Household
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Background: Some vacuum cleaners are capable of measuring how much junk they’re currently pulling up off the floor. These vacuums will usually turn on a “this surface is now clean!” light to notify the user that their vacuuming job has been sufficiently through on a particular tiny section of the floor. The Issue: The “floor…
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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: The ability to clean bedsheets is what separates humans from the animals. But removing, washing, and replacing bedsheets is a hassle. Who has time for it in this modern world!? If only there were some way to replace the sheets on a bed without all the work! Proposal: Shockingly, a technology that almost solves…
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Background: In the United States, the phrases “castle doctrine” and “home defense” most often refer to the idea of using guns to defend oneself from potential home invaders (specifically, by shooting them). However, despite the castle-related terminology, what is strangely lacking is any actual home defense (in the sense of medieval fortifications). See Figure 1…
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Background: When arranging furniture in a house, people generally tend to just put tall furniture (bookshelves, wardrobes, etc…) against a wall and just sort of hope that none of it falls over. Normally, this is a reasonable assumption, except during rare situations such as earthquakes or small children climbing up a bookshelf like a ladder.…
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Background: Small children are generally not known for strict adherence to hygiene or to biosafety protocols, and may have a not-fully-calibrated immune system. As a result, when dozens of children are co-mingled at a daycare, it’s highly likely that they’ll be constantly bringing diseases back to their own homes, causing their parents / siblings /…
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Background: When disaster strikes, it’s useful to have a set of easily-accessible emergency supplies that can be brought by a person fleeing danger. This is the concept of a “go” bag: a backpack full of common supplies that a person might need if they had to temporarily abandon their home due to a natural disaster.…
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Background: People frequently leave notes around the house, either as reminders to themselves or as reminders to family members or roommates. For example: “Remember to push the fridge door shut, or it stays open!” or “Remember to lock the top lock when you leave the house!“ The Issue: These reminders are all fine and good,…
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Background: One traditional type of electric toaster is a rectangular enclosure with slots at the top for two slices of bread (Figure 1). Once the bread is sufficiently toasted, the slices of toast pop out of the toaster, visually making it obvious that the toast is ready. The Issue: Strangely, no other appliances operate in…
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The Issue: One counterintuitive phenomenon is that people sometimes get depressed during the holidays when they realize that their real family and friends don’t match the idealized holiday expectations that have been set by TV and movies. Proposal: Since TV and movies present a “fake” life that can’t possibly be achieved in reality, the solution…
WorstPlans: updated every Monday since July 2014! 