Darwin, Evolution and other Species.

We have all, more or less, read the evolution theory. And how the Survival of the Fittest helps evolve a particular species over generations.

What I would like to know is how come humans evolved at such a rapid pace than any other species. The counter argument might be how do we know that all species started at the same 'level' before evolving over years and years.

Well, I base my question purely based on a non-religious origin of mankind. I base it on the big bang theory and the fact that all species essentially originated from algae.

So my question is why are humans like a 10 on an evolution scale of 1-10, and other species are no where close to maybe even a 3 or 4 out of 10.

Contact Search on mobile phones.

Maybe its just the makes and model of mobile phones I have used, but 'contact search' has really be awful on the iPhone, Blackberry, Palm phones that I have used in the last 8 odd years of smartphones.

A contact these days is more than just a name and a phone number or an email. It has an address, notes, organization name, notes and much more...

Why cant I search a contact by just how I remember a contact. e.g. I sometimes remember people by their organization or by where they live, and I know I have stored that info in my contacts. If mobile phones (e.g. iPhone) can index all your emails and let you search that, why not index everything in a contact and search by anything or everything.

e.g. I wanted to find out a contact, and I knew the phone number started with area code (916). Why cant I just start typing 916... in my contact search, and it starts shortlisting people.

Again, simple, but still missing.

Adjustable toilet seat (height from the floor).

We as humans have customized car seats but one-size-fits-all toilet seats; even though we have been pooping way longer than we have been driving cars.

Its sometimes too low for tall people and too high for short people. Unless you are the average height human, its not as comfortable to attend nature's second most frequent call as it should be.

And I think, the solution is very simple. What I would really like to have have 2-3 toilet seat lids. If a tall person needs to adjust the height and make it (the seat) higher than the floor, they can put all the 3 lids down on the seat and make it higher. On the other hand a short person can put down just 1 lid on the seat to keep it lower. These lids can be of varying thickness too.

That would really allow the seat height to be customize-able without much investment. Also in a house, where people are very nit picky about cleanliness, you can have different lids for different people.

You KNOW its Friday, when I come up with totally weird ideas... :D

non inflatable soccer/basket balls

So if we can have non inflatable tennis balls that get hit at 100mph, why cant we have non-inflatable soccer balls and basketballs? Every now and then we are running out of air on those bad boys. I am sure there is material out there that can replicate the same 'bounce' needed in a basketball without 'filling' it with air.

App to search within photos.

Text recognition has been there for ever since OCR (Optical character recognition) has been around. Google search even integrated this in their search Algo a while ago.

But how come no one has come up with an App (for phones and PCs) to be able to install and just search your personal pics. This App can be configured to point to your photos folder where it 'indexes' this pictures and optically recognizes text in them. It might take a while to index all the pics, but it will be only one-time deal for all existing pics.

I even want to take it a step further and say - why just recognize text in pictures, why not recognize objects like, flower, roads, sea, trees etc.... So next time I have to look for a pic, I do not have to go through the pics or go through my haphazardly organized folders to look for a pic.

All I do is search for 'Ruchi+ucd graduation+stage+black dress' or 'ocean+tree+rocks' and it shows me the list of pics to sort through.

Adjustable Brake and Acceleration Pedals.

We just came back from a nice weekend in Lassen Volcanic National Forest. And I drove the ugliest rental car in the history of rental cars - Chevy HHR. Its not only ugly from the outside, its uncomfortable for anyone and everyone from inside too.

Anyhoo.... The biggest problem I had was, as you can guess already, the pedals. The brake pedal was so awkwardly placed that I could not keep my heel on the (car) floor and my toes on the pedal at the same time. And as we were driving hills most of the time, my foot was awkwardly hanging all the time. If I were in flip-flops, it was even worse.

So, my question is: Why do we have adjustable car seats, adjustable steering wheels, adjustable rear-view mirrors even adjustable hand/arm-rests - but not adjustable car pedals? I would really love to adjust that brake pedal an inch towards my foot on the ugly Chevy HHR.

And, HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUCHI... :)

What does the next decade hold for technology?

1990s were mostly about the .com boom and then at the turn of the century we saw the bubble bust. 2000s brought us social networking, smart-phones and PDAs. Now that we at the boom of Social networking and smart-phones, tablets, etc., I cant control but wonder what will be the next big thing 10 years from now.

I personally feel - it will be highly personalize-able products with a human factor/human touch.

Hear me out. I feel bio-tech is the next big thing. 10 years from now.

We all will be so over-whelmed by 'social news' from all these social networking site, we will feel shallow inside - which will arise the need of personalized items - like mood boosters, one hour makeover devices etc. These bio-technological devices will read your body temperature, body vitals, estrogen/testosterone levels, adrenalin levels, blood sugar level etc - to find and suggest ways to either boost your mood or to calm you down.

Another high use of this could be for not-so-severe case of sleep apnea patients. 1-2 hours before going to bed, there will be a device which will suggest you steps to take for a better night sleep, etc.

In summary, technology will move away from social networking to personalized items; and bio-tech will have a huge role to play in it.

Only time will tell. Countdown begins...

Body Adaptable Thermostat

Every time I wake up, I am either sweating or very cold.

This is because we fool ourselves by believing that we know what our room temperature should be that will keep us comfortable through the night. I feel that sleeping body temperature requirements are way different than when you are up.

So, rather than having a thermostat to control/maintain the room temp, here is what I would like. A (tiny) device that I attach to my body that constantly monitors my surface body temp and changes the thermostat settings (wirelessly) accordingly. If my body temperature is falling, it will increase the room temperature a bit, and if my body temp is rising, it will lower the room temperature.

If there are two people in the room, it should average it out and so on... I think it will be very simple to implement.

Quick connect phone to computer

How many times have I wished I had this feature in all of my previous smart phones? A gazillion times in the last 7 odd years I've had smart phones. I thought some phone maker will come up with this, but nothing.

So many times, I am in front of the computer and I get a call on my cell phone. At that moment, I just wish I can 'move the call to my PC'. The connectivity is there. The USB cable for my iPhone can connect and send the audio out/in directly to the PC. Heck, forget USB - both my PC and iphone are wifi capable, and are bluetooth capable.

On the same lines - if I have to use any apps on my phone, why cannot I just get an interface (itunes feature???) where I can see and click/touch the phone screen from my PC. How difficult is that? e.g. Finding Happy hours in Sacramento using the 'Happy Hours' iPhone app. :)

Still nothing much I can do to control apps from my phone.

Or send text from a full PC keyboard than the tiny QWERTY phone keyboard (without using a third party app like google voice that buffers and potentially reads my SMS).

In a nutshell, I feel there is definitely a need of a 'Quick Connect' feature in all smartphones that lets you control anything and everything that you can control from the phone itself.

User based Email Alerts

This is so simple and yet most smart phones do not have it. I would REALLY love to have user based email alerts. e.g. if Ruchi sends me an email I want my phone to play a sound, but if someone from my office sends me an email, I do not care - it can wait.

So simple, yet I am still waiting for it.

Knork or a Fonife?

If someone came up with a Spork and it is more or less a huge success; Why not a knife-Fork combo. There are so many time people who are just using a Fork to eat - cut their food with the side of the Fork and it is such a pain to cut with the side of a Fork. Why cant we have the side of the Fork like a blunt knife? Or at least one side of the Fork?

I would definitely use a Knork.

Advertisements on road intersections.

I know this sounds scary and dangerous for drivers, but hear me out. Everytime you are stuck on a red light, the 'square' right where two roads intersect at a 90 degree angle is where I want to place Ads. The Ad will only be visible to you if ALL signals that you can see are RED (left turn, right turn, and the one for going straight). The traffic that has green light will not be able to see it.

How you implement it: Projections: Just project the image of an Ad onto the 'square' and with some 3D magic make it visible to only one (or two) directions where cars are at a stand still because of the red light.

Groomsmen/Bridesmaid Rentals

I recently got invited to be a Groomsman for a friend's wedding. I feel it will be a really cool idea to have a rental place for Groomsmen and Bridesmaids clothing for the wedding, reception, and any other group activity like bachelor's party. One stop shop for every one close to the Groom and Bride. And once it gains popularity, it can expand from clothing to other key rentals.