thoughts

Leaf by Niggle

Wow.  That is a good short story.  Really makes you think.  In twenty pages Tolkien is able to cram soo much meaning.  Definitely worth re-reading.  It is amazing that Tolkien was able to move from publishing such massive work as the hobbit to publishing such a small work as Leaf by Niggle.  I think it shows his mastery as a writer.

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…

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.

Automatic Auction Design

Ahh patents…  I found a patent from 2001 that basically describes one of my ideas about automating the creation of auctions.  They call it automated decision support for auctions.  Why would you patent this?!  Research sure, but a patent?

Speed up stevedoring

According to Container Tech a 40ft standard shipping container can have a max gross (container + contents) weight of 67,200 lb (or 30481.407 kg or 33.6 tons or an Adult North Pacific Right Whale).  So, what is the quickest, easiest, safest and most energy efficient way to move such containers?  According to current tech in the container moving industry it seems to be cranes.  Big companies like http://www.kalmarglobal.com/ have been spending a lot of money automating and creating cranes.  Is that really the best solution?

With current crane tech a human on average can unload 30 containers per hour or one every two minutes.  Would massive conveyor belts work?  Probably not.  How about EM crane.  Most likely we don’t want any magnets or electro magnets anywhere neat the cargo.

So, what then?

The fastest way would be to augment the ship and the port.  The ship would be modular, allowing the cargo to be disconnected from the rest of the ship.  Essentially becoming either one or multiple massive barges.  Previously loaded “barges” would then be able to take their places and the ship would be able to proceed to its next destination.  With this style of port you would be able to leave the massive ships out further at sea and then push/pull the barges using tugboats.  Actually, the port could be adhoc, since the barges could lock together.  This would seem to be very efficient…  Main problem is designing a ship to be able to do such a thing in the ocean seems like a massive engineering problem.  Then the next big problem is getting ports and shipping companies to convert to such a system.  Buy/building a ship is an enormous cost.  Actually the boat wouldn’t be that difficult I don’t think to build.  The back end would house the engine, quarters, etc.  The front would be built of connected (possibly stacked) barges.  The main issue would be to not tip over when all of the barges have disconnected…  But I think that as long as the remaining part of the ship is big enough everything should work.  Then it is also relatively easy to attach the new cargo.  So, I think the main issue then is really the fact that it is a totally different way to do shipping, so that would mean a lot of expenses.  The cool part is the size of the ship can now be as big as you want since you don’t have to worry about ports.  The main thing is you have be small enough to get through the Suez Canal.  KalmarGlobal actually states in their vision of next gen ships that they will do this sort of thing…  So, why aren’t we seeing small scale versions of this already?  Money.

http://qz.com/477421/in-the-future-huge-ships-will-be-wind-powered-like-sailboats/ — (edit august 16 2015) qz did an article on the future of huge ships.  they predict that they will be like sail boats.

*stevedoring – to load or unload the cargo of (a ship).

Power grid for shipping containers

Shocks in shipping containers that would charge batteries that would allow for gps tracking of all of the containers.  Also, when stacked they could essentially distribute the electricity.  Harvesting the energy from the force of tons of pressure would be interesting.  Also, they could be very safe batteries!! You could use Lightsail storage.  Then it would be also be eco-friendly as well.  This would be pretty cool.

The gps would then allow for more effiecient logistics which would make the cost of new containers non-existent.  At first not every container would even need to have the system installed.

Main concern is the weight of the lightsail system may be prohibitive…  Also, if you want GPS units that always are on and not intermitant when ever you have the juice, we might need a better storage system…

Scratch that, right on their website the system claims to be able to be placed in a shipping container form.  This makes me think that if you buy a few of these to generate the electricity for the rest of the system and then use relays to distribute the electricity when stacked then it would be perfect.  Then each container would only require a simple battery that has properties that would make it work in such a system for a very long time with being able to charge and discharge at will.  The great part is that the compression of the air will be done by moving the containers.

Decision Theory Paradoxes

I’ve been researching decision theory paradoxes because in my Bounty’s task allocation system I am considering the benefits of giving the bondsman the decision to allocate particular tasks through an auction (ie exclusive) or through its normal bounty (non-exclusive) method.  This brings with it a potentially multi-criteria decision which has me interested about the theoretical ramifications of such a decision.

In my search I have encountered quite a few paradoxes in decision theory, utility theory, and social choice (ie voting).  However, other than the wikipedia listing I haven’t found an authoritative reference (a book) on the subject!  I find this quite strange.  I know probably there are very few people that like this sort of thing, but I believe that knowing about them and that they exist might be of use to multiagent systems researchers who use such theories as the basis for their work.  So, if I can’t find a book or a survey paper on the subject I might write a paper on them.  That would be fun.  I would relate them all to problems in MAS and AI or computer science.  So, it would be Paradoxes that are relevant to an AI researcher.

Computational Sciences and Informatics

Another PhD in Computational Sciences and Informatics.  I wonder if I could pick one of these up then after I get my PhD in CS and have a job.  They have a quantum information science area and I have always been interested in being able to program and think about problems with quantum computers.  Especially with application to AI.

Might want to work here: http://www.nas.nasa.gov/quantum/index.html (NASA’s QuAIL Quantum AI Lab!).

Travel and Architecture

  1. There should be an app that will tell you your personal expected travel time at any user given day and time not just the current conditions and average driving time given speed limits etc.  It could be based off of your past history of driving.  So, basically it would need to be a phone app that could record things like acceleration and time to arrival vs the expected average time of arrival.  History of traffic from google (those yellow, green, red lines), speed limits, weather history and weather predictions.  All of this can easily directly affect the travel times of people.  This could be used when you are in a new city that you haven’t driven in before.  They might be able to recommend easier routes.  I have found that TomTom has a terrible web app that claims to do some of what I outlined above, but their user interface is the worst.  Also, Google shows the typical traffic at a particular day and time, but doesn’t give you the option to get directions based off of that information.
  2. Now a variation of this idea I think is probably on my blog already but I again experienced the need for it.  Builders create blueprints which they take to their clients for review.  This is a long and iterative process due to miscommunication between the client and the builder.  Automating this process and obtaining the specs from a client to create a structure seems similar in principle to that of building a piece of software.  Which we are taught, as computer scientist, is a difficult venture that requires a lot of time talking with the client to obtain the specs and their ideas.  Unlike with software I think a lot of the issues with architecture version of the problem could be automated and prototyped in front of the client.  Leading to a faster return time and thus greater revenue from happy customers.  I found this journal, Automation in Construction, it looks like they have been exploring this problem (http://www.journals.elsevier.com/automation-in-construction/).

I’d like to see both of these applications created.  I might in the future discuss in more detail how I would go about implementing them.