There’s ‘Golden’ opportunities for inventions
In the past few months, I have received invention suggestions from many readers. These people are all over age 65 and belong solidly among the Golden Lives, whose welfare this nation must pursue with enthusiasm.
My pet peeve is that this nation has two population silos, one consisting of the young population up to age 65, and the other consisting of the Golden Lives above age 65. The major problem is that the two have difficulty communicating. In other nations, where up to three generations share a roof, intergenerational communication goes on every day. The benefit of this generational amalgamation is that the youth become aware of the needs of the elders. Meanwhile, elders can communicate to the youth the various issues they should avoid.
In America today, we almost have two nations living in the same land. New products developed by the youth are never quite right for the Golden Lives and much effort is wasted.
This column has been discussing a solution to the serious problem of elders falling down. The past two installments described the five problems within the large problem, all of which need to be solved by your solutions. Since it takes an inventor’s mind (you, that is) a few days or more for the entire task description to sink in, I decided to switch our subject to describe other problems suggested by our Golden Lives readers. I also decided at the end of every month I will describe suggestions from readers suffering from the lack of solutions to problems. So here we go.
This is from Diane M. Starkey of Rochester.
Stove control panel: “I have long wondered why stove manufacturers insisted on keeping the control knobs in the most unsafe positions: The rear of the range top, though raised, still requires reaching over hot items on the range. Alongside of the range top would be safer, but is only an option on drop-in countertop ranges, of any type – gas, electric, induction or hot plate. The ovens are likewise ridiculous, in opening to a large, flat, hot, surface one must reach over. If I had long hair it would catch fire!
There is double-door vertical opening convection or microwave ovens. They are institutional cooking appliances. For that matter, most microwave ovens are vertical-door. Why not range ovens?
“I sent letters to all the major brand manufacturers but got no replies.
“There was a program with a gentleman named Holmes who was an expert carpenter and builder. He did one project, like the Extreme Home Makeover group's, for an elderly lady, and got her an induction range top with side-mounted controls, at least. I don't remember if he got her a convection oven with double doors. She could have used them. They were for her to safely continue to cook, which was her joy.”
Sliding car doors: “I appreciate your idea about car doors. One mechanic told me the notches on the doors would wear out after so many years and not hold well to any force. Our newer car reminds me of this. But you are right. If lounge chairs can be mechanized to assist one up or down, and stopped at any point, why not car doors? And a control on the car remote could access this, also.
“I can send your idea to Subaru? I've tried to get them to listen to reason before, but they still put the stupid timer on the rear-window defrosters, to ‘keep them from overheating and cracking.’ Really? I told them it didn't seem to hurt the older Subaru cars we'd had! We have actual snowstorms to drive for hours through up here! We don't need the distraction of a rear-window becoming obscured!”
Friendlier microwave turntable: An anonymous caller sent in this message, with which I agree wholeheartedly. She wants to know why the turntable inside the microwave can’t be made to stop at the same angle as it was when started. Very good point. When you are trying to warm a coffee or soup in a cup with a handle, we want the handle to stop at the angle where it started. We don’t want to try to grab the hot cup with no access to the handle. Don’t tell me you cannot do that. I know how to do it, and so do you. It is a matter of a simple memory and extra circuit to drive the turntable to the angle it started with.
Starting now, the last installment of a month will carry readers’ suggestions. If the idea gets realized by the readers or some inventors that will be immediately reported here. I will try to assist readers in the matter of intellectual properties (namely patents). I will also attempt to contact assist and manufacturers if they have any willingness to incorporate the concept in their products and manufacture the user-friendly products for the Golden Lives.
Next week, we will go back to FallSafeTM invention and the process of inventive thinking made easy, which anybody can follow, remember and practice. I would like to see this nation filled with new or old inventors again. That is the strength of this nation – we will be always No. 1 as long as we have inventors.
Shintaro “Sam” Asano was named by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011 as one of the 10 most influential inventors of the 20th century who improved our lives. He is a businessman and inventor in the field of electronics and mechanical systems who is credited as the inventor of the portable fax machine. Write to him at sasano@gmail.com.
