Smart Socks - A Step in the wrong direction

Related Project: Smart Soles Make Smarter Shoes

The Idea

A few months ago I had posted an idea about making smart soles for shoes or making smart inserts for shoes. At the time of today's posting that topic is still listed as a draft post, meaning I haven't done any research to see what products have already been designed, but the self-powering features I mentioned are not likely to be out there yet.

Smart Socks

I just happened to come across this video featuring smart socks, which is an actual product you can buy today if you like. I really like that this company is putting the effort in and making a product, but I really wish they would focus on building their technology into shoes or insoles instead of socks.

That's why I say making smart socks is a step in the wrong direction, but check out this video and see what you think:

Why shoes/insoles would be better

There are many reasons a shoe or insole design would be smarter than a sock:

• Washing is not a problem
• Harvesting ambient power so no charging needed
• No feeling of being on house arrest

These are just a few but you can read more and all about them in the original idea posted here.

Product pricing

If you are interested in this product or even in learning more about pricing, you can start here by seeing it listed on Amazon.com : Sensoria Fitness Socks and Anklet, Large Grey. The same company also makes a T-Shirt with a heart rate monitor built in Amazon.com : Sensoria Fitness T-Shirt with Heart Rate Monitor.

Elevator Door Videos

Project Status: Still Dreaming

The Idea

I think we should start installing video screens that are embedded into elevator doors, so that as passengers ride from floor to floor they can view the screen. As the doors open the embedded screens will glide out of the way, effectively being in place as they are needed and hiding out of sight when they aren't.

These smart displays can be touch screens, but keep in mind the interaction time with viewers is quick so content should be generated with this time limit in mind. As the doors are about to open the content should fade away, leaving the users with only information such as the current floor number. Screens should be kept high enough for average adult viewers and not low enough for children. The purpose of targeting an adult audience is for the safety of children who may be tempted to play with the screen as the doors are opening. This higher installation will also help to protect the screens from carts and luggage that will normally hit the doors.

Use Cases

From simple advertising to guiding guests through a building, there are many uses for built-in smart displays in elevators. I think providing quick and useful information for the passengers seems to be the most beneficial use of the space.

Businesses can use these screens as smart reader boards. After all, when you have a captive audience and you know not only where they are headed but how long they will be staring at the screen in front of them, you might as well use that time wisely and to their benefit.

Heading down to the first floor? I bet you would like to see a quick snapshot of the weather conditions outside, the local time and maybe even a map view of current traffic conditions. Heading up to the conference floor? Here is a list of the meetings and times they are scheduled today. Going to the restaurant floor? Here are some popular menu items to drool over on the way. Staying at a hotel and need to know the breakfast, pool or gym hours? No problem. We can bring that content to you while you ride the elevator.

Why Stop There

Want to take the idea a step further? Imagine if you could also control the display with voice commands. Say "show me current stock reports" and suddenly you have easy access to the information you want. No need for a key word like "Ok Google" or "Hey Alexa" because you are only there for such a short time that it can constantly listen and try to provide you with relevant, family friendly, content pertaining to your conversation. Happen to be talking about the current political race? Maybe a the poll information is suddenly right in front of you on the elevator doors.

Are you the shy type? Or maybe the big brother is out to get me I'm going to have to start taking the stairs type? Lol, no worries. I say if it is always listening it should have a couple features built-in for your comfort.

First off it should have a sound wave meter displaying somewhere, maybe in a bottom corner, that way you have an understanding that someone, or a device actually, is listening to you. If you really want to be fancy you can show an interactive avatar so people see a person or character and may interact with it.

Second of all, if it is listening to you, it should have a kill switch with some obvious visual feedback once it has been activated. Maybe you could touch a mute button next to the sound wave meter or you could ask the avatar for some privacy.

In Summary

Content that comes to us as we need it and when we want it is much more engaging than having to dig for that same content on our own. Elevators are the perfect place for time sensitive on demand information catered to us based on when and where we are. Placing monitors within the doors themselves, as opposed to anywhere else in the elevator, peeks audience engagement and shifts from information that happens to be around us to information that is the focal point of the room and gone as soon as we need to get going.

Self Cleaning Urinal Mat

Project Status: Still Dreaming

Problem

Standing in a pool of urine while using the urinals. Not easy for employees to clean and impractical to clean as often as really needed.

Solution

I really need to draw up some animated 3D graphics for you to see what I am picturing in my head, but for now here is the description so you can use your imagination until then.

I would like to make a mat for under urinals that holds a sanitizing liquid. There would always be a quarter inch or so of nice smelling sanitation liquid under your feet. The part you would stand on is much like the bar service mats you see bartenders use to catch all the excess liquid on the bar top while mixing drinks.

The pegs that stick up would be in groups so that an even spread of them may be rotated down and sanitized at any time while the majority of the others remain standing tall in place.

The rotation is powered by the weight of someone standing on the mat. So as soon as someone steps on it a section of the pegs is pushed straight down into the liquid trough. As soon as he steps off the pegs which had been in the solution before now slowly, by use of a spring, raise back up into place and the new set stays down until the next use.

The mat is easy to dump out and refill after some reasonable period of use, such as daily, depending on the amount of traffic the restroom receives. The mat should also be made durably enough that someone can hose it down for deep cleaning as needed without risk of damaging any moving parts.

Miniature Bowling

Project Status: Still Dreaming

Who's up for some miniature bowling? I sure am, although you may have to help me build it first, lol. I'm not sure if anyone has capitalized on this idea yet or not, but I see no reason not to. Doesn't it sound like a lot of fun? I have searched around and have come to the conclusion that if anyone is doing this then they aren't advertising as well as they should be.

If you are not really sure what I am talking about when I say "miniature bowling," here's the lowdown. I'm sure you have heard of and probably even played mini golf, well, pretty much that but for bowling. Indoors or outdoors doesn't matter but obstacles with kid-like fun and absurdly disproportional objects are the name of the game here.

There should be a series of lanes setup for mini bowling much in the same way mini golf is setup. A player or group of players would start at one challenging setup and once completed move on to the next setup, walking through the course as they go from lane to lane. When I say challenging I don't mean your normal bowling experience which happens to be pretty challenging for me. No, I mean the lanes should bend up and down, are curved and twist all around, oh and there better be a giant windmill or a large clown's mouth to go through.

Mini golf often has 9 or 18 setups in a row, this is because golf is normally played 9 or 18 holes at a time. In mini bowling I recommend 10 challenging setups, derived from the fact that you play 10 frames while bowling.

Now you do have some creative choices when figuring out exactly how to go about scoring. You could try to stick as closely to bowling as possible or you could let some of the golf fun bleed into the game. Meaning that if you stick to bowling-ish rules players could stand at the starting position for the challenge and have two rolls to try and knock down all the pins. While if you wanted to let some of the traditional mini golf feel mix in, they could have multiple rolls from the same bowling ball starting from where it ends up. Whether you would want players making two rolls from the starting point or chasing their bowling balls around like golf balls is really something to consider based on how complicated of obstacles you want.

Making the choices of how players move and score will dictate how freely you may setup your course. For example; if you roll twice from the starting position your obstacles may have to be much easier to overcome. If you can't use your first roll to get through the windmill and your second to line up with the pins, then you better build it so that going through the windmill almost guarantees knocking all of the pins down.

I say the crazier the obstacles in the course the more fun that will be had. Although I also recommend using some very lightweight pins as well as a lightweight, probably even plastic, bowling ball. Being the guy that has thrown a bowling ball behind me at least once during normal bowling, let me be the first to say we don't need normal and therefore dangerous bowling equipment in this case. I do think it would be awesome to have the bowling lane look and feel by using wooden lanes or some kind of fake laminate flooring but how about we do that in a way that I can keep on whatever shoes I show up in.

I would think the last major thing to note would be how the pins are reset after each player. Of course we wouldn't want to build these small lanes so that they automatically return our bowling ball and reset the pins for us using a lot of mechanical equipment. If you could, great, but I doubt it's worth all the extra expense and safety issues it would cause. Nope, just keep it simple.

There are several ways to solve this problem. The super cheap and easy way is to mark the lane with some dots and let the players manually reset their own pins after each roll. That does get the job done but where's the fun in that, really, lol. I think the better option would be to rig the pins with strings on the bases of them. Feed those strings through a hole in the lane and setup a lever to the side of the lane so that players may quickly and easily reset the pins with a flip of the lever.

Ok, I'll stop rambling now for your sake, but someone better go build one of these courses or help me find one that has already been built. I'm the "bowl with the bumpers up even though I'm an adult" type bowler but I have a feeling I would have a lot of fun with Mini Bowling.