Send SMS Credit to Your Friend's Mobile

I've been travelling a lot and noticed that in many countries (especially the developing ones) people use the pay-as-you-go mobiles. This means that when their credit runs out they are unable to make calls or send messages. However, what's nice is that they are still able to receive unlimited incoming calls and SMS messages.

In Mexico, for example, you can get a phone, a SIM card and 300 credits for about 30 bucks. This gives you unlimited incoming calls as well as 300 minutes of outgoing calls or SMS messages. You can purchase more credits as you wish, for example, 10 bucks will get you another 100. Most people, therefore, put more effort into composing a good message, in order to minimize the costs.

So wouldn't it be great if I could send a message to someone and include a credit with it? This would not only benefit the carriers (I'm getting charged twice, once for my original SMS to a friend, and second for my friend's SMS back to me) but also the users who are unable to communicate because of sudden exhaustion of credit.

This could be implemented in a number of ways. I think the easiest would be a simple keyword at the end of a message, for example: Hey Moses, I know you run out of credit so here is one, please let me know if you're coming to the party. Hope to see you tonight! <credit>

I haven't done much research on this but maybe the idea already exists.

Your Own Bio From Sent Emails

It was November 2008, while I was driving in the Canadian prairies, when it hit me. So much information about ourselves is stored in our Sent messages folder. I often search my old emails for information like old acquaintances or information that I have sent in the past.

We've been using Internet and email for quite a bit now. Most of us have collected thousands of "sent emails" over the years. From messages to your loved ones about your day's events or tomorrow's plans to appointment arrangements or trip report emails.

What if a super intelligent software program scanned through all these emails and produced a concise report of our relevant life stories? For example, the report could include a list people you contact most frequently and display it in a chronological order, with topics listed beside. It could also summarize the trips you've been to, the times you didn't feel quite well or were sick. The options are countless.

Note: Of course not all email programs/services store our sent emails. Sometimes it's an option that has to be turned on. For example, Hotmail does not, whereas with Yahoo it comes as a default. As for local computer programs like Outlook it's up to the user to manage his or her sent emails.

Stationary Waffle Making Bike

This next idea is very intriguing, it came to me in my dream, I know, I was amazed myself. I must've been reading about renewable energy the night before ;)

So I woke up one morning clearly remembering the dream of a stationary bicycle which, when used, produces enough electricity to power a waffle maker. I envisioned this as one of those stands on the corner of the street. Why waffles you ask? Probably because I have the love for cooking and baking and my favorite food is home made crêpes :) But as you can see, the produced electricity could be used for other things too, like frying up pancakes. It has to be something that's quick to make, a sausage would require too much energy (and therefore too much pedaling).

I know that this could work because if I saw something like this on the street I would definitely be curious, and proud to have "fried" my own crêpe! With today's ecofriendly trends this could be quite an attraction.

But there is more. I was so excited about this "idea from a dream" that I really believed in it. I therefore started frantically searching the web to see if it has already been done. I haven't found a waffle bike but check this out. A bike to cool your beer (photo courtesy of pege.org):



Or, this is somewhat related, a video of a pedal powered bar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q0gMlNNQxI

What do you think? Would you stop and buy a product where you have to pedal to produce the power for heating it up? The owner of the stand would be laughing, there would be no need for any other power source like propane or an electrical outlet. That would be a good marketing/selling point "all you need is milk, eggs and flour to run your business" :)

Eye Strain Relief via Movable Monitor

In May 2000, right after graduating, I started working for a big telecom which involved working at a computer workstation all day long. Quickly that became very tiring, especially for my eyes. Everyday I'd come home with red and tired eyes, so much so I didn't want to come near a computer for the rest of the evening. So that got me thinking. I came up with an idea of a movable platform for the computer monitor.

The idea was to have the video monitor (flat screens were not wide spread at that time) on a movable support, a tray of some sort that would mechanically move back and forth. But in such small motion that it would be undetectable. So imagine the screen just moving in and out in front of you, over a small distance, maybe a foot or two. I'm not a scientist but common sense tells me that the extra eye workout (constant focus change) would be beneficial. The constant movement of the muscles inside the eyes would most likely make them stronger, relieve eye strain and who knows, maybe improve vision. It would definitely reduce the discomfort associated with sustained close range viewing of the computer screen.

Back in 2004 I was so excited about my idea that I decided to make a prototype. So I started building the platform (see picture)...



... but at the same time I decided to search the patent databases. Guess what, I was so discouraged when I found that someone had already patented my idea, back in the late 90's. Someone in Australia had come up with a similar invention and the patent was just sitting there. I was unable to find it again but found something similar which proves that other people believe in the benefits of frequent adjustments to the monitor distance from the eyes. Here is a link to that patent:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=TFYhAAAAEBAJ

And as I'm writing this I found another one which is very similar to my idea. This isn't the one I was describing above. It just amazes me how we humans have similar thoughts. I bet hundreds of others thought about this in some way or another. Here the monitor moves sideways:

"A novel concept of ergodynamic desktops with slowly varying configurations for ergonomic purposes"

http://www.google.com/patents?id=mzGcAAAAEBAJ

My idea was to have the platform powered and controlled by the same computer that it is used for. So the user would be able to set the rate, distance of travel and turn it on and off using a small application that would come with this product.

So I thought about completing the prototype for my own use but then I got a laptop ;) If you have any comments feel free to post them here. Cheers!

Innovations For Grabs, Is That Possible?

My innovations are free for anyone to take, explore and even act on (i.e. develop, market, sell, etc). I figured that I will never be able to act on all the clever ideas my mind comes up with. I've kept track of most of them, mostly on paper or in my thoughts. Personally I believe it's a waste, cause someone out there could pick up on an idea and innovate it further. So stay tuned as I randomly post them to this blog.

Also, if you have a similar blog or a website let's link up :)