Day 8: Rejected Ideas

As I have been working through the possibilities and ideas for this series of 7 Days, 7 Gadgets, I have had to reject a lot of ideas.  Many were just a bit silly, but quite a few had already been done before.  Here are a few:

• Combined washer/dryer  This would be super useful to just throw a load in and then take out dried clothes.  Space efficient, but not in-line with how most Americans do their laundry - they do a bunch at a time and want it done NOW!  Also, its already been done.
• Floating electronic pool chemical monitor  Already done.  But arguably, not well.
• Automatic wall painting device  Done, but not in a compelling way.  Lots of innovation available.  Frankly, routine use would be a key part of the innovation.  For use to be routine, it'd have to be more cost-efficient or provide some other meaningful advantage (lower insurance rates due to avoidance of people on ladders).
• Many other previous ideas.  I went back through my posts and tagged all that could have qualified.  I really wanted to use some of them, especially for Day 7.

Day 7: Tree Health Monitor

This post was a bit of a cheat.  I ran out of steam for the 7 Days 7 Gadgets series and only posted this on the last day:

DRAFT
Device to measure tree health through bark, ultrasound, laser on leaf and online supplement of leaf down coloration.  Alerts users to fertilize or water trees.

I'm updating now (2014-12-27) with some more thoughts and information, in other words, a complete post.

Genesis of Idea

In suburban America, one of the most important aspects of your property is the trees on that property.  However, as trees grow, numerous negative things can happen to them that make them dangerous or otherwise problematic to have on your property.  Controlling them, by getting somebody to come in and cut them down, is expensive and a giant hassle.  But, trees are beautiful and worth some measure of investment and time.  So, it would be great if people had better tools to monitor the health of their trees and make good choices about fertilizing and watering those trees.

Details

Prior to engaging in any sensing devices, the user of the TreeHealth system would first download and run the TreeHealth app.  The first step is to create a catalog of all of the trees on the property.  Ideally, the user would do this by walking around the property and pressing a button when they are standing next to a unique tree.  Using the GPS coordinates of the phone, the app would map out all of the trees.  If desired, the user could upload a view of their property's plat and walk to the four corners (for calibration) and map the trees on the property relative to the house.  Without knowing of any better means, the tree's height would have to be estimated.  A digital tape measure (like those used for measuring waist size) should be used for trunk circumference measurements (at ~6" off of the ground).  If the owner knew, they could enter the genus and species of the tree.  If they did not, they could use the app and identify it based on tree characteristics (like leaves and bark).  This should provide a first level view of the tree community on the owner's property.

In addition, the owner would be prompted to enter when the tree looks to be budding and the state of the tree shedding its leaves in the fall.  The dates (compared to the overall tree community in the owner's geographical area) could be another indicator of health.

The Gadget

The TreeHealth gadget would be a multi-sensor device that attaches to a phone (or better, a tablet) that can do the following:

• Measure leaf health via infrared sensors: owner would scan six leaves (enough for a valid sampling without harming the tree?).  My (admittedly weak) understanding is that this is useful for gauging overall health. 
• For larger trees, the owner would use something like a 3/8 hole saw blade to cut a shallow round hole through the bark, then place the ultrasonic sensor on that location.  This could measure the integrity of the tree's main trunk and identify any problems with internal rot and overall fluid/sap flow within the tree.  After the measurements, the owner would glue a special plug in the hole, designed to ensure that the tree was not damaged by the test (or by allowing a fungus or something else bad to get into the tree's systems).

Additional App Features

• Leave measurement: place six leaves on a 1x1" lined mat and take pictures of the leaves.  The meta data of the date will be helpful in keeping track.
• Height estimates: put an object of a known size next to the tree and snap a picture from a known distance away from the tree.  Verify it makes sense by using trunk circumference information.
• CO2 tracking: tell the user how much CO2 was sequestered in their yard.  I'm sure that this will make somebody feel good.  Additionally, if there is a known relation to house height and location, the app could estimate electricity saved from cooling during the summer.
• Fertilization and watering reminders.  Based on geographic weather data, alert user if trees should be getting water stressed.  Suggest watering strategies that will maximized absorption and minimize run-off.

I think that the largest value of this approach is in the continuous monitoring from year to year of the trees.  They don't grown super quickly, so we should have to worry about long term engagement from the user.  Not sure how to do this, but it's probably worthwhile to a local landscaping shop that could be selling to the user year after year.

Day 6: Aftermarket HVAC Booster

My house isn't that big, but one segment of it remains materially cooler than the others.  Yes, I've adjusted the dampers, but it still doesn't work well.  The solution: an integrated system of register fan boosters and temperature sensors tied into your smart thermostat.  Key features:

• Compatible with a range of "smart thermostats".  Key output is sending a signal to turn the HVAC fan on.
• Register boosters turn on when the temperature in the room is materially different from the thermostat setting (directionally correct depending on heating or cooling).  The register boosters are aware of the main HVAC system's fan running and are only running when the main fan is running.
• Alternately, allow user to install fans in the duct to provide a similar boost (but have it tied to thermometers in a room or a couple of rooms).

So this is sort of a gadget that appends to the end of your existing HVAC control system.  Not sure how easy this would be to integrate into Nest, but there are definitely some Z-Wave controllers for which this could be easily implemented.

Day 5: Active Chair

Sitting too long and being sedentary is supposed to be bad for your health.  Lets' change that by having our chairs move so that we are forced to reposition ourselves.  Key features:

• Chair setup would require information about user's body, work surface height and any chronic pain.  The user could choose the amount of time between shifting chair positions and the degree of difficulty.  Degree of difficulty could be slowly increased over time.  Setup done via app that communicates with chair via bluetooth.
• Chair would then restrict itself to a range of heights and positions.
• Every 5 minutes or so the chair would adjust itself, forcing the user to shift and potentially engage some of their core muscles to balance
• If the user needed a break, they could request one via the app.  Or turn it off during a phone call.
• Track user sitting behavior.  Beep if user has been sitting too long.

Key problems

• Chair would likely have to be plugged in given the amount of power required to shift a full-grown adult.  Cord could be a hassle.
• Noise, if used in a cubical environment.
• Cost.  Though people do spend a lot on fancy Hermann Miller chairs.

One Step Beyond

• Add in message capability
• Keep track of benefit to user via the app.  Estimate extra calories burned, other health benefits.

Day 4: Trash Can Caddy

My boys are not very reliable with respect to taking the trash cans from the house to the edge of the street and back.  It's not a very hard thing to do, but I get much pushback (we do have a relatively long driveway) whenever I ask them to do it.  What I need is a rugged device that'll do it for me!

The Trash Can Caddy! (red = wheels, orange = control box, blue = support structure)

One Step Beyond

I have a trash can much like this one.  I envision the Trash Can Caddy (TCC) to work like the following:

• The caddy slips under the trash can with wheels on the outside of the can.
• Under normal, resting position, the TCC wheels are not supporting any weight, so that the can remain stationary.  Alternatively, if you have multiple smaller trash cans, this system could be built into one of these caddies.
• When directed (likely timer-based given that most of us have schedule trash delivery), the TCC lifts the front of the can slightly to make its wheels load bearing.
• The TCC travels down the bottom of the driveway using accelerometers and GPS backup (think geo-fencing to ensure the TCC doesn't go out into the roadway) to direct its path.  The user would have to take the can down and back on several training runs to ensure that the TCC knew where and how to go.
• The final spot for the can it determined with high accuracy by using a RFID pad attached to a post that is sitting just off the side of the driveway that the user wants the can to be placed.
• The TCC senses when it's been emptied and makes its way up the driveway about a minute after that's happened.
• The TCC sends you a quick note that it was successfully emptied and returned to it's storage location (also using an RFID pad).

There are a number of issues that could stand in the way of this ambitious product:

• Safety: you'd have an autonomous vehicle roaming your driveway.  It could run somebody over or hit a car.  On the plus side, it'd not need to move fast (maybe 6" per second).  It could use ultrasonic sensors (like cars) and current sensors on its motors and be sensitive to turn off.
• Stability: you really don't want the TCC tipping over on it's way to the road.  Good sensors, software and a control system should help keep things rolling in the right direction.
• Wear and tear: your garbage can is going to get flung up on a truck to be emptied.  The TCC has to be rugged enough to withstand repeated pounding.  Sensors and the control box may need to be located on either side to avoid this problem.
• Battery life: The system doesn't need to be particularly light, so perhaps you can pack a reasonably good size Li battery into this.  That said, trash cans are often stored outside where it can be quite cold.
• Inside storage of cans: Growing up, we used to store our trash cans in the garage.  For this system to work, you may need to include an automatic garage door opener interface.  But that would make it even cooler.  The complication could be tight maneuvering around cars.
• Non-paved driveways: maybe solved by using off-road tires.
• Snow: In a measurable amount of snow, the device would probably not work.  The app could perhaps alert the user when snow is forecasted at their address and force the user to affirmatively say that the path is snow-free.
• Ice: the TCC may just get stuck sometimes.  As long as it doesn't tip over, not the end of the world.  User is notified whenever this happens.

Two Steps Beyond

Here are some, mostly marginally useful thoughts on further improvements:

• Set the accelerometers to be on guard when the can is back at it's home location.  Chirp or alarm if animals are entering.
• Better yet, add a locking mechanism on the top.  Quick one-button unlocking and then automatic relocking, to avoid animal intrusion in the first place.  Much better than the bungie cord system that I'm using now.
• Based on the amount of force required to lift the front of the TCC, measure and track the garbage produced by the household.  Present data in an easily understood way.  Compare to their neighbors and the rest of the TCC users.  Make suggestions on how to reduce.  If you are like me, you can also measure recycling weight and make the user feel good about how much avoided landfill they've offset.

Day 3: Perfect Steak Gadget

I recently cooked a store-bought filet on my grill.  I had to pay close attention to the amount of time spent for various stages of the cooking process.  While it turned out quite well, why not have a device that does all of that for me?

One Step Beyond

The PerfectSteak® (not really) machine would work in the following manner:

1. With the grill cold, you'd clip the device on two grill bars.  To the left is your hot side and to the right is your cold side.
2. Turn your PerfectSteak on.
3. Heat up your grill to the desired temperature.  PerfectSteak will let you know when you've achieved that by sending you a message to the PerfectSteak app.  All interaction other than turning it on and off will be through the app.
4. Press "Load Steak" on your app.  The device raises the two long, fork-like rods for you to attach the steak.  The PerfectSteak knows when its loaded and begins the timer.
5. After two minutes the PerfectSteak raises the steak up, rotates it axially and then places it back on the grill surface.
6. After two more minutes the PerfectSteak flips the steak over to the cold side and alerts the user to shut down the hot side.
7. After two more minutes, the PerfectSteak flips the steak over axially on the cold side.
8. After two more minutes, the PerfectSteak beeps excitedly that it is done cooking the perfect steak!

See the below diagram that provides a clownishly simple view of what would be occurring:

I think that there are some obvious reasons why this will be hard:

• Electroics/motors in a 500ºF environment.  I'm sure that we have electronics and motors that could be used in this environment, but they are likely well out of the bounds of consumer applications.
• Alternatively, this could be solved by using two control rods that would go into the grill (from the front) and some clever mechanical engineering to enable all of the above-described acrobatics.  This certainly complicates the mounting of the device, but given that its firmly attached to the grill surface, it could hang from the front of the grill without too much problems.

Two Steps Beyond

A few more features that would be quite useful:

• Provide a measured plastic sheet to put your steak on prior to putting on the grill.  Have the user take a picture.
• Combine the above with the weight of the meat, and a much more sophisticated model of the piece of meat can be created.  
• Use that model, combined with the actual temperature inside the grill, rather than set cooking times to create the truly perfect steak.
• Use thermo-couples inside of the fork-like rod ends to measure internal temperature of the meat to further refine the model.
• Pressing a steak onto two fork-like rods when the rods are at high temperature would be no fun task.  The design can be modular, such that the fork is attached outside of the grill and then snapped into place when cooking begins.
• Though much, much more difficult, you could enable the device to control the flow of propane to the grill.  Probably one step too far.

[Update 2015-01-06]

I guess the other option is to put the smarts into the grill itself, like the Lynx SmartGrill.

Day 2: Electronic Food Peeler

This appeals only to the gadget lover in me and, alas, is not likely to be very practical.  It was, however, born out of a not too satisfying experience with the "traditional" tool for the job.  And no, I don't mean a hand-held peeler, but a hand-cranked peeler/corer/slicer.  My son and I used ours for the first time in pursuit of some Thanksgiving mashed potatoes.  I dutifully weighed out 3 pounds of potatoes as called for in the recipe.  I then used the device as pictured below.  Given the geometry of the potatoes, I first cut them in half.

It worked, but took a lot of peel off.  And I had to finish off the ends in each case.  When I was done, I looked at the amount of peel that I had lopped off and decided that I should reweigh.  It turned out that there was only 2 pounds left!  A full third of my potatoes had been lost to the peeling process.  There has to be a better way. There is, and it would be our second day's gadget.

One Step Beyond

My conception would be to have a single axis peeler set up in much the same way that the above is. The goal would be a peeler that would work both well with apples and potatoes (referred to as pommes for the rest of this discussion).  As a result, my device would connect to the pommes on both ends of the axis.  If it connects to the end with the corer/slicer module, the user would have to feed the spikes through the hole, but I think the added stability would be greatly worth it.  The process would be the following:

1. Decide up front if coring and slicing will be part of the activity.  If so, mount the plate to do these things.
2. Mount the pomme by connecting both ends.  
3. Close the box around the pomme for safety.
4. Select apple or potato.  
5. Press "Peel Now!"
6. The device starts out by spinning the pommes and scanning them.  The scanner would move axially down the pomme as it collected sufficiently detailed topological information to understand the bumps.
7. As the scanner is moving down the pomme, the knife follows in its wake.  The knife moves in an out according to the topological map of the pomme to ensure that it's putting just enough pressure (still spring mounted) to take off the skin, without putting undo pressure resulting in too much pomme lost.
8. When the device is done, it beeps or says, "You're pomme is ready!" (depending on which one you chose).
9. Open box and remove the pomme.

Two Steps Beyond

Here are some additional improvements that could be made:

• Multiple peeling attachments for different fruit.  Potatoes and apples likely would require a different peel.  Cucumbers, too.
• Along with multiple peeling attachements, you could enable axial, instead of just circumferential, peeling.  Cucumbers are typically peeled exclusively like this.  Would likely require a substantial upgrade to the motor output and control of the peeler.
• Enable a spinning peeler for rinding of oranges.  Perhaps skinning of tomatoes.  Not sure what else.

Day 1: A Mini UPS

So I realize that some of you may think that I'm cheating on this one, but this is an idea that I had on my own.  First let me describe the problem that led to me thinking about the solution.

I use Vonage, which requires the use of an ethernet to telephone line interface.  I have an old Motorola Voice Terminal box (VT1005V) that I've had since I started with Vonage (around 2002).  It all works well in normal circumstances, but when I lose power in my house, it causes problems.  I'm sure that this isn't supposed to happen, but the VT1005V interferes with one of the FiOS TV box's reacquiring it's IP address via the FiOS router.  As a result, every time the power trips, even for a brief moment, I have to reset the router with the VT1005V unplugged, and let everything get set and then plug the VT1005V back in.

It's a hassle that could be solved by ensuring that the VT1005V didn't turn off.  The rest of my network gear (the FiOS router and the ethernet switch that the VT1005V is plugged into) are already on a UPS.  Unfortunately, the VT1005V is located in my garage all by itself so I can connect it to my house's telephone wiring.  I could just buy a normal small-ish UPS for the garage, but the least expensive one that I can find (having searched Google Shopping, MicroCenter and Amazon) is ~$40.  It also feels reasonably wrong that I'm plugging in a DC device into an AC output of a DC device (the UPS).

You may ask the reasonable question, "Why don't you just set up your VT1005V with a static IP address so that it doesn't interfere with the assignment of the other TV box?"  The answer is a bad one: the VT1005V doesn't respond to web requests, like it manual suggests that it would.  It doesn't even respond to ping requests.  So there is no setting this up with a custom configuration.

That leaves me with the option of making sure that the VT1005V never turns off.  $40 and I'm done.  But this device has very minimal power requirements and is DC, so why can't I buy a device better suited to that need.  I can't find any devices that meet my needs - at least that are readily available in retail.  This is where the internet comes in.

So, I knew what I wanted and kept looking.  Eventually, I did find a device that appears to get it right.  This would be perfect and if the Alibaba price of $16/unit was the retail price, I would be sold.  However, I'm assuming that the actual retail price would have to be roughly a 2x multiple of this.  At $30/unit, it feels less compelling, but still of interest.

There are a range of options, as it turns out.  The simplest would get the job done.  It's basically a battery, but a battery fit for it's intended purpose.  A more complex option (shown above), could get the job done in a cabinet where you have a number of DC-driven devices next to each other.  Even USB powered devices (which I think that we'll see more of).

So, it appears that somebody figured out there is a need.  But I can't get access to the gadget that is the solution.  Unless I want to become an importer.  Which I don't.  Unless I have six other really good ideas.

One Step Beyond

The only reason that I have interest in this product is that product designers have missed the boat.  What boat am I talking about?  It turns out that 75% of all electricity outages (at least reported to the APPA for 2013) last about 72 minutes or less.  See the below chart and look under the SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) column.

The second chart just suggests that these statistics don't vary too much over time.  So if manufacturers put batteries into their products that could power the product for 75 minutes, customers could avoid 75% of problems with running their devices in the first place without relying on a UPS.  For high power usage devices, this probably doesn't make sense.  My (old) 65" TV can draw almost up to 1 kW.  I have no expectation that Sharp would build in a battery.  That said, when its a clock, Voice Terminal, router, switch, Roku, or the like, I think that this is quite reasonable.  What would this look like for product designers to build this into their products?

The most obvious problems with building batteries into devices are the following:

• Additional cost
• Increased weight
• Battery could fail before unit is done
• Increased energy usage

That said, each of them could potentially be offset:

• Install a standardized slot with a name-brand battery (Energizer).  Have Energizer subsidize the slot on the expectation of replacements down the road.
• Advertise the benefits to consumers.  We all know that our power goes out a bit and especially no days with most of our computers being handhelds or laptops (that continue to have power during an outage), losing access to the internet is disruptive and inconvenient.  I'd pay extra.
• Addressed in the first bullet point.
• For energy usage, the manufacturers could compare their units usage to that of a combined UPS and their non-backed up device.  Their devices would probably compare favorably.

Seven Gadgets for Seven Days

My goal here will be to come up with 7 truly novel and useful items that would enhance our lives / technology experience.  I'm not sure that I can do this - I only have one in my mind right now, but it'll make me think hard about it.  And I will try not to cheat by mentioning gadget ideas that I have previously posted.  Which is partially the point.

Also, I'm totally open to hearing your ideas.   Please share and make my life easier!