Culture
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Background: This is an alternate version of the previous table-related idea (see link here), which involved hanging a table from the ceiling. The issue: Sometimes, you’re sitting at a table, and the table legs get in the way. So annoying! See Figure 1 to be reminded of this calamity. Fig. 1: The presence of this…
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Background: Sometimes, your coworkers will come to work with obvious contagious diseases, coughing everywhere and spreading disease and pestilence throughout the land. Proposal: The best situation in this situation is for you or your boss to say “hey you, sick individual, go home!” This should save time and money by preventing others from getting sick, but is…
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The issue: Once upon a time, it was possible to show off one’s obscene wealth by purchasing ornately-decorated objects that were obviously expensive. However, in the era of modern manufacturing, high-quality products are available to even members of the non-nobility. If only there were a way to show off your personal decadence AND solve a…
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The issue: Cell phones occasionally fall out of a person’s pockets and get forgotten. This is especially easy to do when sitting on a sofa or in a movie theater seat. If the phone could detect that it had been dropped into sofa cushions, it could notify you before it was too late to find…
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Background: There are a few cell phone games that use real-world GPS data to control your in-game character. The most well-known are probably the two games by Niantic, Pokemon Go and Ingress, in which you physically walk around in order to move your in-game character. However, no one has yet implemented a smaller-scale version of…
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Background: 3D glasses provide the ability to put two totally separate images on a screen at once. Normally, the technology this is used to provide a stereo-3D effect (Figure 1). But we could use this same technology to show subtly (or entirely!) different films to different groups of people in an audience. Fig. 1: Each…
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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: Travel to exotic locales can be expensive, inconvenient, and perhaps even dangerous or impossible. Proposal: Using the same technology that companies like Google use to get street view images (now available in 40-lb backpack format as well: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&sa=1&q=google+street+view+camera ), we can set up a scenario where you can conduct tourism by proxy using…
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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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