Let There Be Light - A New Lighting Idea

Wouldn't it be cool if you could light a room in such a way that it just "glowed?" No visible light source, just light? Here's what I'm picturing: instead of a few lamps, the whole ceiling, let's say, would glow a gentle blueish light - not so much that it was glaring, but enough to see well by. Or you could use a wall. The possibilities are endless.
Electroluminsecence (EL for short). That's the ticket. What am I talking about? EL is a technology that's been around since the early 1960's. It consists of a simple device that has a thin layer in it that glows when you apply electricity, using very little electricity in the process. It was developed by Sylvania, who called it "Panelescent." My dad worked for Sylvania, and I remember him bringing home a Panelescent nite-lite. It was a small disc, about 3 inches, that glowed blue when you plugged it in (See the picture at left). This is, by the way, the basic idea behind the Timex Indiglo watch faces. You can read more about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescence. Apparently, Chrysler Corp. used Panelescent lighting in their dashboards in the 1960s (read more here.)
Well, when I write these things, I usually look around to see if anyone else has already thought up my idea. Check out this website. Apparently, Light Tape Ltd. sells this stuff in rolls of tape - different colors. It looks so cool! I don't know how expensive it is, but this might be just the thing for lighting a room. What do you think? Glow on!

Disclaimer: Dave has no relationship with Light Tape Ltd, Chrysler or Timex. My only connection to Sylvania is that my father worked for them until he retired.

EZ-Pass for parking

I have to say, I like EZ-Pass a lot more than I thought I would. For anyone who doesn't know what this is (both of you) EZ-Pass is a transponder that you attache to the inside of your windshield and it "pays" your toll on a toll highway as you drive through the toll booth - no stopping. You charge up an account and it is debited every time you use it. This is not my idea for this week. This idea has already been thought up and implemented. My idea is this: Why can't we use the EZ-Pass for parking at say, the airport or commuter parking garages? The car has it; your account has money in it; how easy and convenient would that be? Very! So, Mass. Highway people - How about it?

Trash Robots

It's funny how ideas come to you. I was walking down the hall at work one day, and I suddenly had an image of trash robots. Instead of "dumb" waste baskets, they would be little simple robots - whose only function was to travel (at a pre-set time) to a place in the building where they could be emptied (either by a person or another mechanism) - then they would travel back to where they came from. It would look like the sorcerers apprentice: suddenly, all the waste baskets would start filing out of the offices and rolling down the hall to the dumpster. That's what I imaged one day.

Car License Control

You see it on the news all the time: Someone is arrested for driving with a suspended license. Now, I'm thinking, there must be a way to prevent this - with all the technology around. How about this: You put an RF tag device in driver's licenses (maybe it's already there, who knows? Then you make cars so that they won't start unless there is a valid license in the driver's seat.

This is a simple and ubiquitous technology: most, if not all college and business ID badges employ this sort of scanning. If you needed a license with an RF tag in it to drive, it would be much more difficult to drive on a suspended license (since you wouldn't have it).

I know you can't fix everything with technology, but you can take care of some things, and this might be a good one.

A Scale With Memory

OK, this may already be available, but it's still a good idea. If you can't buy it yet, how about it?

When I'm trying to lose weight, I like to track my progress using a spreadsheet. I figure the most accurate thing to do is weigh myself every day, then look at a one week average. SOme people like to weigh themselves just once a week. There are different approaches. So I was thinking the other day, what if there were a bathroom scale that could do this for you? You could have different users; you login before you step on it, then it would display all sorts of information (user selected, of course). You could have: average (you decide the number of weigh-ins to average); the difference since the last weight (or last average); distance from target weight, you get the idea.

It would help manage a weight loss program, with one-stop convenience.

Personalized Postage Stamps

Here's an idea we used this father's day. You can order postage stamps with any picture you want on it. And yes, it's real postage! Make a stamp of a friend or relative for their birthday, or mother's day or father's day. Perhaps a stamp of the happy couple on wedding invitations. Or maybe your own "cause" stamp - something you want others to know about. The possibilities are endless.
How? Pretty much anyplace you can buy online photo prints will also sell you stamps. They cost about twice the postage, but hey, it's a gift or special occasion! Just upload a photo, and order. We bought ours from www.snapfish.com, but you can also get them from www.kodak.com or directly from stamps.com; I'm sure there are othres. Be creative! Have Fun!

Personal Document Incinerator

Sometimes ideas come from the fertile minds of other people. This week's idea is thanks to Brad F. Brad was thinking about a different (and perhaps better) way to get rid of your documents with sensitive information on them. Oh, sure, you could use a shredder - but how about a personal incinerator. This small unit would be a high-efficiency incinerator, that would instantly vaporize your unwanted paper. You could even recover the heat generated, either by hooking it up to your water heater or you could just heat the room air (only useful in the winter).

There you have it: complete destruction of paper documents; energy recovery; no shredded paper to dispose of. Sounds like a win-win-win. Thanks Brad.

Dynamic Traffic Monitoring

I have to say, I'm enjoying the light traffic, now that the summer has begun. Unfortunately, it has to get congested again in the fall. Or does it? I think most will agree that some fine-tuning of our highway system is always needed. How is this best done?

I'm sure the highway engineers are working hard on the problem, but let me suggest a couple of ideas:

1) Talk to the people who regularly travel certain routes. They will probably have a few good ideas (mixed in with the complaints). For example, when I drive south on Route 3 in Massachusetts, coming from the NH border. I notice that it always clogs up at the Route 495 interchange. The problem seems to be all the lanes merging after you pass 495. My suggestion? leave one or two of the lanes there for longer. I notice that the traffic doesn't start to ease until you get to the Treble Cove exit. So, keep an additional lane or tow until that exit. Enough people are getting off at each of the exits south of 495 that the traffic will allow a narrowing of the road. Take a look. (Sorry for those of you who don't live in NH or MA).

2) This brings me to another idea. How do you find the bottlenecks? How about using the EasyPass transponders in many of the cars. (For those who don't yet know, this is an electronic toll-collection device, a radio device that will inform the toll booth that you have just passed through). What if you track the movement of cars with this transponder to see where the traffic moves fast or slow. You would have a real-time view of traffic flow.

I know what some of you are saying: "What about privacy?" "What about the government using this for catching speeders?" They could be doing that now, but they're not. You could safeguard the data by assigning a tracking number to each car entering the monitored zone, and only recording this random tracking number. The actual transponder number would not be remembered once the car exits the monitoring zone. (If you are still uncomfortable with this, just put the transponder in the special bag it comes in, and it will be shielded.) Think about it - you already have hundreds (perhaps thousands) of cars driving alone the highways with these transponders. Let's put them to work providing data so we can make improvements to the road.

Work at Home: Reminder Service

I live in Massachusetts. The state division of motor vehicles used to send out a renewal notice when your driver's license was about to expire. Sometime within the last year or two, they stopped the practice. When I found out about it, I had only about 4 days to renew my license - but I know several people whose licenses had expired. I'm not saying you shouldn't pay attention to when your license expires, but if you have been receiving reminders from the state for years, it is understandable that when they stop, without telling you, it would be easy to get caught.

So, here's my idea. Someone could start a home-based business reminding people about things. License renewal is one thing - and what got me thinking - but some people need to be reminded about birthdays, anniversaries, etc. Here's how it would work. You give me, let's say, $1.99 (one-time fee), and I send you a reminder postcard two weeks before your license expires. Simple. Effective. Low start-up costs (just postcards and some advertising).

I know, you computer-savy people are saying, just set up an appointment in your computer calendar. Yup, that will work. But, there are a lot of people who are not that computer-savy. And my idea will work even if your hard drive crashes or you lose your internet connection.

Think about it ...

Solar Battery Charger

A few posts ago, I talked about my switch to better rechargable batteries. (click here for post) What I didn't tell you was the rest of my new system: I charge them with the sun. I bought a solar battery charger (see picture). The meter tells you how much power you are generating and is calibrated to tell you how long each size of battery will take to charge (at the given light intensity). This charger willl charge D, C, AA and AAA batteries.
Tip: I prop the cover open a little with a soda bottle cap so that the inside doesn't heat up too much. I bought mine on eBay, from the online store: http://stores.shop.ebay.com/LA-Liquidators2-INC
(search for "universal solar battery charger"). I paid about $25 with shipping. You can also get it at SmartHome http://www.smarthome.com/50616/Solar-Powered-Ni-MH-Ni-Cd-Battery-Charger-SBC/p.aspx, but it's more expensive.
There are many other models available, but I like this one because of the meter (which helps me aim it at the sun for optimum light) and the fact that it can handle all four battery types.
Be green! Charge with the sun!

Suburban People Movers

When you live in the suburbs, being green when it comes to transportation is more of a challenge than in the city, where mass transit systems have existed for years. So I was thinking, what might a system look like in the suburbs? There may not be enough volume to keep a regular schedule of trains. Buses are unsightly and need drivers. So what if you had something that was a cross between a horizontal elevator and a monorail? I like monorails because 1) some say they are cheaper than trains; 2) they look cool and modern; 3) elevating them isn't too hard or unsightly. Here's what it could look like. You have a circuit that goes from the densest population areas, such as apartment complexes or small-lot neighborhoods, to the business and municipal areas of town (library, town offices, senior center). But there is no regular schedule. Instead, when you need to go somewhere, you press a "call" button to summon the car. It may or may not have others on it, going in the same direction. It may take a few minutes, but you have to wait for the next subway train - it's just what you do with mass transit. If it's a light day, the car may even be waiting for you when you want to go home. You could have a pass - an electronic card with your account on it - for payment. The car could hold maybe 8-10 people. The whole thing would run without a driver. (Hence the elevated part - although you'd probably still need some sort of collision avoidance system, in case someone got up onto the rail.)
This way, you could travel around without a car in the suburbs - a least some of the time.

Ramen Noodle Remix

So here's an inexpensive idea for a light lunch: I take Ramen noodles, pour a little more than half a can (11.5 oz can) of V-8 Juice over it, and cook. I don't add water. The noodles are made with just the juice: the watery part of the juice hydrates the noodles, and the tomatoey part is left behind as a sauce. Try it! It's an easy way to get noodles with tomato sauce. I use V-8, but you could also use tomao juice.

A Better Rechargeable Battery

I've never been a fan of rechargeable batteries. I like them in theory, but they never seem to last very long. It turns out some of the problem is that conventional NiCd and NiMh batteries will lose their charge just sitting around. This is known as "self-discharge."

There is a new kind of rechargeable battery - a "LOW self-discharge" (lsd). Rather than the charge lasting 1-2 months, these lsd batteries can last up to a year. When you buy them they are fully charged - you can use them immediately.

So I bought a few - I love them. I bought Titanium Enduro LSD batteries from Battery Junction, but there are others. Besides the Titanium brand, I also know of the Sanyo Eneloop. Click here for an excellent website regarding lsd batteries.

It's not just a green idea, it's also cheaper than buying endless piles of single-use batteries.

Living Museum of the Sixties

A few years ago, we went to Stawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH. with my parents. If you've not been there, it's a neighborhood in Portsmouth where each house is a historical recreation of a different time period: everything from the 19th century to 1970s. What I found unique among this sort of "living museum," were the 1940s vintage house and store. They provided an opportunity for my parents to reminisce, telling stories I had not heard before.

And that got me thinking. What if there were a living museum, not of the 18th century or Plymouth Plantation, but of the 1950s or 1960s? What a great opportunity for parents and grandparents to share their stories with their children and grandchildren.

So here's what I envision: In New England, where I live, put the majority of it in a large warehouse. This way there is no weather damage to anything. Inside this warehouse, build a neighborhood of the 60s, complete with street, period cars in the driveways of 1960s era suburban homes.

There could be a diner, or perhaps a period resaurant, like Howard Johnson's or Burger Chef. You could have a movie theater, or a miniature golf range, perhaps a slot car store, complete with track. The more diversity, the better. There could be a corner drug store, or a Five and Dime. Some of these could be museums, but others could be real establishments; have dinner at the diner, for example. It might be fun if you created your own "Sixties Money." When you enter the Sixties, you "buy" or exchange your 21st century money for 1960s money. Then you could "buy" a 20-cent hamburger (although the 20 cents cost you $1.50 in real money). It would help give a sense of how much inflation there has been.

The houses would be furnished like the 60s - it is still a good time to pick up a lot of 60s stuff, without spending too much.

You could either charge admission, or support the place through grants, donations and the revenue from the businesses.

So there you have it. I'm not aware of anyplace like this. If you know of one, please let me know. If you decide to create one, Just tell me when the opening will be (and send me a ticket).

Ideas That Didn't Make the Cut

Not all ideas are good ones. Ask my kids, for example, about jelly bean pancakes. They weren't very good. But the point is, I tried them. Not all ideas are good ones. It turns out, you can't make artificial snow with a power washer (at least I wasn't able to). You can't fly a kite indoors with a fan (the air stream is too narrow; the kite likes to wander from side-to-side and slips right out of the breeze, falling to the floor). You can't use crayons to fill nail holes in wood, even though they come in many shades of brown and are a wax, like the nail-filling pencils you buy at the hardware store - crayons are too hard and brittle.

These are just a few of my ideas that were duds. My boy-hood hero was Thomas Edison. He didn't invent the light bulb, but figured out how to make it practical. After he had tried 700 times to come up with a filament material that lasted a reasonable amount of time, a New York Times reporter asked him, “How does it feel to have failed seven hundred times?” He responded, “I have not failed seven hundred times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those seven hundred ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.” *

There is no failure in trying something that doesn't work, as long as you learn something. So, I'll keep thinking and trying my ideas. Give it a try. And please post a comment about some of your ideas.

* http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/747226.html

Idea Half-Lives

There's nothing more frustrating than knowing you had a great idea, and not being able to remember what it was. I hate that. So, I've revived an old practice, the "capture notebook." This is a notebook that I keep with me, that I can jot down ideas soon after they come to me - before too many idea half-lives go by and it is gone.

Aside: Do you know what a half-life is? It comes from radioactive science. Radioactive materials are in the process of self-destructing - that is, the atoms are spewing out particles (hence the radiation). As they do, they essentially transform into a different material. This process of decay progresses at different rates for different materials. The time period necessary for one-half of a given chunk of material to convert from one material to another is called the half-life. So after on half-life, you only have half the radiation, this is halfed again and so on, and so on. After 4 or 5 half-lives, the levels are pretty low.

So it is, I find, with ideas. They are crisp and sharp when I first think one, but over time, usually a few hours, I can no longer remember what my "brilliant" idea was.

Enter the "capture book." Within one or two idea half-lives, I need to record the idea in my capture book - thereby capturing it so I can find it later. For example, this morning as I was driving to work, I had an idea for a topic for a term paper for one of my courses this term (I'm in school). So when I arrived, I jotted down a few quick notes. Now I will remember.

I have often used pieces of paper - but these are too easy to misplace. If you use a notebook, they are all in one place.

My older brother and father both use this technique.
Some people have trained themselves to wake up and jot down dreams. Woo.

Give it a try ... if you can remember to.

37 mpg in a 94 Corolla.

In these tight economic times, people want to save money wherever they can. I have managed to increase the fuel economy of my car about 5 percent: from about 34-35 mpg to 36-37 mpg. Here's what I've done.

(LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Always drive in a safe manner. Follow local driving laws and driving recommendations from your auto manufacturer. Your results may vary)

(Isn't it sad that we need discalimers? Oh well ...)

1) I increased my tire pressure. I picked a pressure about half-way between the recommended and the max tire pressure on the tire sidewall. This decreases the rolling resistance.

2) I drive 65 mph on the highway (occasionally 60). I realize that 65 is the law, but I just wanted to remind you that increasing your speed creates a huge amount of additional air resistance, and thus sucks the gallons of gas much faster. This is why during the gas shortage of the early 70's, the national speed limit was lowered to 55 - to save gas.

3) I turn off the engine if I am going to be sitting at stop light for more than about 30 sec. A friend in Finland tells me that it is the law over there to do this. This requires a knowledge of the route traveled, as some lights are fairly short, and probably not worth it, while others tend to be on the long side. Usually, unless I see the light turn red, I leave the engine on. TIP: If I'm driving a car with an automatic transmission, I slip it into "Neutral" when it is off. The car will start in either neutral or park, but neutral is closer to "Drive."

4) I skip gears. This doesn't apply to automatic transmissions. I have a manual transmission. The idea is to keep the engine speed as low as possible. I have found that driving around town, by the time I am ready to shift out of 3rd gear, I am pretty much going as fast as I want to be. Then I skip 4th and shift directly into 5th, since I just need to maintain my speed. I'm presently experimenting with skipping 3rd, i.e. shifting from 2nd to 4th and then on to 5th.

5) I coast. When I see a stop up ahead, I drop the car into neutral and coast. (WARNING: Do not do this with an automatic transmission. It is my understanding that it will ruin it. Instead, just take you foot off the gas.) The idea is that you don't continue pressing on the gas only to apply the brakes harder. (This idea save on brakes also.) In general, as soon as I see something up ahead, I coast. WARNING: ALWAYS leave the engine running. You need it for brakes and steering. Coasting with the engine off is illegal and dangerous! There are also a few hills that I can coast on, not so steep that the car is a runaway train, but enough to maintain the speed. You will learn where these places are on your regular commute. I estimate, that on my 15 mile commute, I probably coast between 1 and 2 miles.

There you have it. My hypermiling plan. It's about thinking about what you are doing when you drive: planning ahead; anticipating.

Adventures in Hypermiling

That's Hyper-Mile-ing. Think of it as a real-life video-game sort of thing. Basically, hypermiling is about trying to get the most miles per gallon of gas that you can. It is popular among some Prius owners, who compete to see who can use the least gas.

I've been hypermiling - and I'll share some of my secrets.

But first, and here's where the "idea" thing comes in, I have an idea that would help hypermilers. What if cars had real-time instantaneous miles-per-gallon (mpg) gauges on the dashboard. That way you could alter your driving habits to achieve the best milage.

You can buy gauges that are just vacuum gauges, which really don't tell you how much gas you are using, just how hard you press on the accelerator. A co-worker tells me his Saab can tell him cumulative mpg, but not instantaneous.

Here's how you could make a simple, but reasonably accurate mpg meter. You know from the speedometer how many miles you are traveling and how fast. You know from a tachometer how fast the engine is going (and all cars with computers have an engine speed sensor, even if you don't have a tach inside). Just connect the two together. You'd have to calibrate your engine to find out how much gas you use for a particular engine speed. And I realize that under heavy load, you are using more gas for the same engine speed. But this would be reazonable accurate for the purposes.

Actually, if the car makers built it into the car, they could probbably figure out gas usage from the fuel injectors - how often they fire and how much fuel they use with each injection.

So how about it auto makers?

p.s. Please see my next post for my hypermiling secrets.

Internet Radio and Beyond

In our house, the computer is right next to the stereo. So I bought a cable that plugs into the sound out from the computer and plugs into the stereo. This way, I can listen to any one of thousands of streaming internet radio stations on my stereo. (If you haven't yet discovered streaming radio, check out iTunes - Radio selection - a free download from Apple for both Mac and PC users).

So here's what I was thinking. Why should I need the computer? Why not just have an internet device that plays streaming radio? It could even be wireless (wifi) so you can put it anywhere in the house!

So I started looking around, AND ... Wouldn't you know it. I'm not the first one to have this idea. If you go to Amazon.com and search for "internet radio," you'll find lots of radios to choose from, including alarm clocks and stereo components. Another example that two people can independently have the same great idea. Well, I'm not going to get rich off this idea, but I think I just might buy an internet radio (although I'll have to put wifi in my house - not there yet).

This leads me to another idea. What about internet TV? I know, Netflix has a box - but only for Netflix; and Apple has a box - but only for iTunes (and YouTube); and one of the television companies has a box - but it only works with some of their tvs. How about a box that works with ANY TV, that will browse ANY website with video content (hulu, the networks, etc.).

I think it's coming. I think that 2009 is going to be the year of Internet TV.

But why stop there? What else can we think of. What other internet content would make sense in a simple stand-alone unit?

How about a weather station, that not only tells the inside and outside temperatures, but also downloads the 5-day forecast from the internet, or even a satellite or radar view?

How about a small wall-mounted pda-like device you could put next to the coffee maker or the bathroom sink, that would tell you about any appointments for the day - connected to an online calendar such as Google's.

The point is, instead of an expensive computer that will do everything, you can have inexpensive devices that do only one thing, but can be placed anywhere. (Selling prices for internet radios start at about $100-$200.) And you don't have to boot someone else off the computer just to check the 5-day forcast. This is technology where WE want it. Anytime, anyplace.

Stay tuned.