This came to me in a dream, so I don’t know if it has been baked.

Ok, my Liquid Area Network would use liquid through tubes to transfer data. It would use alternating pulses of water (and possibly flavors, and temperatures) to send data via binary code.

Of course, this would be much slower than regular data transfer, but you can’t put a price on coolness.

Originally, in my dream, my coffee maker sent the news to my upstairs computer using alternating pulses of coffee. And, a pressure sensor measured the speed at which the coffee came though, translating it into binary. Upper case letters had a slightly more amount of sugar, and fonts were measured by the amount of cream in the coffee, dark=small, light=big, it was measured by a light sensor. And if there weren’t enough large fonts or caps in a message it would send an end data signal and then the correct amount to even it out.

Of course, this would be used for home L.A.N.’s (I’m so proud of the acronym) only because resistance would slow the water down to much over large distances. Plus some one would start sending viruses over the lines if it was public. But it would be nice to have, lets say, Coca-Cola to send a blast of cold water through your lines to clear out previous data fragments and then send you a class of coke.
-- thelambs, Dec 02 2003

Toilet Traffic Testicular Titillation http://www.halfbake...cular_20Titillation
Similar yet oh so different. Warning: Do not drink. [Worldgineer, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Internet Water http://www.halfbake...ea/Internet_20Water
Also similar, but not tasty. [Laughs Last, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Yeah, a lot of my best ideas come to me right before I go to bed, when your mind is in its crazy free thinking dream mode but you still have some conscience control to steer you thoughts in the right direction.

Also, just got a new coffee maker, and have an old one not in use, and an old pc with the right stuff and a modem and such, plus a whole lot of imagination. Just need to program an interface between the pump and the pc, and write an app that will go to yahoo news, and print out the local headlines and some brief descriptions. Would make a nice holiday project…
-- thelambs, Dec 02 2003


I've seen something like this done using bubbles to transfer serial data. Perhaps ants in a thin tube would also do the trick, but you'd have to keep them away from the tubes carrying anything sweet.
-- max_pants, Dec 02 2003



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