Design
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Background: Different people have different ideas about what constitutes “personal space.” For example, in some cultures, it may be the norm to stand three feet away from a person one is talking to, whereas elsewhere, the standard might be four feet. Or two feet! Unfortunately, this is a subtle feature of interaction that people are…
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Background: “Warning” stickers / “caution” tape are occasionally placed on or around objects to indicate that they are dangerous. The issue: However: what if the tape itself is the source of danger? For example, if a roll of “BIOHAZARD” tape was accidentally dipped in a vat of bubonic plague, there would be no way to…
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Background: Ironing boards are large and unwieldy—even the ones that are just the board surface, without any folding legs. Fortunately, we can solve this problem. Proposal: A rollable ironing board Instead of having a large single-surface ironing board, we could either have a rollable ironing board made of a flexible material or (if flexible materials…
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Background: Although there are many counter-examples, cats are often unpredictable and frequently skittish. Here, we theorize that this neurotic pet behavior is due to the cat’s lack of feeling safe in the domestic environment, and propose a possible solution, which we refer to as CATMOUFLAGE. The theory: Cats are skittish and unpredictable because they are…
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Background: Back in the ancient days before iPhones, people would store files in a hierarchical fashion in “folders” or “directories” on their computers. The issue: Sometimes, despite relatively descriptive folder names, it is not clear what a folder / directory actually is. For example, on Mac OS X, a casual user may be flummoxed by…
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Background: If you stay in one apartment or house for a long time, you tend to accumulate a large number of superfluous possessions. But it’s hard to get an idea of exactly how much stuff you have. Proposal: Moving trucks should have a weight sensor on them to tell you how many pounds of stuff…
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Background: Many cities have serious shortages of buildable space in the most desirable areas—most land that is available for development has already been taken. Proposal: Allow building of a “second level” of city on the un-used space above the streets Fortunately, there actually is a large amount of unused space in each city (generally, approximately…
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Never be confused by a signaling bus again, assuming you frequently drive behind buses instead of taking public transit (you monster)
automotive, blinker, car, emergency blinkers, hazard lights, is amber even a color or what, is the light yellow or amber or orange or what, official color names are lacking, what are those emergency lights even called, what if the lights are like tangerine or something, who came up with that double triangle icon anyway
Background: Every vehicle has two turn signals on the back. These can indicate one of two things: 1) Car is turning left / right. 2) If both lights are blinking: “hazard / emergency / vehicle is stopped in roadway.” Fig 1: The emergency / hazard lights are usually activated by this button. The issue: Unfortunately,…
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Background: Housing is incredibly expensive in many major cities. Some people try to cope with high housing prices by living in their cars. However, it is generally illegal to sleep in a parked vehicle. Additionally, there are often restrictions on vehicle height for parked vehicles. Proposal: None of the caveats above apply to a moving…
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