Culture
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Background: A “chocolate fountain” is a food-serving item that a person might see at a wedding or fancy party: it’s just a device that recirculates melted chocolate so that you can dip strawberries or marshmallows in it before chomping them (Figure 1). Fancy! The Issue: Strangely, this type of device is almost never seen recirculating…
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Background: In most neighborhoods constructed within the last century, streets are designed almost entirely for cars. The ability of a human to travel on two feet is sadly only a neglected afterthought. As a result, many sidewalks are cracked, partially lifted up by tree roots, or otherwise irregular in a way where tripping on them…
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The Issue: It’s common for people to compulsively and unthinkingly pull out their cell phone and fiddle with it at all times. If only there were some way to subtly discourage “snacking” on the Internet! Proposal: The solution is simple: every time you unlock your cell phone, it should display a yawning “groggy” face for…
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Background: Many countries today have incredibly old leaders. This isn’t a problem per se, but as elected representatives (and un-elected dictators) reach their 80s and 90s, the likelihood of them not being mentally sharp enough to reliably run a country greatly increases. Most people would be skeptical of allowing a 10-year-old to run a country,…
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The Issue: Thousands of pedestrian fatalities occur every year. It can be easy for the driver of a fast-moving car to not see a person crossing the road ahead until it’s too late. Often, these collisions occur at night, even in areas with good streetlight coverage. But if streetlights aren’t sufficient, what else can be…
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The Issue: In the “open plan” office (a more-cramped version of the classic “cubicle” office plan), there are typically there are many rows of desks with narrow aisles between them (Figure 1). Often, these aisles are quite long, and they may be completely cluttered with office chairs. Proposal: Although in a perfect world, people would…
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Background: When humans draw pictures of animals, they usually “human”-ify them in ways that don’t really make any sense: for example, adding eyebrows to a fish, or adding a face to a jellyfish. Humans also typically represent an animal as whatever is “most noteworthy” about it to a human: for example, a spider might be…
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Background: Vertical blinds (https://www.google.com/search?q=vertical+blinds) are a popular method of providing privacy for a large window or sliding door. These blinds are usually controlled by two different looped cords: The Issue: Unfortunately, since these cords are both loops, they really appears as TWO cords. The user must somehow know which of these unlabeled-and-often-twisted cords is the…
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The Issue: It can be easy to run out of certain household consumables without realizing it. For example, a person may think they have six more rolls of toilet paper, but they’re actually using the last one. It can be quite annoying to run out unexpectedly! This impacts many categories of product: soap, dental floss,…
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Background: Some workplaces provide snacks for their employees, and employees frequently find it very difficult to avoid constantly snacking on these delicious treats. The Issue: It is hard to avoid snacking, especially when snacks are free. Proposal: The solution is simple (Figure 1): just wear a shirt that says “I’ll give you $20 if you…
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