view org/ideas.org @ 33:834f7a82ce18

cleaning up ideas.
author Robert McIntyre <rlm@mit.edu>
date Sun, 21 Apr 2013 03:10:00 +0000
parents b93ea76ae7fc
children 80f2525cf393
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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
59 UROP: magnet gear/metal teeth tape
60 device to distill urine through evaporation and easily dispose of urea crystals for use in desert -- produce drinkable water.
61 UROP: Make the LED in line with the flow for the microinjector, so that it may transmit maximum flow.
62 Motor that changes distance of internal magnet from windings depending on desired speed so as to obtain maximum power efficiency.
63 web scraper which monitors various lottries, looking for "special" gimmick changes in the rules (like 4x winnings on Wednesdays) and computes expected value...
64 Memristiors -- make an evolutionary algorithm to make old stuff using all four basic circuit elements.
65 Conductive concrete
66 little bitty melting pot
67 power strip/timer programmable combination
68 algorthms which learn what their inputs are and in what order, and can adapt to changing circumstances -- they remember previous arguments and adapt so as to respond to different connections.
69 hear a true pure tone by direct stimultion of the nerves of the ear
70 mechanical analogue to the electrical op-amp
71 paper folding device -- make it convienent to fold lots of papers in various ways.
72 concrete epoxy -- epoxy with sand/ some other solid material.
73 suspend some ball of material with a high index of refraction and shine light into it so it gets stuck -- would the light stay trapped forever? Could you build up
74 unlimited quantities of light inside the sphere (which could then be released slowly by frustrated internal reflection?
76 Me: As it is, light wouldn't be trapped forever, since some fraction would always escape through the walls via absorbtion. But, if you minimized that or slowed the light down, it could
77 work.
79 Oct 27, 2009
81 movie screening. Movies always are too long at first. one way to shorten them ``scientifically" is to record blink rate during the move and then remove / shorten the frames of the parts in which there are a lot of blinking
82 (average this over multiple people) better yet, put it online and do it across thousands of people. I got this from youtube in which there is an episode of kill bill whih is composed entirely of the parts in whihc opeople
83 had their eyes closed. slogan: want to make a movie people can't take their eyes off of? Just take those parts out!
84 explosive thermite epoxy putty
85 super reading program that teaches people the ideal mental mask to apply during reading so as to read very fast.
86 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.
87 Me: c.f. attention-tracking machines for user interface evaluation
89 Oct 27, 2009
91 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.
92 Me:
93 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.
95 Oct 27, 2009
97 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
98 through solution space.
100 make a samurai sword, but use osmiridum instead of martensite for the cutting part; it should be a better sword.
101 use the induction technology used to recharge electric toothbrushes with no metal links to send data -- without any metal at all!
102 reading is a form of synsethesia
103 Me: imagination is [targeted] self-stimulation of sensory inputs in the CNS?
104 dreaming too?
106 Oct 27, 2009
108 A machine which translates the text eg, "ACTGAC" into actual DNA
109 Me: a machine which can build a constructor of amino acids with R-chains that do not naturally occur.
110 a machine which attempts to create constructors of various compounds via biological algorithms in micro-lab instances.
112 Oct 27, 2009
114 ferro-fluid magnetic field suspended micro generator to make electricity
115 Me: Combine with remote charging by induction
117 Oct 27, 2009
119 alcohol/fluid flow powered battery
120 folding razor blade sword
121 learn perfect pitch using another sense in combination (sight or touch)
122 kaleidoscope projector
123 razor blade de-sharpener (for guilt free disposal)
124 bricks filled with luminescent plant material
125 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?)
126 Me: enrich plants with inorganic compounds; electrical interfaces in cellular plant matter => remote-controlled photosynthetic/bioluminescent structures.
127 conducting extracellular matrix
129 Oct 27, 2009
131 cross-modal memory hashing
132 flossing thimble-gaurds
133 integrate lattice learning with rules by generating hypothetical examples
134 wooden refridgerator to give food a better taste
136 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?
138 Oct 27, 2009
140 radioactive transmutation molecule by molecule -- create precious metals or something else economically advantageous.
141 innolculate food with tons of harmless bacteria so that there's no room for bad bacteria as a method of preservation
142 pasteur - style holding jar with siphon as a way to store liquids ar room temperature indefinately w/o refridgeration.(7/26/2009)
143 Throw rude people out of resturant as a matter of course -- make ambiance much better.
144 make something that mixes soap with firehydrant water (and reduces the pressure a bit) and use it to clean windows of buildings.
145 make an ocarina out of pure silver
146 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?
148 Me: like kinetic flashlights, shake to generate energy (magnet through a solenoid is how they do it, i think)
150 Oct 27, 2009
152 website to design your own soda, and label, and have it mailed to you / sell it from your own online store.
153 Me: like CAD online only with flavor extracts, other ingredients.
154 Have a set of modular machinery [BAKE, SMASH, PULVERIZE, ...] and ingredients. Requests?
156 Oct 27, 2009
158 solar panels that float on the ocean
159 handcuffs with more than two cuffs (3?) -- great for daisy chaining prisoniers, binding them to environment, etc.
160 vector based SOUND files. --- like the pictures but with SOUND.
162 Me: Essentially a MIDI file?
164 Oct 27, 2009
166 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.
167 Me: Build off of IPA?
168 Need to encapsulate nonsense sounds produced by babies
170 Oct 27, 2009
172 Mouse with a horizontal scroll wheel in addition to the vertical scroll wheel
173 logic maintance system for big institutions to make sure the things they are thinking about doing are not retarded
174 Me: For a starting point, crawl public domain regulations sites looking for retardation.
176 Oct 28, 2009
178 http://www.regulations.gov/
180 genetically engineered glowing fruit -- sell seeds?
182 Me: Fruits whose skins store sunlight in luminscent flesh => useful?
184 Oct 27, 2009
186 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
187 remember much from our childhoods. also, could this happen throught life as well? Could S remember stuff from his childhood?
188 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
189 too hot, and can be dropped into water. no holes -- uses field effects for everything from the buttons to inductive charging and data transfer.
190 Me: Start with "military" phones (like Mr. Hawley has) with field-effects interface additions and additional hardcore streamlining.
192 Oct 27, 2009
194 midi to ocarina "tabs" program (online website? buy ocarinas from it too)
195 3d printing with sound pulses (or just patterns) -- like the 8.03 lecture
196 lighter flint on spring --- make hot and it makes sparkles!
197 put a plane on a treadmill, to help it do a vertical takeoff.
198 Use a nondeterministic sentence parser to understand sentences with multiple meanings. Perhaps use statistical language as a filter against unintended (or rather, uninteresting) interpretations.
199 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.
200 Me: Standardized, modular nuclear plants?
202 Oct 29, 2009
204 Textbook whose content can be varied continuously---alter
205 Me: well, actually varied over a countable "dense" set.
207 Oct 29, 2009
209 level of difficulty, rigor, diction, emphasize crossover with certain other discipline, etc. Content generated dynamically from knowledge base,
210 Me: Or, initially, interpolated over all pre-existing books.
212 Oct 29, 2009
214 along with questions that are moreover altered to guide knowledge acquisition.
215 Motivation: One book of knowledge. One.
216 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
217 curve, two separated half-bubbles, and a double-cone)
219 Tags:
221 Me: Color-coded lid-cup pairs.
223 Dec 3, 2009
225 Me: Dry soap (like for pets) but for cars
227 Dec 3, 2009
229 Next w ave