Autonomous Smart Faucets

So, i want to make a device that will turn on and off the bathroom sink for me…

Basically I’m too lazy to turn off the sink while i’m brushing my teeth. So,
I want to connect a RP to a Kinect/leapmotion to a couple motors that can move the knobs.

Then it would be cool to train it… Like to know i want cold water when i’m brushing my teeth i want hot water when washing my hands i want cold water when i’m filling by water bottle when to turn off the faucet etc.  Might be able to integrate HiTAB somehow so that the end user can develop new behaviors like hot and cold…  Essentially come up with different applications that I haven’t thought of yet.  It could also estimate water usage and sync with your phone to let you know that your children have brushed their teeth etc.

This would save soo much water too.  Therefore, it would be cost effective…  Really I could sell this and if you have a somewhat large family then you would see the savings…

Price Surging and Bounty Hunting

So, it seems like uber might have a bounty type pricing model.  They have this system of price surging.  This we also found doesn’t work for adjusting the bounty.  I thought that maybe it would provide a method to get agents to go after the right tasks, it doesn’t.  However, it does give me hope that maybe my bounty stuff will be useful in something like taxis.

I found this article here.

Builder Broker DIFM

So, one of my old ideas of the automating the contracting of building buildings is starting to seem more of like a good idea.  I just read an article on TechCrunch about the Do It For Me (DIFM) company is actually something that is a viable startup idea.  However, I believe that with the DIFM model my builder broker idea should work.  The current software solutions require a lot of manual work and data entry.  There are many many small business building contractors.  I think I need to think about this idea more…  I will write soon.

A similar tool is Angies List they provide detailed reviews of handymen and other services and provide a “storefront” for them.  However, they only provide a list.

https://www.thumbtack.com/ is very similar to my idea, however they were smart and generalized and made it for anything you want done.  Basically you can get quotes from general contractors if you want a large job done.  Or you can hire a dj or a photographer etc.

What my idea I think was proposing is the elimination of the need for the general contractor.  That they would be replaced by my system.  However, I believe that they would be useful in other respects.  I wanted something that could scale to large scale contracts.  That is also something that I don’t think that thumbtack or angies list could offer.  However, I’m not sure I could either.  Most of the information is social.  You need contacts, you need to know what sort of permits are required.  A vision for the overall plan is required.

 

There are sites that monitor the permit offices that people submit building permits to so that builders can find jobs!!!  www.constructionmonitor.com  The system that I would build would eliminate the need for such monitoring.  We would come to you.

Botball 2015

A bunch of us from GMU were Botball mentors for middle schools in the DC area.  I helped out at Fred Lynn middle school with Kevin, David, Joseph and Anna.  Our school was big enough that we had two teams that entered the competition.  Thanks to David who interpreted the results pdf, last Saturday’s Botball tournament we got overall 22nd/27 teams.  However, that score is determined by documentation and presentation as well as the actual tournament itself.  So, if we only consider the tournament our two teams tied for 8th out of 27 teams!  So, they did great :).  Can’t wait for next year’s tournament!