Robo Judge for American Idol

This could be developed as a software program or a smart phone app.  You would be able to pick a song to sing along with karaoke style.  Then the app would record you voice, analyse your performance and let you know if you could compete in American Idol.  Of course this would mean the end of American Idol.

Direct Deposit Change Machine

Take your change and dump the whole thing into an ATM.  No needing to get big bills or wait for those change machines that take forever to count your coins, just dump it in and walk away.

Totally Wireless Computer

There exists in the world wireless keyboards, mice, internet, etc.  I moved a bunch of computers around today and though how cool it would be if you could get a wireless monitor.  Then you could move your monitor around all you wanted no problem.  They have developed wireless power exchanges for cell phones where you set your phone down on a "power pad" and it charges while you sleep.  You could do the same for your computer and make the whole package wireless.

Parking Light for Your Garage

Today's idea would help people fit two cars in a smaller two car garage.  You would have a series of lights up on your garage wall that would light up directional arrows as you pull into the garage.  This way you would always park your car in the same place every time.  That way your husband could park his car and wouldn't have to squeeze out his door when he gets home from work.

Doc and Drugs Together

With the insane number of times my family has been to the doctors this last few months I've come up with a few good ideas.  Here's one: keep the most commonly prescribed drugs in the doctor's office.  It would be a simple convenience, not a huge game changer but how many times a day does a family practice M.D. write out Amoxacilin?  Then you could just get your drugs at the front desk on your way out.

Cooler in Youir Car

This one comes to me from a dedicated reader.

I've seen little dash coolers for a couple of cans of pop.  I've seen a really cool "trunk" for a Honda Truck where the bed opens up and has this little compartment to hold anything you don't want exposed to the weather.  So marry the two and you get a cooler compartment in your trunk for your groceries.  This would be great for running errands because you could go to the grocery store first on a hot day and not worry about your fresh fish in the trunk when you realize you need to stop at Home Depot too.  The fridge compartment could be turned on and off so you wouldn't drain your battery.

Find the Nearest Public Restroom App

Once again smart phone apps provide a litany of good ideas, thanks to my readers who gave their ideas for good apps a couple of days ago.

This would be a popular app for tourist in busy cities like New York.  The app would be a map view of your location and then colored pins showing the nearest public restrooms.  It could have a user input where people who had used bathrooms at restaurants or shops could enter those locations for others.  You could also include a comment section with hints and reviews.  I can see the comments now, "Best bathroom in New York", "Only use in dire circumstances", "Great bathroom for kids".

Find the Best Kid's Meal Toys

This would be a web site kind of like Angie's list.  It would be a user driven sites with posts indicating the date, location and description of the toys that came in the kids meal ordered.  You could also have photos and tips like "make sure and ask for the Lego boat".

Fresh Morning Breath

Need to get up and go?  Well the morning breath patch is just for you.  This would be a patch that you put on the inside of your cheek that would slowly dissolve over an 7 hour period.  A protective film over the patch would determine the patch time, you could have 5 hr, 7 hr, 8 hr patches.  Under the protective film would be a breath freshening concoction that would slow release for 30-60 min leaving you with fresh breath as you wake up.

Adding Video Games to Redbox

Really simple good idea for the day.  Add some of the most popular video games to Redbox.  You could even charge $2.00 a day just because most video games are 3 or 4 times more expensive than a new movie.

FIx My Car App

Smart phone apps really allow for all kinds of creativity.  It seems like many people have great ideas for apps.  Here's one of mine, with a little help from my father-in-law.

The fix my car app would be great for people who don't know a whole lot about cars.  If you ever thought you were having car trouble you would access the app, turn it on, it would record the sound your car made idling or reved up or in gear.  The app would then access a database of sounds based off your car model and analyze the noise.  It would diagnose what was wrong and then suggest what type of mechanic, or DIY fix, would solve the problem.

If you were having other troubles that you couldn't record on a phone there would be a series of questions to help diagnose the issue.  So if your windows weren't going up and down you would start with a "windows and doors" heading and follow the questions the app asks you until you get to a suggested fix for your problem.

Question:

Do you have an app idea?  If so do you mind sharing your idea?

Silent Velcro

This one comes to us from a dedicated reader.

Silent Velcro

Velcro use to be for really little kids and old men's running shoes, really old men's "running" shoes.  Now a days velcro is cool.  It comes on all kinds of shoes for all different ages.  So why not develop a silent velcro, one you could adjust in the movie theater and not make a disturbance.  If anything silent velcro, in my opinion, would take cool velcro and make it super-cool.

I Watched Every Survivor Man Survivor Man

This idea would make a great reality television show.  You take a couch potato who's seen every episode of "Survivor Man" (check out the show at Discovery.com) and drop them in the middle of nowhere.  Then you follow him around for a week with a camera crew and see how well he learned from watching the show.

Season two we spice it up a little by adding out of work celebrities.  So the couch potato not only has to keep himself alive but also has to keep Charlie Sheen or David Hasselhoff from eating poisonous berries or drinking rancid water.

Washable Dress Shoes

I perhaps don't win the award for worlds sweatiest man but I am certainly above average on the Iowa Standard Sweat Index.  It's all good when I'm exercising, I'm dressed for the occasion and my shoes are expected to smell that way.  But my poor dress shoes.  They stink on the inside and they still look like they could last two years on the outside.  A solution would be to create a shoe that looks fantastic on the outside and can be thrown in the wash on a weekly basis.  In fact a shoe that could be washed in a washing machine once a week would take off not just in dress shoes but in everything.

Ultimate iPod for Loud Places

Sound waves can be minimized or amplified by adding waves of different wave lengths.  An example of destructive sound wave technology is in some luxury vehicles there is a microphone that records noise entering in the cab of the vehicle.  An on board computer processes the sound waves coming into the car and then tells the speakers to emit a sound in equal but opposite wavelength.  The two waves cancel each other out and the cab is quiet.  Take that same technology and apply it to the ipod.  You want to ride the subway and listen to your music without drawing blood from your ear drums.  Or you could mow the lawn and keep your volume at a minimum the ipod would offset the noise of the mower.

Keyboard Coffee Table

I once saw an awesome huge classic Nintendo control pad.  It had the big red buttons built right into a coffee table.  Since my family loves to watch Netflix, Hulu, etc. streaming we would benefit greatly from having a giant coffee table keyboard with track pad.  The top would be covered with a glass or Plexiglas top loaded on a small hydraulic safety hinge.  Then you could cover the 4 inch keys to prop your feet up on after you had selected a video to watch.

Finger Treadmill

This one is a smart phone app that Thing from the Adam's Family would love.  The app would look like a treadmill track running down the screen.  You would run your fingers across the track like little legs and then the app would calculate how quickly your fingers were "running", how far you "ran" and tell you how many calories you had burnt during the "exercise".

Kid Coat with Temperature Gauge

Here's another idea for keeping kids warm as they enjoy the winter weather.  A coat with temperature gauges in them.  The coat would have sensors in key locations to record the temperature of the limbs and torso and then display them on a reading on the chest.  That way a parent could look at the kid and see how they were holding up objectively.  You could also do this for gloves, boots and snow pants.  If you saw a temperature you didn't like you just take them inside.  Or if the kid were complaining too much you could just read their temperature and tell them to suck it up.

Flavored Striping at the Ice Rink

This one is way out there and mostly a joke but here we go anyway.  In the Olympics when I watch the speed skaters (especially short track) I always hate seeing an athlete go down.  I figure they've worked so hard all these years and now they have the only TV time they're ever going to get and then they crash and burn.  Well to buffer the sting a bit why not candy flavor the striping.  That way when someone goes down and everyone watches as they slide into the padding the spectators can say, "Well at least they get to taste the peppermint candy lines" and feel a little better about the whole thing.  I think it would also go a long way towards recruiting young new talent to the sport.

Sweater Delinter Ball

Every get those balls of lint on your favorite sweater?  The delinter ball would be a plastic ball with specially designed tear drop shaped holes in it that you would put in the dryer with your sweaters.  Then as the ball tumbled with the clothing it would gently rake the surface of the cloth catching those pesky little lint balls.  At the end of the cycle you would have the delinter ball with all the fuzz inside it.  Just empty by uncapping the screw top lid and your ready for your next batch of sweaters.

Landscaping Software

We moved into a home with a fantastic back yard.  The previous owner was a master gardener.  The first year I lost two trees, a handful of bushes and wasn't quite what to do with the daisies that didn't bloom.  Landscaping Software would have solved all my problems.  What you would do is get an aerial photo of your home lot from Google Earth and then use it to place all the plants you have in your back yard on the photo.  The program would then send you email reminders at different times of the year reminding you of work that needed to be done.  When it was time to trim your trees you would get an email reminding you to get it done in the next couple of weeks.  It could also make suggestions for empty space based off your climate zone.

Design Your Own Stress Pillow

The idea behind custom stress pillows is pretty straight forward.  You design a pillow to look like the person in your life who frustrates you the most, could by your English teacher, an arch nemesis, the neighbors dog, an incompetent co-worker, etc.  Then when you get angry to can punch, kick and throw your custom pillow across the room without the danger of legal repercussions.  You could order the deluxe model that would come with arms and legs that velcro onto the main pillow.  For extra effect you could rip some arms off before drop kicking someones face.

What I really wanted for Christmas: the Universal Key

I tend to be a little extreme when it comes to my keys.  I want as few things in my pocket as possible but at the same time want to adhere to the Scout Motto: Be prepared.  So what I want is a single key that will get me into my house, my office and my car.

Moble DDS

This would be a great benefit for your employees.  Once every six months an RV decked out with dental chairs parks in your company lot and everyone gets their teeth cleaned.  Anyone with cavities could schedule a time later that week in the dentist's office.

Joke Screener

Joke Screener would be a web site where you could test your jokes before you told them.  For anyone nervous about a sales pitch or a fancy dinner party could submit jokes they had been thinking about and jokescreener.com would rate each joke for how funny it was.  It would also screen for sensitivity like if the joke could be perceived as racist, sexist or down right dirty.  If the joke you submitted rated really low on the funny scale it would make suggestions of pre-screened jokes that had a lot of the same key words in it.

Question:
In what nerve racking situation have you actually thought of or memorized a joke well before hand?

Auto Accessories: Cool Bumper Ideas

Instead of a plain ol' bumper on you mud bogging jeep you could have a bumper that looked like a giant dinosaur bone.
For your Hummer a bumper that looked like a stack of bricks or a missile or make it look like chrome teeth growing out of the front of your SUV.
A pillow shaped bumper would look funny on a car but who knows the worlds full of crazy people.

Auto Accesories: Design Your Tint

This is a very simple idea.  You would use two different shades of tint on your car window to create subtle patterns and designs.  Then you could have flames on you fender and flames on your side windows.  Or the racing stripe that ends on you hood would travel over the top of the car and down your back window.