Sai -- My idea (like Kati's) is a foot switch that can be used when your hands are full, or when you just don't want to touch the switch/button/handle/lever. Read more here.
Xiaochang -- Studying literature and computer science, I spend a lot of my time typing, which makes my wrists hurt and I'm always afraid I'm going to get carpal tunnel. So, my initial idea for a body switch is one which senses heavy pressure on the median nerve. More details in my journal.
Kenny -- My father is a baldheaded man. I feel compassion toward baldheaded men. So, this switch is for baldheaded people. By wearing this hat, it cools down the temperature of the head, and they get to receive special treatments.
Aaron -- When I am out in the city, there are many things I see, on billboards, or on stands that I wish I could remember until later, but dont want to take the time to take out a pencil and write out a phone number. My switch attempts to remedy this. It is a hat that you where, attached to which is a camera and the switch. The switch measures the blink rate of your eyes. If you blink quickly twice, it takes a photo.
Bennett - I was scratching my head, trying to think. So I just went with that. See my journal.
kati -- In order to conserve energy I'd want to create a switch that was attached to the skin on the forehead. Anytime the brows were furrowed the switch would be engaged and there would be a slight bell sound (only audible to the wearer) this would bring awareness to the person that they were becoming tense and would signal the person to relax.
I would really love to create a switch for the foot that opens the door. Specifically, this would be for public restrooms...more specifically for restaurants. Presently, one has to create elaborate schemes to wash their hands and return to their table without covering them again in germs. I think it would be great if you could just lightly tap a switch on the floor to release the lock on the door (perhaps it wouldn't even be electronic, just a release lever?). Or get help for OCD and invest in latex gloves.
Won --- Body Temperature Remocon
You sometimes feel cold in summer in an air-conditioning room. You also feel hot in winter in a heater-operating room. Why does it happen with smart sensors on each machine? Needless to say, machine and humanbeings feel differently to the same temperature. To say it more correctly, humanbeings are whimsical. So temperature controlling appliances should be subject to 'subjective' body temperature, not to 'scientifically averaged' temperature.
Control panels responding to human body temperature are ideal for this reason. Put a sensor any part of body. Reasonable repetitions of experiments will locate a right place of a body which indicates temperature with synchronized feelings of 'cold' or 'hot'. Put a on/off senser at the very body part you found. Link the sensor on the body to a control panel on machines with Bluetooth transmission device.
Now machines respond to humanbeings. If many people on a same place feel differently: some feel cold while others feel warm at the smae time at the same place. Make the sensor smarter enough to seek an average temperature.
Angela -- I eat way too many sweets and I just found out recently that my dad now has a mild case of diabetes, so I should be more careful. Currently, there are blood glucose test strips which you apply blood to and read with a meter to find your levels. I'd like a switch that could somehow detect this info without having to prick my finger and carry around a meter. Ideally, it could be like a bracelet or other wearable that would change color, or light up to alert you when your levels are too high. Oooh - almost like a mood ring.
Joanna - My cats are awesome BUT they jump on the counter and the table when I'm eating. I keep a water sprayer on the table to train them not to jump up but it's really annoying to always be spraying them while I'm trying to eat dinner. This switch would be connected from my foot to the sprayer, so all I have to do is tap my foot on the ground, and the sprayer would shoot water out.
Viviana Espinosa - I am constatly carrying very heavy loads, whether laundry, grocery shopping, whatever. My most important switch would something I can activate by using my hip. Usually that would be the only free part of the body that I can move while carrying something. But I would not only be using the hip to ring the door bell or call the elevator, but also to ask for help, usually I can't even speak while carrying stuff around and that would be of great help for me and maybe for some elder people. Another cool switch to have some places would be at bus stops. It would be nice if a light would lit up or blink whenever I am standing at a bus stop, and I am dressed in dark clothes, or I usually wouldn't want to wait on the side of the road. This would be particularly helpful in less dense populated areas which have little access to public transportation. This is what happens where I come from. The bus drivers usually aren't used to stopping at some stops, so they usually bypass them if the do not see anyone waiting for the bus within feet of the bus stop sign. For example if there's a big snow storm, and there isn't any way for peopel to stand really close to the bus stop.