view org/ideas.org @ 34:80f2525cf393

cleaning up ideas.
author Robert McIntyre <rlm@mit.edu>
date Sun, 21 Apr 2013 03:18:03 +0000
parents 834f7a82ce18
children b023ccc23f56
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1 - don't forget about that mirror in the student center!, it's two
2 mirrors at right angles, like staring at a corner of a room. The
3 light reflects so that it shows you what you actually look like,
4 instead of your mirror image.
6 - remote control wasp :: use computer to drive wings with remote
7 power/logic.
9 - public (distributed?) database of email->private-key pairs, to
10 enable automatic encryption.
12 - every equivalent creature will see each others eyes as black -- it's
13 universal. Even of the creatures see in radio waves, and their eyes
14 are 2m long pieces of jagged metal, when those creatures look at
15 each other, they will see black, the absence of light and color
16 (since it's being absorbed by the sensor array).
18 - intelligent microwave :: it learns where the hot nodes of its fields
19 are, and uses them to evenly heat any food item. It has an infared
20 camera or something to keep track of how hot the food is. That way,
21 you don't get bowls where the edges are boiling, while the center is
22 still frozen. Requires a little bit of intelligence/vision, since
23 the exact pattern of heating totally depends on the exact shape of
24 the food. Wouldn't need a carasouel, and wouldn't need a timer,
25 just a desired temperature. Could also detect ice, and automotically
26 defrost the parts which are frozen. Might be able to work much
27 faster since it can aviod overheating; might have problems with
28 heating the insides of thick things, might need a weight sensor too.
30 Would be much cleaner than other microwaves, since food would
31 "sputter" and splash liquid much less.
33 Throw in some SIFT+R processing to match previously cooked foods and
34 learn the exact heating profiles for things that have been cooked
35 before -- it can get faster the more its used.
37 - brain-aware image compression algorithm
39 - Credit card proxy - would be a company which works like paypal
40 except for real world transactions
42 - Flesh pillow :: a pillow like the arm or torso of a human, complete
43 with simulated temperature, bones, and heartbeat.
45 - super screw :: a screw which has only one or two threads and intead
46 uses compresion to fit into a hole (the whole shank
47 of the screw is split into multiple pieces to
48 accomplish this; the tip is a point, then the middle
49 bulges out and gets compressed when screwed in.
51 - light filter :: (like light tweezers) to mechanically seperate
52 fluids with different index of refraction
54 - chalk eraser project :: maybe make a directional eraser, for easy
55 release of chalk dust, like fur, and how it likes to rest in a
56 certain direction.
58 - silver socks
60 - UROP: magnet gear/metal teeth tape device to distill urine through
61 evaporation and easily dispose of urea crystals for use in desert --
62 produce drinkable water.
64 - UROP: Make the LED in line with the flow for the microinjector, so
65 that it may transmit maximum flow. Motor that changes distance of
66 internal magnet from windings depending on desired speed so as to
67 obtain maximum power efficiency.
69 - web scraper which monitors various lottries, looking for "special"
70 gimmick changes in the rules (like 4x winnings on Wednesdays) and
71 computes expected value...
73 - Memristiors novel design :: make an evolutionary algorithm to make
74 old stuff using all four basic circuit elements.
76 - Conductive concrete
78 - little bitty melting pot
80 - power strip/timer programmable combination
82 - algorthms which learn what their inputs are and in what order, and
83 can adapt to changing circumstances -- they remember previous
84 arguments and adapt so as to respond to different connections.
86 - hear a true pure tone by direct stimultion of the nerves of the ear
87 mechanical analogue to the electrical op-amp
89 - paper folding device :: make it convienent to fold lots of papers in
90 various ways.
92 - concrete epoxy :: epoxy with sand/ some other solid material.
94 - suspend some ball of material with a high index of refraction and
95 shine light into it so it gets stuck -- would the light stay trapped
96 forever? Could you build up unlimited quantities of light inside the
97 sphere (which could then be released slowly by frustrated internal
98 reflection?
100 - movie screening :: Movies always are too long at first. one way to
101 shorten them ``scientifically" is to record blink rate during the
102 move and then remove / shorten the frames of the parts in which
103 there are a lot of blinking (average this over multiple people)
104 better yet, put it online and do it across thousands of people. I
105 got this from youtube in which there is an episode of kill bill
106 whih is composed entirely of the parts in whihc opeople had their
107 eyes closed. slogan: want to make a movie people can't take their
108 eyes off of? Just take those parts out!
110 - explosive thermite epoxy putty (one part would contain the rust, one
111 part the alumimum)
113 super reading program that teaches people the ideal mental mask to apply during reading so as to read very fast.
114 capture reading of a scientific atricle via screen capture while people read it, then use it to make the article better. like the movie-pruning idea.
117 Oct 27, 2009
119 use the above screen capture routine to make a quiz program tha constructs questions about the content you seemed to gloss over while reading. could be easy if the pdf came with embedded questions.
120 Me:
121 automatically generate word-cloud about the parts you found most interesting; help others who read the same stuff by drawing attention to the interesting parts.
123 Oct 27, 2009
125 Also, a computer which analyzes the word-cloud could learn a lot about what stuff is important to humans on average, and what stuff is important only to few. Maybe make extrapolations, help with its search
126 through solution space.
128 make a samurai sword, but use osmiridum instead of martensite for the cutting part; it should be a better sword.
129 use the induction technology used to recharge electric toothbrushes with no metal links to send data -- without any metal at all!
130 reading is a form of synsethesia
131 Me: imagination is [targeted] self-stimulation of sensory inputs in the CNS?
132 dreaming too?
134 Oct 27, 2009
136 A machine which translates the text eg, "ACTGAC" into actual DNA
137 Me: a machine which can build a constructor of amino acids with R-chains that do not naturally occur.
138 a machine which attempts to create constructors of various compounds via biological algorithms in micro-lab instances.
140 Oct 27, 2009
142 ferro-fluid magnetic field suspended micro generator to make electricity
143 Me: Combine with remote charging by induction
145 Oct 27, 2009
147 alcohol/fluid flow powered battery
148 folding razor blade sword
149 learn perfect pitch using another sense in combination (sight or touch)
150 kaleidoscope projector
151 razor blade de-sharpener (for guilt free disposal)
152 bricks filled with luminescent plant material
153 metal grids with seeds inside, which grow together and form a durable biological matrix. The metal substrate delivers water. (maybe use plastic instead of metal?)
154 Me: enrich plants with inorganic compounds; electrical interfaces in cellular plant matter => remote-controlled photosynthetic/bioluminescent structures.
155 conducting extracellular matrix
157 Oct 27, 2009
159 cross-modal memory hashing
160 flossing thimble-gaurds
161 integrate lattice learning with rules by generating hypothetical examples
162 wooden refridgerator to give food a better taste
164 Me: like barrels for wine, or planks for salmon. Maybe just have "flavor planks" for your pre-existing fridge. Need to mitigate effect of temperature on volatility?
166 Oct 27, 2009
168 radioactive transmutation molecule by molecule -- create precious metals or something else economically advantageous.
169 innolculate food with tons of harmless bacteria so that there's no room for bad bacteria as a method of preservation
170 pasteur - style holding jar with siphon as a way to store liquids ar room temperature indefinately w/o refridgeration.(7/26/2009)
171 Throw rude people out of resturant as a matter of course -- make ambiance much better.
172 make something that mixes soap with firehydrant water (and reduces the pressure a bit) and use it to clean windows of buildings.
173 make an ocarina out of pure silver
174 fire pen -- pen which burns words on to the page, thus never needing any ink. Is ther a way to make it runnable from the human's energy?
176 Me: like kinetic flashlights, shake to generate energy (magnet through a solenoid is how they do it, i think)
178 Oct 27, 2009
180 website to design your own soda, and label, and have it mailed to you / sell it from your own online store.
181 Me: like CAD online only with flavor extracts, other ingredients.
182 Have a set of modular machinery [BAKE, SMASH, PULVERIZE, ...] and ingredients. Requests?
184 Oct 27, 2009
186 solar panels that float on the ocean
187 handcuffs with more than two cuffs (3?) -- great for daisy chaining prisoniers, binding them to environment, etc.
188 vector based SOUND files. --- like the pictures but with SOUND.
190 Me: Essentially a MIDI file?
192 Oct 27, 2009
194 even better than PREVIOUS -- codify sound in a language with enough symbols so that it can describe everything and encode it in that. would be like going from speech to text or smtg.
195 Me: Build off of IPA?
196 Need to encapsulate nonsense sounds produced by babies
198 Oct 27, 2009
200 Mouse with a horizontal scroll wheel in addition to the vertical scroll wheel
201 logic maintance system for big institutions to make sure the things they are thinking about doing are not retarded
202 Me: For a starting point, crawl public domain regulations sites looking for retardation.
204 Oct 28, 2009
206 http://www.regulations.gov/
208 genetically engineered glowing fruit -- sell seeds?
210 Me: Fruits whose skins store sunlight in luminscent flesh => useful?
212 Oct 27, 2009
214 memory slide -- IF memories are encoded using particular sensory impressions, what happens if the sensory organ itself changes? those memories would become unaccessable. maybe this is why we can't
215 remember much from our childhoods. also, could this happen throught life as well? Could S remember stuff from his childhood?
216 make a completely indestructable phone -- no moving parts or display you should be able to slam it around all you want, and it will just work. brutally simple. aerogel around the battery, minimal interface - never gets
217 too hot, and can be dropped into water. no holes -- uses field effects for everything from the buttons to inductive charging and data transfer.
218 Me: Start with "military" phones (like Mr. Hawley has) with field-effects interface additions and additional hardcore streamlining.
220 Oct 27, 2009
222 midi to ocarina "tabs" program (online website? buy ocarinas from it too)
223 3d printing with sound pulses (or just patterns) -- like the 8.03 lecture
224 lighter flint on spring --- make hot and it makes sparkles!
225 put a plane on a treadmill, to help it do a vertical takeoff.
226 Use a nondeterministic sentence parser to understand sentences with multiple meanings. Perhaps use statistical language as a filter against unintended (or rather, uninteresting) interpretations.
227 Rebranding New+Clear Energy with informational campaign and public debate forum to enforce its transparent and open nature. France needn't be the world leader in nuclear energy.
228 Me: Standardized, modular nuclear plants?
230 Oct 29, 2009
232 Textbook whose content can be varied continuously---alter
233 Me: well, actually varied over a countable "dense" set.
235 Oct 29, 2009
237 level of difficulty, rigor, diction, emphasize crossover with certain other discipline, etc. Content generated dynamically from knowledge base,
238 Me: Or, initially, interpolated over all pre-existing books.
240 Oct 29, 2009
242 along with questions that are moreover altered to guide knowledge acquisition.
243 Motivation: One book of knowledge. One.
244 Engineer a material which has both ductility and high surface tension to make the "third" minimal-surface-energy solution to a bubble suspended between two equal-diameter rings. (Solutions are cylindrical catenary
245 curve, two separated half-bubbles, and a double-cone)
247 Tags:
249 Me: Color-coded lid-cup pairs.
251 Dec 3, 2009
253 Me: Dry soap (like for pets) but for cars
255 Dec 3, 2009
257 Next w ave