Hi,
a simple idea for all the phone charger that are permanently plugged in. A power switch that will automatically turn off the appliance plugged in when the consumption falls under a configurable threshold. With the phone plugged into the charger a small charge will always be drawn which keeps the socket alive. Once the phone is disconnected the socket switch detects that almost no power is consumed and hence switches off.
In order to detect if the phone has been connected again the power socket could wake up in regular intervals and check the power consumption. If the consumption is still low it will switch off after a preconfigured time.
As the realisation of this logic is very simple I could envisage such a circuit to be complementary to every phone charger by the manufacturer.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Sunday, December 27, 2009
BUSINESS IDEA: Instead of giving away personal data to competition, offer them for sale with high granularity
Hi,
watching on of those advertisements for car insurance, I started dreading again the task of selecting another insurer for the family car. Much rather I would offer some relevant information or even a reference from the current insurer and wait for some good offers to come in.
Spinning this thought further it becomes apparent that selling of some personal data is already common place: as subscriptions to mailing lists, detailed searches in company websites or simply tracking cookie. Only, there is no direct profit to the owner of the data as well as no incentive of keeping the data accurate and up-to-date.
The idea works as such: my personal data is stored in a library encrypted together with an access list. A data provider (i.e. the user, person, company, individual, etc.) will have the encryption key -- possibly using asymmetric encryption.
The data provider can then reverse advertise for an offer of goods or services by subscribing to categories and supplying a minimal set of data. For a car insurance perhaps the number plate, age and recent claims history for example.
For solicited access a data consumer (i.e. insurance company, shipping company, market research organisation, etc.) will have to ask the data provider for one-time-access to more of the personal data in order to complete an offer.
The interesting part is the idea of selling some of the information, such as household income statistics in a reverse google adwords fashion. For example the data consumer would put a request out for all data provider with an interest in gadget, a disposable income of X amount and in a certain region. Data providers can then subscribe and offer some more of their information for a guaranteed monetary amount. Of course, just like ebay and google a certain amount of lying can be expected and need to be factored in. Reputation points are on option. Another more drastic possibly proof of location, age and income may be accepted by the website to purchase creditability points in order to help weed out some of the abuse.
Finally, for market research a statistical group subscription could be offered where data provider are classified into groups of age, location or income. An interested market research company could purchase. Again with some small reward to the data provider.
On a grander scale this system can be extended with electronic voting and/or backed by a call center for companies to purchase as sales channel.
The biggest drawback is the privacy issue. Everyone conscious of their data being used against them, such as questions related to health issues or accident history should be rightly concerned. A decent amount of safety can be guaranteed as the data is encrypted to be used at the immediate and temporary discretion of the end user only and all of the statistical and "unsolicited" access is done via a highly granular opt-in. Perhaps 10-30% of the personally sensitive data of random data provider should be withheld as a matter of business rule to avoid the absence of information to have a meaningful value to the data buyer.
Another drawback is data harvesting by companies or company groups sharing this information after purchasing. Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done with the exception to legally require a NDA (non-disclosure-agreement). Interesting options are emitting a significantly insignificant amount of false data, such as misspellings in name or a few days off the age, as tracer to spot companies abusing the NDA. This can only work as deterrent but not as a guarantee. And as the past storage of credit card details has been show some data leakage can be expected even when taken all precautions.
Credibility is the most important asset for this business. Hence it becomes vital to offer to the data provider an audit trail of every access and search specifically to the providers data and details about the encryption.
watching on of those advertisements for car insurance, I started dreading again the task of selecting another insurer for the family car. Much rather I would offer some relevant information or even a reference from the current insurer and wait for some good offers to come in.
Spinning this thought further it becomes apparent that selling of some personal data is already common place: as subscriptions to mailing lists, detailed searches in company websites or simply tracking cookie. Only, there is no direct profit to the owner of the data as well as no incentive of keeping the data accurate and up-to-date.
The idea works as such: my personal data is stored in a library encrypted together with an access list. A data provider (i.e. the user, person, company, individual, etc.) will have the encryption key -- possibly using asymmetric encryption.
The data provider can then reverse advertise for an offer of goods or services by subscribing to categories and supplying a minimal set of data. For a car insurance perhaps the number plate, age and recent claims history for example.
For solicited access a data consumer (i.e. insurance company, shipping company, market research organisation, etc.) will have to ask the data provider for one-time-access to more of the personal data in order to complete an offer.
The interesting part is the idea of selling some of the information, such as household income statistics in a reverse google adwords fashion. For example the data consumer would put a request out for all data provider with an interest in gadget, a disposable income of X amount and in a certain region. Data providers can then subscribe and offer some more of their information for a guaranteed monetary amount. Of course, just like ebay and google a certain amount of lying can be expected and need to be factored in. Reputation points are on option. Another more drastic possibly proof of location, age and income may be accepted by the website to purchase creditability points in order to help weed out some of the abuse.
Finally, for market research a statistical group subscription could be offered where data provider are classified into groups of age, location or income. An interested market research company could purchase. Again with some small reward to the data provider.
On a grander scale this system can be extended with electronic voting and/or backed by a call center for companies to purchase as sales channel.
The biggest drawback is the privacy issue. Everyone conscious of their data being used against them, such as questions related to health issues or accident history should be rightly concerned. A decent amount of safety can be guaranteed as the data is encrypted to be used at the immediate and temporary discretion of the end user only and all of the statistical and "unsolicited" access is done via a highly granular opt-in. Perhaps 10-30% of the personally sensitive data of random data provider should be withheld as a matter of business rule to avoid the absence of information to have a meaningful value to the data buyer.
Another drawback is data harvesting by companies or company groups sharing this information after purchasing. Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done with the exception to legally require a NDA (non-disclosure-agreement). Interesting options are emitting a significantly insignificant amount of false data, such as misspellings in name or a few days off the age, as tracer to spot companies abusing the NDA. This can only work as deterrent but not as a guarantee. And as the past storage of credit card details has been show some data leakage can be expected even when taken all precautions.
Credibility is the most important asset for this business. Hence it becomes vital to offer to the data provider an audit trail of every access and search specifically to the providers data and details about the encryption.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
IDEA: Safer driving on snow and ice.
Hi,
driving home and being stuck in bad road conditions last night has given me plenty of time to think about improving driving in snow. Of course I am not the first one thinking bout this. Waiting for the truck far ahead to make it up the steep slope (or not as it were) I realized that the other lane with traffic coming the opposite way developped a natural pattern of ridges.
Apparently, the faster counter flow did not just push the snow away from the tires but also compressing it whilst rolling over it. Somehow the "chaotic" compression and displacement resulted in a rough road surface. I would have thought that given this rough pattern (although horribly noisy to drive over) gives more grip both accelerating and breaking -- especially with ASR and ABS as many modern car have now built in.
My idea is therefore: instead of removing the snow/ice create a grip pattern to drive on. Maybe even flash freezing a light coat of water to fortify it. The grip pattern has ice/snow ridges that are slightly elevated and dips accross the tires causing a cobble effect. This prevents both fast driving that is unsuitable for the road conditions and removes the need for creating deep snow walls on either side of the road. It also removes the need for salting.
Drawbacks are the on high frequency routes the ridges will get worn round soon. However, if the ridges would reflect the naturally developing pattern it may become self sustaining. Subject to pressure and temperature this may well be an option.
driving home and being stuck in bad road conditions last night has given me plenty of time to think about improving driving in snow. Of course I am not the first one thinking bout this. Waiting for the truck far ahead to make it up the steep slope (or not as it were) I realized that the other lane with traffic coming the opposite way developped a natural pattern of ridges.
Apparently, the faster counter flow did not just push the snow away from the tires but also compressing it whilst rolling over it. Somehow the "chaotic" compression and displacement resulted in a rough road surface. I would have thought that given this rough pattern (although horribly noisy to drive over) gives more grip both accelerating and breaking -- especially with ASR and ABS as many modern car have now built in.
My idea is therefore: instead of removing the snow/ice create a grip pattern to drive on. Maybe even flash freezing a light coat of water to fortify it. The grip pattern has ice/snow ridges that are slightly elevated and dips accross the tires causing a cobble effect. This prevents both fast driving that is unsuitable for the road conditions and removes the need for creating deep snow walls on either side of the road. It also removes the need for salting.
Drawbacks are the on high frequency routes the ridges will get worn round soon. However, if the ridges would reflect the naturally developing pattern it may become self sustaining. Subject to pressure and temperature this may well be an option.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
IDEA: Bluetooth PA system
Hi,
with all the audio visual communications equipment around the house or work, including the mobile equipment, it appears a bit of a challenge to be heard or to interrupt a listener and to get attention.
As most of the equipment is able to synthesize sound it would be a good idea to enable the devices to be interrupted for a broadcast by another system. This would be an opt-in of course to avoid abuse.
Hence, my idea is to enable or attache an enabled bluetooth device for local broadcasts.
Simple ? Too simple ?
HPBM24BBV9QH
with all the audio visual communications equipment around the house or work, including the mobile equipment, it appears a bit of a challenge to be heard or to interrupt a listener and to get attention.
As most of the equipment is able to synthesize sound it would be a good idea to enable the devices to be interrupted for a broadcast by another system. This would be an opt-in of course to avoid abuse.
Hence, my idea is to enable or attache an enabled bluetooth device for local broadcasts.
Simple ? Too simple ?
HPBM24BBV9QH
Friday, December 18, 2009
REQUEST: mirror replacement+
Hi,
as the follically challenged person I am I find myself turning to odd angles and peek out of the corner of my eye to catch a non frontal view in the mirror. Quite to the amusement of anyone around. And, no, I don't consider myself vain -- although I grudgingly appreciate that you may get the impression.
So I wondered if anyone has started building TV screens to replace mirrors and indeed there are. And indeed there are quite a few. Unfortunately, I couldn't see if any of the devices allow recording and freeze frames. So here is my request to the manufacturers of the world.
Please create a mirror replacement that allows me to record my twirls in front of the flat screen TV and to play them back for review. Of course there are some privacy measures required to prevent the playback by other hands and to avoid the obvious abuse from others to steal the secrets of my expertly eradicating my beard stubbles.
I am sure that its use will extend way beyond the simple bathroom application.
as the follically challenged person I am I find myself turning to odd angles and peek out of the corner of my eye to catch a non frontal view in the mirror. Quite to the amusement of anyone around. And, no, I don't consider myself vain -- although I grudgingly appreciate that you may get the impression.
So I wondered if anyone has started building TV screens to replace mirrors and indeed there are. And indeed there are quite a few. Unfortunately, I couldn't see if any of the devices allow recording and freeze frames. So here is my request to the manufacturers of the world.
Please create a mirror replacement that allows me to record my twirls in front of the flat screen TV and to play them back for review. Of course there are some privacy measures required to prevent the playback by other hands and to avoid the obvious abuse from others to steal the secrets of my expertly eradicating my beard stubbles.
I am sure that its use will extend way beyond the simple bathroom application.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
IDEA: furniture lint blocker
Hi,
clearning under furniture is seldom done due to inaccessibility. My idea is to block lint and other items from seeping underneath furniture. This can be achieved in multiple ways of which I shall list a few.
Using positive pressure method - generate a constant airflow blowing out. This works on furniture with very small gaps around. As a fan or air pump is required this is also a costly and perhaps noisy option. However, combined with a heating system may be practical.
An cushion or bellow that can be inflated and topped up if required. This is a fairly universal method but requires a preformed cushion or bellow that fits the gaps perfectly. The filling can be air or some for of expanding foam.
Of course, the obvious way is to use furniture that does not have gaps and smoothly attaches to the floors. This can also be achieved using retrofitted skirting of kind.
clearning under furniture is seldom done due to inaccessibility. My idea is to block lint and other items from seeping underneath furniture. This can be achieved in multiple ways of which I shall list a few.
Using positive pressure method - generate a constant airflow blowing out. This works on furniture with very small gaps around. As a fan or air pump is required this is also a costly and perhaps noisy option. However, combined with a heating system may be practical.
An cushion or bellow that can be inflated and topped up if required. This is a fairly universal method but requires a preformed cushion or bellow that fits the gaps perfectly. The filling can be air or some for of expanding foam. Of course, the obvious way is to use furniture that does not have gaps and smoothly attaches to the floors. This can also be achieved using retrofitted skirting of kind.
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