Fluid switch

An idea for a digital switch that has an organic and natural-feeling experience.

The switch contains liquid in an upper chamber, separated from a lower chamber by a value. When sufficient pressure is applied by the user, the value opens, allowing the liquid to flow into the lower chamber. The stretch in the wall of the lower chamber causes a circuit to be made (via a stretch sensor). As the lower chamber is elasticated and the valve one-way, the fluid returns to the upper chamber ready for another switch event.

The diagram below illustrates:

Traffic light visor

Every now and then traffic lights stop working. When this happens it is customary to deploy signs to warn road users, and covers for the traffic lights. However, if these signs could be built into the traffic light it could save time and inconvenience.

The diagram below illustrates a set of drop-down visors which could be deployed for non-functioning traffic lights. On the face of the visor could be an out-of-order message or a warning for drivers to drive carefully.

The visors could be remotely electronically deployed, allowing rapid response to traffic light failure. Ideally the visor mechanism would be on a separate circuit to avoid both the traffic lights and the visors being out of action simultaneously. Alternatively the visors could be mechanically deployed.

Turning the sides of buildings into advertising space

I'm sure in the future the sides of every building are supposed to have been turned into advertising space, with every street turned into Times Square. But the occupants still want natural light, so how can both needs be accommodated? Using fine strips of advert on the windowed sides of buildings.

The gaps between the fine strips would be sufficient to allow natural light in, whist the strips (in combination) would be sufficient to provide a discernible image when viewed from a suitable distance. The strips themselves could be light emitting (a string of LEDs for example) or merely reflective (which would only work during the day). An eInk reflective coating would allow the advert to be regularly changed. A combination of both light emitting and reflective techniques might be optimum to allow the adverts to be seen clearly no matter the level of sunlight.

Another advantage of this is that the strips would prevent excessive sunlight, which heats the building and causes increased air conditioning costs.

Bare Minimum News

I would make use of a news/current affairs service that feeds you only what you need to know in order to be able to hold a 5 minute conversation (enough time for you to diplomatically steer the conversation elsewhere). Useful for topics that you're not interested in (and therefore do not want to invest time finding out about), but which come up in conversation and about which you don't want to be caught out. Delivered via RSS, SMS, email, etc

The power of individuals

What is the highest individual power relative to the total power in the world? And how has this varied over time?

Whilst the disparity in power between the most and least powerful is gargantuan, and whilst the media obsess about the power and influence of a few, I suspect that even the most powerful people are still small cogs in a big machine.

By contrast, during earlier periods of history I would suggest that power was more concentrated.

I think the same kind of trend would hold true for metrics such as fame, status, creativity and intellectual output, but not for wealth.

Mapping the problem/need space

What do humans do? We solve problems. We're good at that. But we can't solve problems if we don't know what they are. We need better tools to map out the problem/need space, to properly document those problems, to link them to each other, to rank them and the make that information public.

By making this information easily accessible we lower the barriers to people to find a problem to solve, giving them a rewarding challenge, and most importantly, getting problems solved.

How to create and structure this dataset? The is an obvious one for input from the crowd. Probably the closest example would be Wikipedia, with a vast number of content creators, and a smaller number of content curators. Each problem entry would have: a title; a description; an estimate of the number of people affected; an estimate of the social/environment/economic (triple-bottom-line) cost; an estimate of the extent that the problem/need is being addressed by current technologies, techniques, policies, etc (this is important as problems/needs that we consider 90% solved should still be on the database as that 10% is important); links to other problems; links to parent/daughter problems (a interlinked hierarchical dataset is appropriate); solution discussion (potentially a forum per problem).

Users of the tool can add content, suggest solutions, vote on what problems are most pressing, etc.

Startup companies can reference the problem/need tool, explaining what problem they're solving, or what need they're addressing, providing evidence to the would-be investors of the necessity for (and indicative benefit of) their investment.

Pure science researchers can more easily find applications of their blue skies research.

A couple of applications of superhydrophobic coatings

There have been several examples of superhydrophobic coatings in the news over the past year: LiquiGlide; Liquipel; and NeverWet. I think we are at the tip of the iceberg on how far-reaching this technology will be. My guess for the future is that 95% of products will use this technology in some form. And the main reason why is that we live in a word dominated by water: we are over half water, as are most organisms; we both input and output water; the food we eat is also dependent on water to be grown; water is one of the few things piped into the average home (in the economically developed world); water is a component of the air (including rain); 71% of the surface of the Earth is covered by water; water is a commonly used heat exchanger; etc.

An interesting aspect of LiquiGlide is that it can be injested by humans without adverse effects (as it's made from food materials). It would be interesting to see if a coating of LiquiGlide could be applied to teeth, perhaps at the dentist or a home treatment. Making teeth superhydrophobic could potentially reduce tooth decay, plaque, etc.

Another potential application would be to apply this coating to tableware, which could make washing up much easier, saving time, cost and potentially allowing greater automation.