Design
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Background: Sometimes, restaurant menus will list a dish as “market price,” rather than giving a specific set price. (This is most commonly seen for seafood.) In such a situation, a diner would have to inquire as to what the specific price would be on a given day, based on the relative supply and demand of…
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Background: Haunted houses are a Halloween experience that can range from extremely cheap and homemade (“this bowl of grapes is… human eyeballs!!!”) to extremely expensive and professional (e.g. Disney’s Haunted Mansion, although that’s not technically a “Halloween” experience). The goal of a haunted house is to evoke a feeling in the attendees that may range…
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The Issue: In loud environments, such as noisy dining establishments, human ears (Figure 1) are often unsuitable for properly distinguishing the sounds of conversation from irrelevant background noise. If these ears were larger and had a more directional component, they’d be better-suited to the task of facilitating conversation. Proposal: Although there are various high-tech solutions…
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The Issue: Ovens and stoves can be dangerous home appliances. They can get extremely hot and they typically operate completely silently. This makes it easy for people to forget that they left the stove on! Interestingly, a similar issue exists for electric cars: they’re SO quiet at low speeds (as compared to a gas engine)…
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Originally published 2025-12-29. Background: The phrase “seeing things through rose-tinted glasses” refers to the concept of viewing things with artificial optimism. Interestingly, there is no widespread term for the negative version of this concept (i.e., “emerald-tinted glasses” is not a phrase). The Issue: It is nearly unavoidable for a person to compare their appearance to…
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Background: Some people have noticeably different behavior depending on the amount of caffeine they have ingested so far that day. An person’s level of caffeination may be useful information to others, allowing them to discern the reason for the under/over-caffeinated individual being overly lethargic or excessively manic. Proposal: Obviously there is no easy way for…
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Background: The term ”helicopter parenting” refers to an intrusive style of overprotective parenting where a parent is constantly micromanaging their child’s every activity. (Metaphorically, the parent is “hovering” like a helicopter around their child.) Proposal: Until recently, this was just a metaphor: it was simply not technically feasible for a parent to supervise and express…
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Background: Textbook publishers will often issue a new edition of a textbook every few years. Sometimes, this is necessary to reflects new developments in the field, but for many topics, the field has been static for hundreds (or possibly even thousands) of years. For example, it is unlikely that the 15th edition of an “Introduction…
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Background: Some vacuum cleaners are capable of measuring how much junk they’re currently pulling up off the floor. These vacuums will usually turn on a “this surface is now clean!” light to notify the user that their vacuuming job has been sufficiently through on a particular tiny section of the floor. The Issue: The “floor…
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Background: Job-related social media sites (the largest of which in 2025 is LinkedIn) typically have a newsfeed that shows users what their former co-workers and classmates are working on these days. The Issue: There is a strong selection bias for what actually gets posted: most posts are from people reporting their successes in business. This…
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