little things that could make life easier...

Alright, today I'm not going to talk about one single idea, but several tiny little ideas - where one post/idea isn't worth it... In our everyday life, there's loads of tiny little things which are not very convenient but we go along with it anyway - untill someone decides to solve it... For example, I loved the idea of the funny plastic sticks we had, with tiny fingers to scratch our back... Whatever you say, scratching back had always been a tough job till someone came up with this idea... I found it to be one of the most unique and genius yet simple ideas of our time...

So, first - Clips for CNG... Lemme explain - when it rains, it's pretty tough for us to fix that cover to protect us from water splashing onto us as the 'curtain' got this tiny strings that we need to tie around the metal poles... Instead of all these trouble, how about welding two strong clips on both side of the CNG's each entrances - so when it rains, just pull down the curtain, clip them on! These clips would look like the ones we use at home on the cloth drying line, just much stronger springs should be used.

Travellers bathroom kitbox... We all have a tiny kitbag, especially who travels quite a bit, where we keep our toothbrush, toothpaste and shaving accessories... I would like to have a plastic box instead, inside there'd be grooves for each of the accessories... Wouldn't it be very convenient if we just put everything inside & throw it in your bag. When you need to use them, just take the box in the bathroom, set it upright on something, use the stuffs, then put them back in the box... done! So far I've never seen anything like this...

Ok, this is a silly idea, I had long time back when I was only 12yrs old... an anti pick-pocket device... Wish I could put up a picture of it... Let me try explain anyway... It'll be a tiny electronic device that can vibrate pretty strongly. It'll have two flat surfaces, that'll face each other and be together, till we slide in a money bag in the middle... the moment we take the money bag out - it'll vibrate to warn us that the money bag has been taken away... The whole thing needs to be kind of attached to the pocket - that's the biggest flaw of my design...

Those of us who wears specs, this one's for them, esp if you love to read books... at night, with the room's lights off, wouldn't it be great if we could get light on the page regardless of whichever position we're sitting/laying? For this, we can have a clip-on penlight torch, running on 1/2 AAA batteries with super bright LED instead of a torch bulb. These new generation super bright LEDs are incredible, cheap, gives awesome light yet consumes less than a fraction of what conventional bulbs would.

And last but not least, another tiny BlueTooth idea... a bluetooth lock... Your desk drawer can look perfectly ok, no sign of any lock or key hole - cuz the key is your cellphone. You can set your password for the lock, let it be numerical or alpha-numerical. Just take the phone within the bluetooth range, open the software in the phone & type away the password. If you're wrong more than 3 times, the lock will get into a preset TimeLock, say 30 min or so. This could be used in room, drawer or anywhere else :)

I guess these were all for the time being... Take care, shower me with comments - especially if you don't like anything about this page... Have a nice day :)

bluetooth + Helmet + solar power = less accident?

Ok, I'm back with another BT (BlueTooth) idea... honestly, when I first read about bluetooth, it was a déjà vue for me - back in '98-'99 when cellphone just started to spread here, I was obsessed with this thought, "how about using a low powered FM frequency or something like that that'll have an average range of a few metre to connect cellphones with PDA/palmtops to access the addressbook I got in the palmtop. May be I can write a pager msg (did not know about sms yet) in the palmtop which will use the pager to send the message" I thought of that cuz back in those days we could save about one or two hundreds of numbers max on the cellphone.

Anyway, enough about old memories - here's the idea... A helmet, yeah, riding helmets we see people wearing while they're riding their bikes, with a bluetooth headset integrated inside. I mean, there's the same old headset, but where our ears supposed to be, there'll be a headphone embeded inside the cushion. As a helmet is a pretty big thing - place for batteries could easily be found. I suggest rechargable AA/AAA batteries - cuz then it'll be easy to take'em out of the helmet & charge them in the charger.

Ok, let's improvise... First, let's have a layer of OLED (Organic Light Emmiting Diod) on the visor, that'll bring up the caller's ID when someone call... There's already a rear view mirror that can do this - we're just using that same tech, into the helmet... This way, while riding you can see who called without looking away from the road. Another small addition - a tiny flexible solar cell pasted on the helmet - it'll charge the batteries a little bit when the on the road.

There it goes - a helmet with an integrated bluetooth headset with caller id display and solar charger! When there's a call, all the rider got to do is tap one of the sides (the switch is there) and start talking! Wish there was a way to patent these ideas from Bangladesh, sigh...

Have a great day :)

cycle power...

I guess most of us cycled at least once in our life - bicycles, not tricycles :P I used to be an avid cyclist even a few years back. At night I always wished I had a cycle lamp but never liked the existing ones available here. You know the one with a dynamo - that had a little circular knob/axel that'd spin as it rubs with the cycle tyre and produce electricity.

I didn't like it cuz it used frictional energy - wastes lots of energy, slows you down and makes a weird noise too. Instead of spinning the dynamo axel using friction, how about using turning power directly from the wheel?! Let’s get rid of the circular rough axel & introduce a tiny gear wheel. The dynamo will be situated near the hind wheel’s center, the gear wheel’s teeth will be 90° to the spokes – so as long as the wheel runs, it’ll hit the gear wheel’s teeth and spin the dynamo’s axel. Rubber coat the teeth, it’ll make less noise. According to my calculation – it’ll produce at least the same amount of electricity as the friction system & more.

There’s another idea but to install it, we need to take off a wheel first. The dynamo has to be set into the cycle, the magnet part around the center of the wheel. The coil will be steady & rigid beside the magnet – so when the wheel runs, the magnet keeps on spinning, creating a magnetic field for the coil to produce electricity. As this one is a bit harder to install than my first idea – I guess this doesn’t have much chance to see the daylight unless the cycle maker decides to have this built into the cycle during production.

Just for fun, it’d be great to replace the normal magnets in the dynamo with the rare earth metal magnets, which are more than ten/twenty times stronger than the regular magnets – should boost up the dynamo’s performance.

I really regret that I can’t provide any sort of picture to make these ideas more comprehensive. If anyone got any software that can allow me to draw mechanical/structural designs easily – please lemme know about it. I’m one terrible artist (can’t even draw a simple mug!) and don’t have the time or cpu speed to master 3d studio.

Guess that's all for today. Thank you for coming back to this page - I promise to meet my dateline next time :) Take care everyone...

Have a nice day...

self filling mug...

ok, got hit by this idea last night, when I went to get a mug of water while talking to my wife dearest over phone...

I have a problem, which is, no mug is big enough for my thirst! I filled up my mug with water, had a long sip, filled it up again & by the time I came back to my room - the mug is half empty :( "Only if there was a way to fill up the mug with water the moment I have a sip", I thought, then it hit me, WHAM!

A silly idea, but I guess it'd be fun... How about, having the mug's body hollowed out (I guess steel mugs would be a good one for this, instead of ceramic) and have a few holes inside the mug, at strategic places... I do not know 3D Studio, or else I'd post the wireframe diagram/cut view of the construction here... when we fill it up with liquid, some will be deposited inside the mug's body & when we drink, the moment the liquid level goes down, due to lack of pressure more will come out of the body to the inside to fill up the mug - we get a few 'extra' sips than what we had expected...

Guess that's all for today... I guess couch potatoes like me would love this mug! Until next time then...

Have a great day :)

make your own electricity - at micro level

Alright, this time it's neither anything new nor very interesting - but I found it intriguing... This is another of my very old ideas, may be more than 10 yrs old... This idea is not for all of us, but for people who do not have electricity because the government hasn't yet been able to expand the power grid to them.

We all know how a power generator works - the fuel is burnt in a combustion engine & drives a wheel - which runs the dynamo and that gives us electricity. But it requires fuel - which costs money... I want energy for FREE! Then it came to me, why not use a small wheel on the riverbank, which will spin as the water flows & that can run the dynamo - I think during the medieval age they used to grind wheat to make flour using this same technique.

Here in Bangladesh, most of the rivers are dead - thanx to our neighboring country - yet there's quite a few rivers running almost throughout the year - the installing such tiny power stations on the river bank can easily provide power to the villages. Just to prove this idea right, someone in Rangamati (yes, someone living far from the cities) did just that. I read it in a newspaper about two years back. He first installed one for himself & then rest of the village people chipped in to buy more dynamos so that every house can have at least 2 florescent lights and 1 fan. Now they have almost free electricity, except for small maintenance cost (better than the DESA bills!).

Now - let's improvise: How about making a box with a fan in the middle that will run the moment water flows through it. I'm not going into the mechanical details here, just giving the outline. This fan can run the dynamo. Now, just sink the whole unit under river water! But this one might need a bit more maintenance but we can have several of these lined up instead having medieval age wheels - which could be quite cumbersome.

When I was in Planning Commission - I saw LGED installing floating rubber dams in some rivers- the top part can work as a bridge & diverts water to the farming fields... When I asked one of the engineers if this water run dynamos could be hung underneath the dam - he said that it is very possible and he liked the idea lots. "It's a shame", he said, "That we do not have anything such to install under the dam & even if we could, we all know why the government would not be interested"

Well, enough for today... I think this micro-level power generation might not
have a HUGE impact on the country (which is why the government wouldn't be interested) but just think of all those villages right beside the river - having no electricity or even if they have 'Palli Bidyot' (Rural Electricity - a government project to provide limited amount of electricity to villages at a low price) - it stays for a few hours only. Just think of those kids in that village in Rangamati - they can study & their mother can stitch colourful patterns on cloths, which they sell to earn a living - after sunset.

Have a nice day :)

ideaz for 'enlighted' shoes

Have you seen kids walking around with those shoes, that got a light blinking every time they walk? Cute, right?! But know what, the tiny battery they got inside - they die out soon... those poor sad kids then walk around without flashing steps... I guess it's not that easy to replace batteries that reside inside your shoe sole.

So, here's a small modification for them... first, let's replace the normal batteries with rechargeable lithium-ion (same thing is used in our cell phones) or the latest thing, lithium polymer batteries... The thing with these batteries are that - they are rechargeable, can be made to be quite small yet pump out enough energy for the purpose & cheap...

Now you must be thinking whether I plan to provide battery charger for these shoes or not... the answer is NO! The idea of having shoes plugged with a charger is pretty ridiculous... Here comes the thing - pizzo electric charger!!! If you remember your O'level physics, there's some materials which gives out electricity if they're squeezed and released - no pun intended! Those paper thin speakers in your key chain are actually called pizzo speaker... Our quartz watches follow the same principle - quartz crystals got pizzo electric properties... So, enough of theory, here is the idea: There will be one or more quartzes properly wired, throughout the shoe's sole - so every time someone walks - they will give out a small burst of energy - which will be deposited in the battery... simple, right!!

Now, let's put a tiny light sensor somewhere around the front of the shoe, hidden under some brand tag - measuring the light intensity outside... If it's daylight - the batteries will just get charged when the kid is walking... When it's night, the batteries will power the tiny lights to do the blinking things they do & gets a little bit charged as well...

So, there goes my self charging light flashing shoes for kids who likes it flashy under their feet :)

Have a nice day...

Car + Bluetooth = Car Talkie...

ok, this is quite an old idea of mine, ummm... say at least 6 years... but back in those days I was thinking with analogue, now let's get digital... so the idea would be old wine in new bottle...

How about having a voice communicator running on bluetooth (let's call it bt)? Yep, in usa, they got CB radio in trucks & all but here I'm talking about every single car being equipped with it. So what I'm talking about is:

1. Voice Communicator (half-duplex or full duplex)
2. Bluetooth as the carrier - 10 metre to 100 metre radius
3. A on screen display to show cars available within range

I think this can have a good impact on our driving life. I can think of a few examples already...

a. I read in an article by Md Zafar Iqbal that, he was driving on a highway, in USA, then there was this car that came right beside them & started honking horn. He looked at them & saw this paper stuck on their windshield saying one of the back doors was not closed properly. Their speed was more than 100km/h & that car took quite a risk to help our dear writer. If they had this "Car Talkie" then as soon as the cars were within range, they could just hit a button and say it.

b. Sometimes we go to places in groups, with a few cars - this could cut down cellphone bills. Even better, car to car communication is possible even if there's no cellphone carrier network :)

c. When stuck in a jam - this could be a nice way to meet new ppl, lol

d. Sometimes I feel that horns are the only thing in car that hasn't changed since these four wheelers started rolling out... this Car Talkie can do more than that, you can actually ask the car infront of you to move a bit left or right, instead of honking horn and complex blinking signals :)


I think it's also possible to find out which car is at which side, so the screen can graphically display the car positions. Each car can have it's own name, but I like the idea of having your licence plate number but that's totally my opinion.

So, there it goes, an idea resting in my head for more than half a decade, finally came out crawling here... As far as my knowledge on electronics and software - this is very possible right now. May be some electronic engineering student can take it up as his/her final year project, who knows...

Plz leave your comment about my ideas, criticisms are most welcome...

Have a nice day...

hairdryer - size of a pen

how does the idea of a pen-hairdryer sound? Today when I was trying to tame my hairs with hairwax, I figured that if I had a pen, that'd give out a tiny stream of hot hair - it'd be very convenient to style hair strands - individually!

There's already something like that - used in soldering circuitboard mounted ic's and all... but that comes with a shoebox sized base unit, from where you got this tiny gun sort of a thing giving out blazing hot air - hot enough to give you blisters...

what I want is a pen - max a marker sized thing, that'll give out mild hot air from one side, I should be able to control the heat level & speed... having a power adapter as a power supply & charger would be a good idea I guess...

There goes my idea of the day - guess one day someone will make it... I just hope they read this post and give me a free sample ;)

have a nice day...

justification of this space...

there could be thousands of reasons for you to stumble upon this page... typed a wrong address, a wild click on a google search page or just found it while browsing blogspot - who knows and who cares, right?! But before you go any further - remember, this blog is just a wastebin for ideas which I get struck now & then... most of these are not feasable to implement or even practical - so, be my guest to go somewhere else :)

I like my quiet time in my room - I get bombarded by ideas... silly ideas... how silly? How does a plan to own the Guinness title for "Longest Paper Roll" with all the scrap papers the office laser printer produces? Silly, right? That's what I'm talking about there...

So, hopefully in a day or two, I'll start putting up my stuffs, till then, have a great day :)