Merlocke

So what's your crazy idea that will someday earn you millions of dollars?

Back in the day, it was adding a clock to any everyday object. These days, it's slapping a camera or an mp3 player on something to make it the new hotness. Perhaps it's your bigger better badder nose hair trimmer, or some bastardization of the flowbee... Fellow TFP'ers - what's your better mousetrap?

And nobody mention actually building a "large HARDON collider" unless it has a camera, mp3 player, and a way to make the black hole clean my toilet...

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-=[ Merlocke ]=-

healer

I want to build a device that instantly (and safely) can produce large quantities of toast. I was thinking something along the lines of a long, super-heated vertical tube that is heat-calibrated for gravity so that you can just drop the bread in at the top and get toast falling out the bottom.

What can I say...I like toast. And there's no longer wait than waiting for the toaster to pop.

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dlish

i hate the current toaster machines. you get one, then you have to wait for the other. sometimes a man likes to have all his toast at once. instead of a vertical line, they need to make a horizontal one. say where 5 toasts finish all together.

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An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy

Baraka_Guru

You mean like a toast gun?

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

ngdawg

Uhm...toaster oven... nice big one.

My invention: the all-in-one room washer. Installed in kitchen or bathroom, it would work like those little box carwashes. Push a button and steaming sprays of soapy solution would come from the ceiling, cover everything, then get rinsed and super-blow-dried.
Of course, you'd have to have a drain in your floor and maybe automatic doors to close the room off, but I can see this totally working out.

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Don't blame me. I didn't vote for either of'em.

fresnelly

Have you ever been out on the town and suddenly realized you forgot to set the recorder (PVR, VCR, whatever) for that special TV show starting soon?

I'd like to have a recorder that can be operated via telephone to resolve that very situation. Just dial in, punch in a few key commands and you can stay out safe in the knowledge that you won't miss that season finale after all. We can already do this with answering machines. Wait. Can Tivo already do this?

My second idea is a just a regular TV remote but with the added feature of a small scroll wheel embedded in it. As you scroll it forward, your TV starts surfing up through the channels. The farther you scroll it, the faster it cycles through. Scrolling it back towards you switches the channels down. It's intuitive and would reduce muscle strain from all that clicking.

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Building an artificial intelligence that appreciates Mozart is easy. Building an A.I. that appreciates a theme restaurant is the real challenge - Kit Roebuck - Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life

Randerolf

Sorry, I can't think of anything to add, because I just got a big friggin' grin on face. Toast gun

MSD

I really thought I might have been the first one to come up with the self-cooling soda can that decompresses CO2 through a coil or bundle of tubes when I was in high school.

Nope, beaten.

I thought that nobody had an alarm clock that would monitor brain waves, average the length of your sleep cycle, and wake you up during the last light sleep phase before your preprogrammed time.

Nope, beaten.

I stopped trying to invent stuff after that second one.
Sorry, according to a scientist working at CERN, the joke of calling it the large hardon collider was worn out long before construction started
If you have Verizon, yes.
Record Shows on TiVo Via Cell Phone : Dory Devlin : Yahoo! Tech

Reese

I'd tell you some of my ideas but my lawyer has informed me to keep quiet until the patents go through.

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“It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick” - Dave Barry

Stare At The Sun

Holy crap you too! I came in here to post that!

Where can you buy this?

jewels

I've always dreamed of providing the in-demand beer IV that hooks you up to a source or keg when you're partying. Just like a hospital IV, you press a button to control the doseage.

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We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain

little_tippler

My idea was simple but I'm thinking it exists already now.

I use contacts and from the very beginning was told it's wise to carry them around with you at all times in case you need to take them out in an emergency. But, there is no lens carrying device that is convenient, nor do they sell small bottles of lens fluid. So I thought I'd make a travel pack for that, but small and fits anywhere.

But, since the airports started tightening security in relation to liquids, a few lens liquid companies have made some small bottles and travel kits. I know I thought of it before I saw them in shops. I still think there is a niche for a decent lens travel pouch.

Another idea is a pen that dispenses paint instead of ink. I made one for myself for my artwork - I needed a device that would make writing with paint easy. It only has one problem, you can't stop the paint running when you want. So it gets messy. Basically I use the outer tube of a pen (discard the inside bits), stick it in a can of paint so the tube fills up then I take it out and stopper the end. When I want to use it I remove the stopper and the paint flows! I love it

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

SabrinaFair

My bright idea was not for a device, but for a book. I want to write a book about male/female platonic friendships, and how these friendships often become casualties of a romantic relationship--particularly when the male gets involved with someone. I want to explore why this happens, and perhaps offer some solutions....maybe one day I'll get around to writing it.

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"With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."
-Desiderata

Poppinjay

I used to want an above bed beverage dispenser. It would be like three large metal cups with cooling circuitry in them. One would hold a milk jug, one would hold a pot of ice tea, and the last would hold a pitcher of water. There would be tubes running from each to my pillow with auto sealing closures. There, I could read the sunday paper without getting out of bed.

I lived in a cool climate then.

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I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

tisonlyi

MythTV, a linux-based and free as in speech PVR system, already has a control module for remote access via the web.

If you have a method of controlling something via the web, then it's a short stop to making it controllable via:

Phone: Asteriks
SMS: Kannel - you can set up a personal gateway using an old phone.
Carrier Pigeon: RFC 2549
-----Added 12/11/2008 at 08 : 45 : 40-----
Sleeptracker the Unique Alarm Clock, Wake Up Easier - Sleeptracker the Sleep Watch

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"I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place." - Winston Churchill, 1937 --{ORLY?}--

BadNick

As far as "over the phone" control, our BBQ division has a gadget that you can hook up to your charcoal/wood fired smoker/cooker and control the cooking from a remote location via phone or internet. One version has a probe in the meat and a probe in the cooking zone so it knows both temperatures, then it pulses the airflow into the chamber so it burns as slowly as possible and at just the right temp for whatever temp you programmed to be the meat temp. For example, you can put a brisket on the cooker and leave it there for a whole day, slow cooking it at low temp, without burning up the wood &/or charcoal too fast so you don't have to add more fuel as it cooks...come home from work, eat it.


I'm sure you've seen this one, jewels....a little more R & D and you'll have your invention:

little_tippler

ugh. Well, I'm not a beer fan. Also, I hate straws! Why anyone would want a beverage dispensed to them from a deposit above their head through a straw beats me. Only beverage I like through a straw is Caipirinha. Thinking about it, I think I don't like it because it reminds me of when people are being fed through a tube.

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

Poppinjay

How DARE you impune straws! This is WAR! Although I don't like beer through straws.

__________________
I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

fresnelly

Not even Crazy Straws?



Now there's a million dollar idea!

__________________
Building an artificial intelligence that appreciates Mozart is easy. Building an A.I. that appreciates a theme restaurant is the real challenge - Kit Roebuck - Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life

snowy

For those of you who want lots of toast quickly, I'd recommend getting a commercial foodservice toaster:



Makes lots of toast very, very quickly. Admittedly, they cost over $1000, but I did love having access to one when I was eating in the dining halls at university.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

BadNick

Add some glow to your suck with L.E.D. straws

MSD

You can find them used cheaper. Keep an eye on ebay.

Merlocke

omg - somehow there's poisonous lead in that and the evil ones will use it to take over the world...
-----Added 23/11/2008 at 10 : 22 : 14-----
Someone once shared with me their million dollar straw idea:

Don't you just hate it when your straw rises out of your glass? (when consuming fizzy drinks at a restaurant) I'm going to make a magnetized straw or something like that which cancels the rising and make a million dollars someday.

-=-

Dunno if that pitch would make it past Dragon's Den, but meh - you never know.

__________________
-=[ Merlocke ]=-

skizziks

I was thinking: If you can take the chemical that makes blood agent seep through your skin right into your bloodstream, and chemically bond it with heroin, then you can have spray-on heroin. Like one of those breath sprays. You wont need a gateway drug to work up to it, no more needles, just spray and go. The applicator will of course have pre-programmed doses, so you dont accidently overdose.

vermin

A single machine to wash and dry clothes. What's the point of halfway through the laundry having to move the clothes from one machine to the other? Why can't the world have a machine where dirty (dry) clothes go in, clean (dry) clothes come out.

All you'd need is a standard washer, two diverter valves, heating element and fan, and a second timing circuit. After the wash/rinse cycle the water in could be switched over to warm air from the heater/blower, the water drain could be switch over to a moist air out tube to a standard dryer hose. It would use the same motor for spinning the clothes in both phases and you'd only need half the sheet metal structure that you would need for two machines.

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If puns were sausages, this would be the wurst.

blktour

I dont know if this has been invented or not, and if it hasnt. well someone will steal it I am sure.

ever forget what websites you have log in's for?

how about a website that is called like, "LOGINS.COM" or something like that? (I have never put in www.logins.com" ever.)

when visiting this website, somehow will give you a list of all websites that you have ever made a login, using your name, or email address or something of that nature.

I know there would be security issues that would need to be discussed, or what search info to use.


I always think how I could do this.... oh well..

skizziks

they actually have that. it exists.

http://products.howstuffworks.com/su...60c-review.htm

ASU2003

Scratch Fix 2in1™

You might have some competition. I'm not sure you can refill this pen or have large amounts of paint, but I've used them before for small projects.

Charlatan

Speaking of straws... flavoured straws. For kids that hate drinking milk, give them a flavour straw and their milk gets flavoured as they draw on the straw...

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"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Merlocke

Microsoft tried to do this with their .NET API but it didn't take off and just ended up being a useless call that nobody ever ended up using. It's that whole microsoft passport thing you see on MS websites.

It'd be a great idea though save for the security flaws.

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-=[ Merlocke ]=-

Amaras

I want to invent something I call the "internet". A lot of people would end up masturbating in front of it,
all over the world. Some guy named Al Gore is apparently supportive of the idea.

__________________
Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.
-Noam Chomsky
Love is a verb, not a noun.
-My Mom
The function of genius is to furnish cretins with ideas twenty years later.
-Louis Aragon, "La Porte-plume," Traite du style, 1928

Merlocke

Hmmm time to revive this thread... I've had a couple of bright ideas lately and I'd love to run em by you guys. Mostly arounds applications though. Now imagine... A cup and ball app on the iPhone! That would be awesome.

__________________
-=[ Merlocke ]=-

MSD

Whoa, blast from the past right here.
From Popular Mechanics, one of the 1950 issues, not positive which it was

Diacetylmorphine sulphide isn't soluble enough in dimethyl sulfoxide to allow the DMSO to carry it through the skin readily. Honestly, you're better off carrying a multi dose snuff bullet if you want a regular metered dose.

snowy

I want to sew up a small beltpack thing for childcare workers--it will have three pouches on it: one for tissues, one for hand sanitizer, and one for the used tissues. At the end of the day, it can be thrown in a hot wash to be sanitized itself. I can't tell you how much time I waste at work getting into the cupboard/going to the counter for a tissue to wipe someone's snotty nose.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Merlocke

Here's one that I actually really need: anonymous advice. A website where you can send anonymous messages to people via email in a video form that discusses something with the recipient of a personal nature that's too awkward to tell them in person.

Example: I have this home-stay student right now that smells like a water buffalo's ballsack on a humid day. I would love more than anything to send them an anonymous email thatnexplains that they should shower more than once a week, and wash their clothes more often.

Just think, how else do you tell a woman to shave her upper lip, tell someone that they are getting a little excessive around the middle and you're worried about their health, perhaps tell a friend that their hairstyle died 20 years ago, or that guy with the rancid breath that perhaps a Costco sized box of mints are in order? If we had these prerecorded videos and a way to send them...

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-=[ Merlocke ]=-

Xerxys

Where is my GODDAMNED FLYING CAR!!!

---------- Post added at 09:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:21 AM ----------

Get their email, get a fake email address, write up a long hearted email about how hygiene is important. Then SPAM the hell outta him! With soap ads and detergent ingredients and solutions.

HURRAY for passive aggressive behavior.

dlish

merlocke, why not just send them an anonymous email from one of the many web based anonymous email sites?

does it have to be a video? wont that spoil your anonymity?will you be wearing a keffiah? you can borrow mine if you like...

__________________
An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy

Merlocke

Well what if the videos were done by say "b" level comedians and celebrities and delivered with style? I mean how awesome would it be for alf to tell me to shave or something. Or have Jared the subway guy call us fat. A little entertainment in the delivery with affiliate linked back end solutions and you can monetize damn near every problem.

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-=[ Merlocke ]=-

King Angels

You have serch that tisp you know ? but you also pay for surfing that site so i think nothing is free today . specailly internet. i hope goole's are not doing that thing for net.

TrAyKoO

I want to sew up a small beltpack thing for childcare worker