Inventions and Innovation

[cparker]

Over the past couple years, I've thought of some things that I would like to invent or put on the market. However, I do not have the resources to do any of this, so they will probably just remain ideas until I either become rich or someone else takes my ideas and turns them into a reality.

Disclaimer

I'm not wealthy enough to afford a lawyer, so this is a disclaimer in my own wording.

My publishing of these ideas on my LiveJournal does NOT offer consent to have anyone rip off my ideas and/or market, patent, copyright, trademark, or otherwise make it seem as though these ideas were their own, nor does it give permission to create a source of revenue based on my ideas. If anyone DOES intend to turn any of my ideas into a reality, they shall consult me first. One method of doing so would be to post a comment to this LiveJournal entry.

Now that that's over, on to my ideas. WARNING: Cheesy marketing lingo ahead. Just cuz.

• Combination Washer/Dryer -- Ever get tired of taking a load out of the wash just to put all of it into the dryer? What if you could throw a load of clothes in the wash, set all of the appropriate settings, hit a button and have it start washing, walk away, and then come back to a load of fluffy, warm, dry clothes? There'd be no need to have separate washer and dryer units with my Combination Washer/Dryer unit.
  
  



• Baby Popcorn -- There's popcorn of all different colors and flavors. It's all popped from regular, everyday corn kernels. I don't know about you, but to me, this can get kind of boring. Enter Baby Popcorn. You know the baby corns that come in vegetable medlies? They're miniature corn cobs, all soft and ready to eat. They have tiny corn kernels on them. Imagine eating a piece of popcorn the size of a pea, or even smaller. It's the popcorn of the new millenium!
  
  



• Solar-Powered Cell Phone -- I don't know about you, but my cell phone battery dies way too often. And if I'm not at home with my charger or in my car, I can't charge it back up. Why should you have to buy cell phone battery chargers for everywhere you go? So you can give the cell phone manufacturers and other third parties extra money? Is that how you want to spend your money? I have better things to spend on. Why not have little solar panels on cell phones that charge the batteries for us? You've surely seen these in action already on common, everyday calculators. Sit the calculator on a table, turn on a light, and you're in business. The same could be done with a cell phone! The solar-powered cell phone would operate thusly: The solar panels would act as the primary power source when in use. If no light source were available, then the cell phone would resort to battery power. When the cell phone weren't in use, then the solar panels would charge the battery. No more need to buy one, two, or even three extra cell phone batteries. They're expensive. Instead, get a solar-powered cell phone, and put those big businesses in their places.
  
  



• Official Console Emulators -- I loved playing games on the original video game consoles. Games like Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Genesis, Super Mario Brothers for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. However, after a while, my consoles broke down, the cartridges were damaged, and they're hard to find these days. Sure, there's an underground Emulation scene, where someone can download homebrew system emulators and their accompanying ROM images (the games), but this is illegal in many places across the globe. What is a person like me to do?
  
  What if Nintendo, Sega, and the rest of the pioneers of the gaming industry were to release official "Virtual Consoles" as a way to provide official, safe, secure, clean, and fun ways to enjoy these games all over again? These companies could still receive revenue for all of their original games. And best of all, people looking to play these games would no longer have to wade through the Hentai, Manga, Porn-infested Topsites and fake ROM download sites that infest the World Wide Web today. These sites are security risks, as they could include any sort of a file they'd like in their bundled downloads or online ActiveX scripting controls. Before Windows XP Service Pack 2, the mere idea of visiting one of these Web sites was frightening, with all of the browser highjacking scripts, popups, popunders, gimmick voting schemes, and forced pornography that crawls all over them. The people who run these sites are some of the most dishonest and immoral people on the Web, next to spammers, phishers, crackers, and virus writers. But, for someone like me, who simply wants to enjoy some vintage gaming (portable vintage gaming, at that!), there's no other option.
  
  Official emulators and accompanying ROMs (with possible protection, encryption, and licensing technologies implemented) would eliminate all of these worries, including the worries of legality. The music industry caught on by providing pay-per-song download services. Now it's time for the gaming industry.