LazyPower

Originally, this idea was for an infrared-based remote controlled power socket that you could plug into an electric socket and plug any electric appliance into it, giving you remote control over the power to that appliance. This idea came to me when I was in bed, too lazy to get up and turn off the fan which was plugged into the wall socket a few meters away. I wished I had a remote control for the damned thing… Since I thought of LazyPower just about 10 years ago, and technology has leapt forward, I think it would be prudent to update this idea to incorporate both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technologies. B-LazyPower would be an electric power socket with BlueTooth that would be connected between any electric appliance and the wall socket and be controlled by your smartphone, when within range. Wi-LazyPower, on the other hand, would incorporate Wi-Fi technology and enable control of the socket from your home network (or anywhere else via this network). Each has its pros and its cons and each provides different development opportunities and user comforts. I would incorporate some software with each, for example an iPhone app for controlling all the detected B-LazyPower units and a program (Win/Mac) for controlling or setting up timer de/activation of all the detected Wi-LazyPower units from your PC.

In addition to the plug-and-play variety, which could convert your fan, radiator, fridge, or even toaster into a smarter and more accessible appliance, LazyPower could also be incorporated into permanent wall fixtures (light switches, RJ-11/45), providing a more affordable solution to some of the comforts offered by conventional smarthomes. Marketability of LazyPower is almost endless, including providing accessibility to people with disabilities, controlling and enforcing power-out periods at either work or home, and efficient power-saving by not forgetting appliances turned on all night. Once again, I think that LazyPower could be produced fairly easily for it too relies on already existing technologies – it just blends them together for new purposes. For this reason, LazyPower be marketed at very competitive rates and I know I'd buy it.

Snapper

Wouldn't it be great if when you're snapping pics on holiday, someone you care about could see them as you snap them from half the world away? Well, I tend to think so. Snapper would be some sort of BlueTooth enabled USB dongle that you could plug into your digital camera and would enable you to transmit pictures taken to your 3G phone. A simple application could then forward the received picture to anywhere you want (email, SMS, Facebook). I envisage it as a two-step procedure:

1) Plug in the Snapper dongle to your camera.

2) Take a picture.

When you plug in the Snapper dongle, your preconfigured Bluetooth device (phone) is recognized and ready to send any picture received to a preconfigured location. Then when you take the picture, it is automatically sent to wherever you wanted it to go. That is, assuming there is 3G network coverage when you take the picture.

Snapper could also work with a Wi-Fi dongle enabling you to send pictures through your home network to local storage or the Internet. This would alleviate the need for the phone acting as a middle man but is much more limited for there are fewer places with public Wi-Fi than with 3G network coverage. Snapper could also eliminate the need for large and costly memory cards by sending all pictures taken on your camera to be stored externally and not on the camera's memory card. I think that Snapper could be produced fairly easily for it relies on already existing technologies – it just blends them together for new purposes. For this reason, Snapper could be marketed at under $100 and I know I'd pay that much for it.

Snapper would be especially useful for whenever you go out with your camera, be it for a holiday or a trip to the zoo with the kids, but also for the more specialized market of reporters and professional photographers (to whom you could offer Snapper with data encryption). Also, if you take many pictures at home and you're lazy like me – simply can't be bothered transferring the pictures to my computer – Snapper would be perfect for you!