Painless Dental Floss
The WL Gore company released one of the best products for teeth cleaning. It is called Glide and I bought it to try it out. It is a dental floss that does not break. But when I use dental floss, my gums hurt.
I took a section of dental floss and soaked it in a vial of Ambesol (tm) that I had bought. The experiment I was thinking of was dental floss that didn't hurt. It worked! I called WL Gore and told them about it, but I haven't seen a product. Oh well.
Foamless Paper Cups For Drive-Through Restaurants
One of the biggest problems I have noted in restaurants is that if the drive-through restaurant sells root beer (my favorite), I have to wait for the foam to go down. And when I thought about it more, the added time racks up, for the owner of the company has to pay the employee to stand there and wait for it to go down, and then the time element slows down the effectiveness of the drive-through.
In simple experimentation, I found that a less than one mil thick swipe of shortening of 1" wide that is placed 1/3 from the top of a beverage cup could stop the foaming on any drink put into it, and yet added less than 1 calorie. In pop, it added no change in the flavor, but could also be used with beer at stadiums, and other placed.
I called Taco Bell, which had root beer at their drive through, and tried to get to their cup distributor. Man, are people resistant to change. I called PepsiCo. They told me that although they have 10 companies under their control, they are independent and have their own distribution for each company. Personally, without it on a small scale, that's crazy. So I tried calling the Coca-Cola company. Same difference.
So, if you use it for yourself, please enjoy. It works. I recommend using a cotton swab or a facial tissue to swipe it.
Virtual Reality Takes A Nosedive
After reading an article in New Media magazine, I found that there was a company that had invented an internal chamber that people could individually use for virtual reality programming applications. In this chamber, it would lift and tilt on cue to change the perception of the user.
I called and had a great talk with one of the engineers on the project. My idea was to pressurize the containment system slightly as the VR environment was falling, and depressurize it when rising so as to gently play upon the inner ear's perception of traversed atmosphere.
I do not know if they used it or not, but when I rang off, I know that I had hit more than one nerve. The engineer sounded delirious with new ideas.
Trial and Error with Andes Candies
This section is not actually about innovation as much as it shows how a little getting involved can be appreciated. And it starts at K-Mart.
I found that Andes Candies had released three new flavors. One was an Icy Chocolate mint, one was an Orange Chocolate wafer, and one was a Banana Chocolate wafer. I bought the three boxes and had a personal reaction to each flavor.
I decided to do a taste test and see if I was the only one with a varying opinion. So, taking one of each flavor, I gave three wafers to people, got their responses, and denoted age, occupation, gender data. When I was done, I typed it up and called Andes Candies.
Their R&D division was a bit surprised to hear my results, not that the data didn't parallel their own, but that I had taken the time to even do it. The data, however, was right on with their own.
I received a wonderful letter from their CEO, Donna Ecton (now with H&R Block), and was sent three pre-production flavors and asked to do it again. The flavors included Toasted Coconut, which I have seen in production (it's my wife's new favorite).
I told them my data, and added that my wife, Jennifer, was waiting to find out when the Toasted Coconut would be released, for that took a top honor in her palletary preferences (and still does). Ms. Ecton was more than gracious, sending me a nice letter back...with a huge bag of Toasted Coconut wafers.
In 1985, I bought a really neat-o interface for my computer called Relax by Synapse Software (click for ancient data from mid-80's). It was being sold as a biofeedback headband that can register how relaxed someone is. As a hypnotist, this interested me immensely, and so I had to have it.
The device was rather simple. It was an electromyograph that had three contacts which were used to gather data. The data was a single measurement of electrical muscle activity and was scaled down to an input range of 0 to 255, thus being treated as one pole on a joystick, or if you remember that far back, one potentiometer paddle controller.
The device had two sliding potentiometers on the surface mount of its exterior, and these helped narrow in the wide- and narrow-band so that you could find yourself or at least the data spectrum so that it could be measured. Once you had set the controls, the device would measure a very minute scale, and, once you relaxed off that scale's settings, you had to reset the scales, which caused tension and...it was a pain in the ass for the use that it was being sold to do.
I took the logic three steps further than the company ever imagined, and have a contract to prove it. Step 1 was to determine a way to use the device as a data entry source for hands-free control. Step 2 was to determine the best reason that could be used for such an operation. And step 3 was to build it/program it.
With the data coming in, I found that one could very easily set the scale just slightly low, so if I relaxed, it would peg the low scale. And if I pushed my tongue to the roof of my mouth with vigor, it pegged the upper scale. Herein, I was able to control the device with the varying pressure of my tongue inside my mouth.
Next, I denigrated the 0 to 255 scale into three sections. If a person had a number coming in at less than 50, it was said to move the dial to the left. If there was a number over 200, the dial would be moving to the right. If somewhere between 50 and 200, it would be construed as wanting to be stationary, and therefore likely to want to be selected. But to be sure, the person had to hold it in the center range for one second.
Now, having a precision data device on line, I designed three programs. Headwords allowed a person to type. Headlines would draw (like a virtual Etch-a-sketch (tm)). Headbands would create musical scales.
On the television show, "Beyond 2000" on the Discovery Channel, in September, I saw that some company has reinvented what Synapse Software had a decade ago, and I saw that they were saying, "Now we have to find some way to use this data as an input device..." Here's how:
For hands-free typing:
Create a string variable (sequential) of the alphabet and numeric systems, so that the string ("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890.,?!$#-+/*=()[]{}") takes on a defined length. Next, set a variable to the length and a different variable to the current pointer.
What I did to highlight the character that was currently selected was to place a Sprite over the character. When I programmed it, I used only a one-dimensional void (a sequential string) and moved the entire string across the screen left or right, and when the character that was needed came up, it was in the sprite-designated area. Once second later, and it was typed onto the space below, which served as a typewriter screen.
Having had a decade to rethink the concept, I wish to add this point. Let us say that if given a scale of 0 to 255, it may be possible to break it into five sections: 0-49(L),50-99(U), 100-155(S), 156-205(D), 206-255(R).
If a person could learn, as I did, different levels of pressure, we could break this into a two dimensional plane to then move a sprite Left, Up, Stationary/Select, Down, or Right. In this manner, we can use a table to entrust our data, giving the operator more speed of data entry with some random accessibility rather than forced sequentiality.
I wish I could work with another setup like this, but somehow, the head band broke, and the thing didn't work anymore. Still, I have the mind for it...
Ultrasonic Measuring Devices
Tom Peters, in one of his taped lectures on "In Search of Excellence" mentioned that many products don't meet their success in their intended us. Such as the light bulb was used on steam engines where it could give light without affecting flammability. And from there it moved to Night Baseball...before it moved into every aspect of our lives.
To this end, I have found two products that are currently failing in their market effectiveness, and I have tried to get the word out, but I am unsure anyone is listening. And I must begin with tape measures...
As a real estate appraiser, I have seen how much fun it is to measure houses. It was to this end that I was dejected to learn that the new ultrasonic measuring devices only worked indoors.
I took a good look at their design, and then a look at their market, and you know what? They are selling these things for the wrong reason to the wrong customer in the wrong market.
These devices should be mounted on the back bumper of every car in the world. For this use, parallel parking would be a snap. How far am I from the car behind me? The meter says 3' 10.5". I think that would be adequate enough, because mirrors have a distorted version on this.
Hey, this idea just popped in. How about adding an automatic breaking routine if the car is in reverse, so, let us say, junior, chasing a ball, toddles his way behind the car. The car stops instantly. Well, it's just an idea...
Infrared Headphones
Here's a device with a real future if they would stop selling it to the home sound freaks and got down to basics. If made cheaply, they could revolutionize lectures and trade shows.
I envision a pair of white plastic headset with the infrared receiver at the top, a volume control, a built-in battery (disposable design), and a three-position sliding switch for mono channel 1, Stereo, or Mono-Channel 2. I recommend the disposable model with a small piece of plastic tape (without emulsion) that separates the battery from the circuit. Once pulled out, the device runs for a week or two and then dies.
With use in trade shows, people can then sell tangible air space, for when you enter a zone, you are able to hear what channels have been paid for to the trade show organizers. If your company does not pay, the show has the opportunity to sell it to anyone who wants it in that zone. In this way, you may walk into an area that is flooded with Channel 1 talking about IBM products or Channel 2 Apple products across the aisle.
For use with musical concerts, such as opera and the other non-blasting amplification shows, each person could set their own personal preference for volume, thus allowing those hard- of-hearing folks to get more out of it. And in use in motion picture theaters, even though the speakers are still there, the hard of hearing patron can get more of the dialog without affecting the listening pleasure of those around.
Anyway, this is all for now. If you need me, let me know and we will work out something.
By the way, you don't need a degree to have a brain. However, I returned to college and just obtained an Associates Degree, and am to begin studies at WSU in three weeks (Updated 8/1/99).
One last note: I am cooking macaroni in the other room. You may have hard the concept of "a watched pot doesn't boil." I found something that will assure that it won't boil over even if it's not watched.
Buy one of those clip-on electric fans, the type you can clip onto your headboard or desk. Clip it, instead, onto a surface that would allow the fan to blow directly into the pot that is boiling. The blowing air limits the top surface temperature of the liquid, and so the pot never boils over.
With a creative mind, you will constantly make life better. If you share your knowledge , the world may become a much nicer place...
David Brager, Ace Development & Integration
Charity work for Charity support is the key...