Hardware ideas
Here are a couple of ideas for computer hardware that I've had for years and don't have the technical know-how to actually design much less produce:
A monitor for the blind
You know those pinboards they sell at novelty stores, you put your hand underneath it and push up some of the pins so the top looks like a metal pinhead representation of your hand? Imagine a board like that 1024 pins wide, 768 pins high. Imagine tiny servos that move the pins up and down to represent a grayscale display. Now imagine a braille font. Suddenly, even the most graphics intensive application is accessible to the blind. Think about blind people using Photoshop. Next step? Pressure sensitivity in the servos that drive the pins, making the surface something like a touch screen.
An actual electronic book
Why does the public line up to ignore the electronic book revolution? Because they aren't books. No model that I've seen is anywhere near as accessible and intuitive as a book. Here's what I'd like to see: The unit folds in the middle and turns itself on and off when it's opened and closed. The interior sides are each taken up as close to the edges as possible by display screens on which the pages are displayed. The displays are passive, not backlit, so they require an outside lightsource but are at the same time easier on the eyes. In between the screens are bound a number of sheets of clear plastic. You turn a page in the document by turning a page in the book. When you've flipped through all the pages but there's still more content in the document, you turn the book upside down so all the clear plastic pages are on the right once more. The device detects its new orientation and displays the document right-side up relative to the viewer, and the pages are ready to flip forward again. The "home" orientation sets automatically when the device is held in a particular orientation for a certain period of time, to accommodate those who like to read lying down. When the device is turned off by closing it, then later re-opened to display the same document, it should remember its place. It should display as many formats as possible, from plain text to Acrobat. Documents should be loaded by inserting a memory card, or in more expensive models by Bluetooth integration or somesuch. Is that so hard? Next steps? A stylus for highlighting and notation. The notes and highlight marks would be stored in a separate file on the memory card.
A monitor for the blind
You know those pinboards they sell at novelty stores, you put your hand underneath it and push up some of the pins so the top looks like a metal pinhead representation of your hand? Imagine a board like that 1024 pins wide, 768 pins high. Imagine tiny servos that move the pins up and down to represent a grayscale display. Now imagine a braille font. Suddenly, even the most graphics intensive application is accessible to the blind. Think about blind people using Photoshop. Next step? Pressure sensitivity in the servos that drive the pins, making the surface something like a touch screen.
An actual electronic book
Why does the public line up to ignore the electronic book revolution? Because they aren't books. No model that I've seen is anywhere near as accessible and intuitive as a book. Here's what I'd like to see: The unit folds in the middle and turns itself on and off when it's opened and closed. The interior sides are each taken up as close to the edges as possible by display screens on which the pages are displayed. The displays are passive, not backlit, so they require an outside lightsource but are at the same time easier on the eyes. In between the screens are bound a number of sheets of clear plastic. You turn a page in the document by turning a page in the book. When you've flipped through all the pages but there's still more content in the document, you turn the book upside down so all the clear plastic pages are on the right once more. The device detects its new orientation and displays the document right-side up relative to the viewer, and the pages are ready to flip forward again. The "home" orientation sets automatically when the device is held in a particular orientation for a certain period of time, to accommodate those who like to read lying down. When the device is turned off by closing it, then later re-opened to display the same document, it should remember its place. It should display as many formats as possible, from plain text to Acrobat. Documents should be loaded by inserting a memory card, or in more expensive models by Bluetooth integration or somesuch. Is that so hard? Next steps? A stylus for highlighting and notation. The notes and highlight marks would be stored in a separate file on the memory card.