I don’t spend too much time talking about my remote control patent mostly because there isn’t much humor in United States patents named “Electronic Control Conservation Devices.” My idea is a remote control cradle that completely shuts off power to a home entertainment system. When the remote is placed in the cradle power to the home entertainment system is shut off. Removing the remote from the cradle restores power to the system. Here is an early prototype:

I’ve submitted the idea to the website quirky.com. If I can get 200 votes for it in the next 30 days they will consider producing it. If you would like to see this on the shelves at your local stores please vote for it at the following link:

http://www.quirky.com/invent/856228

Thanks!

Here is a link showing that vampire energy is more of a problem than previously thought:

http://www.earthtechling.com/2012/07/uk-study-finds-vampire-energy-far-more-costly-than-we-thought/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

I found this video on vampirePowerSucks.com:

It has taken the better part of three years, but the patent I filed was approved and published by the Patent Office!  The process would have been shorter, but there was one claim that wasn’t approved.  Once that issue was resolved, everything went smoothly.

Black Remote has been mentioned in a popular home energy conservation site HowToSaveElectricity.net.  Check out the following link for more details:

http://www.howtosaveelectricity.net/the-blackremote-a-regular-guy-attacks-vampire-power/

Well, this may only be tangentially related to what I’m doing on this website, but I do think I make some good points– so here is goes.

I read an article in Popular Mechanics about a company that uses sunlight to create electricity using a Stirling Engine.  Today I thought of a better design for their device.  Since I really don’t have the capacity to build one on my own, I decided to go to their website and explain my idea.  Here is what I wrote:

I was thinking about your solar collector that uses a Stirling energy to convert sunlight into electricity after I read the article in Popular Mechanics.

I believe, however that you could simplify your product and increase efficiency with a small design change. Instead of placing the engine at the focal point of the mirrors, a better solution would be to place a small convex mirror at the focal point which would reflect the sun’s rays to the engine mounted in a stationary position at the center of the dish.

This configuration would reduce the structure needed to support the engine, provide a shaded area for the engine to operate, and allow for easier access to the engine for maintenance purposes.

I was impressed with what I’ve read about your company, so I hope I can contribute towards your goal of clean, renewable energy.

Omar Lutfey

I have another idea I’m pursuing at blackremote.com. If you like my suggestion, maybe you could help with my cause 🙂

I’m not holding my breath for anything to come from this, but, hey, I’ll  never know until I try.  I’ll post any replies on this blog.

I’m still waiting for word from the government on my patent, and some household projects have been sucking away all my free time that I could be using on a prototype, but I did read an interesting article on Yahoo about how the gains in efficiency from new appliances are being offset from home electronic equipment.  The complete article can be seen here:

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nf/20090514/tc_nf/66607

Today I received a letter from the patent office confirming that they have my patent application.  Yeah!  Now I just have to wait for 18 months or so until they get around to looking at it  🙁

After a few annoying lawyer related delays, I have finally submitted the official application for the patent.  The title, “Energy Conservation and Control Sytems,” isn’t quite as exciting and sexy as I envisioned, but I’m sure being descriptive is better than interesting.  The application ended up being thirty pages long, which is about twenty nine pages fewer than I used to describe the same concept.  I do have to give Chad credit– he sat with me and explained every paragraph to my satisfaction.  Basically the idea is to generalize the concept as much as possible so someone else can’t work around the patent by changing one small part of the process.

I’ve placed the majority of the patent as a seperate page.  Chad advised me not to disclose the claims section of the patent until it get a final approval from the Patent Office.