Years ago I postulated something I called VROS – Virtual Reality Operating System. Instead of a mouse and keyboard, you’d think that you were standing in a field or on Mars or whatever “wallpaper” you chose, and icons would be floating around for you to physically grab and open. Documents and applications would be floating in 3D space all around you.
Sure, what we have now works much better, but VROS would be totally rad.
A car with a windshield that’s actually an augmented-reality display screen. So for example, when driving at night it would dim the oncoming cars’ headlights while brightening the dimly lit areas of the road.
If you want it even faster, fill it with ice, salt, and water. The temperature will still be the same, but the water will make better contact with the beer AND have a faster rate of conduction.
It only takes like four or five minutes to chill a beer to a good drinking temperature with this method.
Amen. I don’t know how many times I’ve been driving along and realized that I just missed the traffic report and want to rewind 30 seconds to hear what they just said.
I am reminded again this week, as I get over another head cold, of the need for a fast-acting nasal decongestant spray that doesn’t get your sinuses addicted. I would fly to Stockholm at my own expense to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony for its inventor.
I’d love something like this, even if it was something simeple as a customizable FlowBee helmet. Scheduling an appointment, having to sit for 30 minutes and shelling out $30 a pop could all be avoided. Sign me up.
My fantasy invention is a small box that you program with your height, weight, health issues, etc. It looks like a microwave and you add a plate of food to it and turn it on. It will then “read” the food inside and display all the calories, vitamins, carbs, salt, sugar…etc, in the food and redlight anything that goes beyond the alotted calorie intake for the day (if you’re trying to lose weight) or if the sugar amount is too high (if you’re a diabetic) and so on, with whatever you program it to monitor. Then if it’s too high a number, you can remove a small amount of food off the plate to reduce your calories to a safe level before eating. No more counting calories, weighing out portions and reading confusing labels in the store to eat healthy.
I think windshields are huge spaces of screen real estate that are wasted, and should display useful information, beyond the usual dashboard info: Sat-Nav directions and maps; weather; traffic; emergency messages, such as pull-over directions from approaching police or fire engines.
They can be placed around the edges, so they can be glanced at or seen peripherally without obscuring your view of the road.
I believe some cars do have something rudimentary like this, and there are lkikely problems with seeing projected text in bright sunlight, but with judicious application of tinted areas on the screen, and using TFT-type technology rather than projection, there ought to be ways to perfect it.