In his latest NYT column, David Pogue has a list of nine inventions that he'd like to see that are just awaiting inventors. The range from the silly MP3 Toothbrush to the potentially useful Microwave Plus+ that self programs. How much of this is possible?" Industrial designers, arise!

Re:still waiting

[Anonymous Coward]

If you have wireless connection, you wouldn't need memory (!= don't want). What you have described is in use in Japan. Not sure about the pda part.

Spreading good ideas and innovations

[Anonymous Coward]

Some companies keep ideas about technical advancements secret under Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). Whenever you are asked to signed one before learning or implementing an idea, some people justify the NDAs by reasons such as "maximizing future profit" and/or "balancing research costs".

The tactical reasons behind NDAs are to make a genuinely good idea impossible or harder to implement by competitors. Sometimes even the employees and stock-holders in the company are not given details about the idea.

That is, to me, surprising, as secrecy breed suspection, false or too high expectations, and potential ruin the general public's trust in the said company. It also causes delays in adaption and sharing of new knowledge and make other researchers waste their time on solving an already solved problem.

In the 1970s and 1980s, at XEROX Parc, scientists shared most of their ideas openly with visitors. Real innovations flourished.

A more recent example is the algorithm in the most popular search engine on the Internet, Google. It is not kept secret, but published. (google after Pagerank).

Publish your ideas openly (as real sciences), and let anyone comment and criticize them. Perhaps one of them eventually will lead to innovation.

Ole

Invention for the /. staff

[skurk]

Anonymous Cowards shouldn't be allowed to post the first two minutes after a new article appears. No more wasting points moderating first posters down.

-skurk

Re:Inventors wanted with K.I.S.S. mentality

[White Shadow]

I'm not a robot, these things are part of life!

I agree, these are things that are part of life ten years ago. And further back in time people were late because weather was too hazardous to travel through, people would go to bed early because the sun went down and people would find joy in receiving a letter from a friend once every two weeks.

And as new technology develops, a lot of these quirks of life are removed, but I assure you, new ones take their place. I may not forget to tape my favorite show because of a Tivo, but I may not be able to read my email because my ISP is having difficulties. My alarm clock may reduce the number of times I oversleep, but I may miss my video conference because my operating system is having one of those days.

The introduction of new technologies is changing life, and I find it quite fun: my life is constantly changing because of it. It's pretty exciting (and still quite annoying), and I like it.

I don't think I can put a value judgement on these changes in life, it's just different.

Re:NYT Registration - My Thoughts

[DennyK]

MICROWAVE PLUS+

It would be nice, but unfortunatly, it just isn't practical.

Most modern microwaves have preprogrammed buttons for common generic food items (i.e. warm a muffin, defrost 1lb of meat, heat a cup of coffee, pop 1 bag of popcorn). These usually work reasonably well. Having these types of options for specific items, however, would be next to impossible. Since every microwave differs and every micro-meal differs, someone would have to test every possible micro-meal in every "Microwave +" microwave. The product wouldn't sell well unless it could handle a good portion of the microwaveable stuff out there. Go to your local grocery store's freezer someday and start counting products...it ain't pretty... ;) Not to mention the fact that other variables (crappy power, aging microwave ovens, even the temprature of the food before being cooked) would affect the "ideal" cooking time to enough of a degree to throw off any automated system.

However...I suggest a compromise: a user-programmable microwave. Put a bigger LED display on there and let the user enter his or her favorite items into a list along with their cooking times. After you've cooked an item a few times, you know how long it will take in your microwave - so you program it in. When you want to cook it again, just select it from a menu or punch in a hotkey sequence, and off it goes!

PUNCH-IT-UP ALARM CLOCK

Again, a nice idea, but not likely to happen. Clock radios are cheap products (unless you wake up to a Bose WaveRadio or some such nonsensical item ;) ), and manufacturers have to cut costs to sell them cheap enough to compete. A ten-digit keypad, plus the two or three other controls to tell it what to adjust, would cost significantly more to design, implement, and manufacture than the two or three buttons most clock radios have now. If it was done, the model produced would cost more than similar models with three-button time setting systems. A few people would probably buy it for the convinence, but most would simply reach for the cheaper model sitting next to it. In any case, the time saving would be minimal. It takes me about 30 seconds to set my alarm clock to any time, not two minutes. If it "counts" too slowly for you when holding down the button, there's a very easy workaround: just hit the button once for each hour/minute you want to move. It's much faster than waiting for the clock to do it for you! ;)

BLIND DATA

This is a pretty clever idea! Privacy implications aside, it might actually be a workable and marketable item, especially in larger cities. (I doubt it would go over well in rural areas...when you can count the number of people you meet each day on your fingers and toes, you probably know most of 'em already ;) )

TIVOCORDER

This would be an interesting gadget, for sure! However, I think we're still a little ways away from the technology required to implement it (microphone, storage, simultaneous playback and recording from the same device without feedback or interference, and the power supply) in such a small package and make it affordable. Down the road, however, this could be very doable. Maybe we could even create a video version someday...now that would be a fun little toy! :)

MP-TEETHBRUSH

Cute, but redundant. Why not just wear your MP3 watch, cellphone, etc. into the bathroom with you? ;)

INTERCOM-PUTER
It would be quick, convenient and simpler than software-based intercom systems, which require microphone and speakers for each PC.

Um...actually, it would be a USB-connected microphone and speaker with a software interface, unless someone figures out a way to make the USB port talk directly to the Ethernet port without stepping on normal network traffic... ;)

Kind of an interesting idea, but there are so many other ways to implement a similar arrangement that don't require specialized hardware that it's hard to imagine it being very popular. What's wrong with ICQ? ;)

FLUMAPPER.COM

Could be very workable on a community level, but it would require a *lot* of coordination to be implemented on a larger scale. Kind of pointless, too...by the time there are enough cases to register, it's probably too late ;)

SNAPFLAT SCREEN
Not such a great idea, really. How could you come up with a single screen that attaches to all of those devices? Do you really want to wrestle with a Handycam and attached 14" TFT display, or surf the web via your laptop on a 2.5" camcorder LCD? How 'bout watching your new Lord of the Rings DVD on a tiny black and white Palm screen, or stuffing a 42" plasma display into your back pocket to look up phone numbers? There's a reason all those devices have proprietary displays; they were designed from the ground up to integrate with the products they are used on and fill the specific needs of those products.

Flat-panel displays will come down in price, like any technological product. Just have patience... ;)

THE I-PODULE

Definatly the best idea on the list. However, development on high-capacity interchangeable storage media has been going on for some time, so I'd hardly call it new or in need of invention... ;)

DennyK

Re:NYT Registration - My Thoughts

[mini me]

It would be nice, but unfortunatly, it just isn't practical.

Why not? The food would contain a heating code and it would be up to each microwave manufacturer to ensure that their microwave will heat the food to those specs. Some microwaves it might take 5 minutes and others only 3, but it is up to the microwave to determine how long it will take based on the heating info of the product.

Re:NYT Registration - My Thoughts

[Digit0]

>A ten-digit keypad, plus the two or three other controls to tell it what to adjust, would cost
>significantly more to design, implement, and manufacture than the two or three buttons most
>clock radios have now. If it was done, the model produced would cost more than similar models
>with three-button time setting systems.

Well, look at cheap wireline phones . . . $10 for a 10-digit keypad, lots of electronics, packaging, advertising, etc. So the keypad wouldn't really cost much at all. I think it's a great idea.

microwave

[AA0]

I'm thinking that the microwave would be practical, but not the way you are thinking. You think that each product should have their own setting, but think of it as there are several thousand preprogrammed setting on the microwave when you buy it. Each product in the store then has a number on it, lets say 2854 cooking code, which could be 3:10 on 85% heat. The codes will always be in place, and would account for nearly every product, just enter a cooking code. Several products could use the same code.

Of course, standards have to be in place. Each oven would have to adjust their time to the power of the oven compared to the standard oven used. If something has to be from frozen, then the codes have to change, but that should be put on the product label. It definitely would work.

Re:NYT Registration - My Thoughts

[jx100]

Just a few notes on the Tivocorder. It would be very simple to have simultaneous playback and recording. Simply have the playback through an earpiece, and have the recording through something like a microphone clipped on the chest. And as for storage, simply use the I-Podule or other high-capacity unit. The iPod would actually be quite ideal, as its battery lasts the better part of a day, and the memory capacity means that the disk would only be active once every 20 minutes.