simont: A picture of me in 2016 (Default)
simont ([personal profile] simont) wrote2011-03-22 11:26 am

Gadgets I would like to exist

I've occasionally thought it would be nice to have a coffee mug with a built-in heater, so it keeps the coffee from getting completely cold. But this is an obviously impractical idea: heating costs serious energy, so you'd have to have a stand to supply the power, which is inconvenient; also there are probably some exciting failure modes.

This morning it occurs to me that there's a much smaller, simpler and more realistic coffee-related gadget that would deliver a similar benefit: a thermometer you could attach to the outside of the mug which would go beep when the temperature dropped to a predefined threshold, signalling ‘last chance to drink up your coffee before it gets unpleasantly cold’. That could much more easily be a standalone device running off a battery.

I suppose you'd also want it to notice if you'd already finished the coffee, and not go beep just because an empty mug had cooled past the threshold. Hmm. Must be something clever you can do about that…

[identity profile] the-alchemist.livejournal.com 2011-03-22 11:49 am (UTC)(link)
I think heated coffee mugs already exist - powered either through a USB cable or through something or other I don't know about because it's related to cars and I don't drive. I don't think I'd find it inconvenient to have my coffee mug on my desk attached to my computer.

[identity profile] isihac.livejournal.com 2011-03-22 12:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, my first thought was the USB hotplate.

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/usb-cup-warmer/index.html
gerald_duck: (infra-red)

[personal profile] gerald_duck 2011-03-22 10:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Or, if that's not sufficiently heavy duty, a travel mug immersion heater.