A platonically-ideal bright idea.

[brooksmoses]

So, there are lots of definitions of "bright idea". The one I'm thinking of is the sort of idea where it is simultaneously obvious and astonishing -- you've never put the pieces together before, and it never even occurred to you to think of putting the pieces together, but as soon as you see a vague mention of how they go together the result is blindingly clear.

I think this one is about as close to the platonic ideal of that that I've seen this month.

The ingredients are simple:

• One View-Master -- the little red stereoscopic viewer with cardboard disks of slides that you maybe remember from your childhood.
• One nearly ubiquitous iPhone.

And there you have it -- swap out the cardboard disk for the iPhone, and start selling apps for it. Coming soon from Hasbro (sadly not actually in collaboration with View-Master).

Comments

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Sweet!

The last thing I can remember seeing that would fit the "bright idea" was tnh managing to get rejected by the International Library of Poetry. Details in this Making Light article/parlor game (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006498.html).

[brooksmoses]

Haha! Yup, that would do it.

[quercus.livejournal.com]

Until I acquired one recently (then painted it brown, stuck rivets on it, etc.) I never realised how difficult it was to make View-Master content. Those images are tiny and their alignment is critical. I actually doubt if the iPhone is up to it (a little Android hacking later, I might see if the Legend is).

There are lots of people doing steampunk repro stereoscopes in the old postcard sized fashion. These are fairly easy. Tiny image ones though, they're hard.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

million dollar homepage was up there too