Another Batch of Ideas

It's that time again...

1: So if a radiologist looks at a graph of blood flow to the kidney (obtained via doppler ultrasound), he can tell by the shape of the curve if the kidney is inflamed/edematous or not since the capsule surrounding the kidney is pretty rigid. I wonder if one can use this method on a carotid artery to detect intracranial hemorrhage.

2: Considering ebay allows inserting images and html (?) into item listings, it would be interesting to set up an ad banner service which would focus on marketing a trademark (or an actual product) through e-bay listings either by offsetting the costs to actual sellers or by placing "interesting" listings... Brainstorming and cost/benefit analysis would be needed... But its just a thought.

3: Alcohol is a regulated substance, but I suspect that chemicals reacting to produce it are not. I wonder if two such reactants could be packed into separate compartments of the same bottle. This would circumvent all the alcohol manufacturing, storage, and sale laws and fees currently in place.

4: I have noticed how Azureus detects whether a new version of it is available and proceeds to download it from the peers in the network. If this service would be expanded to detect and download new versions of all the installed programs it would be pretty neat. I guess I am asking for a free personalized P2P based VersionTracker with less clutter. A single user with the latest version of a program would broadcast the release (or just the news of its existence) to the whole P2P net.

5: Let's say two (or more) people at different geographic locations have the same video file (or a DVD disk.) Why not have video player software that would synchronize the playback of that file over the internet? It could also overlay remote microphone audio (for a "teleconference") or at least provide a chat line overlay at the bottom of the screen. This would allow people to have the experience of watching a movie together while being apart...

6: Your cell phone checks whether any new messages are available every so often, thereby communicating with the nearest cell tower. The e911 standard requires cell phone service providers to be able to pinpoint your position on the map in case of emergency (via triangulation?) If one was to set up a program analyzing locations of "new message" requests coming from the same phone, we could have a nationwide live traffic reporting service. Of course, I am getting used to not being the first one with an idea: Cell-Loc is doing it. [Sorry - link pops their ad]

Here is a couple of old ideas about video games:

7. Given algorithms such as Instant Scene Modeler and high resolution satellite maps why hasn't anyone released a 3D FPS game with levels based on real neighborhoods? The ultimate way to immerse the players would be to place them in their home neighborhoods based on zip code and overlay live yellow and white pages data to create properly named "background" characters. Maybe Grand Theft Auto 10 will think of this gimmick.

8. Fighting games usually rely on direction keys and 3 to 6 action keys to control the characters. Back in high school I wondered why a "punch" key had to always result in the same punch on the screen. In real life a punch will always be different depending on what the opponent is doing. Shouldn't the press of the same punch key trigger a check of what the other player is doing and then result in a different "response" move every time?

Ok.. that is it for now... I'll post more thoughts when I recall them.