Household
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Background: One of the various promises of “augmented reality” (or “AR”) is the ability for a user to wear a virtual reality headset that edits reality in some vaguely useful fashion. For example, a maintenance worker might be able to overlay a diagram of the wiring inside walls, giving them a sort of “x-ray vision.”…
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Background: It’s difficult to appreciate the amount of energy that is consumed by a citizen of a modern industrial economy. If we only consider household electricity, a “reasonable” amount of consumption (ignoring air conditioning or heating) can be more than 5 kilowatt-hours (~200 watts of average usage over a 24-hour period). A non-bicycling-enthusiast adult can…
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Background: Some types of pets (notably, cats) are fond of both 1) hiding and 2) napping. The Issue: This can make it difficult for the pet owner to know if their treasured beast is inside the house. Did it come back in the house from the patio? Or is it sleeping in a tree outside?…
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The Issue: In some climates, outdoor swimming pools (Fig. 1) are kept filled with water year-round, but are covered during the colder months. These covered-up pools waste a lot of outdoor real-estate that could be put to alternative use. Proposal: The pool will need to be covered anyway, so we can take advantage of this…
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Background: Back in the days when fireplaces were a common method of heating a home, houses typically consisted of a number of smaller rooms with doors between them. However, modern homes tend to have open floor plans with large rooms that cannot be sealed off by doors. The Issue: In the open-floor-plan home-design world, heating…
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Background: In temperate latitudes, people frequently heat their homes in winter and cool their homes in summer. The Issue: The main source of heat is the Sun. So in the hot summer, a homeowner would want their roof & sun-facing walls to be reflective. But in the winter, they’d want the opposite—the roof should ideally…
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Background: A type of fish called the clownfish can live within the stinging tentacles of an anemone (Figure 1). Thanks to an ancient non-aggression pact, the tentacles don’t sting the clownfish. However, they do sting other animals! This is perhaps nature’s first multi-species automated home security system. Proposal: This all-natural system can be adapted to…
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Background: Skylights (or light pipes) are a great way to get natural sunlight indoors. Unfortunately, installation is moderately complicated and is infeasible for renters and high-rise dwellers. Also, skylights only provide light during the daytime (unsurprisingly). Proposal: Thanks to LED lighting, it is possible to create a convincing “artificial skylight” (Figure 1) for 50 American…
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The Issue: Vacuuming a house can be an annoying chore. Robots exist (famously, the Roomba) that will vacuum a floor, but they have many limitations and can’t handle certain common locations, like carpeted stairs. Proposal: What is needed is a vacuum cleaner that can go anywhere that gets foot traffic. And what better way to…
WorstPlans: updated every Monday since July 2014! 