Design
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Background: Millions of laptops are destroyed every year by spilled drinks (Figure 1). Unfortunately, this is a difficult problem to address, because laptops and beverages are frequently in close proximity. Fig. 1a (top) and 1b (bottom): You have probably either experienced this situation first-hand or observed it happen to someone else. If only there had…
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Background: There are hundreds of famous and excellent movies, but almost no one has seen them all! It’s possible to laboriously go through the extensive backlog of classic movies, but with the current volume of media, this would be a major endeavor. Proposal: By splitting a screen into N segments (for this example, let’s say…
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The issue: Sometimes, it’s hard to keep in touch with your friends and family, especially if you live in different cities and time zones. Proposal: The solution is quite simple—an app that keeps track of when you last met up with, texted, called, or otherwise contacted your friends and family. In fact, it could even…
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Background: Museums are often large and weirdly laid out, and it’s frequently impossible to see the high points of culture without major hassle. In contrast, amusement park rides are laid out with extreme care to provide an engaging experience the whole way through. Specifically relevant to this proposal are “narrative” rides where a user gets…
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Background: You’re probably familiar with web sites that have very particular password requirements: “Your password must contain a number, capital letter, and special character.” “Your password must contain the name of a Triple Crown-winning horse.” “Your password cannot contain your username.” The purpose of these requirements is usually to either: Require that the password not…
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The issue: Sometimes, when you’re eating an ice cream out of a cone, you will suffer the indignity of having the ice cream drip onto yourself and/or the ground (see Fig. 1). This is especially likely to occur if you are less than five years old. This can be avoided by diligently rotating the cone…
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The issue: Sometimes, you’re looking for a co-worker, and you’d like to know if they’ve gone out to lunch, left for the day already, or haven’t arrived yet. Normally, you’d have to actually send a text message to that person to ask. But that can be overly intrusive. Fig. 1: Your coworker’s chair is empty.…
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Podiatrists hate it! Throw away your obsolete footwear and prostrate yourself before the new ultimate invention, the “shruler.” You’ll never believe what happens in the last paragraph!
amazing idea, backup cell phone shoe, basically the shoe from Get Smart, bear repellant, emergency beacon, emergency beacon but like in a shoe man, footwear, functional footwear, inflatable shoe life vest, one weird tip to exploding battery footwear, podiatrists hate it, ruler, ruler shoe, ruloafer, shoe, shoe ruler, shruler, swiss army shoe
The issue: If you’re reading this, it is overwhelmingly likely that you own at least one pair of shoes. But your shoes are probably single-purpose products that have thus far been left out of the multi-purpose-product revolution. Your phone is also a camera, map, flashlight, web browser, and more—why are your shoes just shoes and…
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Background: Haircuts can be time-consuming and expensive. Somehow, even though modern robotics have resulted in quad-copters, robotic surgery, and an alarm clock with a hand that slaps you in the face, the dream of automated haircuts remains elusive. Proposal: Behold, our salvation from laborious non-automated haircuts: the mechanical “haircut helmet.” Fig 1: Functional AND fashionable, the…
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Background: Doorstops are pretty convenient for holding doors open. Fig. 1: A doorstop. Or a wedge of cheese. OR PERHAPS BOTH?? The issue: But sometimes, propping open a door is FORBIDDEN due to fire regulations—the door might need to be closed in order to slow the spread of fire (Fig. 2). Although there exist magnetic…
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