The Fun Theory

I have identified a problem in buildings which have a reduced number of floors and an elevator. People choose to use the elevator instead of climbing the stairs, which can often be faster and better for physical fitness, but can also mean economy of electricity. In order to change this kind of behavior, we will implement the diet elevator.This elevator contains a weighting machine in the floor. Elevators anyhow have pressure sensor but this will be more precise and will give the exact weight of the person from the elevator, by using an electronic screen placed on the elevator’s wall.

As pedestrians put plastic wastage in to the garbage collector, the leaves on the tree board are lighted using green LED lights. The more the plastic and garbage collected more the leaves turn green. So when it is full all the tree becomes green and gives a message "Recycle - Reuse - Reduce" the plastic. Submitted by Manoj

The world is in a very critical stage. There are lot of issues like global warming , scarcity of resources and others which the future generations have to face the effects. My design is an attempt to raise the awareness and encourage more people to choose sustainable and environment friendly options like cycling. A board bearing the illustrations of a tree and earth is placed beside the cycling track , which has leaves fitted with green colour LEDs. There are pressure sensors placed on the cycling track , which detects the passing cycle and lights up the Green LEDs on the tree board.

The Pitfall Crosswalk is inspired by classic Atari game Pitfall. The idea is to make it fun for people to cross the street in the right places. In cities such as mine, Rio de Janeiro, people have made dangerous crossing a habit. My wish is to influence people for their own good. Submitted by Rafael Medeiros

Statistics show that Americans alone devour over 400 million cups of coffee daily, going through 400 million paper cups in the process. Dumping, recycling or filling up landfills with these cups is a waste of time, energy and money. As a way to change people’s behavior and outlook on reusable mugs, institute a fun system where each reusable mug is assigned a coffee code, enabling them to win 1 of 10 daily prizes in every coffee shop, ranging from a muffin, scone or other pastry to a larger monthly prize. Not sold on using mugs from the shop? Have a favorite mug?

When you read, the eyes needs to go from the end of each line back to start of the next line, covering that ground without picking up any words. When reading, like you are now, gathering information from symbols placed on paper, could you pick up information on your way back from the last line? It would be like watching television without commercials, smooth sure gliding the whole way.

Submitted by Indigo Children Inc.

Problem tackled: Collecting batteries to recycle them.
Solution: The device, a used-batteries collector, takes advantage of the form factor of a pinball to engage people into playing. Batteries replace metal balls. Pulling on and releasing the lever propulse the battery onto the playfield. Multiple boards could be adapted. The hole to target is indicated to the player through a visual cue. The goal is to reach the target by applying the appropriate force on the lever.

Submitted by Nils Oj

Footbridges are an incredible solution for pedestrians who need to cross one ore more busy streets. However, most of the time people are too lazy to go up a flight of stairs to get to the top of the bridge and cross safely to the other side, exposing their lives to the danger of being run over by a car or causing a major car accident. The solution: Make it fun!

There are thousands of residents in New York City who have dogs for pets. People carry plastic bags to pick up after their dogs but there is no clean up for urine. Urine is very acidic, and destroys concrete sidewalks, plants and trees. Acid from urine eats right through the bark of a tree, and cambial zone straight to the wood zone, which destroys the trees defense system. Urine also contains a lot of salt that deprives the plants of water and burns their roots.