Tired of having to undress when flying? Why not make the belt buckle in plastic?

Or make it detachable.

Ever so often we receive a file we have to manipulate before importing. Why not create an online application for this? Either send the data over the wire, or preferably for privacy reasons, download a file that does the same either as javascript in the browser as a stand alone file.

Building pieces that fit together in most directions.

Duplo is still to difficult for my 10 months old.  She often knows how to take the pieces from each other but hasn’t figured out the difference between studs, sides and under side; she just rubs them together and that is not enough.

What I am picturing is blocks, like Duplo, with magnets in them.  Now magnets are a bit to magic so maybe blocks with spikes.  I remember the latter from my childhood toys.  The spike solution doesn’t make the nice lego-squareness and lego-every-piece-fits though.

Velcro is male-female and I don’t want it to be some-sides-stick-some-don’t.

Maybe a Post-it solution.  The glue wears of though.

Johansson gauge won’t make it since they are too sensitive.

Problem:

When using a hand drill it is hard to get it at right angle.

Possible solution(s):

Mount a bull’s eye level on the rear end of a power drill and making vertical holes should be a breeze.  Mount a tubular spirit level on the top side and horizontal holes are equally easy to drill.

One can also use laser lines.  For instance one can have two lines projected from an angle but the lines parallel at the tip of the drill.  If the drill leans in the direction of the laser lines they will come at angle.  Don’t mind my explanation; think about it for a few seconds and you’ll realise how it could be implemented.

There is a neck on hand drills. Mount the holder for the bull’s eye or tubular spirit levels there; then the solution can be used on any drill with neck.

Exchange the power drill for anything that has to be at right angle.  Why not create such a laser device to hold to a piece of wood to make sure it is perpendicular to something else?

Update 2020-07-21

Someone at kickstarter, xdrill, has done even better than my idea. They incorporated the laser measurer in the drill and put a display on and even bluetooth and wifi. Especially the display was clever I think. Nice work!

“Every” drill has a collar to fasten a handle, or let it be installed in a simple drill press construction. Why not have a laser measurer to mount on the collar? Then let it have 3 or 4 lasers to measure the distance and hey presto we know both angle and distance.
Then there could be a small strip of diodes, and possibly sound, to show the accuracy of the drilling. Or have it talk to a phone that is somewhere close by.

To calibrate the collar laser, have a very flat surface with a very 90 degrees hole. Insert a very straight rod of about 10 mm into the chuck and then into the hole.
Or a smart way to mount a square.
Then calibrate the square.

Google glasses springs to mind. A HUD that tells you the drilling angle would be awesome!

There are probably millions of old Iphones out there lying in a drawer or being sold relatively cheap.

Why not use them in the industry as brains and GUIs? They are small, cheap, powerful and have a big developer community.

Hardware interfaces can be reused since Iphones are more or less identical.

There is more to this but it has to mature in my brain some more.

The title says it all.

Here comes an idea I have had for 20 years or more.

Create a wand with a laser distance meter.  The update rate must be quite high.

Have a device to put somewhere.  This device knows the position and orientation of the wand.  The wand sends data to the device.

As long as we keep the measuring fast we can “paint” the surroundings and store the data.  We can then do some smart calculations and figure out what the room/object looks like.

If we want to measure more than the distance between the wand and the device allows we can set the device in “moving mode” after putting the wand down; move the device, and then set the device in “measuring mode” again.  This way we can move the measuring through a whole multi floor factory or from a building to another.

If we have computer power enough, we can do it all real time.  It would be super to be able to see how one paints the objects to see if there are any forgotten areas.

There should be a way to help the computer calculate the data (afterwards).  One can give it hints about what is a corner and what is a pipe.  Or a nose on a statue.

Another solution which probably requires more computing power, is to do it with a (film-)camera.  Or a stereo camera to make the calculations easier.  Hold the camera in your hands, on a pole, on a vehicle or in a ball to through around.
Does the Microsoft Kinect solve this problem? It measures a room alright but at a high enough definition? At least it can be used as a proof of concept.

It already exist, Don’t forget the milk, Out of milk and more.

They synchronise nicely and allow the whole family use the same list; very good for updating the shopping list at work for the one at paternal leave at home.

What I miss though is:

I want it to reorder my shopping list to be a pickup list in the same order as in the store.  It could sense in which order I ticked off the items and make guesstimates the next time I fill out the list.  I don’t know exactly what the algorithm should like.  There are different list orders for different shops.

It should change behaviour when I enter the list and when I am in the shop.  It could be a switch or it could use geo info and automagically switch.

If it uses geo data it can also differ between different stores and alter the list’s order to the actual shop.

Ok, so now the app or html knows where we are and what to shop.  Time to get offers and alternatives.  The shop has offers, the suppliers might have offers, there might be third parties with offers, neighbouring shops might have offers.  Download and show.

Look at your keyboard and you know what I mean.

Why is there still no cleanable keyboard around?  That is nice to use at the same time I mean.

Some ten years ago I tried cleaning a keyboard thoroughly.  I popped 10 keys a day loose and cleaned.  After two weeks I was finished and the keyboard was only a tad cleaner.

Dishwasher cleanable, only the keys or preferably the whole keyboard.  Or washing machine washable even.

The keyboard for computers have got upgrades since the typewriter heydays, but they are still designed for text and spreadsheets.

Why not make a developer centric keyboard with easy-to-reach buttons for debugging by the left side (like the F1-F10 in old keyboards) but more ergonomic.  Wireless if needed.  Possible to pick to pieces and puzzle together again – think Lego, clay or magnets.  Make it washable.