November 3, 2025 • 41 mins
Special thanks to Aaron for joining us on this episode!
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:49 - Dumb Home
00:08:22 - Car Trunk Hot Plates
00:16:59 - Free Test Vending Machines
00:22:31 - Uber for Drones
00:31:39 - 360° Home Cameras
00:39:47 - Outro
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
I'm Scott.
I'm Russell.
I'm Leo.
This is Spitball.
Welcome to Spitball, where three Wi-Fi Whisperers and a guest empty our heads of startup and
tech product ideas that we have stuck up in there so you can all have them for free.
(00:25):
Anything that we say is yours to keep.
And this week, Scott, I believe you brought our guest.
I did, and I'm kind of mad at myself it took me this long to get him on here, which is
on me, not him.
I would like to welcome Aaron DeLong.
So Aaron is a world traveler, tinkerer, tech enthusiast.
He's worked every job from designer to engineer.
He's currently manager, I believe, at HP's 3D printing department.
(00:49):
Current manager, soon to be running the department.
You need to know anything about Aaron.
His background right now is a 3D printer with a trebuchet on top of it.
And that should tell you everything you need to know about him.
Welcome, Aaron.
Welcome.
Doesn't everyone have a 3D printer with a trebuchet on top of it?
I thought that was standard issue.
Everyone aspires for it.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you for having me.
(01:10):
Oh, man.
Excited?
This is gonna be great.
Yeah, this is gonna be so fun.
So, Scott was telling me a little bit about you as we were leading up to recording here,
and one thing that he mentioned among 3D printing, laser cutting, etc., was that you are also
interested in the smart home.
Is this true?
- Yeah, I mean, you know, kind of slaps together
multiple different devices that don't want to talk
to each other smart home.
(01:31):
So yeah, and that's--
- That's exactly how they all are.
- Exactly, and this is one of the Spitball ideas we have.
So, you know, we'll-- - Oh, fantastic.
- We'll throw that out there, see what happens
because integration into smart home is one of my goals
and then actually leveraging one of your previous episodes.
(gasps)
- Oh boy, no spoilers. - I know, let's go.
- No, no.
- In order to get us warmed up for this week,
(01:52):
I wrote us a game that this time I'm gonna call Dumb Home.
So I went through history of a bunch of weird IoT gadgets
that either have like Z-Wave or Zigbee or Matter
or something that just seemed like,
why would this ever have been created
or just a little bit eccentric.
And I want you to tell me if this is a real thing
that I found or if this is a story that I made up.
(02:13):
So we'll start, by the way,
I don't know if you guys knew this.
This is an honorable mention,
IKEA's Symfonisk picture frame.
Have you guys ever heard of Ikea's Sonos speaker picture
frame?
They have wall art that's like a fabric canvas
with these beautiful prints on them that are like modern art.
But they have a Sonos speaker in them.
And they discontinued them this year.
But they've been around for like 10 years.
(02:33):
And I've always wanted one.
I'm kind of bummed that they're discontinued.
But I guess that's a little side tangent.
If I had said, for example, the Ikea picture frame speaker,
would that have been real or not?
That was, in fact, real.
So we'll start as we are.
Maybe I won't keep any of that in there.
I don't know.
We'll start as we always do with our guest.
Aaron, the Fobaro Swipe, a photo frame style Z-Wave gesture
(02:59):
pad with over a dozen hand-waving gestures
that you use to trigger scenes and device controls.
Is that real or did they make that up?
I feel like it's real, but it never worked right.
That is, in fact, real.
Yeah, 2016, that was based on Z-Wave.
Yep.
It's like doing sign language to your house.
Is that what you're doing?
I'm a wizard.
(03:19):
(laughing)
- Everyone ran out and brought one for their grandmothers.
- Yeah, right.
(laughing)
- They clap.
- No, it's a backwards hand, grandma, not a flip.
You're so bad at this.
Scott, the Acara Cube,
a six axis Zigbee cube controller that maps flips,
rotations, taps, and shakes to automations.
(03:41):
Real or made up?
- It's a lot of Zigbee here.
I'm gonna say real.
That sounds pretty plausible.
- Yeah, it is in fact real.
It's a little it's a dice.
Yeah.
If you flip it upside down, it makes the curtains close.
If you tap it, it makes the lights turn on.
Yeah, ridiculous Russell.
The third reality smart switch a battery-powered retrofit like
candy bar shaped device that physically toggles your existing
(04:04):
light rocker light switch.
No wiring.
You just put a robot over the light switch real or made up dude
that better be real.
That's like a whole Spitball.
If I don't if it's not it's a real thing.
You're absolutely right.
Yep.
Stick those things over the lights and then have your partner yell at you whenever she wants to turn on the lights and can't because
Your thing's covering it up
(04:26):
No, if you want to turn on the lights just go get your smartphone
Open up my home assistant app
figure out the face id
Exactly
I want to say I saw this rigged to a coffee maker. Oh, that's a fun idea like that actually a good use
Flip a little switch sure
Aaron, the Samsung hinge hero, a Z-Wave servo that deploys or retracts a rubber doorstop
(04:50):
so that doors auto-prop or auto-close on cue.
I feel like Samsung made this.
I made that one up.
Okay, Samsung will be making this.
It'll be in family-owned Korea next year.
If anyone would, right?
Scott, the Friant electricity meter interface.
It's a Zigbee optical clip sensor that reads your electric meter's blinking LED to long
(05:15):
kilowatt hours in your home.
Real or made up?
There's no way.
There's just no way that has to be made up.
No!
That cracked me up.
I was like, so what do you even learn from that?
I guess there's like a code to the way that the lights blink and if it's blinking faster
it can tell kilowatts going in.
Amazing.
(05:36):
Russell, the window winder 2014, a magnetic crank bot that turns casement window crank
handles to exact angles.
Real or made up?
Oh, that's real.
It's gotta be real.
I made that one up.
No way, Leo!
Come on!
So far, but someone out there, it's an idea to have for free.
(05:56):
I thought that'd be fun, right?
Like opens up the windows when it's a certain temperature out or something?
Yeah.
Maybe.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's like a dr. Seuss hand that just like rotates
Heating and cooling. Yeah
Anyways, you could have it when it reaches a certain temperature or whatever. Yeah, totally
(06:19):
Can it close the windows when it detects skunk at night? I have this problem
The windows will be closed all the time then
One more time through Aaron the leak smart snap a zigbee clamp on shut off robot and sensors for your water main valve
(06:41):
It shuts off whole house water if there's a lead that exists. Yep. Absolutely does very good. I was surprised on it
It's a weird crazy little like box that just shoon clamps over top of your water beater. Yeah, exactly
It's brilliant Scott the Akara knob goblin a matter servo clamp that latches on to any
(07:02):
Circular knob a radiator amp or stove and then twists it with torque sensing. What's that called again? Leo the knob goblin
Okay, just checking. Yep by a car. Can you use put it on your window clamp and have it open your windows?
I'm actually gonna say that's real. I mean
No, that's a great one though. That's
crazy name though
(07:27):
Especially with Russell on to me
Very last one Russell the switch bot bot
Another great name by the company switch bot
The device is called the bot the original robot finger that presses buttons and flips switches to bring dumb devices into automation
Think a hot dog on a servo. No, not real. Yes. That's what's
(07:56):
Comes out and pushes it
- Oh, I know. - 100%.
- Oh, okay.
- Like always, I wasn't keeping track,
but I think, Russell, you got the other two.
- Uh-oh. - Yay, Russell.
- You get to pick as the winner as always, who goes first?
- Well. - That's what we've always done
on this show.
(08:16):
- Russell's still coming up with it.
- Which one are you? - We're all in different spots.
- Which guy's, who wants to go?
- I don't care, kick it to whoever.
- How about Leo?
- Aaron, I heard you're a hardware guy.
I've got a banger idea that I've been waiting for.
Okay, so you are out and about and grocery shopping
and you wanna get something that's cold,
say ice cream, popsicles,
you need to go buy that gallon of milk,
(08:37):
but you know you have a couple of other stops.
Okay, what do I do?
Do I keep a freezer bag in my car at all times
or a cooler or something, just taking up trunk space?
Or say you are picking up pizza,
but you need to drive 15 minutes away,
it's gonna get kind of soggy, kind of cold,
I wish that I had a way to keep it warm.
There's no great way to like keep something in the car
(08:59):
and have heating and cooling for food.
And I've solved the form factor for this.
What we need is a hot or cold plate
that stays semi-permanent in your car's trunk.
Think like the Cold Stone Creamery Surface
or a griddle, like a Blackstone type thing,
maybe not quite that hot, but like warmer, cooler,
(09:20):
where 99% of the time when I'm using my car's trunk,
It's a thin stainless steel plate.
It's not taking up any extra space,
not any more or less convenient,
but when I need it, it'll keep my popsicles cold.
Plugs right into your cigarette lighter or whatever.
Why doesn't this exist?
If my bread's on it too, so what?
It's not gonna like hurt it if it gets cold,
but I need to keep that gallon of milk cold.
(09:42):
- But the ice cream needs to stay frozen
'cause that's an important problem.
- First world problem. - Especially with children.
This is a first world problem,
but especially with children,
you don't want soggy, runny ice cream
by the time you get home.
No, I'm with you.
And you don't want a giant cooler in your car,
which I mean, those exist.
You can get a plug-in Peltier-based cooler.
- Oh, Peltier would be perfect for that.
(10:04):
- Exactly.
So could we make it a little bit thicker
with some Airflow Peltier?
And then maybe we even modify it
to where it's like a cooler bag with the sides fold up.
And then we have insulative properties.
- Oh, the whole thing pops out.
- You wanna get stupid,
we like integrate it with our tonneau cover.
So you just pull the tonneau cover off.
I have a lid as well.
- I wanna get stupid for sure.
(10:26):
- Let's do it.
It hits the perfect intersection of crazy ideas,
coolers and automotive engineering,
which is, you know, the sweet spots for me.
- Off the shelf and parts.
- All off the shelf parts, you wouldn't need much.
Like you could have the plate be in the center
of your little trunk area or your cargo area,
have your fold up sides being whatever was left over.
(10:48):
So you have your Z heights front to back,
fold those bad boys up, couple of Velcro,
pull that tonneau cover over,
hit the switch, away we go.
- Yeah, man.
I don't even know, so if I had, say,
70 or 80 degree warm to hot day,
and I had a 30 degree or colder plate,
how long would that keep ice cream still frozen, you know?
(11:11):
You might not even need to construct an origami--
- Longer than if it was in your car without it.
- Right. - Right.
- Exactly.
- If I just need to make it home--
- That's a check your home question.
(laughing)
- Yeah, do the math.
Do the math.
what large language models are great at.
Exactly.
I saw a meme once where it's like one of the advantages
of living in the Midwest, one of the few,
is that you can just keep cheese in your car
in the winter. It just doesn't matter.
(11:33):
Yeah. Like shit, that's a
really good idea. But the multi-trip
like when you go to
Meyer to Aldi or Aldi to Meyer
and you got the cold stuff, you're like, "Oh no,
I gotta..." Yes. It's a whole different day.
Our nearest Costco is
25 minutes away. Our nearest Trader Joe's is
40 minutes away. I have to plan ahead if I happen to be going that way, right?
You guys don't just crank the AC like super low in the car or keep it super hot in there and suffer?
(11:57):
Does that even work? I don't know if it's fine.
Turn on the seat heat or whatever I know but then you get pizza stains on your passenger seat.
Seat heat?
Do you do that with pizzas? Can you throw the pizza on the seat? Hit the seat warmer?
I have done that before, yes. But it doesn't work that well.
Aaron you've been an automotive a long time
(12:17):
Can you like override the seat warmers and just like get rid of all the restrictor?
Restrictors on it and just crank crank that bad boy up 200
200 C
Theoretically you could
depending on the heating element technology if they're using some graphene or some type of heating system that has a
(12:38):
Physical max no matter what type of energy pushing through it then not really I want my battery drained
I want my alternator like making a noise. It's trying so hard
Why is there smoke coming out of the center console that's what the wiring my pizza's warm keep blowing fuses
Exactly. You know who would really love my hot cold plate is
(12:58):
DoorDash drivers stick that sucker in the back. You're getting five stars no matter what right?
So Dometic right one of the major brands that does like RV and AC systems
coolers, things along those lines.
Like, come on, Dometic, come out with this hot plate,
foldable back of the cargo area.
I think you're onto something.
(13:18):
This came to me because we have a dog kennel that folds down in the back.
And most of the time it sits with stuff on top of it, right?
But it can pop up.
It's great.
And honestly, the freezer cooler bag is real.
As we always forget to put them back in the van after we go to Costco and come lugging
them in the house and then they get tossed into the garage and everyone just walks by
them because if it's laying on the floor of the garage, it has invisibility.
(13:40):
properties, it doesn't exist.
Is there a way to passively cool this?
I don't know if you-- instead of plugging into your cigarette
lighter, because you got airflow underneath the car
as you're driving, it's always cooling.
So if you have your compressor--
I mean, maybe the cost of the energy
comes from the compressor.
But I think just having--
(14:02):
kind of doing the same technology as a radiator,
right?
OK, so we're selling not only the plate, but a hole saw.
and you just cut through the bottom of your truck.
Hope your gas tank's not under there.
- It's a mini split. - It's a kick.
Aftermarket mod, baby.
- You throw it on the back.
It just hangs out the back like a pair of truck balls.
Okay, just dangling and cooling passively.
(14:26):
- A window unit stuck out the back.
AC.
- As you're cutting through though,
you wanna make sure you aim
for the center hub of your spare tire.
Right through the middle, baby.
That's a big problem.
We might want to sell a template along with it.
Oh, a 2004 Silverado?
I'm thinking it dangles.
It dangles off the back.
It dangles off the back.
(14:47):
And like, you know--
You shut it in the-- yeah, sure.
Yeah, why not?
And then you can save on like, you know,
the whole refrigeration unit coming on.
You know?
Because I'm guessing that's what you've got to have.
Well, I don't know if that's-- yeah,
you need a compressor or something, right,
in order to do something like that?
You would if you want a heat pump going on.
need something on the outside but it needs to be able to pass refrigerant
(15:09):
like through a shut gate a shut trunk oh yeah that'd be tough two little holes
and some silicone right next to license plate bumper sticker radiator I love it
is there a way though like what if you just hung it up I guess I'm wondering
(15:33):
- You've got a vision. - I'm thinking that air flow
means, oh, the whole thing is external.
- Yeah.
- Oh, like those bike racks that slide into the hitch.
That's your clue. - It's a little much, right?
A little much.
- It's just an old fridge on its side.
(laughing)
(15:55):
We could invent this today.
Sell a kit, we're on it.
- Something like that.
- Something like that.
- Okay, you get water, right?
'cause water evaporating with wind, air,
it creates cooling, right?
- Swamp cooler. - So you fill it with a bunch
of a couple gallons of water.
Hey, this is for a long hike, all right?
(16:17):
You can make cooling by just evaporating water, right?
Can't you cool some?
Yeah.
- An evaporative cooler, swamp cooler.
I don't think it's gonna be down to freezer levels.
- Beer cold on the highway, I love it.
- If it's hot and it's dry,
swamp coolers can bring it down a few degrees.
They're not gonna damage you out of here.
You have to look at the math on it, but they do have vortex coolers that they use on machinery
(16:37):
But it's usually using high-pressure air. What is a vortex cooler? That sounds amazing. There's your branding right there, baby
What is that? I'm pressing the air with my freaking car at a hundred miles per hour
You know, it's just
Just wasted. Yeah wasted airflow. Not the engineer obviously. No, really
you know what I'm saying?
(17:03):
All right, Scott, what do you got for us?
- Okay, I had a hardware idea
because I was excited for Aaron coming on,
but I just saw a sign driving back home
that I need to talk about a little bit.
- Oh, great.
- It just said free pregnancy tests and then an address.
And I saw multiple of these,
like the same sign at different intersections.
And I'm like, I gotta Google this.
(17:25):
So I got back here, I Googled it,
And it's just a whole thing that these guys got going on
where they're like, come to this location,
take a pregnancy test.
If you are pregnant,
then apparently they just solicit you after that point.
Oh, you're pregnant.
Well, you need to, I don't know,
buy such and such baby insurance going down the way,
or here's some brand of diaper coupons and other things.
(17:46):
And they're just like trying to bring people in
off the street.
And if you hit their target market,
then they solicit to you.
And I feel like there's something there
that we just need to think through on it.
Like you could do, can we set up, I don't know,
a tent or something where you set up different tests
of just people driving by?
(18:07):
I don't know, you could, probably you don't wanna do
like an STI or something test going through, but like--
- Uncle Jim's back tent STI tests.
- Yeah, exactly.
- I feel like the police have done this,
but it was more for DUIs.
(laughing)
- It's a checkpoint.
Come see if you have syphilis.
It's branded like it's perfect. Okay, the markets there like the really low end you could be like, okay
(18:30):
Do a smartphone battery test on the upper end like get a quick free allergy test or hearing test or something for your car
Or whatnot and then depending on if people pass or fail the test, you now have all of their contact information
You know, they have a known problem sponsored by a glasses company. You solicit from there and sell the data exactly
It's like what was that Theranos put the blood tests on there
(18:53):
But we're not going to talk about that one anymore.
That's just what it's like, huh?
Okay.
This is honestly, Scott, this is genius.
Every rest area along the way.
Imagine you pull up and it's just a vending machine.
Okay.
Check your oil, check your cool, like piss on this stick, right?
And you bring it back to the machine and it's a hundred percent free.
(19:14):
So as soon as you ask for the freebie, you type in your email address, get your
results by bringing this thing back to the machine, and then now you have locked
It's free.
You're ready at a rest stop.
You're kind of.
I need 20 minutes to just walk
around and take a break.
Sure. I'll I'll piss on this free
stick, you know, and all of a sudden
I know everything about you and I'm
going to market the shit you
(19:36):
like. That's an amazingly
sure evil a little bit,
but also like a genius
marketer is going to do it if we
don't.
So they already are with pregnancy
tests.
What's the problem that America
has? It's the weight.
Right. Everyone's trying to lose a
few pounds. And now there's these
Blow in devices that tell you what metabolism you are and what your body makeup is and what
(19:59):
food works the best for you.
I don't know this.
Like do that.
Okay.
Like the rest of the top area would be awesome.
You walk up like you get your own personal little piece to blow into and the machine
tells you like, "Hey, right now you're having a lot of carbs.
Like carbs are the perfect food for you."
Go down the street to whatever the restaurant is that's serving carbs at the death rock
(20:20):
Brought to you by Olive Garden.
Yeah, exactly.
All you can eat pasta and breadsticks.
But you can look at it from a health standpoint.
Yeah.
Cress comes out with a freebie at Olive Garden and now you're just in an infinite loop of
freebies.
Exactly.
Garlic to mint.
I like that though.
Like you could get a blood pressure or cholesterol test or something on the side and like you
(20:44):
even if it isn't instantaneous the results they still have you and they these evil marketers
Now know your that your cholesterol is too high and they could market random medicines or whatever to you for that
Well, this really is evil. No, it's not as evil as anything else you do like I guess like
Anything else that everybody does there's just a hint of it, right? You don't have to do it
We're just like getting rid of the air
(21:05):
We're just doing easier targeted barking
And they're getting a free service for it's a good pivot for the free ask that was in Sam's Club
You guys remember that there was like a vending machine thing that would give out little tide pod
samples or a coupon for a dollar off that frozen chicken
next door or whatever, but it was a big vending machine
thing, you walked up, you scanned your membership card
(21:25):
and it would just spit out something.
And it was like, this week is free dish detergent
or whatever week, and so you'd get a little trial sample
for free, it's like almost what you're describing.
Very close.
- Now it just tells you if you have heart disease,
that's all.
(laughing)
It's kind of like the blood pressure test
(21:47):
at the same thing at Sam's, I think it was, right?
Where they have the machine you can walk up to,
stick your arm in, blood pressure test.
Your blood pressure's high.
Take-- here's this prescription that, you know,
would go talk to your doctor about.
And then come back to Sam's and fill it.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Honestly, what are you doing in the car anyway?
You're contemplating life, you know?
This is a total, like, you know,
perfect attack on the driver.
(22:09):
When they're just sitting at their windshield,
listening to their other podcast, you're like, "Ugh.
What is my blood pressure, right?"
all of a sudden I'm stressed out traffic for 30 more minutes excellent excellent
segue to our sponsor this week Lipitor Lipitor thanks so much for sponsoring
the pod talk to your doctor today
(22:36):
all right Russell what do you got this week all right you guys gotta tell me if
we already did this one but I think I think this is an awesome idea so I've
I've been in my current role, I have to look at properties,
like live, like as most recent as possible,
like physical properties, okay, parcels.
(22:56):
- Like surveys. - Surveys, right?
And I was wondering, you know,
this goes back to another episode
where everybody has drones sitting in their house somewhere.
I'm thinking we create a network of live drones
on top of a bunch of different variety of houses,
utility poles or whatever.
And at random points during the day,
a drone will just fly up in the air,
(23:19):
take a bunch of photos,
and then sit back down on the utility pole.
Okay, and you can do it for a few reasons.
One, if you wanna see live traffic,
if an accident occurred,
if I am a company that wants to see a person's property
for whatever reason that I need to, right?
I think we're in an age of surveillance.
(23:39):
This is great, no, I mean, we can cut that.
- Seriously, people love that, yes.
But I mean, this is more of a public utility, right?
For people, for whatever, to see anything that's happening
or going on locally or whatever, right?
So it's just a live drone imaging service.
Right now, I mean, it's happening today, right?
(24:00):
Drones are flying over your head.
There's like three different companies that I know of
right now taking high res photos of metro areas
to just, so I can measure your roof, right?
Or measure your driveway.
Why not do that more real time?
'Cause sometimes people will add something to their house,
and like right now those images come out once a year.
(24:21):
But I think it'd be awesome if you could like,
you know, News 5, Chicago, traffic, live update.
Here's an image, right?
Here's an image.
This is simply put, a very simple, efficient way
to capture whatever photos you need of an area.
That's it.
- You need to figure out what it was
that made people endear themselves
to the Google Street View cars.
(24:42):
Everyone loves those things, even though it's exactly the same idea, right?
There we go.
Why is it?
They just want to see themselves on the Google in six to eight weeks.
That's all.
So I'm famous.
I'm on Google maps.
You could also be on the utility pole drone network.
Russell, your MVP is just going to be a balloon with a 3d camera tied to a pole at the top.
(25:05):
Just sitting there.
Hey, it's going to drive some crazy people to run out there every time the drones up, like in a
different outfit. Like it's gonna go viral.
Here we go. Sprints outside. Sprint outside. The drone's up. The drone's up.
I'm in my evening wear. Harlem Shake or something right under it. Exactly. Some
crazy dance. Streakers. Yeah. It's gonna happen. Streakers. Yeah.
(25:29):
Mooning the camera. Why even make a drone? Why did I just have a... if people are so
freaked out of drones, it could just be a 360 camera that extends 30 feet in the air
and comes back down. A lightning rod. Yeah. I mean if you look at the way it was done
before right it's Street View and Google Earth. I mean there's enough Starlink
systems up there now like couldn't Starlink just cover all that space? Take
(25:52):
some pictures. Are they already? I have no idea. Are there cameras on those? Low Earth
orbit camera like microsats is becoming a thing. There's like small colleges that
have launched their little satellite that takes pictures and stuff yeah it's
It's a real thing.
I'm just bringing it home a little sooner.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just, you know.
I'm intrigued, Russell, why you chose the angle of like, non-profit, everyone benefits,
(26:16):
community, humanitarian sort of public utility.
That's an interesting angle.
Are you imagining like, local municipalities buying these things?
And putting them on their polls?
You know, I don't know.
I just need a picture of somebody's house to help them out.
It could be a for-profit thing, right?
you pay three bucks for your one minute of drone time or something?
(26:36):
I pay ten dollars to rent a drone to fly in the air for 30 seconds.
So going with this right, drone in a box is now a thing.
And it's being rolled out across communities all over the place for law enforcement.
Yeah, it's basically drone as first responder.
Drone in a box. Yes!
What is a drone in a box?
Drone in a box.
What does that mean?
(26:56):
So drone in a box is essentially a box with a drone.
Thus, the term drone in a box.
But what does it do?
You place these things...
Is that all drones?
No, not all drones.
Well, I guess, yeah, they kind of come in a box, but that's when they're shipped over
in China.
Yes.
So, they have essentially a parking garage for drones.
And what these things do is they allow you to launch the drone remotely, computer controlled,
(27:21):
so you don't have to have a pilot there.
They're running the drone remotely, but from another location.
So then the drone launches and goes to where you tell it.
So if you go to Oakland County, in fact, the website's up over on the other screen.
I'm just looking at this earlier today.
They have essentially this.
So now in the Pontiac area, according to the Oakland County websites, traffic accidents,
(27:44):
they can be there in three minutes.
So drone is on scene, drone is first responder.
So this is happening already, but on, I would say, the public safety side of things.
But what if drone in a box now was monetized by public use?
So that way, first responders had access to a much larger network funded by private use.
(28:09):
So now I need a drone to fly over this house because I'm a roofing company.
Did you get permission?
Yes, I got permission.
Here's the paperwork.
The drone isn't responding to an accident right now.
It goes up, flies over, does the route, gets what you need, flies back, lands.
there anyways. Now you're monetizing public safety.
Some people make a hobby out of like maintaining a few of these that make a
(28:30):
few bucks here and there in their spare time. It's sort of distributed like an
Uber driver but I maintain a drone fleet. Yeah, exactly. I mean that would be
awesome like okay I set up my drone. Let's say like private, like people that
own drones, that would be perfect. You just stick out your drone, little little
roof on top right and then when you know that'd be so cool. Your drone gets
(28:51):
It's commandeered by the fire department.
Live in your chimney.
Like, would you, like for example, like if you had a drone on the top of your, like,
if you could sign up for this service, right?
Like your local community, first 15 people.
Host the drone.
Yeah, you want to put it on your roof.
Host a drone.
That's it, right?
And maybe you can use it like once a week or something to do a cool aerial photography
(29:14):
of your, you know, you get a couple licenses or a couple free photo shoots in there.
Like oh, but we just need a place.
use for anyone in the networks.
So you can go see what's the weather at the beach right now?
Or, oh man, I just haven't heard from my cousin in a while.
Let me do a wellness check over across the country or whatever.
Right?
Like,
Oh, is it busy downtown right now for that fall fest event?
(29:36):
You know, maybe I'll go a little later.
There's drawbacks to all of this though.
Okay.
So yeah, you're 16 years old.
Your parents are on a cruise in Aruba and you're throwing a party.
And next thing you know, the neighbor's drone is hovering over your front window.
staring in. I'm on the other side now as a parent I'm like hell yeah let's get that drone up there. You've crossed over. I threatened the kids with sending the drone and like dad come on.
(30:05):
That's gonna end up in a whole Kevin McAllister thing of you silhouettes and
everybody's a-okay and the windows no party here mom. We're just sitting playing Uno.
- Drone is first responder.
I've never heard of any of this.
This is sick.
- It's fairly new.
- I can see there probably being an initial public outcry
(30:26):
and some pushback.
- That's when we market the anti-drone stuff.
- Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be first onto scene
and you wanna get real-time video of a fire just starting
or a traffic accident and what needs to be sent to the scene.
Police, ambulance.
- 911 operators?
Like, imagine, that would be insane.
(30:46):
No, I want an app where I just have a button
that's just, I need a drone.
And I hit it and the drone immediately comes
to my location and starts recording above me.
Whatever is going on.
- Uber for drones.
- Yeah, Uber for drones.
- When I was doing real estate photography, right?
Like the amount of money we spent on drones
getting crashed into a tree or whatever is just like insane.
(31:07):
So it'd be cool.
I mean, maybe that's still a problem with this device, right?
- 'Cause you're a bad driver.
(laughing)
- I mean, I wasn't the one driving.
The amount of money that I spent crashing everyone's drones.
Yeah.
Like, like our parent, the parent company had to pay, either pay insurance for drones
or like just be like, sorry guys, you got to pay up.
(31:29):
You have to buy another $800 drone all of a sudden.
But it's like.
I was, I read right on the order to get this house recorded.
You wanted to fly through, so I did.
All right, Aaron.
All right.
Let's hear what you got this week.
- So combining a little bit of everything
that we've talked about,
(31:50):
automotive companies have started to integrate
360 degree view cameras into their vehicles.
It works great when you're pulling out of a parking spot.
Anytime that you have a situation where you're at Costco
and someone's loading all the food into their coolers
in the back of their vehicles and are paying attention
and just push the car back, right?
(32:11):
Whatever's going on.
but they give you a really great bird's eye view
of your vehicle.
Well, years ago, some crazy cousin of mine
decided to tell me that there was this really amazing
new company called Wyze that was kickstarting some cameras
and I really needed to get one of these.
It was amazing, it was like 20, 25 bucks, works awesome.
(32:33):
So I did, and three or four generations of cameras later,
you know, neck deep in the ecosystem,
but they work, like I love them.
until my dog is barking at I don't know what somewhere in my yard and I try to
pull up the Wyze app and I'm flipping through, there's no great view to be able
to see what's going on with cameras that are around my house. So since I don't
(32:54):
have a drone on my roof that I can just launch whenever I want to, could I have
a 360 view of my house? Like Google Earth already has this view from the from
satellite. Now I go into the Wyze app and I tell it hey I've got a camera here
here and here and it goes great.
I don't know which way they're aimed.
(33:15):
Like cool, but I take my phone,
because Wyze is using QR codes for everything,
and I walk around my house with the QR code
and now Wyze cameras are seeing me with my phone
and can then calculate where I'm at
and then overlay a composite view to my hot dogs.
Now, when my dog is being an idiot,
(33:37):
I can just pull up that composite view and go,
Ah, she's right there.
What is she barking at?
And I know exactly what it is.
Now, lately, my biggest problem with the dog has been sand cranes.
And if you've ever seen these things, they're three-ish feet tall
and they sound like pterodactyls.
Like they're prehistoric pterodactyls.
(33:59):
And now when the dog knows the sound, especially my daughter's Doberman
that spends time with the house on occasion, goes nuts.
Okay.
Whoa.
where are these things?
I want them off my lawn.
Yeah.
Could I then
integrate this smart home technology
and get my sprinklers to chase them away?
(34:21):
So first piece,
I want the 360 view from my house.
WISE, get on this.
Let's go.
Two,
can I integrate the water cannon
from a previous episode
into solar-powered sprinkler heads?
Like I already have the controller.
I've got Rachio, and it turns my sprinklers on.
So now it knows where those sand cranes are.
(34:43):
- Heard them from zone to zone.
- Pushed them into the neighbor's yard.
- Realizes they're at zone three,
and they're right next to sprinkler head number five.
Fires that bad boy up,
and since now the sprinkler head is solar powered,
I can use servo drive to target it.
To zone to zone, push him into the neighbor's yard,
but I mean, sand cranes are my use case,
but what about people that have deer
that they can't stop the deer from eating?
(35:04):
They're trouble.
- I just got a new house,
and the previous owner told me,
"Okay, now that everything is signed
and there's no take backsies, you got a raccoon problem.
There are many raccoons in this area
and they are trying to get into your house all the time.
So just be ready for that."
And then he left.
- Currently fighting with chipmunks.
Have you seen the mosquito targeting laser system?
(35:24):
- I just saw that on GoGo.
- Yeah, I mean, okay, let's add onto this, right?
Like, you know, the bugs are in front of the cameras
and they're always going off like,
"Hey, there's movement, there's a person.
It's a mosquito."
Yeah, just take them out.
(laughing)
- Bogey.
- Mm-hmm. - Bogey.
- Fifth generation Wwise camera.
- I don't have a problem with mosquitoes.
- I got Nest cameras everywhere and I love it
(35:45):
whenever I, you know, something goes bump in the night,
pull out the phone, flip it up and be like,
okay, everything's fine, we're good.
To just have a 360 view where I could just pan in a circle
and see the entire house real quick would be amazing.
- The 3D render.
- And then as my window is closing
because it detected the skunk,
it'll tell me right where the skunk is.
(36:05):
I like the idea of the Google Earth view of being able to like
See the 3d model of your house in real time as the little things are walking around your house
So you are like out in your front yard waving and there's me looks like I'm in a video game, but in Google Earth
Or the FedEx person is at this at the street waving at me because my dog is right at the invisible fence line ready
(36:29):
Yes
Allegedly that that's happened
(laughing)
- The lawsuit's pending with FedEx.
She's good, she just wants a treat,
they throw her a treat, she's happy.
It's a communication issue.
Thank you US Postal System for training my dog to this.
- I think it's just so, yeah,
it'd be so cool to see the dollhouse view of your house.
(36:52):
- Yeah, it would be.
Dollhouse, 360 dollhouse.
- Yeah, that's what the Matterport uses that term,
whatever, it'd be even cooler,
I don't know if you can do this, right,
But if you could literally, you know how when you do
the virtual tours where you can appear on a specific spot
in your, on your sidewalk or whatever?
I don't know if you could do that with enough patching
(37:13):
and imagery and throw a little AI in there, right?
To generate a little imagery, right?
So that you can be, of course AI will solve everything.
- Take my millions of dollars, yes.
- Yeah, now I'm next to my fire pit while my,
while there's a party going on or something, right?
I'm like, oh, I'm away, but at least I feel like I'm there.
(37:33):
I don't, it's a--
- Put on your VR headset and sit outside in your backyard.
While in your own home.
- Hanging out with all your friends
who are also all virtual there too.
It's just an empty fire.
- With my WyzeCam speaker going (imitates crackling)
Crackle, crackle, right?
- The drone shows up overhead
because the fire department's trying to figure out
(37:54):
why there's a fire and no one's there.
- It's monitored drone.
- Exactly. - Yeah.
- Come on, Wyze, think about it.
If you have a blind spot, you just sold another camera.
- You could sell the software technology
to Wyze, Ring, all of 'em.
- Right now, I hope this isn't going to AWS
(38:15):
'cause Amazon is like, they're scraping this right now
and there's somebody coding it as we speak.
(laughing)
- I mean, it incentivizes too, you buying more cameras.
Right? - Yeah, absolutely.
I've got a blind spot, I wanna cover this corner
I can't see what's going on when I'm walking around my house. I disappear with my phone
That's where the burglars get in unless you cover it. Yeah, I'm showing the live top down or the raccoons. There you go
(38:40):
I'm just saying allegedly there may be one underneath my Subaru on
chipmunk patrol so, you know
Movement detected fire the laser
That stays attached as you drive. It's a test of the amazing but no no
Clamp it on the catalytic converter and you're off to the races. Okay, it's it's totally rigged
(39:01):
What happens is when you buy the wise cams to install to your parents house?
And then the chipmunk decides to try to get into your Subaru from the bottom
You just run the 30-foot cord from the garage under there
Onto a giant piece of steel that you happen to have next to the plasma cut. Yeah, that works
Trebuchet and the prayers just the beginning
(39:24):
The electrocution plate I love it
Yeah, and then your windows shut to keep the smell of fried chipmunk. I was just gonna say it smells a little like burnt hair
There's no voltage hook to it. It's just a chunk of steel. Come on
(39:44):
Brought to you by acne
Well, dear listener if you are on a Benny Hill style adventure trying to destroy some critter that lives in your home
Thank you very much for listening while you embark on that journey. We hope you enjoyed yourself
And thank you very much Aaron for joining us. This was awesome. Thank you gentlemen for hosting me greatly appreciated
What a pleasure our website is spitball.show there you can find links to our YouTube channel other social media
(40:09):
Hey
If you have an idea of a quarter pitch and send it to us voice memo
Whatever it is that you've got for a microphone send it on over to podcast@spitball.show
We might discuss it on the show. That's also how you can follow us on the Fediverse such as mastodon
We are podcast@spitball.show or on BlueSky at spitball.show.
Our subreddit is r/SpitballShow.
Our intro/outro music is Swingers by Bonkers Beat Club.
(40:30):
Please, if you wouldn't mind that one friend who is always buying the new drone,
even though they never fly the one that they have now, Russell,
send them a link to this episode.
We think that they'd really like this one.
And please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
whatever it is that you listen, subscribe at us and leave a review.
That's the best way for people to find out about the show.
(40:50):
New episodes coming out in two weeks. We will see you then.
I'm Scott.
I'm Russell.
I'm Leo.
This is Spitball.
Welcome to Spitball, where three Wi-Fi Whisperers and a guest empty our heads of startup and
tech product ideas that we have stuck up in there so you can all have them for free.
(00:25):
Anything that we say is yours to keep.
And this week, Scott, I believe you brought our guest.
I did, and I'm kind of mad at myself it took me this long to get him on here, which is
on me, not him.
I would like to welcome Aaron DeLong.
So Aaron is a world traveler, tinkerer, tech enthusiast.
He's worked every job from designer to engineer.
He's currently manager, I believe, at HP's 3D printing department.
(00:49):
Current manager, soon to be running the department.
You need to know anything about Aaron.
His background right now is a 3D printer with a trebuchet on top of it.
And that should tell you everything you need to know about him.
Welcome, Aaron.
Welcome.
Doesn't everyone have a 3D printer with a trebuchet on top of it?
I thought that was standard issue.
Everyone aspires for it.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you for having me.
(01:10):
Oh, man.
Excited?
This is gonna be great.
Yeah, this is gonna be so fun.
So, Scott was telling me a little bit about you as we were leading up to recording here,
and one thing that he mentioned among 3D printing, laser cutting, etc., was that you are also
interested in the smart home.
Is this true?
- Yeah, I mean, you know, kind of slaps together
multiple different devices that don't want to talk
to each other smart home.
(01:31):
So yeah, and that's--
- That's exactly how they all are.
- Exactly, and this is one of the Spitball ideas we have.
So, you know, we'll-- - Oh, fantastic.
- We'll throw that out there, see what happens
because integration into smart home is one of my goals
and then actually leveraging one of your previous episodes.
(gasps)
- Oh boy, no spoilers. - I know, let's go.
- No, no.
- In order to get us warmed up for this week,
(01:52):
I wrote us a game that this time I'm gonna call Dumb Home.
So I went through history of a bunch of weird IoT gadgets
that either have like Z-Wave or Zigbee or Matter
or something that just seemed like,
why would this ever have been created
or just a little bit eccentric.
And I want you to tell me if this is a real thing
that I found or if this is a story that I made up.
(02:13):
So we'll start, by the way,
I don't know if you guys knew this.
This is an honorable mention,
IKEA's Symfonisk picture frame.
Have you guys ever heard of Ikea's Sonos speaker picture
frame?
They have wall art that's like a fabric canvas
with these beautiful prints on them that are like modern art.
But they have a Sonos speaker in them.
And they discontinued them this year.
But they've been around for like 10 years.
(02:33):
And I've always wanted one.
I'm kind of bummed that they're discontinued.
But I guess that's a little side tangent.
If I had said, for example, the Ikea picture frame speaker,
would that have been real or not?
That was, in fact, real.
So we'll start as we are.
Maybe I won't keep any of that in there.
I don't know.
We'll start as we always do with our guest.
Aaron, the Fobaro Swipe, a photo frame style Z-Wave gesture
(02:59):
pad with over a dozen hand-waving gestures
that you use to trigger scenes and device controls.
Is that real or did they make that up?
I feel like it's real, but it never worked right.
That is, in fact, real.
Yeah, 2016, that was based on Z-Wave.
Yep.
It's like doing sign language to your house.
Is that what you're doing?
I'm a wizard.
(03:19):
(laughing)
- Everyone ran out and brought one for their grandmothers.
- Yeah, right.
(laughing)
- They clap.
- No, it's a backwards hand, grandma, not a flip.
You're so bad at this.
Scott, the Acara Cube,
a six axis Zigbee cube controller that maps flips,
rotations, taps, and shakes to automations.
(03:41):
Real or made up?
- It's a lot of Zigbee here.
I'm gonna say real.
That sounds pretty plausible.
- Yeah, it is in fact real.
It's a little it's a dice.
Yeah.
If you flip it upside down, it makes the curtains close.
If you tap it, it makes the lights turn on.
Yeah, ridiculous Russell.
The third reality smart switch a battery-powered retrofit like
candy bar shaped device that physically toggles your existing
(04:04):
light rocker light switch.
No wiring.
You just put a robot over the light switch real or made up dude
that better be real.
That's like a whole Spitball.
If I don't if it's not it's a real thing.
You're absolutely right.
Yep.
Stick those things over the lights and then have your partner yell at you whenever she wants to turn on the lights and can't because
Your thing's covering it up
(04:26):
No, if you want to turn on the lights just go get your smartphone
Open up my home assistant app
figure out the face id
Exactly
I want to say I saw this rigged to a coffee maker. Oh, that's a fun idea like that actually a good use
Flip a little switch sure
Aaron, the Samsung hinge hero, a Z-Wave servo that deploys or retracts a rubber doorstop
(04:50):
so that doors auto-prop or auto-close on cue.
I feel like Samsung made this.
I made that one up.
Okay, Samsung will be making this.
It'll be in family-owned Korea next year.
If anyone would, right?
Scott, the Friant electricity meter interface.
It's a Zigbee optical clip sensor that reads your electric meter's blinking LED to long
(05:15):
kilowatt hours in your home.
Real or made up?
There's no way.
There's just no way that has to be made up.
No!
That cracked me up.
I was like, so what do you even learn from that?
I guess there's like a code to the way that the lights blink and if it's blinking faster
it can tell kilowatts going in.
Amazing.
(05:36):
Russell, the window winder 2014, a magnetic crank bot that turns casement window crank
handles to exact angles.
Real or made up?
Oh, that's real.
It's gotta be real.
I made that one up.
No way, Leo!
Come on!
So far, but someone out there, it's an idea to have for free.
(05:56):
I thought that'd be fun, right?
Like opens up the windows when it's a certain temperature out or something?
Yeah.
Maybe.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's like a dr. Seuss hand that just like rotates
Heating and cooling. Yeah
Anyways, you could have it when it reaches a certain temperature or whatever. Yeah, totally
(06:19):
Can it close the windows when it detects skunk at night? I have this problem
The windows will be closed all the time then
One more time through Aaron the leak smart snap a zigbee clamp on shut off robot and sensors for your water main valve
(06:41):
It shuts off whole house water if there's a lead that exists. Yep. Absolutely does very good. I was surprised on it
It's a weird crazy little like box that just shoon clamps over top of your water beater. Yeah, exactly
It's brilliant Scott the Akara knob goblin a matter servo clamp that latches on to any
(07:02):
Circular knob a radiator amp or stove and then twists it with torque sensing. What's that called again? Leo the knob goblin
Okay, just checking. Yep by a car. Can you use put it on your window clamp and have it open your windows?
I'm actually gonna say that's real. I mean
No, that's a great one though. That's
crazy name though
(07:27):
Especially with Russell on to me
Very last one Russell the switch bot bot
Another great name by the company switch bot
The device is called the bot the original robot finger that presses buttons and flips switches to bring dumb devices into automation
Think a hot dog on a servo. No, not real. Yes. That's what's
(07:56):
Comes out and pushes it
- Oh, I know. - 100%.
- Oh, okay.
- Like always, I wasn't keeping track,
but I think, Russell, you got the other two.
- Uh-oh. - Yay, Russell.
- You get to pick as the winner as always, who goes first?
- Well. - That's what we've always done
on this show.
(08:16):
- Russell's still coming up with it.
- Which one are you? - We're all in different spots.
- Which guy's, who wants to go?
- I don't care, kick it to whoever.
- How about Leo?
- Aaron, I heard you're a hardware guy.
I've got a banger idea that I've been waiting for.
Okay, so you are out and about and grocery shopping
and you wanna get something that's cold,
say ice cream, popsicles,
you need to go buy that gallon of milk,
(08:37):
but you know you have a couple of other stops.
Okay, what do I do?
Do I keep a freezer bag in my car at all times
or a cooler or something, just taking up trunk space?
Or say you are picking up pizza,
but you need to drive 15 minutes away,
it's gonna get kind of soggy, kind of cold,
I wish that I had a way to keep it warm.
There's no great way to like keep something in the car
(08:59):
and have heating and cooling for food.
And I've solved the form factor for this.
What we need is a hot or cold plate
that stays semi-permanent in your car's trunk.
Think like the Cold Stone Creamery Surface
or a griddle, like a Blackstone type thing,
maybe not quite that hot, but like warmer, cooler,
(09:20):
where 99% of the time when I'm using my car's trunk,
It's a thin stainless steel plate.
It's not taking up any extra space,
not any more or less convenient,
but when I need it, it'll keep my popsicles cold.
Plugs right into your cigarette lighter or whatever.
Why doesn't this exist?
If my bread's on it too, so what?
It's not gonna like hurt it if it gets cold,
but I need to keep that gallon of milk cold.
(09:42):
- But the ice cream needs to stay frozen
'cause that's an important problem.
- First world problem. - Especially with children.
This is a first world problem,
but especially with children,
you don't want soggy, runny ice cream
by the time you get home.
No, I'm with you.
And you don't want a giant cooler in your car,
which I mean, those exist.
You can get a plug-in Peltier-based cooler.
- Oh, Peltier would be perfect for that.
(10:04):
- Exactly.
So could we make it a little bit thicker
with some Airflow Peltier?
And then maybe we even modify it
to where it's like a cooler bag with the sides fold up.
And then we have insulative properties.
- Oh, the whole thing pops out.
- You wanna get stupid,
we like integrate it with our tonneau cover.
So you just pull the tonneau cover off.
I have a lid as well.
- I wanna get stupid for sure.
(10:26):
- Let's do it.
It hits the perfect intersection of crazy ideas,
coolers and automotive engineering,
which is, you know, the sweet spots for me.
- Off the shelf and parts.
- All off the shelf parts, you wouldn't need much.
Like you could have the plate be in the center
of your little trunk area or your cargo area,
have your fold up sides being whatever was left over.
(10:48):
So you have your Z heights front to back,
fold those bad boys up, couple of Velcro,
pull that tonneau cover over,
hit the switch, away we go.
- Yeah, man.
I don't even know, so if I had, say,
70 or 80 degree warm to hot day,
and I had a 30 degree or colder plate,
how long would that keep ice cream still frozen, you know?
(11:11):
You might not even need to construct an origami--
- Longer than if it was in your car without it.
- Right. - Right.
- Exactly.
- If I just need to make it home--
- That's a check your home question.
(laughing)
- Yeah, do the math.
Do the math.
what large language models are great at.
Exactly.
I saw a meme once where it's like one of the advantages
of living in the Midwest, one of the few,
is that you can just keep cheese in your car
in the winter. It just doesn't matter.
(11:33):
Yeah. Like shit, that's a
really good idea. But the multi-trip
like when you go to
Meyer to Aldi or Aldi to Meyer
and you got the cold stuff, you're like, "Oh no,
I gotta..." Yes. It's a whole different day.
Our nearest Costco is
25 minutes away. Our nearest Trader Joe's is
40 minutes away. I have to plan ahead if I happen to be going that way, right?
You guys don't just crank the AC like super low in the car or keep it super hot in there and suffer?
(11:57):
Does that even work? I don't know if it's fine.
Turn on the seat heat or whatever I know but then you get pizza stains on your passenger seat.
Seat heat?
Do you do that with pizzas? Can you throw the pizza on the seat? Hit the seat warmer?
I have done that before, yes. But it doesn't work that well.
Aaron you've been an automotive a long time
(12:17):
Can you like override the seat warmers and just like get rid of all the restrictor?
Restrictors on it and just crank crank that bad boy up 200
200 C
Theoretically you could
depending on the heating element technology if they're using some graphene or some type of heating system that has a
(12:38):
Physical max no matter what type of energy pushing through it then not really I want my battery drained
I want my alternator like making a noise. It's trying so hard
Why is there smoke coming out of the center console that's what the wiring my pizza's warm keep blowing fuses
Exactly. You know who would really love my hot cold plate is
(12:58):
DoorDash drivers stick that sucker in the back. You're getting five stars no matter what right?
So Dometic right one of the major brands that does like RV and AC systems
coolers, things along those lines.
Like, come on, Dometic, come out with this hot plate,
foldable back of the cargo area.
I think you're onto something.
(13:18):
This came to me because we have a dog kennel that folds down in the back.
And most of the time it sits with stuff on top of it, right?
But it can pop up.
It's great.
And honestly, the freezer cooler bag is real.
As we always forget to put them back in the van after we go to Costco and come lugging
them in the house and then they get tossed into the garage and everyone just walks by
them because if it's laying on the floor of the garage, it has invisibility.
(13:40):
properties, it doesn't exist.
Is there a way to passively cool this?
I don't know if you-- instead of plugging into your cigarette
lighter, because you got airflow underneath the car
as you're driving, it's always cooling.
So if you have your compressor--
I mean, maybe the cost of the energy
comes from the compressor.
But I think just having--
(14:02):
kind of doing the same technology as a radiator,
right?
OK, so we're selling not only the plate, but a hole saw.
and you just cut through the bottom of your truck.
Hope your gas tank's not under there.
- It's a mini split. - It's a kick.
Aftermarket mod, baby.
- You throw it on the back.
It just hangs out the back like a pair of truck balls.
Okay, just dangling and cooling passively.
(14:26):
- A window unit stuck out the back.
AC.
- As you're cutting through though,
you wanna make sure you aim
for the center hub of your spare tire.
Right through the middle, baby.
That's a big problem.
We might want to sell a template along with it.
Oh, a 2004 Silverado?
I'm thinking it dangles.
It dangles off the back.
It dangles off the back.
(14:47):
And like, you know--
You shut it in the-- yeah, sure.
Yeah, why not?
And then you can save on like, you know,
the whole refrigeration unit coming on.
You know?
Because I'm guessing that's what you've got to have.
Well, I don't know if that's-- yeah,
you need a compressor or something, right,
in order to do something like that?
You would if you want a heat pump going on.
need something on the outside but it needs to be able to pass refrigerant
(15:09):
like through a shut gate a shut trunk oh yeah that'd be tough two little holes
and some silicone right next to license plate bumper sticker radiator I love it
is there a way though like what if you just hung it up I guess I'm wondering
(15:33):
- You've got a vision. - I'm thinking that air flow
means, oh, the whole thing is external.
- Yeah.
- Oh, like those bike racks that slide into the hitch.
That's your clue. - It's a little much, right?
A little much.
- It's just an old fridge on its side.
(laughing)
(15:55):
We could invent this today.
Sell a kit, we're on it.
- Something like that.
- Something like that.
- Okay, you get water, right?
'cause water evaporating with wind, air,
it creates cooling, right?
- Swamp cooler. - So you fill it with a bunch
of a couple gallons of water.
Hey, this is for a long hike, all right?
(16:17):
You can make cooling by just evaporating water, right?
Can't you cool some?
Yeah.
- An evaporative cooler, swamp cooler.
I don't think it's gonna be down to freezer levels.
- Beer cold on the highway, I love it.
- If it's hot and it's dry,
swamp coolers can bring it down a few degrees.
They're not gonna damage you out of here.
You have to look at the math on it, but they do have vortex coolers that they use on machinery
(16:37):
But it's usually using high-pressure air. What is a vortex cooler? That sounds amazing. There's your branding right there, baby
What is that? I'm pressing the air with my freaking car at a hundred miles per hour
You know, it's just
Just wasted. Yeah wasted airflow. Not the engineer obviously. No, really
you know what I'm saying?
(17:03):
All right, Scott, what do you got for us?
- Okay, I had a hardware idea
because I was excited for Aaron coming on,
but I just saw a sign driving back home
that I need to talk about a little bit.
- Oh, great.
- It just said free pregnancy tests and then an address.
And I saw multiple of these,
like the same sign at different intersections.
And I'm like, I gotta Google this.
(17:25):
So I got back here, I Googled it,
And it's just a whole thing that these guys got going on
where they're like, come to this location,
take a pregnancy test.
If you are pregnant,
then apparently they just solicit you after that point.
Oh, you're pregnant.
Well, you need to, I don't know,
buy such and such baby insurance going down the way,
or here's some brand of diaper coupons and other things.
(17:46):
And they're just like trying to bring people in
off the street.
And if you hit their target market,
then they solicit to you.
And I feel like there's something there
that we just need to think through on it.
Like you could do, can we set up, I don't know,
a tent or something where you set up different tests
of just people driving by?
(18:07):
I don't know, you could, probably you don't wanna do
like an STI or something test going through, but like--
- Uncle Jim's back tent STI tests.
- Yeah, exactly.
- I feel like the police have done this,
but it was more for DUIs.
(laughing)
- It's a checkpoint.
Come see if you have syphilis.
It's branded like it's perfect. Okay, the markets there like the really low end you could be like, okay
(18:30):
Do a smartphone battery test on the upper end like get a quick free allergy test or hearing test or something for your car
Or whatnot and then depending on if people pass or fail the test, you now have all of their contact information
You know, they have a known problem sponsored by a glasses company. You solicit from there and sell the data exactly
It's like what was that Theranos put the blood tests on there
(18:53):
But we're not going to talk about that one anymore.
That's just what it's like, huh?
Okay.
This is honestly, Scott, this is genius.
Every rest area along the way.
Imagine you pull up and it's just a vending machine.
Okay.
Check your oil, check your cool, like piss on this stick, right?
And you bring it back to the machine and it's a hundred percent free.
(19:14):
So as soon as you ask for the freebie, you type in your email address, get your
results by bringing this thing back to the machine, and then now you have locked
It's free.
You're ready at a rest stop.
You're kind of.
I need 20 minutes to just walk
around and take a break.
Sure. I'll I'll piss on this free
stick, you know, and all of a sudden
I know everything about you and I'm
going to market the shit you
(19:36):
like. That's an amazingly
sure evil a little bit,
but also like a genius
marketer is going to do it if we
don't.
So they already are with pregnancy
tests.
What's the problem that America
has? It's the weight.
Right. Everyone's trying to lose a
few pounds. And now there's these
Blow in devices that tell you what metabolism you are and what your body makeup is and what
(19:59):
food works the best for you.
I don't know this.
Like do that.
Okay.
Like the rest of the top area would be awesome.
You walk up like you get your own personal little piece to blow into and the machine
tells you like, "Hey, right now you're having a lot of carbs.
Like carbs are the perfect food for you."
Go down the street to whatever the restaurant is that's serving carbs at the death rock
(20:20):
Brought to you by Olive Garden.
Yeah, exactly.
All you can eat pasta and breadsticks.
But you can look at it from a health standpoint.
Yeah.
Cress comes out with a freebie at Olive Garden and now you're just in an infinite loop of
freebies.
Exactly.
Garlic to mint.
I like that though.
Like you could get a blood pressure or cholesterol test or something on the side and like you
(20:44):
even if it isn't instantaneous the results they still have you and they these evil marketers
Now know your that your cholesterol is too high and they could market random medicines or whatever to you for that
Well, this really is evil. No, it's not as evil as anything else you do like I guess like
Anything else that everybody does there's just a hint of it, right? You don't have to do it
We're just like getting rid of the air
(21:05):
We're just doing easier targeted barking
And they're getting a free service for it's a good pivot for the free ask that was in Sam's Club
You guys remember that there was like a vending machine thing that would give out little tide pod
samples or a coupon for a dollar off that frozen chicken
next door or whatever, but it was a big vending machine
thing, you walked up, you scanned your membership card
(21:25):
and it would just spit out something.
And it was like, this week is free dish detergent
or whatever week, and so you'd get a little trial sample
for free, it's like almost what you're describing.
Very close.
- Now it just tells you if you have heart disease,
that's all.
(laughing)
It's kind of like the blood pressure test
(21:47):
at the same thing at Sam's, I think it was, right?
Where they have the machine you can walk up to,
stick your arm in, blood pressure test.
Your blood pressure's high.
Take-- here's this prescription that, you know,
would go talk to your doctor about.
And then come back to Sam's and fill it.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Honestly, what are you doing in the car anyway?
You're contemplating life, you know?
This is a total, like, you know,
perfect attack on the driver.
(22:09):
When they're just sitting at their windshield,
listening to their other podcast, you're like, "Ugh.
What is my blood pressure, right?"
all of a sudden I'm stressed out traffic for 30 more minutes excellent excellent
segue to our sponsor this week Lipitor Lipitor thanks so much for sponsoring
the pod talk to your doctor today
(22:36):
all right Russell what do you got this week all right you guys gotta tell me if
we already did this one but I think I think this is an awesome idea so I've
I've been in my current role, I have to look at properties,
like live, like as most recent as possible,
like physical properties, okay, parcels.
(22:56):
- Like surveys. - Surveys, right?
And I was wondering, you know,
this goes back to another episode
where everybody has drones sitting in their house somewhere.
I'm thinking we create a network of live drones
on top of a bunch of different variety of houses,
utility poles or whatever.
And at random points during the day,
a drone will just fly up in the air,
(23:19):
take a bunch of photos,
and then sit back down on the utility pole.
Okay, and you can do it for a few reasons.
One, if you wanna see live traffic,
if an accident occurred,
if I am a company that wants to see a person's property
for whatever reason that I need to, right?
I think we're in an age of surveillance.
(23:39):
This is great, no, I mean, we can cut that.
- Seriously, people love that, yes.
But I mean, this is more of a public utility, right?
For people, for whatever, to see anything that's happening
or going on locally or whatever, right?
So it's just a live drone imaging service.
Right now, I mean, it's happening today, right?
(24:00):
Drones are flying over your head.
There's like three different companies that I know of
right now taking high res photos of metro areas
to just, so I can measure your roof, right?
Or measure your driveway.
Why not do that more real time?
'Cause sometimes people will add something to their house,
and like right now those images come out once a year.
(24:21):
But I think it'd be awesome if you could like,
you know, News 5, Chicago, traffic, live update.
Here's an image, right?
Here's an image.
This is simply put, a very simple, efficient way
to capture whatever photos you need of an area.
That's it.
- You need to figure out what it was
that made people endear themselves
to the Google Street View cars.
(24:42):
Everyone loves those things, even though it's exactly the same idea, right?
There we go.
Why is it?
They just want to see themselves on the Google in six to eight weeks.
That's all.
So I'm famous.
I'm on Google maps.
You could also be on the utility pole drone network.
Russell, your MVP is just going to be a balloon with a 3d camera tied to a pole at the top.
(25:05):
Just sitting there.
Hey, it's going to drive some crazy people to run out there every time the drones up, like in a
different outfit. Like it's gonna go viral.
Here we go. Sprints outside. Sprint outside. The drone's up. The drone's up.
I'm in my evening wear. Harlem Shake or something right under it. Exactly. Some
crazy dance. Streakers. Yeah. It's gonna happen. Streakers. Yeah.
(25:29):
Mooning the camera. Why even make a drone? Why did I just have a... if people are so
freaked out of drones, it could just be a 360 camera that extends 30 feet in the air
and comes back down. A lightning rod. Yeah. I mean if you look at the way it was done
before right it's Street View and Google Earth. I mean there's enough Starlink
systems up there now like couldn't Starlink just cover all that space? Take
(25:52):
some pictures. Are they already? I have no idea. Are there cameras on those? Low Earth
orbit camera like microsats is becoming a thing. There's like small colleges that
have launched their little satellite that takes pictures and stuff yeah it's
It's a real thing.
I'm just bringing it home a little sooner.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just, you know.
I'm intrigued, Russell, why you chose the angle of like, non-profit, everyone benefits,
(26:16):
community, humanitarian sort of public utility.
That's an interesting angle.
Are you imagining like, local municipalities buying these things?
And putting them on their polls?
You know, I don't know.
I just need a picture of somebody's house to help them out.
It could be a for-profit thing, right?
you pay three bucks for your one minute of drone time or something?
(26:36):
I pay ten dollars to rent a drone to fly in the air for 30 seconds.
So going with this right, drone in a box is now a thing.
And it's being rolled out across communities all over the place for law enforcement.
Yeah, it's basically drone as first responder.
Drone in a box. Yes!
What is a drone in a box?
Drone in a box.
What does that mean?
(26:56):
So drone in a box is essentially a box with a drone.
Thus, the term drone in a box.
But what does it do?
You place these things...
Is that all drones?
No, not all drones.
Well, I guess, yeah, they kind of come in a box, but that's when they're shipped over
in China.
Yes.
So, they have essentially a parking garage for drones.
And what these things do is they allow you to launch the drone remotely, computer controlled,
(27:21):
so you don't have to have a pilot there.
They're running the drone remotely, but from another location.
So then the drone launches and goes to where you tell it.
So if you go to Oakland County, in fact, the website's up over on the other screen.
I'm just looking at this earlier today.
They have essentially this.
So now in the Pontiac area, according to the Oakland County websites, traffic accidents,
(27:44):
they can be there in three minutes.
So drone is on scene, drone is first responder.
So this is happening already, but on, I would say, the public safety side of things.
But what if drone in a box now was monetized by public use?
So that way, first responders had access to a much larger network funded by private use.
(28:09):
So now I need a drone to fly over this house because I'm a roofing company.
Did you get permission?
Yes, I got permission.
Here's the paperwork.
The drone isn't responding to an accident right now.
It goes up, flies over, does the route, gets what you need, flies back, lands.
there anyways. Now you're monetizing public safety.
Some people make a hobby out of like maintaining a few of these that make a
(28:30):
few bucks here and there in their spare time. It's sort of distributed like an
Uber driver but I maintain a drone fleet. Yeah, exactly. I mean that would be
awesome like okay I set up my drone. Let's say like private, like people that
own drones, that would be perfect. You just stick out your drone, little little
roof on top right and then when you know that'd be so cool. Your drone gets
(28:51):
It's commandeered by the fire department.
Live in your chimney.
Like, would you, like for example, like if you had a drone on the top of your, like,
if you could sign up for this service, right?
Like your local community, first 15 people.
Host the drone.
Yeah, you want to put it on your roof.
Host a drone.
That's it, right?
And maybe you can use it like once a week or something to do a cool aerial photography
(29:14):
of your, you know, you get a couple licenses or a couple free photo shoots in there.
Like oh, but we just need a place.
use for anyone in the networks.
So you can go see what's the weather at the beach right now?
Or, oh man, I just haven't heard from my cousin in a while.
Let me do a wellness check over across the country or whatever.
Right?
Like,
Oh, is it busy downtown right now for that fall fest event?
(29:36):
You know, maybe I'll go a little later.
There's drawbacks to all of this though.
Okay.
So yeah, you're 16 years old.
Your parents are on a cruise in Aruba and you're throwing a party.
And next thing you know, the neighbor's drone is hovering over your front window.
staring in. I'm on the other side now as a parent I'm like hell yeah let's get that drone up there. You've crossed over. I threatened the kids with sending the drone and like dad come on.
(30:05):
That's gonna end up in a whole Kevin McAllister thing of you silhouettes and
everybody's a-okay and the windows no party here mom. We're just sitting playing Uno.
- Drone is first responder.
I've never heard of any of this.
This is sick.
- It's fairly new.
- I can see there probably being an initial public outcry
(30:26):
and some pushback.
- That's when we market the anti-drone stuff.
- Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be first onto scene
and you wanna get real-time video of a fire just starting
or a traffic accident and what needs to be sent to the scene.
Police, ambulance.
- 911 operators?
Like, imagine, that would be insane.
(30:46):
No, I want an app where I just have a button
that's just, I need a drone.
And I hit it and the drone immediately comes
to my location and starts recording above me.
Whatever is going on.
- Uber for drones.
- Yeah, Uber for drones.
- When I was doing real estate photography, right?
Like the amount of money we spent on drones
getting crashed into a tree or whatever is just like insane.
(31:07):
So it'd be cool.
I mean, maybe that's still a problem with this device, right?
- 'Cause you're a bad driver.
(laughing)
- I mean, I wasn't the one driving.
The amount of money that I spent crashing everyone's drones.
Yeah.
Like, like our parent, the parent company had to pay, either pay insurance for drones
or like just be like, sorry guys, you got to pay up.
(31:29):
You have to buy another $800 drone all of a sudden.
But it's like.
I was, I read right on the order to get this house recorded.
You wanted to fly through, so I did.
All right, Aaron.
All right.
Let's hear what you got this week.
- So combining a little bit of everything
that we've talked about,
(31:50):
automotive companies have started to integrate
360 degree view cameras into their vehicles.
It works great when you're pulling out of a parking spot.
Anytime that you have a situation where you're at Costco
and someone's loading all the food into their coolers
in the back of their vehicles and are paying attention
and just push the car back, right?
(32:11):
Whatever's going on.
but they give you a really great bird's eye view
of your vehicle.
Well, years ago, some crazy cousin of mine
decided to tell me that there was this really amazing
new company called Wyze that was kickstarting some cameras
and I really needed to get one of these.
It was amazing, it was like 20, 25 bucks, works awesome.
(32:33):
So I did, and three or four generations of cameras later,
you know, neck deep in the ecosystem,
but they work, like I love them.
until my dog is barking at I don't know what somewhere in my yard and I try to
pull up the Wyze app and I'm flipping through, there's no great view to be able
to see what's going on with cameras that are around my house. So since I don't
(32:54):
have a drone on my roof that I can just launch whenever I want to, could I have
a 360 view of my house? Like Google Earth already has this view from the from
satellite. Now I go into the Wyze app and I tell it hey I've got a camera here
here and here and it goes great.
I don't know which way they're aimed.
(33:15):
Like cool, but I take my phone,
because Wyze is using QR codes for everything,
and I walk around my house with the QR code
and now Wyze cameras are seeing me with my phone
and can then calculate where I'm at
and then overlay a composite view to my hot dogs.
Now, when my dog is being an idiot,
(33:37):
I can just pull up that composite view and go,
Ah, she's right there.
What is she barking at?
And I know exactly what it is.
Now, lately, my biggest problem with the dog has been sand cranes.
And if you've ever seen these things, they're three-ish feet tall
and they sound like pterodactyls.
Like they're prehistoric pterodactyls.
(33:59):
And now when the dog knows the sound, especially my daughter's Doberman
that spends time with the house on occasion, goes nuts.
Okay.
Whoa.
where are these things?
I want them off my lawn.
Yeah.
Could I then
integrate this smart home technology
and get my sprinklers to chase them away?
(34:21):
So first piece,
I want the 360 view from my house.
WISE, get on this.
Let's go.
Two,
can I integrate the water cannon
from a previous episode
into solar-powered sprinkler heads?
Like I already have the controller.
I've got Rachio, and it turns my sprinklers on.
So now it knows where those sand cranes are.
(34:43):
- Heard them from zone to zone.
- Pushed them into the neighbor's yard.
- Realizes they're at zone three,
and they're right next to sprinkler head number five.
Fires that bad boy up,
and since now the sprinkler head is solar powered,
I can use servo drive to target it.
To zone to zone, push him into the neighbor's yard,
but I mean, sand cranes are my use case,
but what about people that have deer
that they can't stop the deer from eating?
(35:04):
They're trouble.
- I just got a new house,
and the previous owner told me,
"Okay, now that everything is signed
and there's no take backsies, you got a raccoon problem.
There are many raccoons in this area
and they are trying to get into your house all the time.
So just be ready for that."
And then he left.
- Currently fighting with chipmunks.
Have you seen the mosquito targeting laser system?
(35:24):
- I just saw that on GoGo.
- Yeah, I mean, okay, let's add onto this, right?
Like, you know, the bugs are in front of the cameras
and they're always going off like,
"Hey, there's movement, there's a person.
It's a mosquito."
Yeah, just take them out.
(laughing)
- Bogey.
- Mm-hmm. - Bogey.
- Fifth generation Wwise camera.
- I don't have a problem with mosquitoes.
- I got Nest cameras everywhere and I love it
(35:45):
whenever I, you know, something goes bump in the night,
pull out the phone, flip it up and be like,
okay, everything's fine, we're good.
To just have a 360 view where I could just pan in a circle
and see the entire house real quick would be amazing.
- The 3D render.
- And then as my window is closing
because it detected the skunk,
it'll tell me right where the skunk is.
(36:05):
I like the idea of the Google Earth view of being able to like
See the 3d model of your house in real time as the little things are walking around your house
So you are like out in your front yard waving and there's me looks like I'm in a video game, but in Google Earth
Or the FedEx person is at this at the street waving at me because my dog is right at the invisible fence line ready
(36:29):
Yes
Allegedly that that's happened
(laughing)
- The lawsuit's pending with FedEx.
She's good, she just wants a treat,
they throw her a treat, she's happy.
It's a communication issue.
Thank you US Postal System for training my dog to this.
- I think it's just so, yeah,
it'd be so cool to see the dollhouse view of your house.
(36:52):
- Yeah, it would be.
Dollhouse, 360 dollhouse.
- Yeah, that's what the Matterport uses that term,
whatever, it'd be even cooler,
I don't know if you can do this, right,
But if you could literally, you know how when you do
the virtual tours where you can appear on a specific spot
in your, on your sidewalk or whatever?
I don't know if you could do that with enough patching
(37:13):
and imagery and throw a little AI in there, right?
To generate a little imagery, right?
So that you can be, of course AI will solve everything.
- Take my millions of dollars, yes.
- Yeah, now I'm next to my fire pit while my,
while there's a party going on or something, right?
I'm like, oh, I'm away, but at least I feel like I'm there.
(37:33):
I don't, it's a--
- Put on your VR headset and sit outside in your backyard.
While in your own home.
- Hanging out with all your friends
who are also all virtual there too.
It's just an empty fire.
- With my WyzeCam speaker going (imitates crackling)
Crackle, crackle, right?
- The drone shows up overhead
because the fire department's trying to figure out
(37:54):
why there's a fire and no one's there.
- It's monitored drone.
- Exactly. - Yeah.
- Come on, Wyze, think about it.
If you have a blind spot, you just sold another camera.
- You could sell the software technology
to Wyze, Ring, all of 'em.
- Right now, I hope this isn't going to AWS
(38:15):
'cause Amazon is like, they're scraping this right now
and there's somebody coding it as we speak.
(laughing)
- I mean, it incentivizes too, you buying more cameras.
Right? - Yeah, absolutely.
I've got a blind spot, I wanna cover this corner
I can't see what's going on when I'm walking around my house. I disappear with my phone
That's where the burglars get in unless you cover it. Yeah, I'm showing the live top down or the raccoons. There you go
(38:40):
I'm just saying allegedly there may be one underneath my Subaru on
chipmunk patrol so, you know
Movement detected fire the laser
That stays attached as you drive. It's a test of the amazing but no no
Clamp it on the catalytic converter and you're off to the races. Okay, it's it's totally rigged
(39:01):
What happens is when you buy the wise cams to install to your parents house?
And then the chipmunk decides to try to get into your Subaru from the bottom
You just run the 30-foot cord from the garage under there
Onto a giant piece of steel that you happen to have next to the plasma cut. Yeah, that works
Trebuchet and the prayers just the beginning
(39:24):
The electrocution plate I love it
Yeah, and then your windows shut to keep the smell of fried chipmunk. I was just gonna say it smells a little like burnt hair
There's no voltage hook to it. It's just a chunk of steel. Come on
(39:44):
Brought to you by acne
Well, dear listener if you are on a Benny Hill style adventure trying to destroy some critter that lives in your home
Thank you very much for listening while you embark on that journey. We hope you enjoyed yourself
And thank you very much Aaron for joining us. This was awesome. Thank you gentlemen for hosting me greatly appreciated
What a pleasure our website is spitball.show there you can find links to our YouTube channel other social media
(40:09):
Hey
If you have an idea of a quarter pitch and send it to us voice memo
Whatever it is that you've got for a microphone send it on over to podcast@spitball.show
We might discuss it on the show. That's also how you can follow us on the Fediverse such as mastodon
We are podcast@spitball.show or on BlueSky at spitball.show.
Our subreddit is r/SpitballShow.
Our intro/outro music is Swingers by Bonkers Beat Club.
(40:30):
Please, if you wouldn't mind that one friend who is always buying the new drone,
even though they never fly the one that they have now, Russell,
send them a link to this episode.
We think that they'd really like this one.
And please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
whatever it is that you listen, subscribe at us and leave a review.
That's the best way for people to find out about the show.
(40:50):
New episodes coming out in two weeks. We will see you then.
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