I had the idea (along with a friend) to make a set of skis long enough and wide enough to be able to create a snowboard at will.
The skis would act like normal skis, but then the bindings could be twisted sideways to acts as those on a snowboard. The skis could then be clipped together to create a single ski or snowboard.
This would allow people to pick and choose whatever they want to do on the slopes - ski or board.
Monday, 14 April 2008
Foldable sledge
I was wondering if it is possible to make a sledge (for sliding down snow) completely collapsable. At home, we have a camp bed that uses two metal poles to hold up a canvas 'bed'. These poles are constructed in a manner in which you have to plug three separate pieces of pole together to create the final 'singular' pole.
If this same method could be applied to a sledge, then you would be able to carry it wherever you like. Unlike the current efforts at folding sledges (which just fold in half), the new sledge would be constructed from 6 metal poles (imagine like tent poles but stronger). These would support a canvas base on which ther person sits. Runners for the actual sledging part could then be attached using clips to some support legs (or sledge ribs as with a rowing boat). The support legs would act as a tensioning device to keep the canvas tensioned.
All in all, the device would collapse down to 8 poles (like a tent pole sized bag), a canvas base to sit on, and some rope/string to hold onto.
If this same method could be applied to a sledge, then you would be able to carry it wherever you like. Unlike the current efforts at folding sledges (which just fold in half), the new sledge would be constructed from 6 metal poles (imagine like tent poles but stronger). These would support a canvas base on which ther person sits. Runners for the actual sledging part could then be attached using clips to some support legs (or sledge ribs as with a rowing boat). The support legs would act as a tensioning device to keep the canvas tensioned.
All in all, the device would collapse down to 8 poles (like a tent pole sized bag), a canvas base to sit on, and some rope/string to hold onto.
Thursday, 8 November 2007
3G Mobile Phone Car Radio
I get ever increasingly annoyed at crap radio presenters who mumble on about nothing, talking about un-interesting things. All I want to do is to listen to songs while I am driving along in my car.
I know that you can buy ipod plugins and mp3 conversion devices to plug in your mp3 player, but why should I have to fork out more money for those things when I have a mobile phone already that can access music content on the internet. That way I dont have to pay for downlaod charges, faff about with music on my computer and mp3 player, or buy an mp3 player.
My 3G mobile phone car radio would work where music is streamed through your mobile phone to your car radio. The songs could be skipped through according yo your particular tastes. An example - suppose I only want to listen to Rock music; I would go to the "rock music zone/station" on my mobile using predefined sites I have set up. This would be done by selecting a radio station, using the buttons on the radio (e.g. positions 1-6).
The streamed songs would be played through my car radio and would not have to be stored on my mobile. Text and calls could also be made using voice recognition and the car speaker systems (as already available).
All the owner/useer would have to do is set up a music option with their mobile phone provider that is included in their monthly contract price plan. E.g. for £20 a month you can access 2 music sites with unlimited download (provided you are in your car), which also includes your normal calling charges/minutes.
I know that you can buy ipod plugins and mp3 conversion devices to plug in your mp3 player, but why should I have to fork out more money for those things when I have a mobile phone already that can access music content on the internet. That way I dont have to pay for downlaod charges, faff about with music on my computer and mp3 player, or buy an mp3 player.
My 3G mobile phone car radio would work where music is streamed through your mobile phone to your car radio. The songs could be skipped through according yo your particular tastes. An example - suppose I only want to listen to Rock music; I would go to the "rock music zone/station" on my mobile using predefined sites I have set up. This would be done by selecting a radio station, using the buttons on the radio (e.g. positions 1-6).
The streamed songs would be played through my car radio and would not have to be stored on my mobile. Text and calls could also be made using voice recognition and the car speaker systems (as already available).
All the owner/useer would have to do is set up a music option with their mobile phone provider that is included in their monthly contract price plan. E.g. for £20 a month you can access 2 music sites with unlimited download (provided you are in your car), which also includes your normal calling charges/minutes.
Tuesday, 29 May 2007
UV Toilet Hand Driers
Back in my undergraduate microbiology days we did an experiment that looked at the different types, and numbers, of bacteria that are present in the air. To do this we use a fan and blew air onto an agar plate. This was left to grow in an incubator and examined a week later. Needless to say a lot of bacteria are present in the air.
Having just washed my hands and using the hand drier, I thought how can this be different to the fan we used in the lab - blowing dirty air onto my, thought to be, clean hands. I looked under the hand drier and found the air intake to be underneath, taking "fresh" air from the toilet air and using it to dry my hands. Ergh!
Common sense tells us that the toilet air contains aerosols of "matter" and bacteria from the toilet bowl and general nasty places often associated with toilets. Looking at microbial contamination, it would seem stupid to use a hand drier to dry my hands with contaminated air, especially if a film of moiture (i.e. the water I am trying to dry off my hands) acts like a trap for any germs that are in the air, allowing them to land once again on my hands. What was the point of cleaning my hands then, if they are now covered with germs from the toilet air.
In my undergrad microbiology days we also did experiments on the effects of UV radiation as a means for steralising surfaces. The use of UV light is known to have bacteriocidal properties, where the bacteria are killed when exposed to UV for a period of up to 20 seconds.
And so, my question is: Can a small UV sterilisation kit not be fitted to hand driers to kill the germs that are in the air, especially if it taken form the toilet air?
This "unit" could be similar to those developed for water steralisation (as opposed to the use of iodine), and small enough so that they are hidden on the inside of the drier. The contaminated air could be fed through a small tubular system that houses a UV system. The air passing under the UV light would then be steralised, killing the bacteria, and helping to keep my hands nice a clean.
Having just washed my hands and using the hand drier, I thought how can this be different to the fan we used in the lab - blowing dirty air onto my, thought to be, clean hands. I looked under the hand drier and found the air intake to be underneath, taking "fresh" air from the toilet air and using it to dry my hands. Ergh!
Common sense tells us that the toilet air contains aerosols of "matter" and bacteria from the toilet bowl and general nasty places often associated with toilets. Looking at microbial contamination, it would seem stupid to use a hand drier to dry my hands with contaminated air, especially if a film of moiture (i.e. the water I am trying to dry off my hands) acts like a trap for any germs that are in the air, allowing them to land once again on my hands. What was the point of cleaning my hands then, if they are now covered with germs from the toilet air.
In my undergrad microbiology days we also did experiments on the effects of UV radiation as a means for steralising surfaces. The use of UV light is known to have bacteriocidal properties, where the bacteria are killed when exposed to UV for a period of up to 20 seconds.
And so, my question is: Can a small UV sterilisation kit not be fitted to hand driers to kill the germs that are in the air, especially if it taken form the toilet air?
This "unit" could be similar to those developed for water steralisation (as opposed to the use of iodine), and small enough so that they are hidden on the inside of the drier. The contaminated air could be fed through a small tubular system that houses a UV system. The air passing under the UV light would then be steralised, killing the bacteria, and helping to keep my hands nice a clean.
Wednesday, 28 March 2007
Recipes in shops
When I go food shopping, I have a rough idea of what I will eat with each item I have bought. An example - if I buy a fish, I will often think how I will cook it and what I will have with it, such as vegetables, pasta etc.
It would be very handy to have a constantly updatable recipe system that offers suggestive ideas of how to cook your item and what to have with it, like a simplified cook book.
This could be implemented in such a fashion that you enter the item of your choice into the recipe computer, e.g. tomato, and it would give you cooking instructions for, say, roasted tomoto with black pepper and sea salt.
Simple idea that would encourage people to branch out in their cookery abilities and eat more healthy food.
It would be very handy to have a constantly updatable recipe system that offers suggestive ideas of how to cook your item and what to have with it, like a simplified cook book.
This could be implemented in such a fashion that you enter the item of your choice into the recipe computer, e.g. tomato, and it would give you cooking instructions for, say, roasted tomoto with black pepper and sea salt.
Simple idea that would encourage people to branch out in their cookery abilities and eat more healthy food.
Tuesday, 27 March 2007
Right click functionality
When you navigate to web pages you are presented with specific options and functions to carryout, e.g. click on this nav bar, play this video...
Instead of only having the options available to your specific browser when you right click on the web page, I thought that it would be good if you could add additional functionaility to your web page by adding in your own options to perform additional functions, specific only to your page.
An example I thought of was when I was on the Ensembl web page [www.ensembl.org]. When you locate a gene of interest [Daxx for example] you can expand the options available by adding functionality to the right mouse button to, say, add all annotations or print this gene on the gene map. By doing this, you could keep the web form simple and intuitive and yet still have all the same functionality as needed if the options were included on the web page itself.
Other options could be viewing options or those options available through normal applications like MS Word where you can add words to a dictionary.
Just a thought.
Instead of only having the options available to your specific browser when you right click on the web page, I thought that it would be good if you could add additional functionaility to your web page by adding in your own options to perform additional functions, specific only to your page.
An example I thought of was when I was on the Ensembl web page [www.ensembl.org]. When you locate a gene of interest [Daxx for example] you can expand the options available by adding functionality to the right mouse button to, say, add all annotations or print this gene on the gene map. By doing this, you could keep the web form simple and intuitive and yet still have all the same functionality as needed if the options were included on the web page itself.
Other options could be viewing options or those options available through normal applications like MS Word where you can add words to a dictionary.
Just a thought.
Friday, 2 March 2007
Thin client workstation
With the increasing use of thin-client applications on MS Windows, I had another idea about taking your desktop with you when you leave your computer.
Your 'mobile desktop' would implement a thin-client infrastructure and allow you to hold your software on a central server (i.e. for your company) along with any documents you may have saved on your personailsed disk space. When you go to a random machine (e.g. when travelling abroad) you can log into a user profile area (through a web page) and retrieve your desktop and host it on that computer, having access to any of the documents you were working on or any software you were using.
Again, not sure if this has been done. It just popped into my head.
Your 'mobile desktop' would implement a thin-client infrastructure and allow you to hold your software on a central server (i.e. for your company) along with any documents you may have saved on your personailsed disk space. When you go to a random machine (e.g. when travelling abroad) you can log into a user profile area (through a web page) and retrieve your desktop and host it on that computer, having access to any of the documents you were working on or any software you were using.
Again, not sure if this has been done. It just popped into my head.
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