Shipping service for famous people. Famous people have a lot of stuff shipped to them. Promotional stuff, samples, fan letters, etc. However, not all of it is safe. Organize a service that x-rays the mail, opens packages, checks the contents, and than takes pictures of the content. User can chose to relay the stuff, discard, or archive. First Steps: Check if this exists (probably), see if it’s possible to organize this under one roof.
Video documentation for packaging for high value items sent via eBay. Create a kiosk with a digital camera and a package deposit slot. User would walkup to the kiosk, package the contents on the small table provided, and throw the package into the slot. The kiosk would printout a receipt with the URL to the recorded video. Make money by reselling shipping services with UPS or FedEx. First Steps: contact high value sellers of collectibles on eBay and see if this service would be useful for them. Alternative: make an APP that does the same.
LED Lightbulb for a desk lamp with USB charger built in. This may be useful if you have the kind of desk lamp that has an easily accessible bulb. Use it to charge phone while the lamp is on. First Step: test market it, see what happens. Not sure if people need this, but I know at least one instance where I could have used it.
A male-female light socket adaptor with BLE mash network built in. Regular bulb can be screwed into the adopter, and then the whole thing is screwed into a regular socket. Each adopter is programed via a phone app to be part of a named mash network with other such lights, and is given a unique name. This allows stores, events, warehouses, etc, to individually control the lights without upgrading old wiring. The adopter can turn the light on or off, or strobe it. When lights burnout, the bulb can be replaced without having to also replace the BLE adaptor, which saves money. First Step: check patents and existence of product. Talk to store and warehouse owners to see if they would be interested.
Router with aluminum casing for passive cooling and DD-WRT or TomatoUSB software installed. Most consumer grade routers have to be restarted often due to overheating and poor firmware implementation. An E3000 router with fan cooling and TomatoUSB software can run for years with huge loads without needing to be restarted. Make aluminum casing router for passive cooling and install TomatoUSB on it. Both TomatoUSB and DD-WRT are open source, and can be recompiled for needed hardware. Sell through Kickstarter. First Step: check if it exists, if not, contact manufacturers for a spec quote.
Phone case with built in storage. 256+ GB of storage built into a Phone case. USB-C cable to connect the case to the phone or the laptop. Every time you have your phone, you have your portable HD with you as well. Write an app inside phone for file transfer to and from the HD, for backups. First Step: check availability, test market.
Plastic desk toy that can be programmed to do things in response to communication from phone or computer communicating over BLE. Make an API, partner with manufacturers that make action figures, desk toys, etc, and design reference hardware. Partner manufacturers implement the hardware into the toys. Example: Hello Kitty figurine with LED eyes and movable left hand, programed to wave when you have new email, and change eye color depending on the stock market direction. First Steps: check if it already exists, if not, contact manufacturers to see if there is interest. Design simple prototype to demo to manufacturers.
A murder mystery book that takes place in Ancient Greece. Bland the historical genre with Film Noir, show people as they really were, not the cartoonish depiction that we usually imagine. Slip in a little history lesson in there as well. First Steps: write the main character treatment and an outline, go from there.
A device that can be attached to a guitar to show the user vie LEDs how to play. The LEDs would indicate finger positions on the neck of the guitar, and similar setup on the strings. Make companion phone app. First Step: figure out how to play a guitar to see if this would be useful.
Start a book series “A Practical Guide to Everything.” Each book is no more than 50 pages (2 hours reading time max) that takes popular how to and self improvement books and condenses them to just 50 pages of prescriptive advice. Either work with authors of existing books or write once on the general subject. Example: “A Practical Guide to Losing Weight,” “A Practical Guide to Building Muscle,” “A Practical Guide to Designing a Website.” This would be similar to the Dummies books, but even shorter, without long explanations, just a step by step walk throws. Most people need prescriptive advice, not a detailed explanation of all the options and reasoning. First Steps: write one book, see if people like it, go from there.