Slashdot Mirror
Self-Heating Coffee Hacking
ptorrone writes "Awhile back I wrote about the new Wolfgang Puck self-heating coffee containers that took 10 years and $24 mil to develop. Well, I managed to find them in a local store and bought them to take apart to see how they work. Once activated, they reach 145 degrees in about 6 minutes. This isn't a review of the beverage, it's all about the stuff that makes the liquid hot, how it works, pictures and links to patents. I am looking in to how these could be recycled too."
He should definitely put that into the wikipedia.
I wish that worked on girlfriends...
now that they've spent millions on making self heating coffee, how much will it cost to develop re-heated coffee that tastes good?
It has a bunch of pictures.. so in anticipation of a slashdotting:
Google Cache
This would be great for taking soups along with you. Especially for lunchs or breakfasts, or on hiking trips.
If you like what I've said here, and want to read more, go to http://www.krillrblog.com
Hot coffee hack? Wait till the ESRB hears about this!
Why did this take so long to figure out? MRE's have been self-heating for a long time and the heater in them gets really hot in less time...
I was curious, how much do one of these things go for?
It seems like an awful waste to engineer all this just for a single use. When I read the article I imagined that this would somehow have multiple uses!
I can see the lawyers lining up now. Can't wait to read the warnings on the label.
But why would anyone buy Wolfgang Puck's coffee, which I've never heard him associated with? It's like the idea of buying Lil' Caesar tea... why would I?
Okay, maybe it is neat that they've been able to make this work, but doesn't it seem just a bit wasteful to anyone but me? Western society at it's best, I guess.
robert
After the article earlier about the GTA hack, /.ers will all be much more interested in hot coffee than before.
Would have been interesting if they made seperate compartments or something to allow for reheating later. And on a seperate note, what the hell did they spend $24 million on? The chemical compound? Beyond that everything else seems to be simple and already existing technology.
The army has been using this technology in its rations for a loooong time now.
If you like what I've said here, and want to read more, go to http://www.krillrblog.com
Besides the breaking apart of the container (a literal hack since he cut the thing), how is this "hacking"?
The article notes that the container, while appearing very large, actually holds less coffee than one would originally think. Even after the author removed the insulation, there was still little room for the coffee itself.
Also, because it uses a water / calcium oxide reaction (basic high school chemistry stuff), which means that it'll heat once and then become nothing more than another cup. While I have no idea how much these retail for, I'm sure that the price is inflated more by the "oh shiny" factor than production or development costs.
-- arstchnca
--
grits?
It's a great idea however the amount of coffee you actually get to drink compared to the mechanism that makes the whole thing work is quite a small amount (i.e like the size of a short macchiato).
I still have a bunch of the nifty paper MRE heaters Uncle Sam gave me back in.... '93. Sheesh. I'm getting old.
If you do what you always did, you get what you always got.
So there it is, an exothermic reaction.
Good conclusion, Mr Obvious.
Can I be in the Makezine, too? I've researched why it is that round objects roll better than ones with lots of corners.
25 Million and 10 years? That's like employing 15 scientists and engineers at a good wage (plus room for admin overhead), all working 40 hour weeks for an entire decade.
For this low-tech device? Something doesn't add up.
Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
Pulling it apart is probably the best thing you could do with it.
You see, the thing that many people in the US completely miss is that the breweing of coffee was perfected in 1855 and it is senseless to mess with it. A shot of espresso made with freshly roasted / ground beans and on a well maintained machine by a well trained barrista is the apex of coffee perfection and cannot be improved upon. There is no substitute, and it cannot be put in an can.
Why the hell such abominations as the Wolfgang Puck Gourmet Latte and just about everything they serve at Starbacks are permitted to exist is beyond me.
:wq
Let's just plug the MAKE blog's rss feed into Slashdot directly!
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
Silicone oxide is the right one.
Lots of pictures... try this Coral cache
-Code
Why not just drop in a couple of nanograms of antimatter. Heats my coffee just fine.
does it run linux?
I bet you'll start seeing obnoxious pple going through all of a store's stock pushing the heat button on each of the cans so that the end customer gets cold coffee :p
The bits on the bus go on and off... on and off... on and off...
Anyone know how much one of these things cost? Do is it even taste good? I cant imagine it would be any better than any other instant coffee.
Has any of ./'s coffee nerds had a chance to try this stuff? The concept sounds kind of gross to me-- I can't imagine reheated coffee tasting all that great-- but I'd buy a couple for "emergencies" if they found some way to make it good. Can anybody comment on the taste?
You can easily remove the liquid and use it for something else.
Which Liquid man?! I'm so confused already!!!
Do I remove the coffee and heat my "hot choclate" or do I remove the water and wash part of my hand?
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
"This is so wasteful it honestly offends me."
Condoms are wasteful too.
I haven't even seen a glimpse of these things in cali and for all the searching it was worth I couldn't find anyone selling them online...
[/rant]
t ml
The hack is cool.
But this crappy coffee can is worthy of a patent? A calcium oxide/water reaction learned in any highschool advanced chemistry class?
Reading the patent below, I must wonder if those who give out patents get lost in the gobbely-gook of the descriptions not to see that it seems to fail the basic requirements of a patent:
http://www.patentsearchexpress.com/requirements.h
Especially in the view of non-obviousness in view of prior art. Self-heating pads using assorted chemicals have been around for a long time. How long was it before someone applied it to not to hands but to food/drinks which we've been warming up since like forever. This is question of application, not innovation.
I also have to question the $24 million to develop this thing. Reminds me when GE (or maybe whirlpool???) came out with front-loading washers like 10 years or so ago and announced it took $100M to develop and spouting all the benefits of the system (lower water consumption, etcetera). When the europeans have been using front-loaders since at least the '50s, you gotta wonder who's been embezzling all that cash.
[/rant]
(From The article}
United States Patent 5,461,867
Scudder , et al. October 31, 1995
Container with integral module for heating or cooling the contents
Abstract
An outer container for holding a material, such as a food, beverage or medicine with a sealed thermic module inside the container. The thermic module contains chemical reactants that mix upon actuation of the container by a user. Mixing of the reactants produces an exothermic or endothermic chemical reaction, depending upon the reactants selected. The contents of the outer container surround a portion of the outside surface of the thermic module, thereby facilitating conduction of heat. The thermic module has a hollow module body that is closed at one end and a module cap that seals the other end of the module body. The module body contains the solid reactant, and the module cap contains the liquid reactant. The module cap has a tubular section with a flexible member closing one end and a breakable barrier closing the other end. With the exception of the barrier, the cap is of unitary construction. The cap has one or more integrally formed prongs extending from the inner surface of the disc toward the barrier. The prongs move in an axial direction toward the barrier and may also spread apart radially when the outer surface of the flexible member or an actuator connected to it is depressed by the user's finger. The dual motion of the prongs in both axial and radial directions promotes complete puncturing of the barrier and thus fast mixing of the reactants.
Link.
Self-heating cans have been around for ages and ages. I remember seeing ads for self-heating canned foods for camping back in the early 1980s. I first saw a can of self-heating sake in the Tokyo Hilton in 1996, ever since then I've been kicking myself for not buying it from the overpriced mini-bar. Self-heating foods are a staple of MREs in the US Military, it uses the same exothermic chemical packs.
So, what's so special about the coffee cans now?
The military has been doing this for YEARS.
MRE heaters.. No big deal. You can buy them by the crateloads at gun shows for 50 cents each, will heat a meal in a few minutes, just add water. Stores forever.
Must have items if you live on the coast where you may lose power from hurricanes, etc..
(one of MANY places to get the things..)
http://militarysurplusdepot.com/m_r_e_heater.html
you've never woken up late- and JAMMED your butt into the car, and had NO TIME..?
I want a case of this on the backseat of my car.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
It looks like, for the first time I can think of, the consumer is responsible for non-home-made coffee. In the event that coffee is purchased in stores to-go, the cups contain CYA disclaimers that the coffee is hot and can scald. This coffee, from the pictures I saw, has no disclaimer for its dangers. Many consumers will have little idea how the cup "magically" heats itself.
Is the pushing of a button on a cup enough action on the consumer's part to save the company from all liability?
I'll be your candy shop of infinite deliciousity if you'll be my discotheque of endless rump-shaking.
I can't believe that noone has made the obligatory joke about the old woman who spills the Wolfgang Puck coffee on herself and then sues him for millions.
Followed by the debunking replies who will supply the link to snopes.
Followed by the bashing of lawyers.
Then someone will blame it on MS/USPTO/RIAA/SCO.
By then it will have thankfully dropped to the bottom of the page and then into old news.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
i see those self-heating coffee things so rarely though. Is there something wrong with them, or was it a waste pf R&D dollars because there was no market for it?
Finally I can get a hot cup of coffee anywhere I go, because, you know, it's not like there's a place to buy coffee on every corner.
Oh wait, Starbucks...
...and a million other convenience stores, restaurants, cafes and coffeeshops.
Yes finally, a ham radio article on /.
if there weren't coffee shops everywhere, and microwaves everywhere else.
Whatever happened to the snap together spoons that Danon embedded in its yogurt container tops? Nifty stuff. Wonder how much it cost to develop and produce that in comparison?
I couldn't gather, by looking at it, whether they're reusable or disposable. If they're reusable, it stands to reason that they should sell such a contraption "empty" (perhaps coffee grounds included in the package or sold separately) for people who could use such a thing. If they're disposable, it seems like an awful waste.
Oh well. Wolfgang Amadeus Puck.
That abstract is pretty specific in its description of the system. In patent negotiator speak, it's a "narrow" patent. Narrow patents generally cover a very specific implementation (used to prevent direct cloning of a product in most cases), but due to their specific nature are easy to work around.
Essentially, this patent doesn't cover CaO heaters in general, it covers this particular cup design. It wouldn't be too hard for any competitor to develop a cup that did the EXACT same thing without infringing on that patent because it's so narrow and specific.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
What we used to do in the Marines with the MRE heaters is make fun Gatorade bottle bombs (will scare the hell out of a nearby mark). Basically, you break up the heaters, put them into an empty Gatorade bottle. Add a LITTLE bit of water, twist cap on, and set. In about 4 minutes, you have one hell of a bang. I'm sure the same concept could be applied to this... turning useless products into a fun practical joke.
I would certainly not post this in wikipedia. Taking anything patented apart and figuring out how it works violates the DMCA. The last thing we need is for good community based projects to be sued or shutdown.
Simple instructions, pop the bottom, press it in. Watch for the pink spot to turn white.
You don't want to try it, I promise.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
By definition, if this "wasteful product" finds a market, it is not wasteful to the society that produces it. It becomes part of the economy. Every supplier in the supply chain, the manufacturer, delivery, marketing, and retailer all make their bit on it. And nobody is forcing the consumer to buy it.
Just because I personally find no use for, say, dry cleaners, nail salons, or professional sports, so what? I just don't buy any of that stuff.
The alternative to allowing any fool thing to be sold, historically doesn't pan out too well.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
According to USA Today, the retail price is around $2.25.
-c
I remember reading in a physics book 5 years ago that soda companies had developed a self-cooling can, using the same principles as this. When the pop top was opened, liquid CO2 was released from a previously sealed capsule, and in the process of evaporating, would cool the contents of the can to close to freezing. Obviously, this idea never made it to the market (as far as I know)
So, when I saw a commercial touting the coffee technology as "revolutionary" I was somewhat surprised--not only is the chemistry behind it unoriginal, but some other company already had the same idea years ago...
Japan has solved this problem a different way -- keeping the cans warm. When I was over there a month or two ago, I found that you could get a can of hot coffee almost anywhere -- even ancient temple grounds -- out of a nearby vending machine.
"Santori BOSS is boss of them all since 1992."
Wow thats hot. I guess they must keep it under pressure since water boils at 100 degrees (at normal atmospheric pressure).
Anyway I prefer my caffiene cold, is there any chance of them coming up with a self cooling pepsi or mountain dew?
Just like when Ford claimed that it took 4 Billion Dollars to develop the Taurus in 1995 - pure bull. Exothermic devices are old hat. In Japan it is used to heat saki. The military use it to heat rations. Canadians use it to warm their hands in winter.
Oh well, what the hell...
even then, that is way too much for a primary school science kit.
Oh well, what the hell...
Took them 10 years and 24 million to develop this? Mike Bullivant, from Rough Science, did basically the same in 2 days using a kiln, a hammer and a few plastic bags.
This is so wasteful it honestly offends me
This is actually the revised eco-friendly version; the original product trialled was suitcase-sized and contained an rip-cord triggered inflatable chef who would pour the coffee for you. You just know it's gotta be good coffee when the instructions contain the word "deploy".
I always thought it was a poor substitute for the ultimate recipe, using an ibrik, perfected by the Turks in the 16th century.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
This reminds of that Instant Ramen-cups in Cowboy Bebop. (I believe it was in the movie)...They just ripped a strip, and presto, instantaneous hot Ramen cups... Of course, everybody wasn't exactly thrilled with having to eat cheap instant Ramen.. It seems that even as technology gets more convient and cooler, low quality mass products will still taste the same.
Ben, you've become an UberGeek! Take me as your padawan!!!
I realize this is offtopic and will risk getting modded down, but why are you duping my post word for word an hour later? Is this karma theft instead of karma whoring? It actually seems to work because you got modded up and I got modded down "redundant."
I assume that you just wait for a higher rated post to scroll off the first page and then repost at the top. I am curious on why you'd even bother though. Are you just trying to game the mods and see if they're paying attention? It seems like an odd hobby.
When using retarded medieval units of measurements, please write it out fully instead of just "degrees". You're confusing people who are used to a boiling point of a clean 100 degrees. Thank you.
Soup would be much better then coffee.
I mean I can drink cold coffee but nothing is as nice as hot soup.
Anyhow this isn't the first time something like this has been tried. I remember The self heating MRE's for US Troops.
http://www.allproducts.com/manufacture98/cncrafts
http://www.heatermeals.com/heatermeals.html
Some time back they had a self cooling soda can too.
My favorate reaction for something like this is Ferric chloride on aluminum, It gets hot enough to ignite paper almost instantly. But very quickly neutralizes the reaction. This way traditional Aluminum can technology could be used, rather then something exotic. But maybe the whole things needs to be FDA approved and edable...
I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso
I've tried these. They are not too great tasting, but handy. However I dragged some along on a camping trip in Colorado, thinking how great it would be to have hot coffee first thing in the morning. Well they don't seem to work at 9,000 feet above sea level. It was also about 60(f) degrees out. Didn't even get warm. Buzz kill - literally. They heat up OK in Denver - 5,000 feet - starting from room temperature. There is no warning about altitude issues on the containers that I could find, so maybe it was the starting temperature, but if it reaches 140 degrees from 70, I would think it would still become reasonably warm from 60.
Be warned that the previos poster's opinion is wrong and he's not entitled to it. The PDF isn't related and the other blogger isn't better.
We don't have those fancy things in Canada as far as I know but I wouldn't buy em if we did. First of all it looks like you don't get very much coffee and second it looks expensive and third you're allways in driving distance of a Tim Hortons anyways.
How often are you so far from a power source that you can't spend $10 and get a small coffee cup sized hotplate?
Silly silly silly
On the other hand if you could somehow drain the coffee and put a heat activated smoke bomb or something in there than they'd sell
One small step forward for convenience. One giant Leap backwards for energy efficency. Seriously though 8 ounces of mineral Calcium Oxide and enough packaging to kill several small African Tribes ('The God's Must be Crazy' anyone?). All this just to heat a single serving of your beverage of choice. It seems pretty clear why we havent seen such a simple product in our retail outlets before. Personally I think the merits of a more durable mutli use container with a self contained element (powered by electricity, butane etc.) outweigh the merits of this container 10 fold purely because of cost efficiency (let alone energy efficiency). I guess only time will tell us if it is commercial. How much are people really prepared to pay for convenience? I know I wouldn't want to be forking out for this stuff on a daily basis. On the plus side I doubt we'll have to wait long before some yank seriously injures themself not following directions and gets this pulled from the market.
Thanks!
While I have no idea how much these retail for, I'm sure that the price is inflated more by the "oh shiny" factor than production or development costs.
Yeah, pretty much. A 4 pack sells for about $6. I found these in a grocery store a couple months back and picked up a 4 pack for the "oooh shiny" factor. The coffee was only so-so, of course, but it did deliver as promised. Coffee got properly hot.
I too was struck by the weight and heft of the thing. I felt that it's be useful for camping trips because, if necessary, you could beat a puma to death with the damn thing. Way, way overbuilt. Very solid feel to it.
I have not purchased them again, and likely will not except for possible camping purposes. The real question, for me, is where would one need this sort of device? At home, you have a microwave if you need to heat up a plastic tube of premade coffee, so the self-heating is redundant. Most workplaces have coffee makers for the employees which tend to be always full. In the car on the way to work, you could stop by a coffee house or fast foodery or something. It would be handy for being out in the wild, far from power and easily obtained coffee, but how often does that occur? People who go camping usually only go maybe once a year, and usually they are in RVs nowadays, with power and coffee making devices.
It's basically a product without a large market.
If the thing held soup, now, you'd have something. Lots of office worker types would likely keep several in their desks. Because while many offices have microwaves, and microwavable soups already exist, not having to get up to have some soup has an odd attraction to it.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I am curious on why you'd even bother though. Are you just trying to game the mods and see if they're paying attention? It seems like an odd hobby.
Given the high UID, it's probably someone from one of the various 13-year-old-l33+-hax0r groups that collect karma-possessing accounts on Slashdot to modbomb with.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
http://www.caldocaldo.it/eng/index.html is available in Italy since years (the domain is registered in 2000) and it looks like it works using the same principle...and we have Coffee with Grappa too :D
PS FYI "Caldo Caldo" means "hot hot" in italian :)
and how did it take 10y and $24e6 to develop such a simple product?
Easier to just use Hershies Kisses and some alcohol, or sometimes just a movie in a dark room . . . not that I intended things to work that way any of the times, that would be manipulative . . . luckily, I can honestly say that unitended things happen sometimes . . . ah, maybe the trick is not intending anything devious from the beginning? (Can I honestly say that, or am I lying to myself? hmmm....)
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
on Froogle you can find these kinds of heaters for $1 each or less in bulk
looks good for post hurricane situations without power!
It's nice and all but still doesn't hold a candle to the Self-Microwaving Bavarian Creme Dog.
Bzz-Zowp!
Mmmmmmmmmm...
The military has been doing this for YEARS.
MRE heaters.. No big deal.
But you need on of those patented "Rock or
Something"s.
so much waste. reminds me of those long cardboard boxes they put around cd cases until the 90s because record stores didn't want to change their shelving. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbox not unlike those self-destructing dvds too. there seems to be no incentive to reduce packing waste. seems like the nicer the product, the more waste. if only most consumers weren't so easily dazzled, companies wouldn't spend so much money/materials on making stuff look nice on the shelf. companies should offer none fancy packaged versions. i'de get it even if they don't discount it, just to reduce some of the waste. maybe online retailing will change the "billboard on a shelf" strategy.
Getting to finish the joke on slashdot = Priceless.
FRA: STFU GTFO
they could have used a simple acid / base reaction to heat the stuff, which is exothermic too and doesn't require carbon oxydes or whatever ?
This "new" thing is in the First World War was used by the English army to warming up their canned food.
.... bombs.....come to mind?
Everybody should already know that FOOD is supposed to be hot, and beverages should be cold - or is that just me?
Anyway, over here, one can buy beer kegs which are self cooling from a number of breweries. Turns out, they are all using the same system called CoolKeg, which is fully recyclable and goes with a quite hefty deposit. In that system, they use some strongly hygrophilic agent on the outside (which gets warm), and water that evaporates and thereby cools the beverage around the beverage. To recycle, they take out the chemical, heat it so it "dries" again, replace the valve between the chemical and the water and refill the water and the beer.
ah, maybe the trick is not intending anything devious from the beginning? (Can I honestly say that, or am I lying to myself?
I think, You have definitely a point here. When I was in relation ship, it often happened that I was just friendly (as in friendship, asexual!) to some girls, and it turned out they asked for far more. (I was lucky, my girlfriend that time was not a jealous type of person and allowed me to have some fun...)
Than again, when I was single, it took a loooong time to find some adventure, probably because I wanted it too much.
Of course, when I had a girlfriend, I was nevr actively looking for other girls or wishing for an adventure. (Can I honestly say that, or am I lying to myself? hmmm....)
Trolling is a art!
I always enjoyed tearing off the cardboard, crumble the "stuff" into a 20-oz soda bottle. Add water, screw on cap, stand back ;)
Sounds like a cannon going off when it lets go!
Actually, I have used self heating devices before when I went camping. They are really good glove warmers.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
Most of the money went to research legal defences in case someone ignites one of these in their lap then sues.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
This happened to me twice. That's why I don't post anything meaningful anymore if I post at all.
Laws are for people with no friends.
The "bomb / grenade" urge seems to be surfacing again and again... John Brunner dreamed this up in the mid-sixties.
In "Stand on Zanzibar", saboteurs drain the contents of self-heating "Camp with Campbell's" soup cans and refill them with suitable explosives.
I take this as a sign that it's time to re-read it. It seems like every time I do, several additional aspects of the cultural background in that book have crossed over into reality.
call me when you spent 10 more years and 20+ more millions on instant ice coffe in a bottle because i'm still working on how to disolve sugar and milk after mixing hot coffee with cup full of ice.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
I am of the opinion it would be far cheaper as a society to treat drug abusers, than it is to spend billions every year on jailing them, and indirectly encouraging all of the associated criminal activity and violence that goes with supplying the users.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Nice. but does it run on Linux?
So, if someone spends $24M and 10 years developing a stupid product, is that thoughtlessly or carelessly?
If someone labors to earn some money to spend on said product, then consumes it, would they have done that without feeling they got some value?
The problem is WHO gets to define what is "wrong".
For example; I could completely dislike your taste in music, therefore every compact disc you own is a wasteful piece of plastic that will end up in a holy landfill somewhere, by my definition.
Finally, I do buy food that I throw out all the time. I would be a big fat pig if I ate every french fry I ever bought. Is it wasteful? I dunno, everyone who grew the potatoes, transported them, turned them into french fries, cooked them and sold them to me thought they were making a reasonable profit on them. I thought it was a good value for my money - in fact I got TOO MANY with my "#4 lunch special". I ate what I wanted and tossed the rest. Then the garbage man gets paid to haul it away. Whee!
If we lived in a society that regulated each step of that process... everyone would be worse off.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
I only drink iced coffee!
Yes, old idea. Even older than the Army's use (using an exothermic reaction to heat materials ... isn't that one of mankind's first inventions? And didn't he just kinda steal that idea from Nature?)
However, never before has someone thought of using an exothermic reaction contained inside a coffee cup, for this very purpose. I mean, I thought of flicking a zippo lighter inside a cup of not-quite-hot-yet chocolate, but the flame just always seemed to go out. Mankind was dumbfounded. How to harness the power of fire in a small, nonreusable, container to heat a miniscule amount of liquid while simultaneously consuming a massive volume of shelf and landfill space? No one could figure out this riddle.
Well, apparently, at least not until 1997. Now, here, eight years later, we are able to enjoy the fruits of their genius!
See video here: http://www.wpgourmetlattes.com/howitworks.wmv and it explains the process with a pretty marketing scheme attached to it.
Someone took apart a Nescafe Hot can, which is the same technology Puck has licensed.
An earlier approach appears in the Japanese self-heating sake cans. It's the same calcium oxide/water reaction as the others, but the mechanism for setting it off is clunkier.
The idea is old, but the trick was to develop a simple, reliable way to start the reaction. The Japanese sake cans required that the user push a big pointed pin through a hole in one end of the can. Early versions had the pin attached externally to the can; later versions integrated the pin into a plastic cover. Thermotic Developments worked out an improved triggering mechanism with no loose parts. That's a neat trick, since it has to be idiot-proof, survive dropped cans and cases, and be manufacturable at high speed at very low cost with a near zero defect rate.
The next generation of the technology runs hotter and can do soup and small packaged meals.
Um, no. Part of patenting something is telling everyone how it works. That's why patents are published.
It is possible that someone might use the DMCA to try to protect something that is a trade secret (which otherwise might be patentable).
Improper use of the DMCA makes baby Jesus cry.
I remember as a kid at least 15 or so years ago, here in the UK there was a product called the "Hot Can" which was exactly the same as this, only it contained soup or if I remember rightly some rice-based thing.
I think they were about £5 (GBP) each, they were sold in regular shops, and were somewhat of a disappointment, mainly because the food was pretty dull, not because they didn't work well. There was also a coffee version at least 10 years ago, I remember my younger brother buying a load of them when he went camping one year.
The question therefore has to be, how the hell did it takes these guys 24 million and 10 years to develop what is to all intents and purposes the same thing? If I were to present you with a bicycle wheel and tell you it'd taken me 10 years to develop and that I'd spent 24 million doing so, you quite rightly laugh and point at me. Seems a surprise that no-one seems to be doing that to these guys.
That's like saying - When I drive, I don't use my turn signal to change lanes anymore because the last two times I did, the guy in the other land sped up to block me out.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Thank god someone agrees with me. I had thought that the rest of the world had gone nuts.
Rhapsody in Numbers
"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber" -- Plato
Yeah that's something that really blows me away... Sure 10 years could happen.. but 24 Million clamshells? GEEZE! What are these inventors eating for lunch? Caviar??
you tell us what colour it should be.
Russian caviar, maybe. Regular caviar is cheap and you get it on tubes. School kids have it on their sandwitches in Norway. :P
I don't use my turn signal to change lanes anymore because the last two times I did, the guy in the other land sped up to block me out.
You're from Massachusetts too?
There was a quote from a survey of MA drivers a few years ago, one college student rationalized her 'never signal' policy by saying, "Oh no, you don't ever want to use the blinker, that's like giving information to the enemy!"
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
That's hot
The same exothermic chemical reaction used in this coffee cup is the basis for ancient Roman hydraulic cement, plaster for fresco painting, etc. CaO + H2O = Ca(HO)2 + O + heat. The materials are essentially recyclable, since the calcium hydroxide can be baked to release water vapor and reduce it back to calcium oxide. However, in reality all these cups will simply end up in a garbage dump somewhere.
Self heating coffee? I don't need no self-heating coffee... I may arrive at an unlikely circumstance where I'm nowhere close to a coffee shoppe, but I am never far away from my overclocked P4 laptop... just flip that baby over, plug the fan, put my coffee cup over the CPU, and in just a minute I have steaming hot coffee! With the added bonus of a slight burny-laptop aftertaste.
Juan Valdez, eat your heart out!
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
As a matter of fact...
Laws are for people with no friends.
Someone call the parent a wambulance.
I found some things while digging through his user page:
Really cheep karma whoreing.
Some intersting journal enterys.
I remember many a bored day in the field when I was a soldier, we would tear open the heaters that they started supplying in the MREs (around the late 80's early 90's) to make bombs. All you needed was a airtight container, a few MRE heaters, and a bit of water. Seal. Shake. Toss. Bang.
Glass always worked the best since it didn't stretch like a 20 oz soda bottle would.
Does the coffee cup have a way to release the gas? Or does it create such a slight reaction that it is able to contain it?
I see a law suit waiting to happen... where can I buy a cup?
You mean that lever isn't a place to hang your cell phone when you're not using it? What will they think of next?
...they've patented the CaO+H2O (don't remember the exact formula of calcium oxide) chemical reaction.
Wait... I'll patent all reactions which create C2H5OH and sue every alcohol-making company out there.
Nice invention though. Shame about the patent.
http://www.heatermeals.com/zestotherm.html