Idea-Mill.net

Coffee Tripod

I don't live in the Pottery Barn catalog, so not every comfortable chair in my home has an accompanying end table. Lately I've found myself carting around a small footstool that my young sons stand on to brush their teeth, and place it next to a rocking chair near the fireplace that I like to read in, for the sole purpose of having a place to set my coffee. This keeps it off the floor (and keeps me from kicking it over), but is still too low to reach comfortably. As a makeshift solution it's passable, but not ideal.

Idea: The Coffee Tripod
Picture a square platform about 4" x 4", maybe the same size as a coaster. But instead of a flat bottom it has three telescoping legs that fold down so that they're invisible under the platform when not in use (if you're looking down on it - the idea is for the stowed unit footprint to remain the same size), but that extend on an angle and lock for stability to create a platform about 24" high.

It might even be a coaster when it's not a tripod, so you keep it out in the open and don't have to hunt around for it when you're moving to a chair without an end table - maybe in your living room, but maybe also on your deck, in your yard, on the beach (OK, probably not for coffee there). And if it's small and light enough, it might be a suitable accessory for road warriors. Most seats at airport gates don't have end tables nearby, and how many times have you seen coffee perched precariously on a rolling carry-on, or an armrest a little too narrow?

This product is no blockbuster, I know. But I think there's an increasing probability of niche products turning profits because the rules of marketing and distribution have changed. Remarkable products get talked about (we see evidence online, but most of the talking takes place offline), and what makes a product remarkable is how perfectly suitable it is for a person, and other like-minded people. A product no longer needs to sell 500,000 units in its first year, at a net profit of $20/unit, just to break even on the $10 million TV ad spend to support the launch. Remarkable products find other ways of reaching customers, and can turn profits at much lower quantities as a result.

So if someone wants to take a flyer on this one let me know, and fast. I have to suck down the rest of this java because my son has to brush his teeth.

The Dust Drain

A few years ago when my sister's house was being built, she had the builders install a central vacuum unit, with a motor in the basement and hose attachments all over the house. Nothing special about those nowadays - they've been going into new construction for over 20 years now. But she also had them install a little pan on an inlet in the vac system in the kitchen that she could kick open and sweep dirt into. Nifty add-on to an existing system, and it caught my attention. I likened it to the filter in a pool, that catches all the debris as it circulates.

Only that's not what it does. But wouldn't it be a good idea if it did?

Here's the idea:
The Dust Drain is an inlet installed at the baseboard of a room. When the vac is turned on, this inlet works like all the others where the hose attaches, and draws air in. But like a swimming pool or whirlpool, the room also has air jets located along the baseboard which circulate the air in the same direction around the room. The jets push the air around in a circular motion; the inlet sucks all the circulating dust down into the vacuum bag. Flip a switch in the room and let it run for a few minutes and just like that you've purged the room of dust bunnies lurking under and behind furniture, and a lot of that other gross stuff in the air that we commonly call dust so we don't have to face the reality of what we're really breathing in all the time.

My idea is perfect for pet owners and would work best on hardwood floors. But I don't see why it couldn't be modified to more directly attack airborne dust. Instead of an inlet and jet system just along the kickplate, why not install another inlet and some fans near the ceiling (in discreet locations), and so circulate all the air in the room so all the toxins get sucked down the Dust Drain?

There's real first-mover advantage on this one - even the domain DustDrain.com is available. From me, anyway - I just bought it. Make me an offer on the domain and keep the business idea as a free gift with purchase.

Hydrating Smart Cup

I used to have a watch with a built-in altimeter (measuring altitude). Instead of a leather or rubber or nylon band with a clasp, it had an elastic band about an inch and a half wide, allowing me to slide it on over a winter coat and wear it on the outside. (Here's one on eBay without the elastic band.) I used to use it snowboarding, so I could see what the vertical drop was for various runs, and then optimize my day on the mountain through the highest possible vertical travel. The watch also had a nifty 'ski' function that, when activated, would monitor significant vertical gains and decreases, and automatically record the number of runs I made. This too would figure into my optimization calculations in my pursuit of statistically perfect recreation.

I hadn't thought of this watch in years, but remembered it a couple of weeks ago when I caught myself (again) nagging my fiancee to drink enough water. I'm of the camp that inadequate hydration is the largest health problem easily addressed. I think it contributes to everything from diminished fitness, to headaches, to elevated heartrate under moderate stress, to general malaise. I have only anecdotal evidence to back up my beliefs, but I don't bother with deep research in this case because what I'm advocating is not a step change in lifestyle, belief systems or even routine. I just think people should drink more water.

It's not unlike the Philosophy professor I had in college who addressed the issue of why he refused to disavow belief in God through simple logic. "You can't offer unequivocal proof that God exists, so it seems logical to dismiss his existence. But what if you're wrong?"

Indeed, hydration may have nothing to do with any of the symptoms I attribute to it. And downing another 4-5 glasses per day might have no affect on the quality of your life, or the lives of the people around you. But what if it does? I for one am not willing to take that risk, and maintain my solid faith that water = good; dehydration = ungood. And this faith is unslakable.

So here's the idea:
A Hydrating Smart Cup that automatically records how many glasses per day someone has drunk, through some sort of sensor/trigger that is tripped when the cup is full, and again when it is empty.  Place the cup on your desk or table and something on it will tell you how many glasses you've consumed that day. The trigger mechanism could either be electronic or (my preference) mechanical, and would have to allow for the fluctuations in water level that occur when people lift the cup to drink. True, the cup can't know if you spilled one or dumped it in the begonias. But you will, and you'll feel dirty and guilty for the rest of the day unless you down another cup off-the-clock to compensate.

There are a couple of solutions just now on the market that play in the same sandbox. One is this HydraCoach Intelligent Water Bottle. While it tracks water consumption throughout the day, it's designed primarily for use during exercise. The HydraCoach folks don't say as much, but it's a water bottle, not a cup. Bottles promote sipping, while most people drink. If I consumed all my daily water by sucking through a plastic nipple, my mouth would end up resembling a fish's. Commendable initiative, but too gadget-y and techy for me, even if I were a sipper and not a chugger. Plus the thing beeps at you to remind you to take a sip, as if your entire day were nothing but a series of wrong answers. That'd be enough to make me a water teetotaler.

The other solution I've found is altogether different, yet - to me - infinitely more elegant. It's the Google Water Tracker gadget, that you can install in your desktop or personal webpage. It's a small widget that simply asks if you're thirsty and allows you to check a box on the screen if you've consumed a cup of water. It's disadvantages are obvious - it only functions while you're in front of a computer. But it's heart is in the right place, and it promotes personal hydrating responsibility without reducing you to an automaton.

My idea, naturally, is superior. Or would be, if someone would take the initiative to implement it.

It might not even be a cup, incidentally. It might be an attachment that hangs inside of your favorite glass, with the trip sensor on the inside and the display on the outside. And it might be used not just to make sure you drink enough water, but also to help remind you when you've drunk too much of your vice beverage of choice, whether that's coffee or diet coke or lager.

12V powered auto sub-woofer

I spent a long time at Circuit City yesterday waiting for a car stereo to be installed in my fiancee's car. Part of the challenge was that the factory speakers were too small to deliver any low end, so I needed to add a subwoofer to round out the sound. I'm not talking about one of those dual-cone carpeted enclosure pimp-my-ride specials that needs to be powerered by twin 1200-watt amps. I got her a little enclosed tube by a company called Bazooka that has its own built-in amp and thumps out a gentle 50 watts.

But installation of my little thumper and the bigass Kicker is exactly the same. Both need the same wiring kit that connects them directly to the battery and a special subwoofer cable designed to handle low frequencies at high volume. The installation is designed to hold up for the big speaker, and is grossly over-engineered for the little one.

When we went around to the back of the car to see where they'd install it, I spied the 12V power outlet right next to where we were placing the speaker.

"Doesn't anyone make a power adapter kit that plugs right into the 12V outlet instead of having to run heavy cables the entire length of the car?" I asked.

"Nope. You can't get the power you need for big sub-woofers out of the 12V," the tech told me.

"But I don't need that kind of power. Couldn't this outlet power my little subwoofer?"

He wasn't sure, but thought that it probably could. Which still leaves the problem of running a speaker wire to the back, but that's a lot easier (and less costly) than the power kit.

My situation is not unique, I think. Many many cars have the combination of:

1. inadequate factory speakers
2. 12V outlet in the hatch/trunk/back
3. owners who appreciate audio but aren't quite able to be classified as 'enthusiasts,' meaning they will endure some expense and inconvenience to improve their experience, but not much

The Bazooka product that I bought is the only one aimed at this lower end of the market, but even this speaker overshoots many targets, I think. The goal is to find a balance between improved car audio quality and convenience/expense.

A powered 30-50 watt enclosed subwoofer tube (would have to be powered because cars with poor factory speakers usually have underpowered head units as well; but a little bass goes a long way towards improving the sound quality), able to be powered by the 12V outlet (saving the expense/intimidation/install time of the direct-to-battery kit overdesigned for 1200-watt systems), and requiring only a speaker connection were on the market for $100-$150 (including installation), I think it would be seen as a viable alternative to a full system upgrade AND create a whole new market of people not willing to pursue a full upgrade, but not fully satisfied with their current system.

And if auto makers were able to spot and support this trend, that would be advantageous to them. Just as many now include iPod compatibility (ranging from full integration where playlists can be viewed on the head unit and navigation is done through the steering wheel, down to a simple auxiliary jack the iPod plugs into) and Satellite-radio ready functionality, they could also offer 'Audio Upgrade Ready' packages, which would simply entail running a speaker wire to the back where the sub would go, and having a 12V adapter nearby as well, and then adding the product (whoever makes it) to their list of dealer-available upgrades.

Shopping List Generator

From any grocery store's standpoint, I'm a mediocre customer. When I go to the store, I usually have a list in-hand that I scribbled out just before leaving the house. Invariably, 80% of the list never changes, with the remaining 20% added for a particular meal we're aiming for based on a recipe my fiancee saw on the Food Network, or revolving around some of the gourmet frozen meats my father sends us every holiday season.

I'm poor at improvising in groceries so I don't deviate from my list, and also invariably forget something, leaving me to pick it up at the corner deli or even a 7-Eleven. So as far as Safeway is concerned, I'm leaving money on the table - money that they would be happy to have, and also that I would be happy to give them. Their prices are less and their convenience is greater, so if I can do all my shopping in one trip, I'm tickled. Find a way for me to add some variety to my meals or at least streamline the process and I'm locked in for life.

So here's the idea:
The Shopping List Generator

I'm thinking of it as a website but maybe it's a widget or a piece of software, but it has to be interactive and dynamic. On it are all the items I regularly buy, making it easy for me to generate my list every time I shop, or at least the 80% that are usually on it. Selecting or deselecting items is easy, so I can take eggs off my list if my inventory is good, or add extra bananas if I'm showing signs of potassium deficiency.

(Oh, and how does the list get populated in the first place? Maybe this is a way grocery stores can finally put to good use the data in their buyers' club programs. I swipe my Safeway card every trip - surely they could generate a list of my regular purchases pretty quickly.)

Then there's another tier of items I've bought previously, which maybe I'd like to add again. Maybe this will help me remember or recreate some of the recipes we've tried previously. So added to my convenience is some variety.

And then there's the collaborative filtering component, where suggestions are made to me based on what's on my list. Right now, every time I check out at Safeway the register spits out a couple of coupons for items related to my order. More often than not, they're on target and I'd like to buy them. But no way am I going back into the store and then waiting in line again. And no, I don't keep them for next time. I just don't, even though I'd like to. But if I got those targeted messages (based on the same shopping data) before I hit the store, I'm likely to at least add them to my list, and possibly to my basket.

We all know that the best possible scenario for a marketer is to reach a primed prospect with a perfect offer at precisely the right time, which is what I propose with the recommendations above. But what people often forget is that this is the best possible scenario for customers as well. I don't want to see a coupon for Progresso Pasta e Fagioli after I've checked out and forgotten to put it in my cart. That's like sending me a catalog full of striped socks (my favorites) with sale prices that expired yesterday. Save me money, save me time, enrich my life in small ways through variety and serendipity and I'll repay the favor with loyalty and greater wallet share.

But the idea doesn't end there. One of the reasons I have to hit the deli or 7-eleven is not just because I forgot to add something to my list, but I forgot to put it in my cart when I was in that section of the store, and I'm (convinced I'm) just too busy a man to back track. So wouldn't it be great if after my list of staples, past favorites and exciting new products is generated, I then select which store I'm going to (for example, Safeway on Old Georgetown Avenue in Bethesda) and the list is then organized for printing based on the layout of the store I'm going into?

I don't know how complicated this would be, but it seems to me that each store probably follows a similar layout for all their locations, or at the least a handful of layouts. And even if it is onerous, it's the kind of burden that someone should be shouldered by the retailers themselves as it's in their best interests all the way around.

So then add to this network interactivity, so my fiancee can also look over the list and add what she wants. And then modules, like the 'cocktails for 12' option which brings in hors d'ouvres suggestions for us to review and simply 'add-to-list' with a click. Or does the same for Thanksgiving Dinner or Impress your Boss or Camping Vacation (please select how many days you will be living in the woods).

The possibilities for simplifying my life are endless. I've already demonstrated that I'm incapable of simplifying my life myself, however. So I put this idea out there in the hopes that someone will act on it.

Single-Use Washcloths

At the risk of being a cliche, I'll admit that this idea came to me in the shower. Most of the gyms (my current one included) I've ever worked out in have those wall-mounted shower gel pumps in the shower stalls. But it's not really gel as much as a watery soap, less viscous even than shampoo. So to actually get clean you need to pump out one handful and apply. Again. And again. And again. I usually quit after one set of 12 reps. But I don't feel especially clean because I don't get a good lather and have no appreciable exfoliating. Either would be acceptable: visible lather would convince me psychologically that I'm clean; a good scrubbing would do the same empirically. But because there is neither, the shower is highly unsatisfying.

My dad used to carry handkerchiefs. Not pocket squares to add a splash of color to your suit jacket, but actual handkerchiefs to be used for blowing one's nose. The progressive world has now given us paper tissues. I'm told the diapers I wore as a baby were cloth. So were the dustrags I used as a boy to earn my allowance, and the napkins I set the family dinner table with.

You can make just about anything of paper nowadays, so why are there no paper single-use washcloths? I know there are baby-wipes repositioned as disposable washcloths, but that's not the same thing. When I'm showering at the gym, or in a hotel, I don't want to feel (and smell) like I have a medical condition. And the thought of using a washcloth that the last person who stayed in this room may have used is just icky to think about.

I'm talking about something that looks like a loofah (or maybe is a loofah, just a really small one that falls apart after one use), and gets me clean like a loofah. I want to feel the way I do when I get out of my shower at home, not like a leather car seat does after it's been detailed.

My guess is that making such a product is not the stumbling block. Adoption by a couple of key customer segments is the challenge. I've identified them as gyms and hotels, but maybe there are other applications. Why should these institutions adopt Single-Use Washcloths? Here are some thoughts:

• Service component: they create a more pleasurable experience
• Potential cost savings: may allow for reduced consumption of shower gel in gyms, and lower laundry expenses in hotels (though my guess is that the added cost of the product would offset any losses, and that this is the major obstacle towards manufacturing and adoption)
• Environmentally friendly: especially if they are recycled/recyclable, or even biodegradable (sometimes in marketing environmental green trumps even economic green).

So if anyone knows if these things exist already do let me know. At the very least, I'd buy a case or two myself to bring to throw in my gym bag or my dopp kit.

Airport Nail Salons

Last time we traveled together, my fiancee remarked that there should be nail salons in airports. Tons of reasons why:

- Travelers often have 10 minutes to kill
- They often want to look polished upon arrival
- A little pampering smooths out a bumpy trip
- Manicures cost about the same as a grande latte and a scone, and you can sleep afterwards

We brainstormed a bit and couldn't think of any reasons why they're not already there. The only thing we could conclude is that maybe the chemicals needed are tough to get a permit for in an airport. You know, because chemicals are liquids.

Anyway, after we talked about it I sent myself a text message to my email address (because this doesn't exist yet), which I dug out today to write up this entry. I started with a little research, and quickly concluded that this is the best idea of the lot so far:

Airport salon offers travelers fast manicure

So :10 Minute Manicure is in the Lexington, KY airport, and pondering plans to expand to Louisville, KY. There are a lot of airports left, and style points aren't awarded for originality.

Submitted by Bethesda Rookie.

Have an idea of your own? Submit it here.

Blog Matchmaking

What does 'social networking' mean, anyway? My definition is that it's any activity online that people pursue expressly in order to interact with each other. Blogging, posting photos on flickr or videos on YouTube, podcasting, and building personal websites are all part of it.

What's usually left out of the 'social networking' discussion however are the dating and matchmaking sites. Yet here more than anywhere people are getting together in order to get together.

So why not combine the two?

Here's what I'd like to see: a dating site that pulls in content from people's 'social media' activities online in order to round out profiles. Everything people post to their blogs, photo streams, video uploads, etc. can be tagged. I would like to see a dating site where peoples' profiles are complemented by what they've tagged to be included. Likewise, this tagging would allow people to determine not just who is commenting on some of the same issues (like they can through technorati and other engines) but which of these people is in the market.

Would-be daters would give up their anonymity in some ways - it's easier to track back a blog or personal site to an actual person than it is a personal profile on Match.com (whose very business and revenue model requires anonymity and the site as an intermediary). But they would also end up providing a lot more information about who they are, what they think, how they interact, and what's important to them than most are able to reveal through the 20-questions that drive dating profiles. Plus, what would be augmenting their profile would not be content designed expressly for an audience of prospective suitors. This might make profiles richer, more authentic, less postured.

Maybe the site plays to this concept directly. Instead of "Favorite movies" a profile question could be "Which photo on Flickr that you posted be represents how you feel about your family?" The whole profile could be comprised of content already created and distributed.

What's the revenue model then, if the site is no longer the intermediary? I guess it depends on who owns it. There is undoubtedly a way for Match.com to incorporate some of this functionality and still preserve their role. But I think the opportunity is greater for someone that has the social networking in place to add this functionality, which would then increase their opportunity to monetize their existing social networking business - through advertising, sponsorships, etc.

I'm not a big fan of most of the new sites that hope to make money through online advertising - it's growing, but not nearly as fast as would be necessary to support all the ventures purporting to rely on it. But I do think this dating feature would give the right personal publishing platform a point of differentiation, create higher switching costs for its users (which is vital), and some new appeal for advertisers. Trouble is, I don't own one of those, so I'm giving this idea to you.

Text-to-List

Now that it's the holiday season, I spend a lot of time thinking about holiday presents. But I often get an idea when I'm not trolling for one. For example, a couple of weeks ago I was at my father's house on a quiet weekend. I suggested to his girlfriend and my niece that we break out the Scrabble and have a game. Great idea, but there was no Scrabble. Normally a discovery like this would prompt a search for a replacement activity. In November, it suggested a gift opportunity. So I made a mental note to remember 'Scrabble' to add to my holiday shopping list, which incidentally is an Excel spreadsheet with a column devoted to each giftee, using annotations like bold and italics to show purchased/received or ordered status.

The following weekend I took a getaway with my fiancee to St. Michaels, Maryland, a precious little town on the Chesapeake. One morning we hit the local shops, a context that generated a handful of gift ideas for her. Most weren't  things in the stores I could buy on the spot, so I had to remember them. Absent a pen and paper, but not my mobile phone, I sent myself text messages to my email address listing the items.

Incidentally, on the same trip I sent myself text messages to my email address listing other 'ideas' for this very site.

Good ideas come very often from observing how people use and modify existing products. I remember reading a case study in school once about product development at Whirlpool. They saw that their customers were buying gallon jugs of milk and jamming them into the shelves on the doors of their refrigerators, often bending or breaking the little shelf guardrail. Other customers were buying 3 or 4 half-gallons of milk to line them up along the door shelf, when a full gallon wouldn't fit. Whirlpool designers promptly increased the depth of the shelves on the fridge doors to accommodate the fatter gallon milk jugs, and then began marketing this feature expressly.

I'd like to find a way for my text messages to go straight to lists that are actually actionable and manageable, instead of to an inbox that I then paste into Excel (itself not a list management tool without some modification on my part). So imagine a website or widget that is pre-designed to take in lists - holiday shopping, grocery shopping, to-do, whatever - all the things we keep in our brain and try to remember, ultimately stressing us out with their insistent overwhelm. When we're at our computers, modifying each list should be easy (why I think a widget would be better than a site - you could drop it right onto a personal homepage or if it's an O/S widget right onto your desktop or dashboard). They should be shareable with multiple people having the ability to modify them.

And there should also be alternate means of adding to each list - SMS certainly, but also dynamic or recurring events, such as regular searches of retail or shopping comparison sites that add 'Buy iPod - $50 off this week at Radio Shack' or 'Transfer money from checking to savings' every month to cover the recurring payments in your online bill pay, or 'New product that meets your criteria now available at eBay'.

Not that I need more excuses to buy things. Maybe seeing all in one place everything I think I ought to buy, right next to everything I ought to do, will result in me contributing more to the economy as a producer than a consumer.

'I park like an Asshole' bumper stickers

Self explanatory, especially when you see demonstrations of sheer, unmitigated thoughlessness like this:

Plenty more offenses at Flickr.

I don't know if this is a business opportunity or a marketing opportunity, but I do know that if I had a dozen of these stickers in my glove compartment I'd go through them in a week