Toothbrush With Built-in Toothpaste Squeezer

Here's a quickie: When my toothpaste tube is almost empty I always want to squeeze every bit out in order to save money, save resources, and because I'm just thrifty that way. Anyway, I usually want to do this when I'm about to brush my teeth, but at that moment I often don't have anything handy to squeeze the last bit out. I've tried using the handle of my toothbrush, but it's got rubber on it and doesn't slide well. Then I thought - why not make a toothbrush that has a built-in squeezer? My first thought regarding the design is to split the handle so that there's a slot the tube could slide into. Something like this (note: I'm having trouble getting my patented AsciiVision (TM) diagram to show properly):

+---------------------------------+
|                                 |
|   side     front                |
|   view     view                 |
|                                 |
|   +---     ++--+    \           |
|   +---     |ooo|    |           |
|   +---     |ooo|     > bristles |
|   +---     |ooo|    |           |
|   +---     |ooo|    /           |
|   |        ||  |                |
|   |        ||  |    \           |
|   |        ||  |    |           |
|   |        ||  |    |           |
|   |        ||  |     > handle   |
|   |        ||  |    |           |
|   |        ||  |    |           |
|   |        ++--+    /           |
|                                 |
|             ^                   |
|             |                   |
|       slot for sliding          |
|       tube into                 |
|                                 |
+---------------------------------+

In addition to the advantage of using all of the toothpaste, such a brush would be convenient (the feature is available when and where you need it), and it would use less plastic when manufacturing the handle.

P.S. Here's a FAQ on recycling toothpaste tubes, and a brief justification for using up all the paste.

Temporal Binoculars

Here's an idea that I had a while ago while standing at the top of one of the mountains on the Holyoke Range: Wouldn't it be incredibly cool if we could give students (and anyone, for that matter) a pair of binoculars that had both a focus knob and a time control? With the time control set to zero, looking through them would show you exactly what you'd see through a normal pair of binoculars: A zoomed-in or zoomed-out field of view (FOV) based on where they're pointed. However, by turning the time control you could simulate seeing the same area in the past or future. There are three primary areas of interest that the control would modify:

• geology - how the FOV is predicted to look
  
• flora - what kinds of tress, grasses, etc. might have been present
  
• fauna - animations of possible animals that one may have seen

For example, I'm told that my area was covered by a massive inland lake millions of years ago. I would like to be able to twist the time control and see the lake forming and draining.

So what's the value? Well, for one, as a pedagogical tool I think temporal binoculars would generate great excitement, and encourage discussion and discovery. Second, if there was a way to add current scientific predictions regarding the impacts of human enterprise on the environment (e.g., global warming), such a device might help us better appreciate what we have. For example, if you could switch between 'low impact' and 'high impact' settings, and see the difference they make on your own back yard 1000 years down the road, would we think differently about using our cars so much?

A few more feature ideas:

• Animation would be crucial - In addition to static (i.e., a single time) viewing, you'd certainly want to be able to have the time control move forward or back in order to more vividly see the changes. Is this the wrong form factor for it? Maybe not - it's like the current digital video cameras that can take both snapshots and movies...
  
• Logarithmic control - Given geologic time scales, a linear control would be useless. Maybe a control that accelerates time more if you twist harder. (This reminds me of that great 'powers of ten' applet a while back that started in close to the Earth then zoomed out 10x for each second. I couldn't find the one I was thinking of, but here's another one.)
  
• Programmable 'dentents' to show special events - Virtual notches in the time control that work like those game controllers that vibrate when driving over bumps. These might indicate particularly interesting times, say a volcano erupting, etc.
  
• Flora and fauna sliders - These would control amount of those shown, respectively. Handy if you want to focus only on geology?
  
• A 'conservativeness' slider - This would control how wild the scientific speculation is. A low setting minimizes controversial aspects of the three areas of simulation, while higher settings would add more speculation. This might encourage discussion about scientific method and what theories are. (A one dimensional control is probably wrong for this as there might be many competing theories. Maybe a button that toggles through them for the current FOV would work better.)
  
• 'Easter eggs' - These would be things like a striking physical feature, animal, or event that teachers could insert to generate excitement, or to use as a pedagogical treasure hunt activity.
  

Some brief thoughts on implementation: What would we need to do this? First, we have the following inputs:

• positioning and pointing information (seems straightforward - GPS and a compass)
  
• control settings - zoom and time (given)

We would feed these into a GIS-like geology database allowing lookup of the FOV, including a simulation of the geology at the specified time (tectonics, etc.). This would return a realistic 3D model that is mapped back onto the FOV. To it we can add texture for flora, and animations of fauna, depending on their respective controls. Easy! :-)


Related work: What is this similar to? Well, it's essentially a portable virtual reality system used to augment reality. I think the draw in this case would be that you're actually standing there with students, so you get the contextual impact of location. A Google search turned up two academic papers that seem to be on target: VIRTUAL REALITY: A New World for Geographic Exploration: and TOWARDS A VIRTUAL REALITY INTERFACE FOR LANDSCAPE VISUALIZATION:. I also found a CD-ROM (Evolving Plate Tectonics (CD-ROM):) and bunch of links for commercial tools that aid mining natural resources (e.g., oil and natural gas) via simulation.

What do you think?

How to Make The Ultimate Cup of Hot Chocolate

Starting tomorrow I'm going on vacation for about ten days, so I wanted to leave you with something light and fun (I don't have time to finish up my current 'serious' post). So here's my recipe (passed along from my neighbor) for making the ultimate cup of hot chocolate at home. It's easy, and you will never again want to drink anything made only with cocoa powder (even good cocoa powder).

Ingredients

• 8 ounces of good milk (preferably organic, and from a local farm)
  
• ~4 tablespoons of fine chocolate (details in the Notes below)
  
• ~1/2 tablespoon good quality sweetened cocoa powder (I like Scharffen Berger's)
  

Steps

1. Pour the milk into a small sauce pan.
   
2. Use a knife to break off small pieces of chocolate from the block, and measure out approximately 4 tablespoons (careful not to cut yourself!)
   
3. Put the chocolate pieces into the milk.
   
4. Add the cocoa powder to the milk.
   
5. Heat on medium-high, whisking frequently until the milk is just about to boil.
   
6. Pour into a cup and enjoy!
   

That's it! (NB: You may need to exercise more to make up for your increase in calories.)

Notes

• Regarding the chocolate, you really need to buy couverture chocolate (professional grade chocolate) with a minimum of 31% cocoa. I prefer so-called 'dark' or 'bitter' chocolate with percentages more like 60% or 70%. I've had great results using (in increasing cost): Callebaut from Belgium, El Ray from Venezuela, Valhrona from France, and Scharffen Berger from America. They're available at fine food stores (I found them at our local Whole Foods store). I've found that each chocolate has its own flavor. For example, to me the El Ray has a wonderful fruity flavor (I'm serious - try it!).
  
• I add the cocoa powder (a tip from the great folks at our local Burdick cafe) to make it a bit richer (as if it needs it) and creamier.
  
• I find that when using the Valhrona chocolate I prefer to let the milk just begin to boil (i.e., let it get hotter than with other brands). This allows it to thicken up and get richer, something that I believe it needs.
  
• I used to shave the chocolate, but that was too much work, and unnecessary! Just break off chunks to get the right amount.
  
• I've found that my results vary quite a bit depending on the chocolate, the milk, and the stove's heating characteristics. I've learned the hard way that I get the best results at home with known ingredients (I've been disappointed making it for family and friends at their houses, so I've stopped.)
  

Camera Phones and Ten Cent Augmented Reality

I just finished reading Why Not, which, at the beginning, suggests asking yourself: What really bugs you? to generate problems that need solving. The first thing that came to me was this: Often I'm in our neighborhood video store browsing videos (of all things), and I'll come across a title that seems good but whose quality I'm nervous about. (I don't watch much TV, so they're all pretty new to me.) I have a few rules that help me decide ("Don't rent anything that Larry King likes" comes to mind), but what I really want are review summaries from trusted sources. Naturally I want them quickly and easily, as there are many videos to look at.

So here's the problem: How can we quickly and easily deliver customized reviews to a patron at the video store?

One solution is to simply look up the movie in one of the review books placed around the store. However: a) I'm lazy and I don't want to do the work, and b) the books don't show the latest movies. So (as all of us technical folks would think) why not use those ubiquitous cell phones everyone has to look it up on the internet? Ignore for a minute how we'd input the title, you can imagine a service that returns something like Yahoo's Critical Consensus portion of reviews (here, for example).

Now the question becomes: how do we specify the movie to the server? Remember that it has to be quick (e.g., round-trip time for reviews should be less than ~5 seconds) and easy. The first is a technical issue that I assume can be solved, but the second is where the fun thinking comes in. Here's what I came up with:

1. Speak the title into the phone.
   
2. Type in the barcode numbers with the keypad.
   
3. Use the camera to take a picture of the box or of the barcode.
   

Solution 1) involves speaker-independent continuous speech recognition which is still relatively unsolved. It's possible for limited vocabularies, and movie titles are very constrained - we'll assume your server knows all the titles, so this one may be possible. Plus, talking to a computer and getting a data response has a HAL 9000 feel to it! A possibility.

Solution 2) This one is technically easy (all the recognition is done by the person, but typing in a dozen digits is way too tedious, slow, and error-prone. Not a possibility.

Solution 3) This one is the coolest, because a) it gives all those people with camera phones something useful to do with them (other than emailing them, of course), and b) it gets us into the main point of this post - using camera phones for a cheap form of augmented reality. Whether you take a picture of the box itself or the barcode doesn't matter much - it's another technical issue, I think. (More on barcodes below, though.) It turns out there are efforts afoot to put barcode recognition software into cellphones (read more here), so the rest should be straightforward. A possibility.

So I have a natural question: Why haven't we seen this yet in stores? It's really cool, and at this point a no-brainer! Anyone want to work on it?

However, there's a bigger idea here: Until we have the cool digital specs, tiny fast computers, and very high speed image recognition, this 'take a picture of a barcode' idea might be a useful transition technology. Think of the things that have bar codes on them - books, wines, etc. The same technology could augment these by providing reviews, safety information, comparison products, pricing, etc. Kinda neat. However, I'd like to take it beyond things that have barcodes. For example, I'd like to get dynamic information on things like restaurants ("try the wild mushrooms on toast"), parks ("free boat rides on Thursdays"), and businesses ("there's a better realtor down the street"). All you (or a business) would have to do is print your own barcodes (or Semacodes), and then register them somewhere. There are possible problems of course (e.g., spam), but we should be able to translate solutions from other 'lots of users commenting on things' applications.

Thoughts?

Google Satellite Maps - Easter Eggs Gallery!

By now everyone on the planet knows about Google's Satellite Maps feature, which is extremely cool. I would love to see a blog devoted to shared satellite images of particular interest, i.e., those that:

• show some particularly beautiful visual feature
  
• capture some surprising thing (ship, house, animal, etc.)
  
• capture an unexpected event
  

A few examples:

The Kennedy Space Center's Space Shuttle complex (where I used to work!) - You can see the long landing strip to the left (you only get one chance to land, so you want lots of room), the assebly area in the center (looks a bit like Africa), and the two launch pads on the right by the beach. Cool!

Hawaii's Big Island - Note the vocanic look.

Some ships steaming under the Golden Gate Bridge.

I would love to see a site dedicated to this. Cool features would include a gallery thumbnail images, tagging (ala del.icio.us or flickr, and ratings that allow voting for the best ones (favorites, etc.)

Any idea if (or where) this has been done?