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Imagineered Products
and Services
Examples of Imagineered Products &
Services
Updated on:
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 04:09 AM |
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Imagineered Products
& Services:
Examples of
Imagineered Products & Services
Introduction to Wind
Energy -
Internet Business
Ideas |
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This
section describes some products and service ideas that have either come from my
imagination as long as 40 years ago or are based on scientific research that hint at some
new products. Some of the ideas listed have since become commercially available. In
addition to the ideas listed below, I also have some more detailed discussions. |
BASEBALL THROWING DEVICE (31)
Have you ever skewered an apple with a stick and used the stick to throw the apple? The
stick's added leverage allows the apple to be thrown much farther than possible without
the stick. I imagine a similar device for throwing baseballs. Maybe the device would have
a light weight rod with a ball griping mechanism at one end. A pushbutton near the handle
would release the grip during the ball throwing action. I think such a device would find
uses in baseball practice sessions for both fly balls and hard ground balls. With some
practice it should be easier to use and more accurate that the traditional ball batting
method. |
DOORKNOB ALARM (32)
Many companies offer simple alarm devices for personal use in bedrooms or hotel rooms. A
metal chain attached to a box holding the electronics is placed around the inside doorknob
of a wood door. Anyone grabbing the knob from the outside is detected by the electrical
capacitance change that occurs from the human hand contact between the knob and the box.
Almost all of the commercial devices sold use a more expensive and power consuming radio
frequency circuit approach to detect the capacitance change. But, a very inexpensive and
micro power technique can also work. A complete circuit schematic for such a device can be
seen within the Hobby Circuits section of this web site. The circuit should dramatically
reduce the cost of the device and allow it to operate for many years from one set of
batteries. Click here to see complete
schematic. |
ON-LINE ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT
SCHEMATIC LIBRARY (33)
I personally have designed several thousand electronic circuits during my career as an
electronics engineer. But, when I'm faced with designing a completely new circuit, I find
it very helpful to refer to my collection of electronic circuit schematics. My library
consists of perhaps a hundred circuit encyclopedias, several file cabinets full of
published schematics and countless application notes and manuals. But, my library is not
as organized as it could be. I'm sure that many circuit designers, including me, would
benefit if a large library was made available to them on-line through the Internet. I
imagine an Internet service that had perhaps 100,000 schematics on-line. The circuits
would be organized into many specific categories. Searches would also be made using key
words. Unlike many published circuit encyclopedias, the collection I had in mind would
include author information and complete circuit descriptions. Perhaps the site owner would
make money by several means. First, he could sell some banner advertising space to
electronic component manufacturers. Next, he might be able to talk some of those companies
into paying him for highlighting their components in some designs. Third, money could be
made by charging site service subscriber fees to those companies that what unlimited
access to the information on the site. Perhaps the average user would not be charged but
he might be limited to a fixed number of circuits he could download.
I liked this idea so much that I have launch www.DiscoverCircuits.com |
HOTEL DUST MONITOR (34)
Hotels and motels spend a lot of time trying to keep their rooms clean. Often, dust
removal is a scheduled task and may not always be needed. I propose a small device that is
positioned in a room that would alert a maid when it was time to dust. I imagine a small
battery powered box that would flash an LED light when it detected an accumulation of dust
on its smooth surface. I think a low power optical approach could work by detecting the
back-scatter of light caused by the dust particles accumulating on a flat surface. A
pulsed LED might serve as the light source and a phototransistor as the light detector. A
good design might allow the device to operate for many years on one set of batteries. The
device might also find uses in homes and businesses. Click here for a complete schematic. |
PICTURE FRAME DOOR ENTRY
ANNUNCIATOR (35)
Many shop owners use devices that alert them when a customer has come into their business
through an entrance door. Passive infrared motion detectors, optical through-beam object
detectors and even simple bells on the door have all been used for such an application.
But, some hallways and doors leading into an office are often too small for the these
usual devices. For those applications, I propose a device hidden within a picture frame.
The picture could be placed on one of the inside walls. It would detect when the person
walked by the picture and would sound a chime or some noise maker. The human waking by the
device might even be greeted by a human voice saying something. I imagine the device could
use a small passive infrared object detector or an active pulsed infrared detector to
sense the human walking nearby. Ideally, the device would be battery powered and would
operate for a year or more on one set of batteries. |
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