10 Products I Wish Existed

March 23, 2021

Most of these things probably exist. For many, it’s just that they don’t exist at a practical price point.

Without further ado, In no particular order

1. A not garbage, not phone based, IR camera that doesn’t cost a bajillion dollars

   Yes. I know the FLIR and SEEK Thermal cameras are a thing, but both have their share of software problems or hardware incompatibilities. Most of all, I don’t want to have to hope that their app keeps working with my phone at risk of a $250 paper weight.

   And, yes, FLIR does have a handheld thermal spot camera that’s ~$350, $100 more, that is standalone; however, it’s only an 80x60 pixel image (same as the PRO LT smart phone one) and lacks the dual camera smarts that make the image better on their phone-attached offerings.

   I suspect this is largely due to restrictions on selling IR cameras for the sake of ’national security’ as high speed, high resolution IR have military applications. Doesn’t make me any less salty though.

2. Better environmental quality sensors

   There’s no good reason, in 2021, that every home - or hell, every room - doesn’t have CO2 and radiation level detection along with CO and smoke detection. And I don’t mean some waste of time lil’ estimated CO2 meter, I mean the real deal, NDIR sensing and a giger tube.

3. Not shit webcams

   Short and sweet. Everything available right now, even upwards of $200, is shit. Put a real sensor and hardware encoding in them.

   I know using a capture card (USB or PCIe) and a full on camera is an option, but now were back into stupid money.

   People are resorting to streaming video from their phones. This is just fucking stupid.

4. An isomorphic midi controller

   This isn’t the 1600’s anymore, why the fuck are we still using normal 12-key keyboards. They’re a pain to learn and have a ton of disadvantages over isomorphic keyboards. The biggest being that on an isomorphic layout every chord is the same shape in every key, octave, or tuning.

5. A ‘weak strong’ laptop

   I want a laptop with a really low power system that I can use most of the time (Like, pi3b+ish in power) but then reboot into a full on, powerful x86_64 system with good GPU when I want. Fuck Nvidia Optimus or BigLittle CPU architectures, I want something that’s actually just a potato sitting along side my workhorse. Share the cooling, storage, and I/O, but keep everything that actually drinks power independent. I already deal with dual boot hell between Windows and Linux. I’d happily deal with the reboot hell if it means I can get crazy long battery life when wanted while still having enough horsepower to do bigger tasks when necessary.

6. A good, not super hard to use, software video synth platform

   Yes, I know VSXU and TouchDesigner, etc. exist. They’re great, and they’re a PITA. I want something that I can midi map in 30 seconds and have cool visuals pop out the other side.

   Both the hypno and eyesy are just running on a pi anyway, so why can’t I just have a mix of the two available on my desktop to midi map.

   As an aside, for actual audio reactivity, this would also necessitate the OS supporting good application to application audio routing, something that Windows can’t do well, despite both Mac and Linux being able to easily with CoreAudio and Jack respectively for a long time

7. A fast direct computer to computer link

   USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Can I get better naming too?) is fast. Like 10Gbps fast. Can we please get some easy cable that can just plug into both systems to let me transfer a file over this link?

8. Home Plastic Waste to large 3D printing appliance

   We throw out a crazy amount of plastic. While it could be recycled for normal 3D printing, I think the quality and colors of the plastic would make it pretty ‘meh’. Instead, I could see having a large scale home or community 3D printing platform which recycles plastic for large things as a huge win. Need more shelving for the garage? Melt down and print using all those empty 2L bottles!

   There are some options for 3D printer plastic recyling already but all the ready-to-go options are very expensive, and none are made for this sort of large scale I’d like to see.

9. Modular Furniture (That actually follows a standard)

   How freakin’ cool would it be if when you needed more desk space you could just snap an extra wing on, or if you could move your existing desk top to a sit-stand desk. Would it not be great if when you’re office chair’s bottom eventually goes bad you could just snap a new one on?

10. Literally just https://dynamicland.org