Here are some organizational patterns I found useful over the years (listed alphabetically!):
Category: Brain Pipe
SSH Car Key
- Start your car with the physical key.
- Connect your phone to your car with Bluetooth.
- Handshake/exchange encryption keys.
- Unlock/start your car from your phone.
Creative Brain
Some people see things others cannot, and they are right, and we call them creative geniuses. Some people see things others cannot, and they are wrong, and we call them mentally ill.
—Nancy Andreasen
Kitchen Tap
A tap for the kitchen sink that has a separate temperature control knob and a lever to control the flow of water.
The temperature knob would control the mix coming in from the hot and cold pipes. The flow lever would regulate the amount/pressure of the water coming out of the tap. This way, the temperature could be preset when washing or rinsing dishes. You wouldn’t have to worry about the lever getting pushed too far in one direction (too cold) or the other (scalding).
In the case of two knob tap, it’s a nuisance to adjust the temperature with two knobs. And once you get the temperature right, it’s a waste of water to just leave it running.
The Lawn
This is an idea for a bar. Ideally it would be an entire city block in a densely populated urban metropolis. Outside would be a very dense and magnificent 20 foot tall hedge that would serve as the walls of the establishment. The entrance to the bar would be two twelve feet tall red double doors in the hedge. Inside the entire space would be a well manicured lawn. There would be some tables and benches at the perimeter but mostly just a vast lawn and a huge bar that stretches across the entire length of the lawn at the far end.
Political Purchase
Idea for a mobile app: scan barcodes with the phone’s camera to see where the resources used in the product are from, where the production takes place and a percentage breakdown of the retail price by resource distribution to each country/region. This will be a tool for politically and socially-minded consumers. By knowing which country their hard-earned money is going to, they can boycott countries that they do not agree with politically. It will empower the consumer.
Users can create a profile to track their spending habits on a main website. The site will keep a running tally of all products scanned and user will be able to toggle which products have been purchased — to which they have ‘committed’ their patronage. Data breakdown for each profile will include geographic and corporate mapping on personal expenditure.
Scanned products will also provide product feedback from other users of the app. Feedback can be entered into the mobile app at the time of scan if desired (voice recording transcribed to text?) or feedback can be entered via the website profile.
Information for products will need to be surrendered by manufacturers or farmed from existing data sources if possible.
Possibly pitch to Consumer Reports and integrate with their product data and cross-market.