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| Open Source Auto Industry 
The auto industry today has some major flaws. You buy a new car for a large sum of money, after 10 or 12 years, the repair costs are more than the value of the car, so you toss it into a junkyard and buy a brand new car. The car companies are rewarded for making a car that is difficult to repair. In some cases, it seems like they are intentionally designed so that customers cannot work on them themselves. The cars must be taken to the dealer and the repair costs are outrageous. Here's the solution: in the aeronautics industry, aircraft are designed for ease of maintenance. Many aircraft are designed to last 100 years and to have parts that are easily replaceable. The concept of designing products for a maximum life and ease of maintenance and repair is known as sustainment. In the arms industry, many firearms are designed to maximize the compatibility of their parts. Parts for a Colt 1911 made in 2015 will be compatible with parts made in the 1930s. An AR-15 upper receiver made by Smith & Wesson is compatible with a lower receiver made by Bushmaster. Compatibility.Last, in the world of open source software, the intellectual property is built by volunteers all around the world who wish to create a better product for themselves and everyone else. Also, projects like the Adruino have created open source hardware and have dramatically driven down the costs of custom circuit boards by opening their designs to the free market. This is the beauty of open source information. What I want to do is to create a car company that uses the best of all of these worlds. Cars that are designed to last a lifetime because they are designed for ease of maintenance. Parts that will fit your car today, and in 50 years you will still be able to buy parts that fit. Last, all intellectual property will be open source. This means people from all over the world will be able to propose design improvements and create new 3D models using open source software. Also, this will open the door to the free market so manufacturers from all over the world will be able to manufacture parts that fit together. You can buy an engine from Honda and a transmission from Toyota and they will be compatible in the same car. Designing cars for sustainment and compatibility with open source information will revolutionize the auto industry. It will make cheap and reliable transportation available to everyone on the planet.Reward: To change the world 
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| Revolutionary headphones
One of the biggest drawbacks of headphones is that they block oxygen supply to the ears. Hence when you use them more than a few hours a day you start getting ear related problems. So my idea is a head phone that won't give you any problems, even if you use them for 8 hours+ or more ( you know people in the service industry call centers etc , basically those people who are not audiophiles.)These head phone will have two modes, simple (no amplification) and powered mode (sound amplified by an external source). Now the most important part . These will be absolutely non contact head phones i.e they will not touch any part of your ears. The mounting will have to be designed in such a way that both the speakers hang tightly near the ears without touching them. The head band will lock on the head over the ears and by using a special adjustment meter, the user can define the distance of each speaker from his ear lobe. Once the adjustment is done, the next time the user just wears the headphone and they fit exactly at the place where he wants without touching the ears. Have you tried this? Just take two speakers very close to your ears, don't touch them and listen to the rich surround experience that you get and your ears do not hurt. This is what the new head phone design will offer. Reward: nothing
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| Pocket Venus Fly Trap
Have you ever been bothered by a persistent fly at work or out in a restaurant? Here's a fun solution. I could see this going viral with 'user' videos of people having fun with it (like the chewbacca mask).Imagine a package the size of a tin of travel sweets, those little round pocket size ones. You take the lid off (and clip it underneath maybe) to reveal the trap. Maybe design and badge it to look like travel sweets, as a gimmick.The trap consists of two hinged semicircular spring loaded flaps, with a soft plastic coating impregnated with a smell. A subtle smell designed to attract a fly without putting you off your food. The flaps are maybe flexible, maybe rigid, fringed with some sort of interlocking edge. The fringed edge will help prevent the fly escaping when the trap is triggered. When open, a narrow slot in the middle (between the flaps) allows dead flies to drop down into the base. In the centre of the slot is an electronic eye which scans (within the fringe) for movement. Design options here suggest a fly trap replica or a cartoon mouth fringed with vicious (but soft) teeth. To set or reset the trap, the flaps are manually opened against a spring (or springs). This tensions the spring(s) which lock in place when the flaps are (near) horizontal. Maybe a small tab on the outside/top edge of the flaps, outside the fringe, would make this easier. The trip mechanism must be gentle enough not to hurt small inquisitive fingers but strong enough to kill a fly.The fly, attracted by the smell, approaches and hopefully lands on one of the flaps. The electronic eye detects movement within the area of the trap and triggers a mechanism which releases the spring(s), allowing the flaps to spring closed, vertically, trapping and squishing the fly. As an option, a small switched led in the centre may also attract moths in the dark.A small rechargeable battery in the base powers the device, with a USB port for charging.An easily accessible physical switch will turn the device off, so the flaps can be opened and cleaned without tripping the mechanism. Maybe a 3 way switch fitting through a slot in the side of the tin/case. Switch positions could be: up for on with a 'moth led', centre for on and down for off. Replacing the lid could automatically push the switch down, turning it off and locking it.The dead fly may need to be pushed down the centre slot if it doesn't fall down. Maybe a comedy plastic shovel could be clipped inside the lid for this. The trap mechanism should be easily removable from the tin/case to give access for cleaning and battery replacement, and the unit would need to be switched off to prevent activation while cleaning.Not just practical, but cheap to make, a fun conversation piece and comedy gold - especially if it works as expected!Reward: If it takes off, I'd appreciate a few to hand out to friends, depending on how successful it is.
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