Recently in Good ideas Category

To build on my last post, imagine that the windshield in your car is like your computer desktop. Your desktop can display yahoo widgets or apple widgets to show you a calendar, clocks, rss feeds, etc.

Move this idea to your car windshield so you can see texts, maps, traffic updates, etc while you're driving. Of course, it would not obstruct your view but be displayed off to the side for brief glances.

It's a dangerous idea if implemented incorrectly, but I think it could be very helpful.

Now this may not be the best idea for those that are driving a car, but it would be less dangerous than what everyone is doing now.

Most Blackberry owners read and write emails while driving. Dangerous huh?

Imagine the heads up display in Pontiac and BMW cars repurposed as a text displaying bluetooth device. The Blackberry would connect via bluetooth and be used as an external display device for showing emails and text messages. This way, drivers can keep their eyes on the road and read messages at the same time. I know, not very safe, but it has to be safer than what people are doing now days.

I thought of this idea while I was looking up some directions with Google maps: Wouldn't it be great to display driving times depending on departure time?

For example, if you leave at 6PM on a Friday in Atlanta traffic, it usually takes x amount of time to drive this route. You could then adjust the departure time and you can see how that affects total drive time.

It's an interesting idea and would be great in cities with heavy traffic. Google, care to implement?

This seems like a no-brainer, but all too often I'll be driving down the street when it's been raining all day long and I'll see someone's sprinkler system just doing it's job, keeping the lawn wet, when it's already wet from the rain.

Shouldn't there be a way to detect when it's raining? The brains of the sprinkler system are usually in the garage or close to the house, perhaps an internet hookup so it can query weather.com or send simple commands to the internet like ubiquity does. Seems like we could save some water that way.

It would be nice if programmable thermostats knew when you were home and when you were not. For example, if you are not in your house overnight, the thermostat stays off saving energy. Just a feature they are missing today.

Also, here in Minnesota, many people have fireplaces. The fireplace will heat up a room, and if the thermostat is in that room, it will never turn on, leaving other parts of the house cold. There is a need for multiple sensors all over the house to sense if other parts are hot or cold.

To take it a step further, perhaps a system that can heat certain parts of the house that you are located in. If you spend all of your time in one or two rooms, then only heat or cool those parts.

Sounds like a complicated system, but it would be extra savings.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Ecobee Smart Thermostat Can Adjust Home Temps Online [Energy Conservation]