Beasts
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Background: Some animals communicate at frequencies outside of the normal range of human hearing. For example, bats are constantly flying around and emitting shrill echolocation “pings,” but humans typically can’t hear them. Proposal: Electronic hearing aids have existed for many years, but they’ve always focused on enhancing hearing in the normal human ranges—no one has…
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Background: Some types of pets (notably, cats) are fond of both 1) hiding and 2) napping. The Issue: This can make it difficult for the pet owner to know if their treasured beast is inside the house. Did it come back in the house from the patio? Or is it sleeping in a tree outside?…
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Background: In ancient times, most animals were kept around for specific functional purposes (e.g. “eat the mice” or “guard the village” or “be eaten by me, the human.”). However, these days, most animal-owners have pets that don’t actually have a specific job to do. Proposal: We should be able to enhance the lives of both…
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Background: Pet ownership can be rewarding, but it can requires substantial work on the part of the pet owner. The Issue: Sometimes, people’s lives would be more compatible with a “timeshare” of a pet: taking care of it for a few hours a day, rather than 24/7. However, this arrangement is incompatible with most living…
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Background: Animals have varying caloric requirements: usually, larger/warmer ones need to eat more. The Issue: When a small animal eats a small portion of food, it’s hard to intuitively understand how much food that is at a human scale. For example, if a sparrow eats a single sesame seed, is that equivalent to a human…
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Background: There are a large number of animal species that are on the brink of extinction. The Issue: Although a few so-called “charismatic megafauna” have attracted human support with their cuteness / photograph-worthiness, many endangered species are ugly or boring (e.g. “oh look, another slightly different type of deer”). Proposal: What is needed is a…
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Background: Taking a nap in the late afternoon can be a very appealing prospect. The issue: Unfortunately, a late-in-the-day nap can easily mess up a person’s sleep schedule, causing them to stay up until 3 AM. What is needed for most people is some sort of “nap deterrent” that will promote a daylight-hour-compatible sleep schedule.…
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Background: Written languages have generally been optimized for the most meaningful elements of speech, so sometimes strange workarounds are required to capture certain subtleties: e.g. capital letters for YELLING, alternating capitalization for “thE spEaKer is VEry StUpid,” ellipses for a stilted-last-gasps sort of speech (“tell… them… the… killer… was…”), or the HTML-inspired “/s” for “please…
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Background: Modern submarines use a periscope-like electronic camera (a “photonics mast.”) to view the world above the waves. The issue: The problem is twofold: If an adversary spots a periscope, there isn’t much doubt as to what’s under the waves: it’s a submarine (Figure 1). Periscope designs are apparently specific to each nation, so just…
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