Automatic Drying Diaper Improves Health Care
Japan is dealing with their problem of aging population by automating health care. This automatic drying diaper could replace catheters and provide extra benefits.
Catheters might be cheaper in the short run but risk infections, are uncomfortable to insert and remove and require some training to insert. This automatic drying diaper requires no training, is much more comfortable with less risk of infection and offers other advantages.
Since there is already some electronics this device could be easily expanded to measure amounts and times, perform tests on the contents to monitor health and help with diagnostics plus alert care givers of needed care.
This is just one of the 15 Alternatives solution types. A diaper that automatically dries itself is an example of Return to Stable, and this one does it multiple times. A disposable diaper is a Single Stable, although not very stable. A catheter is a Multiple Direct, it directly catches urine multiple times. That is only 3 of the possible 15 solution types. There are 12 other types of innovation possible.
Overlooked Innovations: Shape Changing Toy
This simple, inexpensive educational toy could have been made any time during the past 20 years or even longer. If instead of using silicone it was made from natural rubber or some other natural flexible material, it could have been made thousands of years ago. Unlike the mop in my last overlooked innovation post, this toy was probably not needed in the distant past. Children used to have access to a near infinite range of tactile and visual stimuli. So even though it was possible to make this toy, and their has always been a need for children to learn through multi-sensory experiences, that need was already being satisfied. Only recently when children were denied the ability to freely interact with the world did the need for such toys develop. This is actually a different approach to satisfying two different outcomes, safety and learning. In the past children were made safe by learning about their environment. Today adults attempt to make the children safe by preventing any encounter with potentially dangerous items. This resulted in fewer educational experiences so now that must be provided by alternative means. In the past toys were used to distract very small children who had not yet learned how to keep themselves safe. Toys were a method to allow adults time to do things without directly controlling the children. Today the children are in a highly controlled environment with few real dangers. Toys are still used to distract children but an even better distraction is used, television and video games. All of these approaches are bouncing around the 15 Alternatives for satisfying the outcomes of safety, education, and entertainment.
Benoit Mandelbrot passed away 1924-2010
Benoit Mandelbrot, the mathematician who discovered fractals has passed away at age 85. I owe his genius for some fundamental concepts that make the Predictive Innovation® possible.
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