Culture
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Background: It is generally understood that a person who finishes the last amount of something (e.g. milk, soy sauce, driving a shared car until the tank is empty) is also responsible for refilling the substance. The issue: This system is frequently gamed by the lazy, who will leave a tiny amount remaining so as to…
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Background: Thousands of hours of food-themed television shows exist. Not all of these are strictly utilitarian “how to cook” shows, either—many consist of a charismatic host going from country to country and describing the fine tastes of exotic foods. The issue: This is a bit strange, isn’t it? Television is completely incapable of conveying taste,…
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The issue: It’s time-consuming—and potentially expensive—to maintain long hair to the exacting standards demanded by society (Figure 1). If one could somehow distract and/or obscure the true status of one’s hair, the tyranny of personal hygiene would be escaped! But is this an impossible dream? Proposal: No, it is possible! Specifically, through the means of…
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Background: Extremely large TVs have now become cheap enough to use as gigantic computer monitors. It’s possible to find a 55+” television with high enough resolution and low enough latency to work as an external monitor for even the most discerning computer-ologist. The issue: Most desks are not set up to accommodate a 55″ television…
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Background: Every four years, interest is re-kindled in the odd “Electoral College”-based method of tallying up American presidential votes. Since the electoral votes are actually assigned on a per-state[*] basis (Figure 1), this has the side effect of making the presidential elections hinge on a few “battleground” districts—tiny subsets of swing states whose voting outcome…
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Background: The traditional flat-surfaced desk has been more-or-less unchanged for thousands of years. The issue: People often place a drink on their desk. However, this makes it very easy to accidentally knock the drink over onto (depending on the era) a stack of rolled-up papyrus scrolls, a Gutenberg Bible, or a laptop (Figure 1). Proposal:…
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Background: When typing on a phone with an on-screen virtual keyboard, the auto-correct feature is essential. Strangely, this auto-correct / auto-complete feature has never been monetized! Proposal: In order to bring great deals to consumers and new advertising opportunities to companies, we describe the following auto-correct enhancement. Currently, auto-correct is boring and predicable. For example:…
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Background: Humans frequently wear metal adornments that have a small chance of being caught on something. Under most circumstances, this is fine, but occasionally this may lead to situations with a high probability of disaster (e.g. operating a lathe while wearing a dangly necklace). The issue: Somehow, it is still the case that very little…
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Background: With the 2020 COVID plague, work-related video chats have become increasingly full of a large number of participants (Figure 1). The issue: Video chats have a problem that in-person office work does not: there is no convenient way for participants of an unreasonably-large video chat group to split off into subgroups. Instead, every discussion…
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Background: A successful game of golf is heavily dependent on the technical execution of the golf swing. The issue: It is possible to imagine many games that are similar to “golf,” except that they do not use a golf club to drive the ball (perhaps “frisbee™ golf” is the most well-known existing example, although it…
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