Great Ideas and Inventions

For my final passion blog, I will discuss some of my favorite inventors and mention a few of their inventions–some of which you may have heard of, and some not. They are in no particular order.

Leonardo Da Vinci: The reason Da Vinci is not very famous for his inventions is because almost none of them were ever built. He sketched detailed diagrams of them in a notebook which he kept to himself, so as a result many of his ideas that would have been revolutionary were not discovered until long after his death. Here are a few of his ideas: Parachutes and skydiving. Underwater suits to allow men to sabotage enemy ships from below.  A self-propelled cart that would have essentially been the first car and first robot, since it required no driver.

Nikola Tesla: All inventors face obstacles, but Tesla was faced with more than most. Namely, his fellow inventors. Throughout his career he was persecuted nonstop by Thomas Edison, J.P. Morgan, and other “captains of the industry”. Now for some of his inventions, which unlike Da Vinci’s are very real. Alternating current: this was the center of a large feud with Edison, who was working on the DC current supported by General Electric. Sabotage, shady business deals, and patent suppression were all present. From this conflict also arose the electric chair–in his attempts to tear down Tesla, Edison electrocuted animals to demonstrate that Tesla’s AC current was dangerous. Tesla also invented the electric motor, remote controls, x-rays, radio, and laser. Here is a fun diagram outlining the Tesla-Edison feud.

Bigger and less blurry than what’s below

Harold Black: Harold Black was an electrical engineer at Bell telephone labs in 1927 when he had his epiphany about negative feedback. Technically, Harold Black did not invent or discover it, since the concept had been in use for thousands of years, dating back to the Romans using it to drain their aqueducts. But Black revolutionized it in the sense that he managed to explain it analytically and mathematically, and thus apply it to technology. In his original patent, he cited 164 different applications; but today, negative feedback is a core principle of electrical engineering with millions of applications. Almost every electronic device, and many non-electronic ones use negative feedback. Everything from biomedicine to home thermostats to the human body itself.

George Washington Carver: Apparently he discovered 300 uses for peanuts, which is pretty impressive by itself. But his real accomplishment were helping develop techniques and improvements for various agriculture and farm related things for people in the south. To name a few: Adhesives, bleach, chili sauce, meat tenderizer, talcum powder, and wood stainer. Most of those aren’t a big deal, since they are pretty simple and would have been discovered by someone else soon after–none are really huge break throughs. What made Carver special was how he was such a great guy. Unlike Edison and Tesla, he harbored no hatred and turned down big-money job offers to instead continue to research on behalf of his fellow countrymen. He only every patented three of his ideas, choosing instead to freely give them to mankind. He would say, “God gave them to me. How can I sell them to someone else?” And then to top it off, in 1940 he went and donated his entire life savings to he establishment of the Carver Research Foundation at Tuskegee, for continuing research in agriculture.

So while I was brainstorming cool invention-related ideas for this week, my mind wandered back to some documentary my older brother turned on many many years ago about the construction of the Palm Islands of Dubai. These three constructions in the UAE are the largest man-made islands in the world, and can be seen from space. Some people call them “The 8th wonder of the world”, and while I don’t necessary think they are THAT cool, they are pretty amazing.

Construction began on them in 2001, as another means of increasing tourism by Dubai’s leader, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. They were a pretty good idea since Dubai’s coastline only spans 37 miles and other than that it is a desert state. The location for the island was carefully chosen, and the bottom layer of the crescent-shaped break water was laid down. The first layer was sand covered by an “erosion-preventing water-permeable geo-textile”, followed by a layer of one-ton rocks then two layers of 2 to 6 ton rocks. This breakwater also has two 328-foot openings on each side to allow water circulation.

A dredger pumping sand for the island

The palm islands themselves are constructed from sand dredged from the sea floor and vibro-compacted into place with an accuracy of within .39 of an inch. The first island, and the only one open to the public, Palm Jumeirah, took 3,257,212,970.389 cubic feet of ocean sand. In total, the island and its breakwater required nearly 12 million pounds of rock and more than 53 million pounds of sand. Now, Palm Jumeirah contains 60 luxury hotels, 4,000 residential villas, 1,000 water homes, 5,000 shoreline apartments and multiple marinas, restaurants, shopping malls, sports facilities, health spas, cinemas and dive sites.

And while they were at it, they also built a system in the shape of the world. Each of the 300 islands is individually for sale and over 2/3 have been bought.

The “World Islands”

A mosaic of all Dubai’s lovely islands, acquired by NASA/GSFC/METI/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team in 2008

Remember back when Disney Channel was in its prime? Before all their singers became actors and actors became singers. In the days of Even Stevens, That’s So Raven, and of course, Phil of the Future. There are many reasons Phil of the Future should have lasted more than two seasons–but as per my blog subject, I will be focusing on some of the cool gadgets the family had with them from the year 2121.

The Wizrd: The Wizrd does pretty much anything. It has the capabilities of you basic smartphone–two way audio and video communication, and media storage–in addition to short range teleportation, molecular recomposition (to use for anything from painting your garage to an instant halloween costume), shrink ray, “statufication” (turning something into a statue), hologram projection, liquification, animal translator, laser, and object cloner. If I could have one gadget from Phil of the Future, it would probably be the Wizrd, just because it can do so much.

Laser Squash: In this futuristic sport, all players have gloves that let them control a glowing ball of energy, the Glorb. Using their Plork, the players set the boundary lines (so you can play anywhere, no court necessary) and then the game proceeds like tennis.

The Skyak: The Skyak is like a jet ski/snowmobile type vehicle, but for the sky. In Phil’s world, they are as common place as bicycles or skateboards are here.

The Giggle: A play off of “google” the Giggle is “the thing, that replaced the thing, that replaced the thing, that killed the internet in a pay per view battle royale”. It is a small red triangle that constantly updates itself so that it contains all the knowledge of anyone ever up till the year 2121. It requires a helmet with a projection screen to display the information and answer your questions, which makes it a little goofy to use. But who really cares how goofy you look when you’ve got access to all the information mankind will discover up to 2121?

Invisible Spray: As the name states, spray that makes you invisible. Phil uses it to spy on his younger sister Pim, but obviously its applications far exceed sibling rivalry. This is one of those inventions that is portrayed as another harmless, handy tool. But it makes you wonder how their world really functions if everyone has access to it–the government, thieves, terrorists, anyone who wanted to becoming invisible for a dollar ninety-nine.

This week I’ll be listing some inventions you may not have heard of–for a good reason. They’re ridiculous.

#1: Twitter toilet paper. Now, you can get the twitter feed of your choice printed onto custom-made toilet paper. If you are willing to spend $35 for four rolls of toilet paper, you will never be bored on the toilet again.

#2: Fork Chops. An essential part of sushi is that it is eaten with chopsticks. Not only will soy sauce drip down a fork onto your hand, this utensil is probably the most unclassy piece of cutlery I have ever seen. Not everyone can chopsticks proficiently, but that’s why they have those ones with a piece of paper and rubber band at the top.

#3: Paparazzi Shades. These are sunglasses shaped like those bars they put over people’s faces in pictures and videos to hide their identity. So, just wear these shades and you’ll never be tagged in an embarrassing picture again.

#4: The fly-swatting helmet. We’ve all been camping, or at the beach, or just in your backyard when those darn mosquitoes just won’t stay away. Now, you can protect yourself from mosquitoes and concussions at the same time. This sturdy helmet has a fly swatter attached that bobbles up and down in a steady motion, constantly keeping the bugs away.

#5: Subs. This is a belt for guys who like to wear their pants hanging halfway down their thighs. It securely attaches to the top of your underwear, so your pants hang at the appropriate level of coolness without the danger of falling down all the way.

#6. Whatever this is. It keeps long hair out of your food.

So, over the past few weeks I’ve kept a list of some “First World Problems” I or anyone around me has encountered. And here are some very unnecessary inventions that would solve those problems when we are too lazy to do it ourselves. Somehow, they are all food-related.

1. “I can’t even take all food I want because the plates won’t fit on my tray.” That moment when absolutely everything at Late Night is delicious; some sort of plate stacker that you could put on top of one dish, so that another could sit on top of it would allow us to pile our trays high. Or, having the option of plates with dividers so people don’t put their one scoop of eggs and hamburger on separate dishes to prevent contamination.

2. “My cookie is too big to dunk into my cup of milk.” Ever been super excited to dunk your fresh baked chocolate chip cookie into a glass of milk and then…it doesn’t fit? Since we could never just break the cookie or go fill a mug milk, cookies should be produced in cup-friendly shapes. Or, there could be specially shaped cups to accomodate the diameter of the buffet’s cookie.

3. “Since the salt is white, it blends in and I can’t see how much I’ve put on my food.” Colored salt. Maybe one of red and one of blue, so that your salt will never blend into your food again.

4. “I’m an early riser, so I have to wait hours to open a bag of chips in the morning while my roommate is still sleeping.” The most obvious unnecessary solution is for a chip company to make their bags less noisy. Or, you could simply go into the hallway to open them. Or pre-open them the night before.

This blog will be about inventions that help solve the many things that go wrong in an EE lab. Mainly, a device that helps troubleshoot your circuits when you are getting an incorrect output signal. This idea was partially inspired by the Big Bang Theory episode where the gang makes an app with which you can solve equations by just taking a picture of the equation you have written down. This app would work by taking a picture of your circuit, plugging in the input signals you’re using, resistor values, etc., your desired output and finally the measured output value you are getting. By knowing how a breadboard and all the components you’re using work, the computer could identify all possible errors. For example, it could tell you if you’ve misplaced any wires on the breadboard (the wires would have to be a little spread apart or different colors so that the computer can differentiate them). So, you would still have to check all the basic problems yourself, like making sure you’re using the right resistors, have the voltage signal set up right, or your op amp isn’t melted. But after checking those problems, with this program you would not have to sit there making sure everything is grounded, you have no short circuits, the positives are all with positive and negative to negative, or any of the many mistakes you could make when physically building the circuit. When you have wires and resistors and capacitors all over the place, it can take ages to make sure the circuit is continuous or you didn’t accidentally stick a wire into the wrong pin or any of the number of problems listed above, so having a program like this would be an invaluable time saver.

This week, my blog is inspired by a recent episode of The Office. Rather than offering an idea of my own, I’ll write about funny/interesting inventions that fictional characters in TV either invested in or thought up themselves. The one that inspired me to this deviation from my usual passion topic was the sit-up boots Oscar bought in The Office. They are these bulky boots that hook onto a bar Oscar has fixed in the doorframe, so rather than doing sit-ups on the floor he does them hanging up side down. His reasoning for needing them was that “The floor is disgusting”. But then, Oscar can’t pull himself all the way back up to the bar to unhook himself, so he is left dangling as his coworkers walk around him and chuckle. So, the idea? It had good intentions. But in terms of practicality? You don’t need to wear clunky boots, fix a bar to the wall, and dangle to do “clean” sit-ups. Just get a mat!

The next TV-invented invention actually grew so famous you can buy one in real life. And that is, Kramer’s Coffee Table Coffee Table Book from the show Seinfeld. After George freaks out because Jerry puts a mug on his coffee table without a coaster, Jerry suggests he just cover the stain with a book—but George doesn’t keep books on his coffee table. So Kramer comes up with an idea that’s half absurd and half genius. A book about coffee tables that also turns into a coffee table. It includes tales of celebrities’ coffee tables, types of tables, and all you could ever want to know about coffee tables. But what’s really cool about Kramer’s book lies not in the redundancy of subject and purpose, but in its ability to actually turn into a coffee table. So, if you don’t have a classy book to leave lying on your coffee table, or if you don’t a coffee table at all, then take a look at Kramer’s invention because it is widely available in stores near you. Or, buy it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Coffee-Table-Book/dp/190103304X

So this post will be a little off topic in that it won’t contain new ideas, but rather, new takes on old ideas. The first: A hanging shoe-rack made entirely out of duct tape. Many people have those cubbies that hang vertically in your closet to hold shoes. Well, my friend didn’t, and wanted one, but rather than going out and buying a generic one, we decided to hand craft it out of duct tape. We started by making the sides of four strips of tape barely overlapping each other, then put another four strips on top with the sticky sides together. Then we built the shelves the same way and stuck them to one of the long sheets of tape. We measured out the height gaps between each shelf to fit specific pairs of shoes, so that the ones he wore most would be in the most accessible position. Then, we added the second side to the shelves which were taped to the first side, and when we picked it up from the top the shelves all fell into place.  It was a slow going and difficult process but in the end it worked out and all his shoes are comfortably nestled inside, although we have to reinforce some parts every now and then. But, it’s pretty cool-looking, and how many people have a shoe rack made entirely out of duct tape?

The second is a set of shelves to go above his desk. The basic concept is just putting a board above the top shelf, then stacking more on top of that. But the catch is that the board will be made of chopsticks. We have been hot-gluing them together in groups of five to make sure it doesn’t start waving, and will put some going in the perpendicular direction on the bottom to make it sturdier. This process is even slower because we can’t rip one long strip out like we did with duct tape; each chopstick is so thin it’ll take over a hundred to do just the first shelf. But, how many people have shelves made entirely out of chopsticks?

These are goggles designed specifically for competitive swimmers, so although I’m not exactly exceptional in swimming myself, I’m learning, and have gotten input from actual swimmers on what capabilities these goggles need to have.

First, they should be able to show the position of all the swimmers you’re racing against, so you know how you are doing relative to them and how to pace yourself based on that. Near the end, it would tell you when to start sprinting, and for really competitive Olympic swimmers it could show the world record line like it does on TV. Seeing how close you are to being the next champion would definitely motivate me to push harder those last few yards if I knew it meant breaking the record.

Next, the goggles would have a timer and stopwatch for training. The timer would tell you how fast you’re doing your laps and compare them to your past times. It would also have the stopwatch records the lengths of each lap to let you know how your pacing is, if you’re slowing down or keeping a consistent pace. Also, a thing swimmers do in training is swim at intervals, which is when you allot a certain amount of time per lap (usually 20-40 seconds depending on skill level) and then you have to do each set within that time amount, including your breaks between sets. The goggles would keep track of your interval to tell you when to start your next set, so you don’t end up starting late after spending 15 seconds calculating when you’re supposed to take off, since if you do an 8-lap set you would start your next set 8 x (your interval) seconds later. And you don’t really feel like doing the math when your interval is 32 seconds long.

Writing my This I Believe got me thinking more about disabilities, and aside from the overarching/main difficulties and hardships that go along with it, all the little things that make life suck. But unlike my TIB, in this blog I won’t be writing about mental disabilities, but physical ones, namely paraplegia. The only solution for permanent lower body paralysis is the use of a wheelchair. And although today’s society already incorporates many ways to make life easier for people in wheelchairs, there are always more– and today I will be writing about one, a height-adjustable wheelchair. First I will summarize the need for and benefits of height-adjustable wheelchairs, then describe why they are unrealistic and don’t exist already.

First, being so much lower/shorter than everyone stinks. Having everyone look down at you to make eye contact and speak (while in a standing situation) naturally makes you feel less valuable and unimportant, even though that is far from true. Being at a normal height while moving around public locations would be safer, especially in parking lots so that cars backing up could see people in wheelchairs through their mirrors. And then just daily life type of things, like being able to access the top shelf and sit at higher counters and tables, see what’s up front when in a standing crowd, and reach the top buttons in elevators.

The obvious reason why these don’t exist are because they would be highly unstable. Maximum stability is reached with the lowest center of gravity, and sitting high up would really disrupt that. Current wheelchairs are adjustable to change the center of gravity since people have different body structures, weight, and height, but this is done through slight adjustments in the wheels so the wheelchair remains at the same height relative to the ground. So a height-adjustable wheelchair could not be the same model as the standard two-rolling wheels chair. However, progress could be made towards such a chair as companies are already developing new types that make getting around more convenient; there is the Topchair, which is able to climb and descend stairs easily, comfortably, and automatically through infrared sensors. And if they can manage to make safe wheelchairs that can maneuver stairs, why not ones that can make the rider as tall as an ordinary standing person? Fantasy Factor: 2

Source: Topchair