Million dollar ideas

[DemolitionSquid]

Lol, it was an oldie but a goodie.

My real million dollar idea would be to create a functional universal translator by merging voice recognition, babelfish, and voice synthesizer software with a time delay to create proper translation of sentences instead of the word-by-word most translation software uses.

Of course if it was easy it'd have been done by now.

[Articorse]

Making a real-time translator with voice recognition, babelfish and voice synthesizer is absolutely possible. And I hope someone does make it, because it would be hilarious as fuck.

[TheEconomist]

Sorry, there's an app for that.

[Carsickness]

What's babelfish? That computer robot voice?

K, more ideas:

You know those rivets paved on the side of highways that let you know when you drifting too close to the curbs? The same ones that wake you up when you fall asleep at the wheel :P.

Anyways. You build stretches of the road that have these rivets specifically spaced across the entire road. A speed limit would be posted, and a song would be suggested.

Once you click 'play' on the song and start to accelerate, the rivets would be spaced just such, so they represent the bass of that song....... ha!
Definitely something for those rich singers/rappers. Would be great for their drive-ways, as you approach their mansion...just to rub it in more.

[Turalyon]

What's babelfish? That computer robot voice?

It refers to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's a fish that you stick in your ear that translates everything and is direct proof that God doesn't exist.

[Articorse]

What's babelfish? That computer robot voice?

It refers to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's a fish that you stick in your ear that translates everything and is direct proof that God doesn't exist.

Jesus, people, use google. Babelfish is an old-as-fuck online text translator that at one point was notorious for how terrible it was when new ones popped up that were much better. Still bad, though.

And yes, its name comes from the Babelfish from tHGttG.

[DemolitionSquid]

I used babelfish as an example, there are indeed better online text translation sites. The basic premise of my universal translator is that it looks like an ipod, with core and headset. The bluetooth headset has a microphone. You set your core processing device to translate the language you're hearing into your native tongue, using voice recognition software. You can specifically set it to know everything it hears as Spanish or Mandarin or w/e. The microphone picks up the language, and the processor core translates it to text. It then uses the text translation program to convert it to your native, chosen language. That text is then read into your ear by the synthesized voice software like Siri. Pretty simple conceptually, hard to implement mechanically.

I also had an idea for solar panels embedded beside roads and sidewalks, and heating coils under the road/sidewalk, so that solar energy could be stored in the summer and used in the winter to thaw ice and snow on the road/sidewalk without attaching it to the main power grid of a city.

[Carsickness]

I also had an idea for solar panels embedded beside roads and sidewalks, and heating coils under the road/sidewalk, so that solar energy could be stored in the summer and used in the winter to thaw ice and snow on the road/sidewalk without attaching it to the main power grid of a city.

I too have been thinking of something like this. More for a drive way though.
You could have many smaller solar panels running along your drive way, or one large one to attach to a roof. I wouldn't have the coils under the drive way, but rather on top. Something flatter and more sturdy that could withstand the weight of your vehicles. You would lay it out your self, and then coil up in the warmer seasons.

[TheEconomist]

It'll be a long, long time before that's cost effective:
http://www.oakpark.com/News/Articles...-for-Oak-Park/

$25,000 a year after a 6 million dollar installation just isn't worth it for a block of walkways

Well, I shorted the shit out of solar stocks a few years, but, before I did, I did some research on them, and from what I understood and can remember, there's several obstacles for this idea. There's probably some work arounds but I'll leave it to you two to figure those out.

1) Solar panels need to be big. Meaning it wouldn't be some thin strips used to heat the sidewalk. To get enough heat to thaw out ice, you'd be some pretty big ass panels. Remember its catching the sun.
2) Solar panels need cells to store the energy. They aren't small either, and need to be concentrated as closely as possible, probably one place. Having to heat something dozens of miles down the road would be tricky I would think (read: impossible with current technology.)
3) Obviously, when its snowing you can't collect the sun, so, like you proposed, the energy would have to be stored and then used in the winter. The problem is that that's really hard to do. Energy of ANY KIND has to be used as fast as possible because its all lost quickly, mostly through heat and light. You can't really store energy, you know it being the basic of the universe and all I don't think God would want us to hog it all in little power plants. If you could store a decent amount of energy, it would probably be lost during the winter without even being used.

For a drive way, the easiest way is to just shovel the damn shit or throw down some salt. One millionth of the price and gives you good exercise too.

[DemolitionSquid]

I never said it was a cost-effective idea with current technology. The thread is titled "million dollar ideas." It doesn't say they have to be ideas to make a million dollars. Spending a million counts too