Laundry Cleaning Chest of Drawers (Acoustic Laundering): Imagine placing your dirty clothes in a drawer, flipping a switch, and having your clothing cleaned while in storage. This is possible using acoustic (sound wave) technology. Currently, (to my best knowledge), acoustic technology is corrosive to organic matter so this solution would most likely be best suited for inorganic materials (which happens to align to a different post which suggests organic clothing is not sustainable). The idea is to have acoustic generators (sound speakers of sorts) create reverberations through the clothing that deteriorates and “shakes” free any contaminants. The acoustics can also be ‘tuned’ to sterilize the clothing or a UV lamp can be added for that purpose if desired. When you want to wear your clothing again just remove it from the drawer, give it a shake, and wear as desired. (the air filtering carpet listed in another post) should remove any airborne contaminants made present by the shaking should any occur. Acoustic laundering removed the need for water, soap, and a clothes dryer (all of which are harmful to clothing). Acoustic laundering also preserves the coloring of clothing while reducing the space required to hold a traditional clothes washer and dryer. The form factor (dimensions or implementation) of acoustic laundering can be modified to the space as well. If you do not have a chest of drawers any space you place your laundry can be filled with the sound waves required to clean your clothes no matter if it is a large walk-in closet, a small hamper, or a towel rack in the bathroom.
Frequency cookers: Imagine placing food in a box-like device (much like an oven) and ‘cooking’ your food without any heat or audible sound. This might be the future of cooking using frequency-based cooking that kills all microorganisms (bacteria and viruses) while boiling liquids and cooking foods. Essentially, the food is exposed to frequencies specific to the food type and preparation needs while the box uses noise dampening technology to ensure no audible (or inaudible) noise escapes the device. No more burns for the family. This tech currently exists in various (partial) forms but has yet to be fully explored and put into practical uses such as cooking. Potholders be gone, eat a cookie fresh from the oven without a cooling rack.
Electric Stair-climber for Residential homes: It is possible to construct an electric stair-climber for residential homes that permits users to stand on a single step that rides a rail system up or down a flight of stairs utilizing a remote embedded in a handrail. Essentially, rails would be installed a few inches vertically above the stairs. The standing platform would be a metal plate with a small hydraulic engine on one-side. The other side of the standing platform would have a raised handle (similar to a walking cane) that contains the controls to move the platform up the stairs or down the stairs. The electric stair climber removes the need for cumbersome chair climbers but increases the ease of mobility for people whom have difficulties with stairs.
Next-gen showers: Imagine having a tablet in your bathroom wall that lets you set the temperature, water pressure, and spray style (mist, massage, jet, etc.), of your shower as well as a shower self-cleaning cycle. As you step into your shower a pressure sensor automatically turns on the water. As you step out of the shower the water automatically turns off. Then, based on your cleaning schedule the shower hot mists then jet cleans itself with a disinfecting dry using UVC light tiles. Some of this tech may be currently in use, but as an entire self-cleaning, knob-less shower unit this is not on the market (that I have been able to discover).
Squirrel-Proof Bird Feeder: create a bird feeder that is raised above a podium using solar-powered electro-magnetic resistance.
Next-gen Stove-top: Imagine saying “right front, 130 degrees, start”, placing a small saucepan of milk chocolate on a pad of raised vertical pins, walking away, hearing “ideal temperature reached, turning off heat” then pouring and enjoying your cocoa on a chilly winter evening. This is possibly by redesigning stovetops to use a vertical “pin” system that is pressure sensitive. When a pan is places on the pins a sensor activates the heating element based on voice commands. This design only hears the exact surface area that is in contact with the pan, produces evenly distributed heat, continuously checks the temperature, is voice automated, and shuts off the burner when the desired temperature is reached. If you like interactive cooking you can replace “130 degrees” with “medium heat” and “right front off” to prevent automatic shutoff. A stove that only heats the surface area required for cooking and is smart enough to listen, evenly heats to desired temperatures and turn off by itself seems lime a piping hot idea.
Unified Washer-Dryer: Wouldn’t it be nice to start a load of laundry in the washer and come back an hour later to warm, dry, and clean clothes and linen? If you have ever used a front-load washing machine and a clothes dryer it is obvious the macro architecture is similar so why couldn’t there be an internal valve system that opens the “wet” system for washing then closes (opens the “dry” system) for drying the laundry? It seems manufacturers are complacent and/or enjoy the profits associated with selling 2 appliances when 1 will suffice. I bet the first organization to integrate these two appliances into 1 will see huge market share surges from the decreased space requirement, combined with increased load capacity, that is so highly sought after by current consumers.
Food replicators: Remember that tv show where space travelers could walk up to a machine say they wanted a specific food and the machine would magically create it? Why haven’t we made that yet? We have 3D print technology and the scientific understanding to recreate any food texture and flavor possible. There would beed to be 4 material source chambers. The first chamber would contain the filler material, the second would contain the “thickener” (provably starch), the third would have sub-compartments with flavoring , and the 4th would have a concoction of vitamins and minerals (protein, vitamin-c, calcium, etc.). Admittedly, this may not be the best or most efficient design but the point is that this technology is currently achievable.