HN Explorer

Ask HN: Idea Sunday

305 points by rokhayakebe ↗ HN
A HN experiment. Every Sunday, a thread will be started to share product ideas. Why? Because many people have ideas they will simply not have the time to implement, and many need product ideas to work on.

If you think this thread should be started only every other Sunday or monthly, please state it in your comment.

452 comments

[ 15.3 ms ] story [ 455 ms ] thread
adam419
Every Sunday, and I just posted it 10 minutes ago..
teemo_cute
A while ago I was reading a blog post and I spotted a grammar error. The post was good but it made me a little uncomfortable.

So I decided to make it right. I used chrome developer tools's edit html feature... I edited the html and behold the grammar error was gone. I read the paragraph again with pure delight. I love technology.

Idea Generated: There are lots of blog posts out there that have good content, but sometimes they are not written well or grammar errors exists because of lack of proof-reading.

What if there was a web-app where readers can correct blog posts or articles. Of course, it needs the approval of the author. There might be a 'Correct me if I have grammar errors' button of some sort somewhere in the post.

The editor is not allowed to edit the meaning of the content, only the typos and/or grammar errors, which of course needs the approval of the author. It's like github for blog posts and articles.

AbhishekBiswal
Not automatic correction right? You said something like "Github for blog posts" sounds cool, but it will take time for others to edit/push new versions of the post, hence a lot of work on a single blog post. Inefficient.
total
I'm actually rather fond of this idea. Far too often I read blog posts and the mistakes are glaring and plentiful. I understand that English is not everyone's first language and so it is acceptable, of course, but it sure does make reading jarring at times. I've always wanted a feature to correct people but without coming off as rude, overbearing, or overly concerned with semantics. (Please don't have any errors in this reply as I talk about correcting others. ;) .)
otisfunkmeyer
Pull requests for blog posts sounds amazing, at least theoretically :)
Detrus
Quora does this. It would just be hard to standardize across all the variations of publishing.
Schwolop
It doesn't provide the "Suggest Edits" feature for blog posts, only answers to questions. Until I discovered Quora, I was working on http://wikiblog.jugglethis.net/ which was my solution to this problem.
neil_s
Yes. I imagine this as a javascript/jquery plugin with a backend service that website/blog owners can integrate into their website. It would work something like Medium comments - you highlight the erroneous text, click the 'report typo' button, and then optionally suggest a corrected version.
rokhayakebe
Email Link: A simple browser plugin which allows me to click it once and it emails me the current url. It would be nice if it gives me the option to email it to others.

Resuscitate Xoopit, a much much better gmail search. Have you ever wondered why gmail search sucks when its parent company is the supposedly the best search engine in the world. Xoopit was a nifty addon that mine your inbox and 1) organize every file and links it found, and 2) gave you a search feature at least 10 times better than the gmail option.

I would pay once for the first tool, and monthly for the second product.

AbhishekBiswal
"Email Link" : Something you want to save for reading later? Pocket and other services do the exact same thing, that is, they save links for reading later, and you can email it to yourself too.

In case you want to automate the process, you can create an IFTTT recipe for it. :)

And you don't need to pay for it.

allworknoplay
pocket even provides an rss feed of saved items so you can read and manage them in your reader.

No affiliation to pocket and no idea if other similar products do the same thing.

AbhishekBiswal
Yes! There are other apps too, like Instapaper, Readability, etc. Pocket looks good, and it has browser extensions so you can save the current page with just one click. The app is one of those most beautiful apps I have seen on Play/App store.
iKlsR
OneTab kinda does the first.
roryokane
I just wrote a rudimentary version of “Email Link”. You can use it for free. You just need a few lines of JS in a bookmarklet:

  var myEmail = "my-email@example.com";
  var url = window.location.href;
  var subject = "Link: " + document.title;
  window.location = "mailto:"+encodeURIComponent(myEmail)+"?subject="+encodeURIComponent(subject)+"&body="+encodeURIComponent(url);
To install it, change the email address in the code, URL-escape the code (with `encodeURIComponent(…)` in a JS console), prepend “javascript:”, and save it as the URL of a browser bookmark with the title “Email Link to Self”. Put the bookmark in your bookmarks bar or somewhere else convenient.

When you want to use it, open that bookmark to open a new message in your mail client, then click Send without changing anything and switch back to your browser. To send the link to others, edit the To field in your mail client before clicking Send.

P.S. Firefox, Chrome, and Safari all have a menu item for this built-in, except they don’t prefill the To field with your email address for you. The menu item is in the File menu, about 3/4 of the way down.

personlurking
I've been wanting this but with a little more functionality. The Email Link with a dropdown of up to 5 people I email the most, so that I can select one of them or more and email them something (the link of the page I'm on or additionally a select text from the page I'm on). No opening Gmail, no creating a new email, no subject line, no cutting and pasting of links/text, no hit send.
ethnomusicolog
Every sunday:

Product Idea: a gmail app that shows me a graph with the number of mail I sent/receive a day , by person, group,...

syerram2
I signed up for goconspire.com a while back - it does a decent job at that (weekly/daily email stats)
ethnomusicolog
Thanks, just signed up. I'll have to wait to see what it can do.
ethnomusicolog
I just got the mail , exactly what I was looking for, all they need to add is the same results in the web interface and the ability to play with it. -- Is there a way to edit one's comment ?
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omarhegazy
A pay-to-post/view social discussion site.

Reddit starts out cool, then slowly becomes 'dumber' (discussion-focused articles turn into quick reaction images) as it becomes more and more popular.

Hacker News avoids this by purposefully not trying to be as popular as Reddit -- UI remains minimal, tries to stay out of search engines' ways, etc.

But, in this way, HN is discussion focused through obscurity. What if you filtered out dumb crap by making it a cost to the user for posting? In that way, the user would have to really care about what h/she's posting about before h/she posts it. I.E.: thought-provoking discussion and not cheap images.

That way, you can mass market and accept huge gains in popularity while being sure that the people who are posting/voting on the stuff care enough to pay for it. Want cheap (often not even funny) images? Go to Reddit.

The best posters get compensated with the money that the voters paid. This creates a network of "I pay to post and I pay to vote but I get money from posting which incentivizes me to post but I only get paid if I get voted on a lot which means I'll want to encourage voting which means I'll have to vote a lot myself" : the voters and content contributors conflate in one genius network of money movement.

It still wouldn't ever get as big as Reddit, simply because people don't like direct payment for services on the Internet. But it'd be an effective way to get a bunch of smart, dedicated people who would kill for thought-provoking discussion on the Internet, and also pay them for just that.

minimaxir
The best posters get compensated with the money that the voters paid.

Any service that offers a significant monetary incentive to cheat it, will implode.

rgbrgb
Adsense is pretty far from imploding.
krapp
I can easily see it becoming a platform for astroturfing and viral marketing campaigns by corporate accounts, and i'm not entirely certain i'm comfortable with directly linking a poster's ability to participate in a discussion with their disposable income.

Would be an interesting experiment to see though.

omarhegazy
The astroturfing would have to be so well concealing that it'd be content users would actually like. So, it's still corporate-supported advertising, but it's smart corporate-supported advertising.

Reminds me of this : https://xkcd.com/810/.

krapp
That depends on the degree to which money equals power in that setup, I suppose. It doesn't have to be smart if you're willing to pay for enough accounts just to create a buzz.

Although granted - for the site to be worth the effort it would already have to be popular.

FLUX-YOU
Instead of cash, use a cryptocurrency. Dogecoin fits perfectly with this.

As an aside, I'd like to see a torrent site that uses a cryptocurrency model to control access/leeching/improve seeding. I'd rather fry an ethernet card than a GPU!

roryokane
The social discussion site MetaFilter uses part of this idea already. It requires users to pay $5 once before they are allowed to post anything (http://www.metafilter.com/newuser.mefi). But it does not charge or pay its users after that.
Detrus
How do you handle users gaming the system for profit?

I was thinking up various ways to introduce money to our communication systems to incentivize certain behaviors. But not from the modern Facetwitter perspective of a site that wastes your life by addicting you. The true measure should be the correctness of the content and money should pay for that.

First a system where you have to pay to post and if you post is confirmed as not spam or abuse, then you get the money back. Otherwise the site takes your money. Should be a negligible amount. Mostly a way to make spam expensive and compensate for moderation, but of course a site can abuse a user this way as well.

If a user posts some profound story/comment and others want to compensate him directly with an easy UI, they can add a monetary amount to their upvote. But there is little guarantee that the amount will be significant or the money will arrive promptly. Users should be able to undo money sent for well sounding but ultimately wrong info. This is to discourage participation driven by points and monetary rewards.

If participation and content creation is driven by money even more than it is now, there will be a few new legitimate sources with useful information but the vast majority will be content farms. To discourage this "points" or "money" should accumulate, BUT should not be paid out for years until the accuracy of this content is confirmed by the passage of time, peer review, etc. If mistakes are found, all readers should be notified of corrections. There should be penalties for releasing misleading or mislabeled information (like tech blog posts that are really advertising but pretend not to be. You should pay to advertise and pay more for advertising what turns out to be crap after peer review.)

A site should take its share for moderating content well and working on rules that incentivize useful content/services and penalize attention seeking of little utility.

It's hard to predict effects of various new incentives. But a site should work on modifying the rules until desired results are reached. Users should not stray from normal behavior to satisfy some quick and dirty addicting point systems. If that means limiting participation to select trained users, releasing information to larger audiences only after it has been discussed by relevant experts (so no shocking attention grabbing studies are released) then so be it.

hikigo_wanders
I like this idea a lot, thank you for sharing it. I might try this with http://hikigo.com. Like most things it might be hard to get the initial core of users.

What I liked about the parent post is: It still wouldn't ever get as big as Reddit. When you find yourself thinking that way, you are probably onto something you actually want.

omarhegazy
That's the thing. If this service is implemented properly, you want users to game the system for profit. It'd have to be so airtight that the only way to "game" the system would be to go out and try to think of something intelligent to contribute. Another commenter discussed the possibility of astroturfing -- The astroturfing would have to be so well concealed that it'd be content users would actually like. So, it's still corporate-supported advertising, but it's smart corporate-supported advertising. Which is still awesome. Reminds me of this : https://xkcd.com/810/.

What you said about a system of experts and trained users determining whether your comment is worth exposing to the public ... eh. It sounds like it'd take a shit-ton of time and debating, especially as the service expands to handle a lot of content.

Also, isn't that just modern journalism? As a journalist, you apply to write an article for, or get a job at writing articles for, a well-established high-quality media company like the NY times or the New Yorker. A system of trained experts review your application and approve or deny it accordingly. Then you write articles and they get shown to the public after you've been approved.

I'm not saying it's a bad process, I'm saying it already exists. The problem is, it's slow and it takes a shit ton of time to determine who's a great writer and who gets limited participation and who doesn't. And when you allow the process to get faster, you have to give up the expert-authority, and well, you get something like Reddit.

This service would have to find a way to keep submissions and distribution extremely fast, like Reddit, but also keep the quality of discourse high, like NY Times.

The proposed solution is : money. People who submit stupid cat pictures to Reddit aren't dumb themselves, they've just been exposed to a forum for discourse that allows dumb content. Meaning, if you asked them : "Do you really think that cat picture is going to allow for quality discourse?", they'd definitely say "No."

So I'm willing to trust ilovekatpictures1998 on his judgment of discourse, if not his ability to create such discourse. So if we can trust the users to have good judgment, all we have to do is create a system that forces them to use their judgment, which Reddit doesn't do. And telling them to put their money where their mouth is by making them pay is the best way to force them to use their judgment.

The only reason it wouldn't get as big as Reddit is, people don't want to put their money where their mouth is. Well, most people. But then again, there are a lot of niches ...

personlurking
Isn't The Well pay-to-post (at least in a sense since there's a subscription fee)?

http://www.well.com/

omarhegazy
I wish I knew. This site seems more interested in telling me about it's wondrous history than giving me a forum of discussion.

Can I get a frontpage? Links to different subforums? A design that isnt from the late 90s?

miguelrochefort
Money is not the solution. Reputation is.

People are not currently penalized for contradicting themselves, being dishonest, being thoughtless. But they soon will.

Let's cure the web's Alzheimer.

omarhegazy
Exciting rhetoric.

How do you expect people to discern between Reddit reputation and TheWebsAlzheimersCure.com's (drop the "the" -- just WebsAlzheimersCure. Cleaner.) reputation?

danfrost
Social Researching: Like social bookmarking, combined with joining comments so you can share and collaborate on your research.

Think "trails" from V Bush's "As we may think" article, implemented so we can collaborate. As users start bookmarking things in their own trail, the app works out what other trails are similar and suggests you merge your researching efforts.

makmanalp
Google wave was great for almost this, actually, minus the matching / merging part! Sad to see it go.
danfrost
Yes. I think this idea is almost in many things but you need to give the user the structure to both read and contribute to a thread of research.
danohuiginn
This idea has a /lot/ of use cases. I'm not sure how easy it would be to make a business out of it -- maybe you allow public collaborations free, and charge to take it private.

It'd sink or swim on the details of the UI, though, and I have frankly no idea how to get those right. Lots of painstaking user testing, presumably.

Unai
A crowd-sourced (á la Wikipedia) AI platform to create a chatbot (á la Siri), with a nice user-friendly front-end, so users can input de "inputs and answers".

I guess that with time it could be improved with APIs and better algorithms.

DanBC
This is a great idea!

I'd be terrified of the results if /b/ get hold of it. I saw the results of a few chatbots and it was funny, but also scary.

jpindar
Yes. It's been tried but people kept giving it useless data.
hpvic03
I'm really interested in chatbots, though it seems the underlying state of the art is still pretty poor.

Mitsuku (http://www.mitsuku.com/) won the Loebner Prize last year, and that chatbot still runs on basic AIML files.

I think a new approach is probably necessary to take chatbots to the next level, but I don't know what it is.

aragot
That's creative enough to have potential to win the game of AI.
cr4zy
cron as a service...but unlike setcronjob.com and easycron.com, allow more than a few thousand jobs and in general support advanced job scheduling features. So actually more like quartz as a service, i.e. hosted http://quartz-scheduler.org/
bshimmin
Doesn't IronWorker do all of that, and well, already?
cr4zy
Most expensive plan only allows 1,000 concurrent tasks for $3250. This wouldn't work if I wanted to have a custom schedule for each user of most apps for example.
netcan
Fix podcasts.

I was helping someone set up her android phone for podcasts and noticed how problematic the whole process is. First, the android apps aren't very good. More problematic is the process of getting a feed into it. Sometimes searching by name works. Often it doesn't. Getting from podcast's website to the app is a problem. Discovery is also quite poor.

danfrost
I nearly worked on an idea like this 4 years ago. End-to-end podcasting which helps people make good quality, listenable podcasts. +1 from me
graublau
On iOS it's not much better, most apps are too granualar (e.g. Downcast) or not enough (Apple Podcasts). Pegging some hope on http://overcast.fm/ fixing the situation but it's not a great ecosystem...yet.
justinhj
The built in iOS podcast app is the worst app I've ever used. It's not that it fails to be great, it actually seemed to go out of its way to delete podcasts just before I left home. I bought downcast and I'm happy with it except for the problem of discovering podcasts.
Unai
Most free podcast android apps are pretty terrible, but PocketCast (paid) is really awesome (at least it have a great UI). I don't even listen to podcast that often, but I bought it without hesitation.

But it's true that there's a problem with podcast, so take my +1.

crazypyro
I've been using BeyondPod for a couple years now. It has a paid and free one and the free one has suited my needs, but its a relatively cheap upgrade for some nice features.
arsey
Maybe just the idea of podcasts is broken. RSS has dying a slow death for quite some time. Why not just build a better podcast?
thinkalone
Throwing in a mention for PodKicker[1], since you mentioned searching/discovery. The UI needs a lot of work, but it is nice to have the search engine built-in (they claim an index of 250,000), instead of trying to grab RSS links from a podcast's homepage. The search itself is even available as a separate app[2].

[1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podkicker

[2]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ait.podsearch

netcan
That's the one I use and helped her get started with.
bliker
I am using http://www.shiftyjelly.com/pocketcasts. That is really amazing. And the discovery have not failed me yet.
pa5tabear
Yup.

I switched from iOS 6 months ago and podcasting was one of the initial problems I had. I trialed a handful of apps before properly purchasing pocketcasts. As good as the iOS app.

justhw
Seconded. Pocketcasts is amazing, especially the settings. For example I have have mine set to keep only latest 2 podcasts pershow, auto download on wifi, and auto delete those I've listened to. It's a well built app worth way above $3.99. Don't bother buying other podcast apps or even show apps like This American Life.
archagon
Plus, the devs are awesome and have fantastic release notes. :)
litso
I work on an iOS app called AGOGO that takes a different approach than most podcasting apps. Instead of subscribing to shows you browse channels podcasts, tv clips or text to speech audio. Would be interested to hear what you guys think www.agogo.com
marpalmin
SoundAct: Similar to IFTTT but that triggers with sound. You can record sound patterns such as a double clap, clap, footstep, etc and associate that with an action, like notifying someone or reading the news. Ideal for context where siri-like apps does not work well because of noise like the car, metro, etc.
th0br0
I've had something similar in mind for a long time now... mainly for use in home automation. (Clap twice to stop your MPD, etc.) ... would be great to see this get done! ;)
johndoeee
Feedback for catered lunch at work.

I work for a small company and we get catered lunch delivered every day. They never ask about if we liked it and if the amount we received fit our consumption. So, some way to inform them about which dishes we liked and how much food we threw away.

btgeekboy
Wouldn't a simple Google Docs form fit the bill here?
skullum
Venmo Receipt bill splitter: Mobile app that analyzes a picture of a receipt using tesseract or something similar and allows the user to charge Venmo friends for certain items on the receipt.

I would pay for this because then I wouldn't have to create a Venmo payment for each user.

soneca
A usability test of mobile apps delivered to consumers through ad space on free mobile games.

You create a "use quest" of your mobile app. One or more screenshots of your application with a stated goal - e.g. invite a friend on a social app. You present the user the home screen and he has to find where in your app he can invite his friends. You record all clicks, and time and etc until he finds it.

This test is served as "partners quest" on free mobile games. The gamer has to complete your "use quest" in order to continue playing that pool game. You pay the game producer a small fee and charge from the mobile apps developers that want to test their designs.

You may give the gamers more in-game bonus if he allows you to record his voice and face (and pay the game producer a little bit more for this feautre).

hershel
Dynamic search anonimizer: most of the times google's personalized search is much better than anonimized search services like duckduckgo. But in certain query types anonimized search is highly preferable.

What about a service/browser extension that understands thoses difference and guide the search accordingly ?

Thiz
Soylent bars.*

I like the idea of Soylent as a complete food, but instead of a nutritional drink, I believe a power bar would be a better idea, for portability, storage, and consumption.

* Not tech related.

marpalmin
SocialPower: Complain about a bad service in a store by adding in the map the location of it. After that other customers of the store receive notifications to vote if the complain is valid (by using background location and push). If many users backup the complain, then the business gets an e-mail stating that they have been featured in SocialComplaint and they can work to solve the problem. The complains are alive for x days in the map in they continue unresolved. After that they go to the archive and statistics of business complains.
ghayes
This idea reminds me a bit of PublikDemand[0]. According to their site, they "aggregate and organize customer complaints by topic and company. Individual complaints are turned into qualified leads for competitors."

[0]: http://www.publikdemand.com/

marpalmin
I was thinking more as a mobile reporting platform.
netcan
Commitment device app that works on a dead man's switch. The idea is to use the discipline you have now to discipline your future self.

eg1 - Enter your weight every month. If you go over a predetermined weight, it does something punitive. Posts embarrassing pictures online, emails your mom, donates $50 to the Klu klux Klan.

eg2 Create a todo list with due dates, goals or somesuch. Failing to complete them does something punitive.

eg3 Create out a challenge (exercise 5 times per week). Failure to complete challenge does something punitive.

The key is to get the psychological component right. I think if someone's daily task is 100 or more pushups they are more likely to fraudulently push a complete button than they are to enter a fraudulent number of pushups.

Could be a fun project.

ghayes
See also, Gym Pact [0]. An app that lets you earn rewards (versus payout cash) for hitting gym goals. Similar idea of adverse motivation.

[0] http://www.gym-pact.com/

nostromo
You might enjoy this story / podcast: http://freakonomics.com/2012/02/02/save-me-from-myself-a-new...

One guy decided that he wanted to get healthy. So, he made a list of prohibited foods and actions and wrote a check for $750 payable to Oprah Winfrey (he dislikes Oprah for some reason).

He told his wife, "If I do anything on this list in the next 30 days, send this check to Oprah, no exceptions."

netcan
I think I may have gotten the KKK idea from freakonomics podcast, might have been this episode. The Oprah things sounds familiar too.
henryaj
I use http://beeminder.com/ for this. For my weight, I have a Fitbit Aria scale -- I weigh in daily, it uploads my weight to Fitbit and the data is pulled in by Beeminder. So there's no friction in getting data into the service (I just blearily step onto the scale every day) and there's no way for me to lie, even if the thought of financial loss tempted me to.
andrewpbrett
Beeminder, as others have mentioned, handles #1 and #3 pretty well (minus the donation to the KKK part - the money for failing goes to Beeminder).

I built GTBee[1] using the Beeminder API which is pretty much #2. Again, the punitive thing is taking your money, starting at $5 and escalating from there.

This isn't to say that it wouldn't be a fun project to build things that do this though!

[1] https://itunes.apple.com/tc/app/gtbee/id779525180?mt=8

tbirdz
Sex toy that uses machine learning to find the optimal method of providing pleasure to it's owner.
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aragot
As a first approximation to machine learning, it would use Amazon Mechanical Turk?
mappum
Hard to do effectively until we have consumer FMRI hardware that can measure dopamine/serotonin release.
kevinwang
Grip strength? Facial analysis?
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dethstar
A craiglist like site to find projects/people to work with. It could connect to tools e.g Trello and give you a rough estimate of how this persons delivers e.g closes their cards almost always on time.
DanBC
Lower ligature risk USB charging cables. These would be used by mental health hospitals to allow (risk assessed) patient to charge their devices without introducing ligature risk.

To go along with this:

Bulk USB charger. Imagine a 20 port USB hub, but this has no USB connectivity. It only has USB power. It would be kept in a secure place in a mental health ward and would allow them to charge patient's devices. This would mean that patients get electronic devices but without having access to cords (ligature risk) or mains plugs (self harm risk).

(Take a UK 3 pin plug. Place it on floor with prongs up. Jump off bed onto plug with weight on one foot. That's an unpleasant injury. Removing that risk is useful).

Advantages:

You don't need to PAT test each charger coming into the hospital. You reduce (slightly) fire risk from bad quality chargers.

You reduce ligature and self harm risk.

You allow patients access to electronic devices which has some "safeguarding of liberties" benefits.

Disadvantages: selling to the NHS is possibly hell, and selling electrical equipment to the NHS is possibly even harder.

You're creating a vigh value stash of easy to steal equipment. MH hospitals already have lots of IT and stealable medication so they should be able to keep it safe but maybe a ventilated safe would be part of the package.

pmorici
wouldn't it just be a matter of using a shorter cable like 4" or less?
DanBC
Well, the cables have to be really robust so nothing can be extracted from them that could be used for cutting.

Some people can cause surprising damage with a bobby pin so having robust, potted, cable shells would be important.

iamben
Or a strong magnetic connector every 10 or so inches to allow you to build a cable as long as you like? (I have no idea if that's actually possible)
eli
Swallowing strong magnets is pretty dangerous.
ondrasej
This is definitely not a short-term solution, and it might not be practical even in mid-term, but wireless charging sounds like a perfect solution for this kind of environments.

The hospital rooms could have special "charging" spots on the floor/build into the furniture or just a hole in the wall. The patients would charge their devices simply by placing them on the charging spot/shelf. Now there are no potentially dangerous cables or plugs, and all charging can be done without devices leaving the patients' reach, reducing the risk of theft at the same time.

There's already an international standard for wireless charging. The only problem is that it works only with a couple of the current phones, and it's not very likely to appear in low-cost low-end devices that the patients of the mental hospitals most likely to use. But if it ever gets a wider adoption, this would solve a lot of problems...

gsteinb88
Re: reducing ligature risk. Would having a rigid cable (i.e. hard/unbendable metal shell) that's short be a reasonable solution? Similar to the indiegogo project posted in a sister comment, but could be slightly longer and cheaper to manufacture.
akg_67
Wouldn't it will be simpler to have replaceable faceplate with different connectors (a cradle) in each room? Basically, idea is similar to having power buttons/plug/ethernet connector on the wall. Instead you have horizontally mounted faceplate in a cabinet, bed headrest, or any horizontal surface with appropriate connector where device can sit and be charged. There are not too many USB charging devices that will be used in a mental hospital by patients. And depending on the type of device swap out the faceplate with appropriate one.

The best way to avoid ligature and self harm risk is to not have any cable or sharp objects around. Also, this solution will avoid the privacy risk when patient device is taken away for charging by staff members.

bredren
Blockchain Genius. Crowd-sourced annotations of transactions in the Bitcoin blockchain. Clever UI for 'zooming' in and out of display of the chain.
yitchelle
A translation service - A photo of the document to be translated is emailed into the service. In 1 or 2 days time, the email is replied with an translated document. The photo can be taken with mobile phone photos and emailed.
tizzdogg
You should check out gengo.com. Sounds like that's exactly what you're looking for, or at least they have an API that could be used to build the app you want.
yitchelle
Thanks for the heads up on gengo.com. I shall checked them out. Have you dealt with them before?
tizzdogg
Yes I used them to translate some of the text in an app to a bunch of other languages, and it was pretty easy, and a good translation (so I am told, at least). Note that I'm not affiliated with them at all, and have only used it once a year or so ago.
jtokoph
I would suggest posting this every Thursday or Friday. Give people something fun to work on over the weekend.
bnt
Doing something properly requires time for preparation. Posting ideas on Sunday is actually a good idea as people have 5-6 days to calm down from the rush of adrenaline (OMG this idea is THE BEST IDEA EVER!), get some research done, prepare the time (some folks have family and need to micromanage their time) and finally do some work next Sunday.