Cellphone Anti-theft Button!

Hi Nokia/Samsung/Motorola

I thought of this tiny invention long time back and was reminded of the same just yesterday while looking at those bluetooth headsets.
It's about a bluetooth gadget - a tiny one that can be hoked onto button of a shirt or handbag or anything with a beeper which will beep whenever the mobile is out of a pre-defined radius, say 1meter, 5m or 15m depending upon kind of job person who is using it. This shall alert the user when his mobile is getting at a distance from her/him for any reason thus drastically reducing theft cases.
Idea is that mostly people loose their mobile out of inability to keep track of it all the time, especially in crowded places or during busy schedules and if something like our gadget can remind them on getting away from cellphone, it can immediately take them back to it.
The gadget can be either a part of the headset or a standalone gadget itself, latter being preferable as not all the time is one supposed to carry the headset and not everyone like to use one.
The same shall do demand getting used to carrying the button every morning or evening whenever one is moving out. Also, it shall demand bluetooth (or any other technology) to be active all the time.

Innovation with Automobiles, Cars: Fuel exhaust collector in-built

I thought of this idea of fuel exhaust collector when there was a lot of hue and cry in New Delhi to ban the Diesel Cars as they were found to be more polluting because of their exhaust content than their Petrol counterparts. Ideas presented may be weird but should not be impossible.

I think the problem of pollution by any automobile is a result of oversight at the time of ther initial development. If we compare an automobile with a human being (which is often done by auto fans and designers all the time), it is easy to spot that human beings exhaust (read excrete) only CO2 all the time in atmosphere and other stuff in confined and well regulated manners (read POTs). However automobiles manufacturers seems to have hardly explored this exhaust system in all its efficacy and therefore they allow the vehicles to defecate (read eminate exhaust fumes) all the time while they run. This was acceptable as long as atmosphere was pristine and there were a few vehicles on the road and their exhaust fumes hardly impacted atmosphere whichwas till the beginning of 20th century but not any more.

Therefore here's my suggestion. Do let me know your thoughts on the same. I promise to reply back.

We know that exhaust fumes of a car add to air pollution because of suspended particulates and gases being a part of it. Now, cars companies slog hard to work out the best fuel efficiency and reducing emissions and even designing hybrids which is a major innovation of the auto industry. But I wonder if they have ever thought about collecting a portion of these emissions in another filter/bin which can be a part of the automobile itself. What I mean is that once fuel has been made best use of, the particulate matter of the exhaust fumes can be again filtered and collected in a collector (I have seen mufflers of bikes collecting some of it and local mechanics burning the inner silencer time and again but I wonder if that collection is done purposefully and whether it is enough). These collectors can then be emptied at the time of servicing of these automobiles oror at smaller intervals at fuel stations which they anyway visit so often.

This waste collection has to be taken up by Municipal bodies and ways need to be thought of of maing best use of it and/orbes way of disposing it finally in a safer place to minimise its impact on human lives. If this can be done then a lot of harmful particulate matter can be saved from mixing in environment "red-hot" and we might have cleaner air to breathe.

Do tell me what do you think of it! CYA

Solar panels as window panes!

Alternate fuels such as solar power are needless to say the future of energy. It is just a matter of When and How the humans learn the best way to tap the natural forces and convert theminto energy with minimal damage to themselves and the environment.

Here's my 2 cents on harnessing the solar energy. The biggest advantage ofsolar energy is that it has one of the lowest maintenance cost. Storage of course seems to be expensive and means need to be found out for containing those costs.

However, if only governments would provide transparent window panes fitted with solar panels at subsidised cost and/or added discount on electricity bill for people purchasing them, we could end-up with lower domestic demand for fuel-based electricity and somewhat less ozone depletion.

To be continued...

Innovations with car

Diesel/other fuel exhaust collection bin in-built with car

We all know that exhaust fumes of a car add to air pollution because of particulates in form of harmful particles and gases being a part of it. Now, cars companies slog hard to work out the best fuel efficiency and reducing emissions and even designing hybrids which is a major innovation of the auto industry. But I wonder if they have ever thought about collecting a portion of these emissions in another filter/bin which can be a part of the automobile itself. What I mean is that once fuel has been made best use of, the particulate matter of the exhaust fumes can be again filtered to collect as much of it in a collector (I have seen mufflers of bikes collecting some of it and local mechanics burning the inner silencer time and again but I wonder if that colection is done purposefully). These collectors can then be emptied at the time of servicing of these automobiles. If this can be done then a lot of harmful particulate matter can be saved from mixing in environment "red-hot" and we might have cleaner air to breathe.

Electric assist for slow speeds !

We have seen Mahindra & Mahindra coming out with a micro hybrid which shuts down the engine when you release the accelerator and press brakes (usually while stopping at a red signal) and comes on when you press the clutch to get into gear again. A very good step indeed. This hybrid feature has been around for almost 4-5 years with Ford, Mercedes and some others but it's good to see Indian manufacturers catching up on the hybrid vehicles in whatever possible way. Tata plans to have the same with Nano and Indica soon. I am sure we shall soon (maybe another 5 years or so) be using full hybrids. Then there are hybrids like Toyota Prius where electricity  supports higher speeds and bring petrofuels consumption down. 

However, what I think is needed for Indian roads is a hybrid which can drive the cars till about a speed of aroud 20 kmph and here's why. In metros and next tier cities, during peak hours of 3 hours of mornings and evenings, people spend 50-60% of their time waiting at red-light or driving at speeds under 20 kmph @ 5-15 minutes every jam. So, if a hybrid vehicle can have an electric assist to push the car through this rut, imagine the polllution levels coming down and the savings on expensive fuel (Crude hitting $72 at the time of writing this).

What I also belive is that such a system can be devised for existing vehicles using a battery (can replace existing one in car, has to be different which can support frequent discharging), motor (can be put in the boot) and some engineering.

Remote to turn on the AC

Ever wished if the car could be switched on via blue-tooth or atleast the AC so that is is cool by the time you enter it?

Taxis with Reward Points

Aka Airines systems, taxi (or cab) operators too have today become system savvy with centralised database systems etc. So when you call up a taxi/cab service line a second time there is a god probability that they will welcome you with your name (not a surprise anymore now that we are used to pizza guys telling us by our name that they will not take our order because last time we ordered and were not at home at the time of delivery).  However, coming back to taxis/cabs, this automations and system savvyness gives them an opportunity to have lot of info w.r.t. their customers which can be used to provide better services, increased productivity (pls don't ask me how), better retention and lastly better profitability.

I am sure you will agree with me that what I am pointing at  is no rocket science. Today, lot of companies/industries like Airlines, Credit Card companies, Telcos record patterns of usage of its customers and try to offer customised services and reward points. All they need to do is to have a customised software which shall assign customer ID to users, record usage pattern of each customer, record their usage patterns, reading habbits, most travelled to routes etc and use this information to offer better service in future.

I hope to hear soon from my cab provider that "Sir, we shall be offering you a free sparkling wine with today's ride as you've covered 5000 km with us". Wouldn't you too?

Travelators can be a good idea

I stay 1.5 km from "Mall Lane" of Gurgaon but absence of any local conveyance like a local bus or an autorickshaw (barring cycle rickshaws) forces me to drive my car everytime I plan to visit it. And I am clueess as to why it almost always turns out to be a weekend. End result being an endless chagarin of being enqueued in the parking lanes and paying INR 30/- atleast twice because we often go to two malls and each not within striking close distance of each other.

I wonder what the cost of each mall is but what I can see is atleast 2 flights of automatic escalators on each floor of every mall. I wonder if the mall developers can add a similar version of the same called "travelator" outside their mall (and also across the road, under the ground), it might solve the problem of parking woes for commuters and also benefit the developers with better economic returns. I'll explain in short what a travelator is. A travelator is a horizontol escalator. A travelator is used worldwide to help peopl avoid walking on unavoidable short distances between two points such as airport and metro station, between two shopping malls or between two underground bus stations where creating a bus route may not be possible. Now, especially with Metro station installed in the mid of MGF and DT City Centre and to be operational by Jan '10, people coming to malls will have no option but to walk to other malls which shall reduce their willingness to visit more than 2 at a time. If these 'travelators' are installed, it shall facilitate them to visit more malls in a single visit resulting in higher footfalls for all the malls, increased chances of each prospect hitting a shop having his desired product as well as higher 'impulse' purchases- resulting into higher transaction per visit and an overall boost to the volumes. All this will ultimately result in reduced payback period for investors (shopkeepers as well as developers).

Therefore it needs to be worked out whether what shall be the cost of such 'travelators' and also whether it can be access controlled and users can be made to pay for the use (which most would pay). Also, if the 'travelators' can be extended to a distance on both sides of mall lanes till a point where ample parking space can be created, then it shall work as another facilitator for drive-in folks who often dread visiting this place because of reasons mentioned at the beginning.