Technology
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Background: Some widely-used computer programs are free, and are supported exclusively as hobby projects by unpaid developers. The issue: Unfortunately, there is no financial mechanism to encourage further development and enhancement of these programs. Even if a hundred million people depend on a program, there is no simple way for them to support the developer.…
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The issue: Sometimes, a college lecture or work presentation goes far over the allotted time (Figure 1). Frequently, the presenter doesn’t even realize that they are over time. One simple way to prevent a presentation from going over time would be to just have the power outlets turn off at exactly the designated end-of-presentation…
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Background: Sometimes, it seems like a file is taking forever to download (or copy). A speed of 160 kilobytes per second may seem excruciatingly slow, but that’s actually an entire late-1970s floppy disk (Figure 1) per second. Proposal: Instead of just showing a slowly filling up progress bar when downloading (or copying) a file, a…
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Background: Since laptops are so convenient and portable, many people work in locations that are not set up for long-term ergonomic comfort (for example, dining room tables or coffeeshop counters, e.g. Figure 1). The issue: Since these locations were never designed for laptop use, they are typically set up in such a way that the…
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Background: Phone map apps often have a few optional settings for a route, such as: Avoid highways (for driving) Fewer bus transfers (for public transit) Avoid hills (for walking) The issue: Sometimes, you want drive on the most scenic route from point A to point B, without too much concern about efficiency. For example, you might…
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TITLE: Never be annoyed when emptying an over-full trash can again, with this new “screaming trash can” technology! The Issue: In shared-living or office situations, there is a strong incentive to wait for someone else to empty a full garbage can: the person who discards the last piece of trash has only contributed a tiny…
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Background: At many companies, employees take a laptop to/from work every day. In the past, laptops were heavy enough that it would be incredibly obvious whether a laptop was in a bag or not. The issue: Modern laptops are light enough that it is possible to take a laptop bag (Figure 1) to work without…
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Background: In a hypothetical future where self-driving cars are increasingly common, they’ll have to do a really good job of automatically distinguishing between things that require sudden braking (e.g. a person in the roadway) and things that are OK to hit (e.g. a tumbling empty cardboard box). The issue: This is a hard problem. When…
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The issue: Using your phone to read the news has three major downsides: You have to hold your phone. You could easily drop it! It uses battery life, which might be in short supply depending on how often you can charge your phone. A barrage of linked “clickbait” articles (with interesting photos) attempt to lure…
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