Design
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Background: It is well known that washing hands for a surprisingly long time (30 seconds!) substantially reduces microbial contamination (Figure W1). The issue: Unfortunately, people generally feel, psychologically speaking, that their hands are clean immediately upon rinsing them with even the slightest hint of water. The challenge, therefore, is to encourage people to wash…
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The issue: Sometimes, it’s hard to get out of a comfy bed and face the cruel and merciless world. Proposal: We can solve this problem by making a bed that becomes progressively less comfortable as the desired wakeup time arrives. Certain mattresses already have the ability to dynamically adjust their firmness (for example, the “Sleep…
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Background: In programming, there is the notion of “code smell”—a subtle indication that something is terribly wrong in a piece of source code, but without any (obvious) actual mistake. For example, if you saw the following: print(“E”); print(“RR”); print(“OR”); print(“!”); instead of print(“ERROR!”); that would be a good indication that something extremely bizarre was going…
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Background: In many situations, such as political debates, the first day at a new school, or the first day on a job, making a good first impression is extremely important. The issue: Unfortunately, it’s hard for a newcomer to reliably make a great first impression if other people aren’t already predisposed to like them. Proposal:…
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Background: One of the most common complaints about nearby construction is the potential for new structures to block the views of existing residents. The issue: Existing residents in a neighborhood occasionally attempt to block nearby construction (often coming up with extremely implausible reasons as a smokescreen), when the real reason is that they just don’t…
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Background: In many cities, there are a large number of “almost-a-parking-spot” locations (for example, between two driveways) that can only fit an extremely small car. Additionally, most popular models of small cars have gotten substantially larger over time. For example, a 1959 Mini Cooper is 120 inches long, while a 2005 model is 143 inches…
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The issue: When a person takes a shower, it is often the cast that some fraction of the water leaving the shower head lands directly on the shower floor without hitting the shower-taker (Figure 1). This “off-target” water is totally wasted. Proposal: Thanks to advances in computer vision and inexpensive electronics, it is now possible…
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Background: In the post-online-shopping world, there are now nearly innumerable purchasing options for every style of item. If a person wanted to buy a particular style of baseball cap in the pre-Internet world, they would have the following option: Go to a store Purchase one of the, say, 4 or 5 suitable caps that are…
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The issue: In large cities, there are many perils for pedestrians: cars, bicycles, motorcycles, horses, etc. Even the sidewalk is not a safe zone from scooters and bicycles! At night, the problems are even worse, since pedestrians are generally un-illuminated and are frequently wearing all-black coats in the winter months. Proposal: Since many commuters carry…
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Background: Laptop privacy screens (or “monitor filters”) reduce the viewing angle of a laptop screen in order to prevent evildoers from snooping on sensitive information on your laptop (Figure 1). The issue: Unfortunately, these privacy screens have a few downsides: They are inelegant to attach. Often, the attachment points block a small amount of screen…
WorstPlans: updated every Monday since July 2014! 