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Efficient Infrared Heating for Tomato Peeling
The current tomato peeling process is a water- and energy- intensive operation and results in a large amount of wastewater. Particularly, the wastewater from caustic peeling method using hot lye solution is high in salinity and organic load due to loss of tomato solid during peeling. It is reported that the water consumption for tomato processing in California alone is about 10.7 billion gallons per year, while expenses of wastewater management could be up to $8,000 per ton of total dissolved solids. Presently, tomato processors are under intense regulation and environmental pressure and are seeking alternatives to replace caustic ...
Ellipsoidal Gait Bicycle
Bicycles have been evolving since its early conception in the 1800s. The bicycles intended designs were primarily for transportation, and recreation. But now bicycles have a greater function in our culture, they provide a healthy means of needed exercise. Today’s bicycles have not changed significantly since 1888 when pnuematic tires were first applied. In fact, their only changes have been in the materials used which decrease weight and increase structural integrity. This is good because now we are ready for the next evolution, the form running bicycle. Two conceptual bikes are presented, but bike designs are not limited. The ...
Bike Belt
Problem:
Riding a bicycle with motorized traffic presents a safety issue. Cyclists are often hard to see and their intentions are not easily interpreted by vehicle drivers. Cycling at night is an additional challenge, as most cyclists are not prepared with the proper equipment for visibility.
Solution:The object of the Light Belt is to make the cyclist more visible to surrounding traffic. The innovative Light Belt comprises of a center mounted stop light and side mounted directional lights. Just wear the Light Belt around your waist or chest and get on your bike. The Light Belt is hybrid powered by AA ...
Rethink Electric Car Transmissions
As companies around the world have grappled with how best to implement electric cars and electric transmissions, they have fallen prey to the trap of old design paradigms. They insist on placing a small electric motor under the hood, just like a gas motor, with batteries under the floor boards. It’s time to break from this mold, and to utilize one of one nature’s greatest gifts to mankind – Mechanical Advantage.
Archimedes famously said, “Give me a lever long enough, and a fulcrum to place it on, and I shall move the world.” Truer words were never spoken. The proposed ...
Three Tier Enhanced Security in Image Steganography
Steganography, derived from Greek, roughly translated as “cover writing.” It is a “hide and seek” system that embeds hidden information in unremarkable cover media so as not to arouse an eavesdropper’s suspicion except the intended recipient. Embedding a message into an image requires two files. The first is the innocent-looking image that will hold the hidden information, called the cover image. The second file is the message—the information to be hidden. The hiding system needs a host file, a prepared message file, and an optional key to insert the message into the host for creating a cover host. The ...
Tooth-Mover
Description:
The Tooth-Mover is not intended to replace braces. It is only intended to give slight adjustments to the visible teeth. It is built into a modified silicone mouth guard. When worn, the user chews on the mouthguard. This motion pivots a pair of steel arcs that move a pushrod to apply gentle pressure on the forward teeth. Over time, this chewing motion should correct slight irregularites in tooth position. The pushrod is secured with a ball joint, so the position of the pushrod would be easily steered by the user's tongue. The pushrod should be made from a ...
Instrument A-B Switching Box
Instrument A-B Connection Box
Current implementations of instrument A-B switching devices use either an push-on/push-off maintained connection push-button foot switch, or various unnecessarily complex electronic means to do a simple switching function.
Problems:
These devices have some disadvantages.
(e.g., No indication of, or difficult to view, switch status; battery or external power suppy needed if LEDs used to indicate switch position; proprietary design switches (difficult or impossible to replace;
or switches not readily available, or expensive;
unsoldering/soldering required to replace switch;
noise/sound coloration.
Solution:
A passive design A-B switch, using a readily available SPDT TOGGLE ...
Amber Safety Daytime Lighting for Motor Vehicles
Utilization of front amber turn signal lamps, employed as collision and pedestrian avoidance safety lighting, for every car, truck, motorcycle, moped, and semi-tractor trailer on the planet. This is accomplished using ultra low cost design from U.S. Patent #7,482,756. This design and system improves daytime public safety and security, plus can improve transportation safety for businesses, communities and even nations. Amber safety lighting on vehicles is proven to improve conspicuity of moving vehicles in all regions of the planet, from equatorial to polar, and in all points in between. This design, not currently in production, uses 8 basic electrical ...
Personal Mass Transit System
Hawthorn Woods, Illinois United States of America
Jun 30, 2010
Every year over 1.2 million people die in the world due to traffic related accidents. The goal of the Spira Personal Mass Transit (PMT) system is to save lives by taking vehicles off the road and into the air. The system is comprised of four major components: a rail, mules, support structure, and Spira vehicles. This system is meant to be supported by a suspension system which is in turn supported by high voltage power line towers. Mules are the load carrying machines which shuttle the Spira vehicles from one city to another. They are driven by electric motors ...
BioReactor Air Scruber
The world population every year continues to grow at an alarming rate and we are feeling the effects of it increasing more and more every day. More people means more housing, more cars, more energy, and more pollution. More energy and pollution are two that go together. The bioreactor air scrubber is here to counter act that. Bioreactors are not a new technology. Many people use them to cultivate algae for biofuel but my bioreactor aims to optimize the exchange of carbon dioxide into oxygen using algae and a new designed bio reactor. As a result is also optimizes ...
Lift Pump
High-Flow Lift Pump
In fighting wildfires, and in many other applications, there is a need to lift water a few feet, say from a creek or river, to fill a header tank or mobile water tender. Particularly in firefighting, turnaround time is what measures success at the end of the day.
The current invention comprises an axial flow impeller pump section located at the inlet end of the transfer hose, a power head at the flex-fitting located near the destination (tank or truck), and a flexible drive shaft running inside the transfer hose. Sections of transfer hose may be ...
Increasing the Safety of Kitchen Cooking Ranges
Virtually everyone has had the experience of placing a pot of water onto the heating element of a kitchen range, turning the selector to "Max" and then walking to the other room while making a mental note to return "in a few minutes" to remove the boiling pot from the element. Everyone knows what usually happens next....You get immersed in paperwork and forget about the boiling pot. By the time you run back into the kitchen in a panic, the pot has almost boiled dry and you have to start again from scratch. Sometimes, if you don't make it ...
Waste Heat Recovery and Storage
After observing a recent episode of the popular TV show "Ice Road Truckers", I was inspired to create a solution for one of the more dangerous scenarios that these drivers face. I've learned from this TV series just how important it is that the diesel engines in these trucks are kept running. At the extremely frigid temperatures these trucks are driven in stopping the engine for only a matter of minutes can seriously jeopardize the driver’s chances of re-starting it. Not being able to start or re-start the engine in this environment can pose a serious threat to the ...
Mag-Lift
Mag-Lift Handle
Problem: When moving or lifting furniture and appliance items, difficulty occurs when there is no handle on a flat metal surface. The item may not be too heavy to lift, just awkward. Some items, such as file cabinets, have sharp metal edges in areas use to lift the cabinet; many hands have been cut moving these. A dryer, washer, cooking range, and a refrigerator are not too heavy for two men to lift but, with no handles the job becomes tricky.
Solution: The “Mag-Lift” is a portable electro-magnet enabling it to become a ready handle, which can be placed ...
Automated Package Transport System
This describes a proposed automated package transport system that supplements current methods for delivering small to medium sized packages. Advantages of this transportation method are both energy efficiency and speed of transport. Installation of the system into the existing infrastructure is possible without major environmental impacts due to the size of the transport vehicles, the physical “footprint” of the system, and the ease of locating this system in most areas.
The package transport system consists of distributed “container cars” that have their own electric propulsion, and operate on a raised overhead single integrated rail assembly. Figure 1 illustrates the ...
Hybrid Human Propulsion
Some years ago a design student solicited help for a class project to design the bicycle of the future. He needed a new propulsion system that would allow new design freedoms.
I found this challenge very exciting.
I proposed eliminating the mechanical chain and gearing system with electronics. The pedals would connect directly to a generator that would drive two hub motors. There would no longer be the constraints of a chain connecting from the pedals to the rear wheel. The braking would be accomplished by turning the hub motors into generators and storing the energy in a small ...
Muscle controlled 3D mouse for amputees
Introduction:
There are over 140,000 people living with upper limb loss in the United States today and 1 in 12 new amputations are of the upper limb. In a study examining the employment history of 1630 upper extremity amputees,it was found that the unemployment rate went up from 1% to 19% after amputation. Unemployment only adds to the already existing anxiety and depression introduced due to physical and emotional pain of limb loss.
Motivation:
These days, computers have become ubiquitous and many median salary professions require the ability to easily interact with a computer. Unfortunately, computer interaction typically involves ...
Creativity Cafe; New School and Networking Parlor
We need to find new ways to cooperate, heal ourselves (and each other) and Earth while inventing NEW SYSTEMS to nurture our “shrinking” and ailing planet and its peoples. Creativity Cafe Edutainment Centers is designed to address all that, rapidly and globally.
Every Earthling has a different level of learning ability. Innovative approachs to education are needed to release personal patterns that may not get people where they want to go? And what if they don’t know where they want to go. What will inspire them?
Young people in every generation shun their parents ways, and embrace whatever is ...
Augmented oil-eating spill response
Spills of oil from drilling and transportation operations will continue to cause environmental degradation and economic losses.
Millions of tons (annually) of sustainable (U.S.A-available) resources can help reduce the impact of the environmental insult of uncontained oil. Poultry feathers are being incinerated or disposed into landfills instead of being used as a renewable resource. Feathers have been used in various applications, such as insulation or circuit boards.
Feathers, alone, can help contain oil spills by limiting the spread of the oil in water. The adsorbent quality of chicken feathers, and other poultry feathers, can contain oil, just as living ...
3D Interactive World
Imagine if you will you walk into a room any room. You put these quarter size sensors up on four corners of the room you set up a perimeter you put on a special pair of glasses that use transparent lcd displays with a portable power pack that goes on your belt .A pair of gloves with the same sensor on it you put in the room. You turn the pc unit on nothing happens then u hit the switch on the power pack your wearing, a transparent world shows in the glasses menus pop up on command . ...
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