The main tank, brimful with ideas. Enjoy them, discuss them, take them. - Of course, this is also the #1 place for new submissions!
By Bluecube
#2721
Doctor's scales are too small for an obese person to fit onto (I don't know from personal experience). Also, many people are injured or sick and asked to be weighed, which is not an easy or enjoyable task. There should be a scale installed flush with the floor that a person walks or wheels onto (gurney or wheelchair). Then the gurney or wheelchair weight is subtracted. Easier for everyone.

Reward: Free doctor visits for the rest of my life.
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By Steve
#2736
Hi Bluecube - please pick a slightly lower reward, and I'll move you to the Pool section asap. Thanks! ;-D
By Stig Bakke's brother Stig
#2740
What if Bluecube is 114 years old? That wouldn't be that much of a reward then... :-{
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By Steve
#2744
The doctor visits of a 114-year old can come quite expensive! :-o
By Bluecube
#2746
I'd like a stethoscope and a checkup

Yesterday, I went to the vet, and they have a scale for dogs that almost does it. Just needs to be big enough for a gurney...
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By Michael D. Grissom
#2793
At today's prices asking for just ONE doctor visit would be too much to ask for a reward. :-D

Pitney Bowes and many other companies make flush-with-the-floor scales that would work for this purpose. A simple bar code reader could tell the scale what, for example, a particular wheel chair weighs. A nurse would still be needed to tell Mr. T to remove all his gold chains.

Strain-gauges these days are so inexpensive and plentiful (made here in Raleigh) that I envision the day when shoes will have a built in scale option that adds about $5 to the cost of the shoes. The master shoe talks to the slave shoe and divides by 2 -- bingo!
This could just as easily be built into hospital beds and wheelchairs.
There was a prototype of shoes with built in scales at the last North Carolina State University senior design review show a few months ago. As in all their projects, the results of the project and what company it was prototyped for are always online -- if anyone is interested. The company only does medical devices.
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By cntrlv
#3119
Michael D. Grissom wrote: This could just as easily be built into hospital beds and wheelchairs.
there are scales for wheelchairs to roll on or for people to stand on. I've been weighed by them when i was wheelchair bound a few years ago and I'm being weighed by them currently (while standing) in a research study, but building a scale into a bed would be a real help for people in intensive care who can't be moved from machines.
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By Michael D. Grissom
#3122
I know very little about the medical field. Is there a decent market for weight scales integrated into beds and wheelchairs? I'm curious because this would be extremely easy to do -- so easy it might not be patentable. If it were profitable, I would think that someone would have done it by now. A Strain Guage at each wheel fed to one logic circuit would measure the average to the fraction of an ounce. The patentable invention here, if not already done, would be the integration of a Strain Guage (or similar device) into the "terminus support" (meaning wheels/legs etc.). "Terminus Support" is a patent classification term that I had never heard of until I patented my "RockAbsorber". The Strain Guage is so small (printed circuit roughly the size of a square Chicklett breath mint but paper thin), relatively inexpensive, and so accurate that it is commonly used in devices that measure the weight of postal letters to the fraction of an ounce. (example: Pitney Bowes). The largest manufacturer of Strain Guages is located just outside of Raleigh, NC USA (where I live) for anyone interested in pursuing this project. When I have time, I'll do a patent search on this and post the results here. This is an exciting idea!
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By FlatTop808
#3127
In floor, wheelchair, and bed scales are already on the market. They're not cheap, mind you, but nothing in the medical business is.

http://www.srscales.com/
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