Printers that cut paper too

I was printing out cover art for my DVD collection yesterday and thought, "Wouldn't it be great if my printer could cut the paper as it printed?" That would have saved me a bunch of trouble.

What if there was simply another ink cartridge embedded in the printer that could spit out a chemical that would dissolve any paper it comes in contact with? Or how about pairing a small low-power laser that could cut through the paper as the printer-head went back and forth along the paper?

You could conveivably make custom shapes in paper, meaning that you could easily print CD/DVD labels as well (without having to awkwardly stick printable DVDs/CDs into your printer), even complex cutouts.

Silent Party

This is one I've been thinking about for a while, and it's application has been used in a project my friend Bryan started called the Mobile Movie, allowing a guerilla-style drive-in movie without all the speakers and noise.

The idea is to use FM transmitters to hold a party that won't disturb neighbors. A DJ can hook up his/her mix into an FM transmitters, while each partygoer dons a cheap FM radio, which they would probably bring themselves. While I realize it could be weird watching other people silently dance to music on a radio, I see it as a way to bring parties where parties could never be before. It also lets people stop the music to talk to each other when they're not dancing.

A DJ can even mix multiple streams on different FM frequencies. If half your crowd is into Hip-Hop and the other half likes trance, you can set two playlists and give your partygoers options for what they listen to.

Another thought is for dance groups to use this setup to practice ANYWHERE. In Berkeley, I know the RSF (gym) is always packed with dance groups trying to get some practice time. The thing is, only one group can practice at a time because they need to play the music lout of a boombox in order for everyone to hear it. With a silent party setup, multiple dance groups can practice at once in the same room without disturbing each other. There would need to be a way for the choreographer to insert his/her voice into the FM stream though, which I haven't really thought through yet.

Ideas

This blog is to record my ideas. I want it to be a sort of public forum for the random ideas I sometimes generate. I realized that there is no way I could pursue them all, so why hoard them (as many inventors tend to do)? So, without fanfare, here are my ideas.