Tag Archives: invention

Art, Graphics, Woodworking, Computers, User Interfaces, Miscellaneous

Please invent this: Smart interactive sheet music mobile app

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I’m a pretty busy guy, so I don’t really have the time nor the energy to implement every single great idea for a new invention that I think of.  So I’m going to just release any idea trademarks that I might have enjoyed and put my invention ideas out to the general public for implementation.  If you do actually end up getting filthy rich off of any of my invention ideas, I won’t sue you but please feel free to send me a little of your filthy money just to make certain that you are able to sleep soundly at night.  🙂

Stacks_of_money

[image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stacks_of_money.jpg]

I thought of an iPad app that I think is probably just a small niche product, but I think that small niche might really appreciate it.

Here is the typical use case for the app. A musician downloads or purchases some digital sheet music using this app. The app displays the digital sheet music one page at a time and it has a visually appealing page swipe animation to make it look and feel like real sheet music.  This is pretty standard stuff so far, but once the musician starts playing the sheet music, the app can actually hear them playing and the app actually follows along and highlights where they are in some subtle way … maybe by a blue bar that slides along the music or a subtle yellow highlight or something like that.  I believe this is the really cool and novel feature of this app that other sheet music apps are not doing.  Probably because it’s not an easy task.  But boy would it be cool, huh?

Assuming that the app can hear and follow along with the playing of the music, then the app could also automatically turn the page for the musician if they so desire.  How far in advance the automatic page turn occurs could be configurable by each user.  The app should also be able to tell the musician what their tempo is versus what tempo is suggested in the sheet music.

[image from http://www.thehearingdoctors.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/music-notes.jpg]

Obviously, accomplishing all of these features would be easiest if the digital sheet music had lots of hidden information for the app to read to help it understand the notes and to find out the tempo and such.  But the holy grail would be for this app to work on many of the various standard digital sheet music files that are currently out there and purchasable on the Internet.  That would require a pretty smart app to decode the PDF files or whatever the format of these existing digital sheet music files, but I’m sure some really smart programmers can figure out a solution that works reasonably well.  You guys and gals are very sharp!

This app should work for pretty much any instrument type, in theory. As long as the music being played can be heard by the app reasonably well.  This app should also be able to tell the musician if they were in tune or not. That’s already done by other apps, but it could also be a feature of this app.

Are there any other features for an iPad or tablet app that would be useful to musicians and would essentially take paper sheet music out of the picture?  Think outside the box!  Come up with a solution!  Make millions of bucks!  I’m not really a musician any more, but I know several who would buy this app if it was invented!

Please invent this.  Thanks,
Kurt

 

Miscellaneous

Please Invent This: Zero-G Sleeping Device

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I’m a pretty busy guy, so I don’t really have the time nor the energy to implement every single great idea for a new invention that I think of.  So I’m going to just release any idea trademarks that I might have enjoyed and put my invention ideas out to the general public for implementation.  If you do actually end up getting filthy rich off of any of my invention ideas, I won’t sue you but please feel free to send me a little of your filthy money just to make certain that you are able to sleep soundly at night.  🙂

[image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stacks_of_money.jpg]

Ever since I saw a video back in the early 90’s showing Shuttle astronauts sleeping in zero-G, I’ve been slightly obsessed with the idea of creating a way to sleep in your natural weightless body posture here on the ground.  It’s nothing I’ve ever actually done anything about, but had in the back of my mind that I was going to invent some sort of magical zero-G sleeping device and become rich and famous someday.

[image from http://flightwork.blogspot.com/2008/01/when-astronauts-sleep.html]

Weightless Posture

Astronauts (and space tourists) who sleep in zero-G take on a natural body posture like the posture shown in the below sketch.  Their muscles all relax and their arms float up in front of their face.  They crouch over ever so slightly and their head tilts down just a bit.  Their legs are bent at the waist and also at the knees.  It’s almost like a recliner position, but with your hands out in front of you.

[image from http://msis.jsc.nasa.gov/sections/section03.htm#Figure%203.3.4.3-1]

Previous Attempts

There appears to be no simple way to reproduce this natural zero-G posture down on the ground.  There is a popular massage chair called the “ZeroG Immersion Massage Chair” that is basically a big poofy recliner on steroids.  I could probably take a nap in this chair for a couple of hours but I doubt I could sleep soundly for a whole night in it.

[image from http://shop.humantouch.com/zerog-2.html]

There are lots of mattress companies that claim to put your body in the most natural position.  Most of the mattress designs I’ve seen advertised try to give you the most properly aligned spine:

[image from http://www.weknowmattresses.com/2012/02/proper-spinal-alignment/]

But can a single mattress really be comfortable for all the different sleeping positions like side, back, stomach?  Many people who sleep on their backs will snore on their backs.  Many people who sleep on their stomach will have back problems due to the unnatural arching of the back in that position.  Many people who sleep on their side will have to flip sides every couple hours during the night which is pretty annoying.

There are some pillow solutions that help separate the legs and align the spine and these can also help you put your arms in a more natural position.

[image from http://www.necksolutions.com/body-pillow.html]

Tossing & Turning

I’m not a doctor, but I’m guessing that the reason we toss and turn during the night is that our bodies tell us that we need to move based on circulation issues and such.  I wonder if astronauts toss and turn in zero-G at all.  I’m betting they do not because their body is in the natural position and their skin and muscles are not being compressed.  So how can we  minimize our skin and muscles being compressed down here on the ground?

[image from https://naturessleep.com/Blog/TabId/152/Month/6/Year/2012/Default.aspx]

I used to SCUBA dive quite a bit when I was younger.  When neutrally buoyant, you just float in mid-water so to speak.  You don’t rise or fall and there is nothing but your wet suit and SCUBA gear pressing on your skin.  I’ve wondered many times if it would be possible to sleep while neutrally buoyant under water.  That’s not very practical.  Not to mention quite dangerous.  But it would be an interesting experiment, I think.

[image from http://www.amberwavesdiving.com/scuba-school/advance-your-training]

Possible Solutions

By taking the underwater sleeping idea and making a more practical version of it, is there a way to make a micro-bead (styrofoam balls) sort of device or a gel filled device that would support your whole body and keep it in the natural posture while you sleep?  You would want to maximize the support in order to minimize the circulation issues and the tossing and turning problems.

Would it work to cut holes or slots in an existing mattress for the arms and legs to slide into?  Would it be too restrictive to try to sleep that way?  How could you get the feel and movement of water without actually being in water?

Is it more comfortable and natural to be leaning backwards in a recliner or leaning forwards face down?  Those portable massage chairs that are basically like a reverse recliner where you are actually face down in the chair with your face poking through a hole in the headrest seems like it might be close to a solution to the problem … as long as there was a way to maximize and spread out the support so that it would minimize the pressure on your skin and muscles.

[image from http://www.relaxforsuccess.com/55.html]

I believe a laid back solution is a snoring issue, but a face down solution at just the right angle just may be the thing that makes your body feel balanced.  If you leaned too far forward you would feel like you are falling and the blood would rush to your head, though.  It would have to be just the right angle leaning forward.  Would a combination of a modified face-down massage chair with lots of added memory foam or a gel material do the trick if it were tilted forward to just the right angle?

Are there any other ways to essentially hover a person in mid-air?  Think outside the box!  Come up with a solution!  Make millions of bucks!  I don’t want to necessarily become rich and famous, but I would like a good night’s sleep so I will definitely buy one if a solution is found!

Please invent this.  Thanks,
Kurt

 

Miscellaneous

Please Invent This: Air Conditioned Barber Chair

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I’m a pretty busy guy, so I don’t really have the time nor the energy to implement every single great idea for a new invention that I think of.  So I’m going to just release any idea trademarks that I might have enjoyed and put my invention ideas out to the general public for implementation.  If you do actually end up getting filthy rich off of any of my invention ideas, I won’t sue you but please feel free to send me a little of your filthy money just to make certain that you are able to sleep soundly at night.  🙂

majestic-barber-chair
[image from http://bestbarberchairs.com/]

As I sat in the barber chair recently with that annoying plastic apron tied around my neck with sweat running down my face, I realized there was a simple solution to my discomfort.  Just add some air conditioning vents coming out of the armrests of the barber chair.  That will pump cool air under that hot plastic apron during the haircut and will keep the patron from overheating.

The chair doesn’t have to create it’s own cold air.  The salon employee could simply just hook up a hose to pump in the cold air … or even room temperature air would even help the situation.

Please invent this.  Thanks,
Kurt

Activities, Travel, Vacations, Health, Home, Property, Safety, Miscellaneous

An open letter to Hollywood’s DVD industry from conservative parents

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Subtitled: How to increase DVD viewership and make more money

This is an open letter from a conservative parent to all the Hollywood-type DVD publishing executives and policymakers out there. I know you’re very busy, so I’ll keep this article short and sweet.

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As a conservative parent, I want to protect my young kids from all the sex and all the violence and all the potty talk and I could go on and on, but I won’t. So many of the feature-length animated films that are released these days are rated PG instead of rated G, and this fact is disheartening to me. There’s a valid and technical reason a particular film gets a PG rating rather than a G rating … it’s got stuff in it that little kids (read toddlers and pre-schoolers) should NOT be watching!

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I’m a big fan of watching a DVD before I let my kids watch it. If there’s a little bit of content that I don’t want my kids to see, I can always fast forward through the part if I know it’s there. But there’s usually too much questionable content in many of the rated PG films these days to try to skip past it all. My solution: I don’t rent PG films for my kids at all.

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But there is a better solution. And it doesn’t even require any fancy new technology to be invented. The old standard DVD format already allows the viewer to choose from multiple audio tracks. And I’ve watched plenty of action/adventure DVDs to know that it’s completely possible to play a totally different “cut” of a film, such as a director’s cut or similar. So why not put a rated G version of the film on the same DVD along with the PG version? This simple idea would not cost the DVD industry a lot of money to implement and it would surely increase their revenues, since it would obviously increase the viewership of their DVDs among the conservative young family population.

Thanks for listening, Kurt

(Anyone who reads this: Please leave a comment/response to this article below and let me know … along with the DVD industry … whether you agree or not.)