Hand clutch in cars

With my legs paining each time I press the clutch, I am wondering whether car makers have ever thought about providing a hand clutch? If bikes can have clutch control in hands and cars can have cruise control and paddle shifting of gears, why cant we also have a hand clutch? At least, I can transfer my pain from my legs to my hands when I want!

A historical Street View

Google Street View is an idea I liked. But it shows the street as of today. Is there a possibility to show a history of a street with a slider so that we can see how a street has changed over the years? Yes, I agree that Google is finding it tough even now to get images of all streets, but is this possible for those streets which have sufficient number of images already? Can this be recreated with appropriate software from old images that are available online from different users (say in Google Images, flickr, picasa, facebook etc)?

A mouse which doesnt descriminate!

Generally, many of the computer mouses are made to tailor right handed use. There are few others which are made such that build-wise, they are suitable for both side usage. But still, the behavior of the mouse has to be administered to indicate which type of usage is intended. So when it has to be changed for left handed from right handed, you have to go to some application and set the same. But why?

Can't we have a mouse which can detect why type of hand is holding it? Cant we have some simple sensors which can automatically detect if the finger layout is of a right hand or left hand? I am sure we have the technology to do so, but may be, nobody (relevant) has thought about it. Hope some mouse manufacturers read this and implement this in their products...

Self-arranging toys and other objects...

My daughter has a large number of play things like toys, books, pens, crayons, papers etc. Every day, she manages to find time to spend with each of these objects and as a result, at the end of the day, all these get scattered all over the house and by evening, it goes into a state where you cannot find "what is where"! Putting all these things back to their respective places is a very tedious and time consuming task which becomes even more difficult when you are already sleepy :-)

How nice it would be if things were like Toy Story?  If all these things are capable of self cleaning / self arrangement? If we can command all these objects to go back to their respective at the required time or a scheduled time, life would have been much, much simpler and beautiful. If they can talk to each other and find their capabilities, can the cooperate to get themselves organized? Say, those who cannot go by themselves will ask the toy truck/car to help them... They could make dynamic structures (like steps) by arranging themselves and help some one else to climb up into a cupboard.

OK... may be I am going a bit too fast... at least is it possible for them to separate out and get arranged on the ground based on the categories? Say all pens should group together, books should come to the same corner, the toys should go to a different room? Say, all of them should have something like a switchable magnet inside their bodies. And I should have an equipment which can switch on these batteries selectively (say based on group - switch it on for all pens) and also has a stronger magnet with which it can pull up the guys with the magnets switched on. So the only thing I need to do will be to walk around the house a few times switching each group once to collect all the respective stuff... Any other ideas?

Rainwater harvesting by car

When rain falls on the car, why not harvest it? If the car can filter and store the rain water, then it can be used for multiple purposes like along with normal wiper operation, automatic cleaning of other glass parts like head lights etc. Also, the stored water can be let out through dedicated outlets on top and side of the car which can be used to clean/wash the car, thus saving precious water in the house. The water stored can also be used similar to a wash basin for the car passengers (after eating a pizza from the car, for example) :-) So when is a car manufacturer going to take notice of this idea?

Arm-rest for the driver

I though an arm rest will be a relatively cheap accessory for car manufacturers to provide. But if you check even cars priced at 10 lakhs (Indian price), it is difficult to find models which come with arm rest. Rarely, we see some cars which come with that (that too only AT cars). It is one accessory I feel missing when I get stuck in bumper to bumper traffic.

What is the big deal in providing an arm rest? Is it because it may hinder with the hand break and gear shaft/knob? Isn't it easy to define an arm rest such that it can be pulled out and retracted very easily (or can be even made automatic based on hand detection :-)? I would have liked to see arm rests which makes changing gears (left arm rest) and handling the steering (right arm rest) a pleasure....

A car seat which knows your back

Car seats are wonderful "one-fit-for-all" products. Though it is made for seating an "average" person (average itself may change from country to country!), it provides lot of other auxiliary functionality. They aid a fat person to reduce girth by compressing from both sides. They help a lean person to feel like formula one driver by tossing him from side to side. A short person is prevented from sleeping while driving as his back is supported in an awkward position and so on...

Why try to do so many things with one thing? Can car manufacturers create a seat which actually can detect a users proportions  and adjust its shape accordingly? A seat could be modeled like clay which can shape around a persons back once he sits and presses a button. It should extent properly so as to give the right thigh support for any one. It should detect your neck and give you the right neck/head support.

Better Sun Visor

Whenever I am stuck in traffic while on the way to office on a sunny day, I get irritated that the sun visor of the car is so small that it cannot effectively shield me from the sun. It only gives a small area of shadow region (depending on the angle of sun and position of the visor) and I have to adjust my position to come under this shade! Other cars are also not so different. Can this be made better? Why not a visor which is small in its initial position, but has hidden panels which can be pulled out in different directions to make it bigger (say a panel which is kept rolled inside the visor body normally)? Is this very difficult?

Video camera with automatic subject tracking

It is very difficult to take handheld videos without shake. Especially when you are video-graphing pelagic birds, it is almost impossible to find the right balance to compensate the movement of the camera, movement of the boat, movement of subject due to waves and the movement of the bird! So what would be an ideal camera to film such things?

Such a video (can also be still) should have:

- ability to recognize and lock targets in a frame (say bird detection software :-)

- ability to move and rotate the lens in such a way that the subject is always in the center - so irrespective of camera position, the lens will always position in such a way that the subject is in center. This is something similar to the image stabilization, but with additional lens movement possible for the objective lens so that that is always at the right position. This can be achieved by detachable lens unit which is independently movable or multiple lens groups.

- ability to predict missing frames (in case of extreme movements of camera where even the lens movement is not sufficient to keep the subject in center)

So when will I get such a camera???