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I get ideas every now and then, and
sometimes I think I've got a really good idea, but for some reason or
another I don't have the means or ability to realize the idea. If
one of these ideas interests you, feel free to run with it. Ideas
are not copyrightable. But if something does come of one of these
ideas, let me know (mclem@intergate.com).
After all, these are things that I would like to see happen, even if
I'm not in a position to make them happen. |
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"Nacho Hut"This one isn't a really radical idea, but it's still something you don't really see. Basically, it's just a mexican fast-food place, but with the line where the food is prepared up front where the customers can see it, and choose what they want on their food, like Subway, or some of these other sub shops.I love nachos, especially Taco Beuno's nacho salad, but you don't see places that cater to letting you choose your toppings for the nachos. But there are many different ways you could have nachos, from the basic chips and cheese to a full-blown nacho salad with lettuce, tomatos, onions, peppers, black olives, sour cream, guacamole, and hot sauce. Imagine having your choice of three or four different types of cheese, two or three different meats, a handful of different veggies, and three or four different sauces. Get your nachos made the way you really like them. Again, this really isn't all that radical an idea. Most fast food places like Taco Bueno, Taco Bell, and Taco Mayo already have a line where the various ingredients are available and they put the orders together. The main differences would be putting the line up front where the customers can see it, and letting them request their toppings as the food is prepared. I've focused on nachos, because that's what I like, but tacos and burritos could be done the same way. What would really be needed to make this work would be to properly price the items and individual portions so that things came out to a reasonable price that still allowed a profit. So if somebody wanted 3-cheese nachos with onions and peppers, but another person wanted beef, beans, queso cheese, lettuce, tomato, and sour cream, the resultant prices wouldn't seem too out of whack. |
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Autoharp modificationAn autoharp is an interesting musical instrument. Basically, it's a zither, or a piece of wood with strings strung across it (typically 36 to 43 strings). Instead of simply plucking or strumming strings, though, it has "bar chords" installed, so that the user can select the desired chord and then strum the strings to play the chord. Bar chords work by dampening all the strings that are *not* part of the chosen chord so that all the right notes are played. The problem is that limits the player to the available bar chords and the space limitations for adding bar chords. Most Oscar Schmidt autoharps are either 15 or 21 chord instruments, although my Caroler from RBI has a whopping 27 chords on it (major, minor and major 7ths). Instead, why not create a mechanism where all the strings are dampened, and each bar un-dampens one note (all occurrences of the note across the strings, as in all the C notes, or all the G notes). Then, it would only take 12 "note bars" to let the user choose any chords or note clusters that they want to use. If the user presses the F bar, that would un-dampen all the F's on the instrument and play all the F's when the player strums the strings. By using a typical keyboard fingering system (say C to B), the player could easily finger basic triads (C-E-G for C major, or E-G-B for E minor). Some triads would have to be inverted, although this wouldn't change the quality of the sound (that's determined by which strings are strummed). An F-major chord would be chosen as C-F-A by the player, and a B-flat major chord would be D-F-Bflat. Similarly, four- or even five-note chords could be fingered by the player--6ths, 7ths, major 7ths, even 9th and 11ths. One could also select less typical chords, such as sustained or diminished, and just plain old tone clusters that really aren't chords at all. C-F-G, or even C-D-E-F-G could be played. This would create a lot more options for the player, a lot more freedom, and, of course, any type of chord that five fingers can play. The major drawback is designing and creating the mechanism. I could rough out a basic design drawing, but not being mechanically- or engineeringly-inclined, I will need help for the design specifics and the actual production of a mechanism. I know that it'll need some kind of spring mechanism to keep the strings dampened, and it's easy to imagine a key attached to the dampening bar, and the lever point between the two, but the actual size, and just exactly how the lever and spring mechanism will work will probably take trial and error. An engineering type would probably know what kinds of materials are available and how easy it would be to work with them, and maybe even if something similar is already in production, instead of making them by hand or individually. |
