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Idea 48: Sound Emails

Problem:

Emails in the work place – enough said. They are always there, you can never truly catch up to them , and many people give you good advice, such as “The most successful people don’t check email first thing in the morning.”However, maybe the problem is not the emails themselves, but the act of having to respond to them in a written format and the time that this action takes based on trying to write a clear message that cannot be misinterpreted by the other side based on the missing “tone of voice” which is often forcefully added to one´s personal interpretation of what the sender of the message was “really” trying to say.

Solution:

Whatsapp and other messaging apps already are using it – voice messages. Simple, quick and to the point. Thus, developing a secure software that could be build into your email provider that allows you to respond via voice or via the written word might add value when trying to solve the problems of efficient “responding to emails.” Especially when talking about internal company communication between coworkers, a voice messaging service might save some time, as the nature of these messages usually involves a question about certain processes and a “standard” answer.

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Idea 37: Timed Restaurants

Problem:

The problem is a simple one; when talking about a professional setting, people sometimes simply don’t have the time to go to a restaurant during their lunch break to enjoy a good meal based on the time they would have to wait on the food to be prepared – time in which they could have already gotten some of their work done or time they simply don’t have based on their busy schedules. On the other hand though, fast-food restaurants might not offer a valid solution that could be used as a daily alternative due to the perceived unhealthy characteristics of the food they sell.

Solution:

As the problem is one of time, it might be interesting to think about a way in which the idle time that is associated with “going to a restaurant” could be minimized. One way of doing that would be by allowing the customer to pre-order the food they want to eat while they are still working. This could be done through a simple app. Another important aspect would be the increase the number of cooks to be able to meet the demand of orders coming in efficiently; this increase could be balanced by the assumed decrease of waiters in this type of restaurant. To save further time, customers could be able to pre-pay their order through the app and verify it after having eaten their meal. Thus, the only time the customer has to “give up” is the time in which s/he is actually enjoying the meal outside of his or her regular office space.  However, if even this time is not available, but one really craves some healthy, and good food this type of restaurant could add a pick-up service. One of the problems would be to manage the data flow, and thus the meals and seating capacity of the restaurant effectively, but one could possibly simply add a map of available seats in the restaurant similar to how we books seat on an airplane these days. Once the seat becomes available again, it lights up green, and one could even include a timer that approximately indicates when the seat will become available again with an error margin of 5-10 minutes.

Idea 5: Abstract Umbrellas

Problem:

Although the symmetry of standard umbrellas is pleasant to the eye, it does not allow for an efficient rain protection unless bought in an oversize format; usually, one arm/one side is always somewhat wet, which is especially bothersome when carrying a bag in one hand. The problem gets worse when going arm-in-arm with one’s better half, trying to hold the umbrella as perfectly as possible in the middle of both parties.

Solution:

Creating a niche for umbrellas, such as an umbrella for businessmen/women (or for lovers (umbrella for two)), that does not follow the “round” symmetric format by allowing for instance for one side to be “longer” than the other, makes sure that both arms are being protected equally when holding the umbrella in one hand or the other. In other words, as the distance covered from the arm holding the umbrella and the other arm that needs to be covered is larger (which might usually also be the arm that hold a laptop case), this distance could possibly more efficiently be covered through asymmetric umbrella shapes that look more like “raindrops” or “egg like shapes” when seen from a birds eye view.  For lovers, umbrellas with “eye like shapes” when seen from above might be more suitable as the distance between one arm of one person and the other arm of the other is usually the same when holding the umbrella in the middle of both with one arm.

 

Idea 4: Shower unlimited

Problem:

People love to take showers; not merely for the act of cleaning but based on the overall experience. It relaxes and reenergizes. However, water is not the cheapest of goods to waste, while an overuse has negative environmental consequences.

Solution:

Assuming that people take the first 1-5 minutes to actually clean themselves with shampoo and body wash and the rest to “relax,” the water thereafter should be “clean.” Therefore, if one could somehow reuse and reheat this particular water, one could extend the shower experience by minutes while decreasing the waterbill. The idea is to create a shower with two different drainages – the first for the “dirty water” that includes the shampoo etc and the other for the “clean water;” both drainages can be opened and closed separately through an automated process or manually. The drainage with the dirty water would function normally, whereas the other one would lead to a separate, individual water tank where the water would be reheated and reintroduced into the system and possibly filtered. In addition to several aspects, one of the problems is to always have the right amount of water in the water tank and to reheat it in time. Mechanism that could be used could be related to the ancient Egyptian/modern waterclock systems. Another aspect to keep in mind is how the water will be reintroduced into the circuit; through for instance an additional shower head or through combining the initial water line with this additional one. The biggest question might be focused on the right mix of “new” and “old” water to always enable a steady pressurized flow.

 

Idea 3: Smart Fridge

Problem:

People often do not know what to cook with the groceries they have in their fridges or in general what they have in their fridges at all. In addition, based on standard fridge layouts, the first thing in will most likely be the last thing out which often results in rotten and forgotten vegetables and other unloved food varieties.

Solution:

Combining the layout of medical fridges with the fact that almost every household has access to internet! Medical fridges allow for movable trays which offer a facilitated access to the things that are at the end of the fridge without having to take out everything that stands in the front. A stronger design probably would have to be invented based on the higher weight of groceries in comparison to medical things; but this should not be that complicated. Overall, being able to move a tray allows for better organization of and access  to the stored food. In regards to what to cook with what one has, the fridge needs to somehow understand what is inside and compare that with a stored or online recipe. Creating a process of being able to assign a variable to a certain grocery might solve that problem; for instance, tomatoes = 1 and burger meet = 2  while of course being able to add the weight of the products as well as expiration date. Although this might enlarge the shopping experience through an increased time that is needed to list what was bought, the positive consequences might outweigh that particular negative as one can now cook certain meals with what is in the fridge and also buy specific groceries that are needed to cook specific meals in time based on the saved expiration date. In the end, meals cooked could be saved, eating habits analyzed based on meals cooked and groceries bought, which consequently could also uncover healthy or unhealthy eating habits through listing calories while saving food due to the on time consumption based on the saved expiration date.  Of course this idea needs more development but could add value on multiple fronts.