Need an idea

weemcd

Lo, i need help for a project at school. I'm meant to take a product already existant in the home or workplace and modify it, no electronics, just a simple modification to the product to make it more user friendly. The idea needs to be relativley simple.


So any ideas?

thanks
weemcd

Okie

How about a toaster that CAN'T incinerate the bread if you take your eye off it for more than three seconds?

Happened to me about ten minutes ago

After some thought, this project seems more diffucult than it sounds

awake777

Hrmm, this may be a bit much, but I've always wanted a more user-friendly ice-cream scoop. A battery operated heating element would warm the metal scoop, allowing for easier scoopage.

Along the same lines as Okie's idea, it's been a dream of mine to have a toaster with a window in the side, so you can cook it to your liking.

vibe666

even a little sliding scale on the side of the toaster showing the various levels of 'browning' from just off white to black. you then have a little colour sensor inside the toaster (prolly need thermal insulation on it) that detects how brown the toast is. give it 2 other options as well as the slider, one for frozen bread (which you can already get) which takes into account it'll take a bit longer to cook, and one for brown bread so the sensor isn't confused (or make it smart enough to detect that the bread is brown to begin with).

Okie

awake777 wrote:

Along the same lines as Okie's idea, it's been a dream of mine to have a toaster with a window in the side, so you can cook it to your liking.

A WINDOW!!!!

Why didn't I think of that? Good thinkin' :cool:

weemcd

hmm interesting, but this project is gonna be awkward, i think the ideas need to be simpler than that but ill keep the toaster stuff in mind.


/edit

hmm how aboud a mechanics trolley, the yoke they use to slide in under the car, with say a toolbox attached to it, and a light, and a tray for draining oil into and mabye a holder for a cup of tea? (:p ott, but im sure i could put in one or two of those modifications)

let me know what you think and keep the ideas rolling

Gurgle

Okie wrote:

How about a toaster that CAN'T incinerate the bread if you take your eye off it for more than three seconds?

You could use 4 cmos cameras, linked back to a microprosser. One monitoring each side of each slice & calibrated to measure the total amount of light within its field of view.

When the total light goes below a pre-set threshold (ie. the average browness of the slice of bread reaches its target) then the heater on that side gets turned off.

You'll probably need an IR detector for each slot so that it knows whether there is a slice in the position. And you'll need individual power relays for independant control of the heating elements.

- edit -

vibe666 wrote:

(or make it smart enough to detect that the bread is brown to begin with).

Damn, never thought of brown bread.

luckat

Probably too difficult, but a lawnmower that stays hovering at the same height, from the *general area* of say six feet around, as it cuts.

My dog, whom I love dearly, has a passion for digging sudden holes in the lawn. Apparently a hovermower is no good, because it hovers above the exact point at which it is, so if it hits a dip, down it goes, and slices up a chunk of earth at the edge of the hole, and tows you around the place, dipping and swooping. And I can't use a hand-mower because it's like trying to mow Passchendale. The power mower I do use works sort of all right, but my shoulders are kilt after half an hour of mowing up and down through the holes.

If you were able to set a mower to hover three or four inches above the *generalised* level of the six feet ahead and to the sides of it, this would solve this problem, I think.

luckat

Oh, wait, you said "no electronics". Hmm. OK, here's one from my great-aunt Nellie, who was kind of absent-minded. She had a grey African parrot that she trained to say "Have you got your keys?" when it saw her putting on her coat.

So one day she goes out to work, and leaves a sandwich and the makings of a cup of tea on the table for the ESB man, and the money in an envelope for him. He comes in the back door, sits down and has his cup of tea and sambo, sticks the envelope in his bag and makes out the bill, washes the dishes and proceeds to put on his coat, when a voice comes out of nowhere: "Have you got your keys?" Poor man nearly had a conniption.

Okie

luckat wrote:

Oh, wait, you said "no electronics". Hmm. OK, here's one from my great-aunt Nellie, who was kind of absent-minded. She had a grey African parrot that she trained to say "Have you got your keys?" when it saw her putting on her coat.

So one day she goes out to work, and leaves a sandwich and the makings of a cup of tea on the table for the ESB man, and the money in an envelope for him. He comes in the back door, sits down and has his cup of tea and sambo, sticks the envelope in his bag and makes out the bill, washes the dishes and proceeds to put on his coat, when a voice comes out of nowhere: "Have you got your keys?" Poor man nearly had a conniption.

LOL

Seanie M

How about a washing up liquid bottle with grooves on it so that it doesn't slide from your hands if you grab it with wet/greasy fingers?


Seanie.

ixoy

How about a chair with little legs on the back of the rear legs so that you can tilt it backwards and not topple over?

monkeyfudge

How about just taking a normal household item and adding a digital clock or FM radio to it? Everyone loves listening to the radio and knowing what time it is....

Okie

ixoy wrote:

How about a chair with little legs on the back of the rear legs so that you can tilt it backwards and not topple over?

/meh adopts comic book store guy type voice

"Thank you, Captain Obvious!"

We've all seen that episode of the Simpsons!

Actually, that idea with the chair is the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread!

woosaysdan

how about a blow-up doll that doesnt get punctured when ever you try something kinky with it?








and no this has never happened to me

impr0v

technically, stabbing the blow up doll goes beyond kinky.

bender

ixoy wrote:

How about a chair with little legs on the back of the rear legs so that you can tilt it backwards and not topple over?

Hey, That was Homer Simsons idea!!

monkeyfudge

bender wrote:

Hey, That was Homer Simsons idea!!

Actually, Thomas Edison thought of it first.

fintan

some sort of sensor on the door to your bedroom that will automatically open something none porn related on your screen if triggered.... faster than the old ALT+Tab

suppafly

awake777 wrote:

Along the same lines as Okie's idea, it's been a dream of mine to have a toaster with a window in the side, so you can cook it to your liking.

thats a deadly idea and probably one of the more easier to implement.

luckat

Alas no, Suppa; think about it. The elements that are heating the toaster are, by necessity, between you and your view of the bread! So a windowed toaster probably wouldn't show you how gold your toast was, only how red the heating element was.

Raphael

monkeyfudge wrote:

How about just taking a normal household item and adding a digital clock or FM radio to it? Everyone loves listening to the radio and knowing what time it is....

Like a dog!

SantaHoe

weemcd wrote:

Lo, i need help for a project at school. I'm meant to take a product already existant in the home or workplace and modify it, no electronics, just a simple modification to the product to make it more user friendly. The idea needs to be relativley simple.

Tip: If you come up with anything too good, keep it under your hat until you can afford to patent it... can't have your teacher claiming the patent now can we?

Pff I can't think of anything... everything has already been invented... there are no new ideas to be had.

knifey_spoonie

How about a glass sphere which is filled with a very unreactive gas there is also a thin strip of wire in this sphere when its heated it emits light thus eliminating the need of cadles.

tman

strap a mini jetpack onto a squirrel...

kids these days have no sense of creativity :rolleyes: