Archive for the ‘Fresh Ideas’ Category
Coffee Cup with Built in Sleeve
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
One of our favorite inventors and designers, Scott Amron, has done it again. Using innovate materials and design to create a simpler product with better functionality.
Scott has created a disposable coffee cup with a built in sleeve. When a hot beverage is poured in the cup the sleeve swells to pad your hand from the heat.
Check out the video below to see it in action…watch to the end to see the product taken to the extreme 
tap water
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
The other day I was working out at the gym and was going attempting to get water into my mouth from the lousy water fountain. Seriously low arching water fountain with a weird taste…my face was basically touching the thing. The funny thing is that I have been experiencing this my whole life…the crappy water fountain with no water pressure and funky taste or color…WTF. Also, the water coming out of those things isnt as appetizing when you are watching the person in front of you is basically putting their entire mouth over the faucet…you know who you are.
Why are we using the same fountains as I had when I was 7 yrs old? The answer cant be using bottled water coolers…it cant be. The water is in this country is perfectly fine coming out of the tap…I live in SF and enjoy some of the best. A quick glance at google shows me that all current retailers are selling same fountains as the 1980’s. You would think that some of the manufacturers are thinking, why is the pressure always low, does it get worse over time?
The bottled water market
has literally exploded over the last few years and the factors range from public perception to “health” benefits of the bottled water. I think that we should add crappy water fountains to that list. Isn’t it true? If I cant find places to fill out my water bottle quickly and cleanly, why wouldn’t I buy a bottle.
What will get people to stop using bottled water? What would be more hygienic and efficient?
I just want every building to have a some sort of water bottle filler. Maybe it is something like the kinds you find in fast food restaurants or maybe its a bit fancier and you insert your bottle and take out a filled one. Force people to purchase refillable bottles to use the free taps. Im sure some cobranding could increase the amount of people who use tap vs bottled water (i.e. brita branded water fountain). Lets replace these ancient water fountains with a product we can use.
By the way…I love what I’m seeing out of NYC from Tapit which displays places in the city to refill your water jug. Their mission “But the TapIt network is not just about going bottle-less; less bottles, less recycling, less water privatization and extraction, it’s about understanding why those things are a problem and finding new and sustainable 21st century solutions.”
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You are 5 Minutes from Inbox Zero
Monday, January 11th, 2010
The Issue:
On a day to day basis, I find that I am most productive when I start by jotting down my priorities for the day. I often then try to budget how long each priority will take and make a schedule with it before responding email. I typically look at the number of emails I have, double it and that’s how long I estimate responding will take that morning. This is rarely accurate. The truth is, it tough to know how long clearing an inbox will take- until you go through each email.
Proposed Solution:
A Gmail labs/ plugin that tells you approximately how many minutes worth of emails you have to get to the coveted inbox zero. It may not be super accurate the first week or so, but overtime it could be. I’m not a developer, but I would guess it could consider many variables to do this, including:
- number of emails
- who they are from
- the length of the email
- the time or day you are responding
- emails you are cc’d on vs directly to you
…to name a few.
I imagine that it could eventually be able to even give you the number of minutes it has taken you to respond to an email in the past.
PS- Google people… if you’re reading this, I would also love the ability to ‘link’ to emails in from past conversations.. instead of copying & pasting large text blocks or forwarding separate emails.
PPS- I’m a gmail lover / user.. but I suppose this concept could work for any email platform.
Amazing race tour
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
So I spent an awesome weekend in Zurich with fellow incubaker, Fabian. As he was showing me around the sites of Zurich, he told me about an awesome scavenger hunt in NYC for his friend’s birthday. In a nutshell, the scavenger hunt paired groups of 3 on a quest of clues that pointed them all over Manhattan. Every effort was made to make this an event to remember as people scoured the city looking into bars, gardens and other locations for puzzles, clues and even passwords into secret gmail accounts.
We got to thinking…why isnt there a tour group that offers “Amazing Race” type of tours around cities? What better way to really explore the city than make it a game and feel rewarded at the end. For example, at the airport you are handed an envelope which outlines the overall mission that guides you to the hotel you are staying at and also where you get your first clue. People are guided thru the city, public transport, great eating spots and sites and finally a party. Clues can be hidden in public places, people or just puzzles and symbols. The tour doesn’t have to be for just tourists but also for long time city residents that either want to do some exploring or planning an event (i.e. birthday). Unforgettable? I think so…
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accessing a world of knowledge
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
For many people understanding facts is easy, but connecting the information to other information in our brains, and connecting them to a certain place on a map and a specific time in relation to other milestones is where we gain the true value of knowledge.
Creating a visual and interactive method of engaging with a world of information is a daunting task but with advancements in user interface and tagging we at incubaker think we are not far off. We have come up with a concept that could be as engaging and educational for a 8 year old as it would for an 18 or even 80 year old. It is bit hard to describe so bare with me…
The idea: Imagine a globe (similar to the Google Earth desktop application) with a multi-point timeline below it (similar to the kind seen on Google finance), and on the side, there are a few core categories; ‘Arts & Culture’, ‘Politics’, ‘Religion’ etc… There is also a search bar on the top of the page (see Figure above for sketch). This gives us a three dimensional axis on which to represent data; geographical, chronological and qualitative.
Putting all technical steps aside (we will get to that later), lets understand how the site would interact with the user. Lets search for: ice cream.
Example: I type in ice cream in the search bar with all categories selected. The earth spins backwards as it loads the information representing its search back in time. It begins with the first instance of ice cream, Faloodeh. A mixture of iced rosewater and vermicelli, with added flavors of saffron and other fruit/flower flavors created in ancient Persia circa 400 BC. I see a small marker on my globe in Persia depicting the location of origin. I can now narrow my time line view to the time of 400 BC, or expand it to modern day. As I expand my graph I see Markers pop up all over the globe representing advancements in the evolution of ice cream. For example a marker in Delhi where they began making sorbets in the 16th century. Now that we have the information lets bring it to life.
I select the beginning of time on my time line, and I select all categories and I click “Play” on my search for ‘Ice cream’. The glob shows me the marker in Persia with a caption for Faloodeh, with a trail that takes me to Delhi with a caption for Sorbet, and the trail continues until I get to modern day ice cream, and the multiple flavors of Ben & Jerry’s.
Technical Details: Now that you have heard the concept, lets dive into some technical details. I am not a programmer, but from what I understand, this concept only really requires a powerful semantic search that is able to break down sentences and tag the information (geo tags, time tags, and content tags). Despite how some feel about the information on sites like wikipedia, I am a strong supporter of community created content. With the vast amount of information available, a great first step would be to tag all wikipedia content. This new concept would serve only as an advanced and more visual/interactive interface for wikipedia.
Other Uses and Applications: As I discussed this concept with Flavio and Fabian, we found that this same concept would work great for breaking news stories. As news broke across the globe you could see the globe spin and a news caption pop-up based on a certain keyword or category selection.
I think this would make a great open source project, and I would love feedback or a collaboration team so leave a comment or send a mail if your interested!
keys?
Friday, November 7th, 2008
Keys are annoying. They are heavy, awkward and occasionally jab me in the leg. Maybe it’s my fault for accumulating so many keys in the first place but let’s take a look at what’s going on in my pocket.
Breakdown: It seems like everything has a lock on it and if you are like me and live in an apartment, you probably have 3-4 keys to get thru different doors, mail, gym and other things. If you tack on keys for work, car, parents house, we are talking about a heavy heavy load to be carrying around in your pocket. Even with many buildings now using key fobs or card readers, there are too many of these to keep track of as well.
Solution: Every office building, apartment complex, personal homes, universities and clubs (i.e. tennis, gym, dorms) installs a universal card or key fob reader (might have to be mandated by the government ) . There is a need to create free open source software that lets individuals and corporations program these cards or fobs. Ideally, users would set up their own cards/fobs with their name and a unique password string that identifies each person. So essentially one card or fob can be used on any door in city provided that they get permission from the owner, (who must enter in their unique password string into their system). No more keys!!! All of them replaced by ONE fob to enter in any building, apt, office, and gym.
Websites for Change
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
The inspiration: The “Free Rice” website is both an educational tool and a way to help end world hunger. The website is sponsored by advertisements and the concept is easy; you’re given a word and need to find the synonym. For each answer you get correct, 20 grains of rice are donated to end hunger. There is also a digital bowl that gets filled with rice so you can see the impact you are making.
The idea: I discovered this website when conducting research for Wokai and started thinking. Imagine if there were more educational websites that also have a social benefit. Rather than browsing entertainment gossip or playing online games, everyone could achieve great benefits. For instance, there could be an SAT review website that provides sample questions and for each answer you get right, an ounce of water could be donated to children. That way, you answer eight correct questions and provide a child a cup of clean water. Review companies such as Kaplan and Princeton Review and colleges and universities would pay to advertise on this website because they could easily reach their target market.
grease fill up
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
Bio-diesel is fast becoming more than just a grass roots fuel used in converted old VW vans. Bio-diesel has been greatly popularized by the likes of Gov Schwarzenegger, car guru/innovator Jonathan Goodwin and shows like Pimp My Ride. And since the availability is pretty much on every corner of America, why not come up with solutions tied to increased product sales. Here is a little background (via Wikipedia): Biodiesel is distinguished as vegetable oil (sometimes referred to as “waste vegetable oil”, “WVO”, “used vegetable oil”, “UVO”, “pure plant oil”, “PPO”) used as fuels in some converted diesel engines. In some cases the benefits are very apparent, as it will result in lower emissions than regular diesel and this resource is renewable (otherwise be just waste).
So take a look around, if you are like me, you probably see some sort of fast food restaurant that is serving up food cooked in grease. For many people looking to fill up their tanks, this means pulling up their cars to the back of the restaurant and dumping in the grease.
Idea: Restaurants get in the act and capitalize off this trend. First the restaurants and make their grease traps more accessible by providing a filtered filling hose to make this whole process cleaner and easier. After that, people who wish to fill up their tanks must first order a meal then can fill up their tanks. Everyone benefits as restaurants can make a few bucks on the meal but also promote this “green” service. Car owners benefits from simple, clean and filtered grease making the fill up process so fast.
airport exercise
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
i have the same problem everytime i fly, my legs cramp up and i feel sort of like a human pretzel. it feels sore to stand up and all i want to do is get off the plane and stretch my legs. airlines like jetblue have made neat suggestion cards that show how you can do certain stretches while sitting in our seat. cool and a nice solution but what about taking this one step further.
Idea: i think airlines should provide an exercise machine like a stationary bike on the plane or right near the boarding gate of the airport. airline passengers can quickly charge up by busting out a quick 1 min sprint on the bike and get their blood pumping and help keep their legs from cramping up. its great for the passenger and encourages exercise.. it would be a nice perk considering how the airlines are nickel and dime’ing for everything else.
checked-in luggage swap
Monday, September 8th, 2008
Ever since airlines started charging extra for the second checked in bag, customers have been doing everything they can to pack in all their goods into their carry-on. i have noticed that many customers are also using duffel bags and large hand bags to bring on
Extra items to avoid this new costs. on the last three flights i have been on, i have either had a tough time finding a space for my carry-on or the stewardess has had to check in the bag before lift off. to make matters even worse, airlines like united and american have started charging a fee for the first bag as well.
So whats a customer to do? well here’s a thought. how bout starting a secondary marketplace for luggage. lets say you fly an airline like jetblue, delta, airtran, etc which still allow for one free checked-in bag. suppose you don’t have anything to check-in or you prefer to carry on, why not let customers sell that space to another customer for a small fee (like 5 dollars). customers could post their extra space on a web site that matches sellers with buyers!
Airlines could also win back some trust from customers by rewarding customers who pack light (carry-on) by giving them a free meal, upgrade their seat or give them a luggage credit for another trip.
