Ultimate engineering challenge-design a coffee cup..

Start with a standard cup and add a hinged cover that can be removed if required.

Interesting! Maybe borrow one the spill proof lids recommended by Yuval's post and incorporate it into a nice insulated stainless mug for use by adults. Now we're just left with making it compatible with any vehicle cup holder. Maybe start with a bottom diameter suited for the smallest cup holder diameter. Employ a mechanism that expands in diameter as you twist the cup. Place the cup in your vehicle cup holder and then twist it until it fits snuggly. Or instead of developing such a mechanism, have the standard bottom diameter as small as a can of soda (typical small cup holder) and then have several different OD rubber adaptors that fit the larger sized vehicle cup holders.

Oh well, my two cents!

Yuval pointed to the Covalescent's Coffee Cup.

Coming to think of it, that is the same you get at Macdonalds all over US Midwest Highway Drive Ins.

YOU PAY AND CARRYand drive away. Not Convalescents only.

We should start by revising the COF₂E₂ temperature. There is no reason that coffee has to be 2000 degrees. Next we find the person that decided this and pour it on their genitals. Then we should ask again, "At what temperature will coffee be enjoyable?" Then design a thermos with the child proof spill protection that has a plug in for the cigarette lighter or accessory plug so that it will stay hot on your trip.

If I may...we might also add a price constraint and manufacturability to the list of criteria...

I can see the underlying idea behind this post....it is to tweak that part of the brain which says...okay, here is function, what should be the form. It is hard to keep that part running. Much easier to take the easy way and stick with the tried and true, even if there are problems with it. If the tried and true won't work, then we approach it a different way. I notice most of the posts up til now have like, totally gone with the easy answer instead of the creative answer.

problem....to get the coffee into a driver's mouth. Keep it hot. Can't spill if dropped.

Hmmmm. Does it have to look like a coffee cup? Lots of problems with the tried and true method, lets re-think this.

How about a hookah like straw with a clip which fits onto the right wrist? Results in heads up driving. Cheap, easily disposable.

Okay, lets develop this further. I like the idea of the little wrist thing....how 'bout a watch like device which contains a tablespoon of coffee grounds, say a "coffee bag" (same as a tea bag) with in inlet and outlet, with the inlet going to a reservoir of water plugged into the cigarette lighter, and the outlet going to something that resembles a pipe stem. A little hatch on top would flip up, you would toss out the old tea bag and pop in a new one. Of course, this might be a little difficult to do with those who like sugar and milk in their coffee. But another little hatch to pop in sugar cubes would be pretty easy to add.

A refinement....have the water heated "on demand" by a device which plugs into the cigarette lighter.

Yeah....there we go. A new invention. I didn't say it would catch on...I do know it will work. Who would have thought hands free cell phones would be the multi million dollar business they are now?

Great Lateral Thinking, Yusef1

Why not go one further, The Sony Corporation and Others are spending zillions of dollars just now, on remote sensory input to the brain. The Holy Grail here has a myriad of potential applications. Sight may even be restored to the blind. hearing also. The Sony Play-station 5, may even incorporate some of this technology. My eyes are peeled for new developments.

Then all you would need is perhaps a cold water supply. WOW! you think, I am drinking Hot Coffee, half way through you could add sugar, or take it out!

Sweet! and Neat. IT WILL HAPPEN SOON. MARK THESE WORDS CAREFULLY!

You missed an osmotical pressure pump. The juice is not likely to use capillary movement. What's the matter ropium, are you on opium?

Sorry, the height is the osmotical pressure pump. What's the matter with me, am I on opium, ropium?

See the "port for additives" part? There for just such a contingency!

Besides, the osmotical pressure pump is way too slow. I want my espresso, and I want it now. If anything should be pressurized, its the reservoir part.

...If anything should be pressurized, its the reservoir part...

How about vacuuming the victim/patient instead?

After all, the reservoir may explode, but at most, the patient will shrink to a stop. I'm only thinking manufacturer's benefit here.

How bout an existing style wit a blow up base is that to simple?

I think the child sippy cup has already been invented.

What I would like to see is a cup and saucer design that would keep the cup's bottom dry when the server spills the coffee into the saucer. If you think of the standard design for the saucer, it does two things well. It captures the inadvertant overflow and it helps hold the cup in place when it is being moved with the saucer. However if the coffee is spilled, it pools around the base of the cup. Unless you take preventative measures, coffee droplets will spot your clothes when you drink.

In my mind a properly designed saucer and cup combination would drain the coffee spill away from the cup bottom and keep it dry. The trick is to come up with a design as elegant looking as the existing.

I've just released a new line of pre-stained and spotted designer evening wear that mitigates the need for special cups, saucers, or even moderate coordination. Drip, dribble, spill and splash to your way to fashion. Comes in Coffee, Coffee 'n' Hazelnut Creamer (my fave), Tea, Grape, Cola, Cabernet Sauvignon, Burgandy, Mogan David, Ripple and Spaghetti-Sauce colors with more selection on the way. Add your own cigarette burns, blood stains and bling for that special haute "in da hood" couture! Mix 'n' Match!

Skid-mark-undergarment-fashion, on-the-go !

Replace your old monochromatic look with a fresh, younger, spottier, blotted rag. Be hip. Be smart, Be smudge.

We'll replace your old, clean, shiny, obsolete suit, to the Now-Look of Smudge, for only 998.95, a month, no interest.

Be yourself. Be invisible. Vanish between the bricks. Get the new europium look, the urban camouflage of smudge, Sheenazzle them to oblivion.

The only hard part would be to put it out a price you'd be willing to pay.

First, design a cylindrical cup with a screwed on circular lid, keep dia same as a standard coke can. We assume all vehicle cupholders have been designed around a coke can (hope so!). The screwed on spill-proof lid of the cup should have to be opened and closed by rotational movement , provided by a small motor at the base of the cup, there could be a spindle from inside the base to the bottom of the lid conecting the motor to the lid. Press a button and the motor rotates and opens up the lid . Now there is a gap between the lid and the main cup , sufficient to drink coffee, but the lid gets into the way of your lips as well ! so the lid has to move out sufficiently out of the way, and to create a comfortable gap all round the cup , of say 25 mm. As the lid has risen vertically , the 25mm gap allows you to drink coffee. Press the button again and the lid rotates in the opposite direction and closes tight around the threads and seal. Drop the cup and coffee does not spill, hopefully the motor will be designed for drop test impact! To keep the coffee hot, the cup should of course have a thermal insulation like a double walled cylinder.

How about negating the spillage problem - a solid bar of coffee flavoured stuff that can be heated (via cigarette lighter socket ) and readily dissolves in the mouth. Or , cans of coffee that self-heat are available -how about one of those with a one-way valve to drink through (you could make and sell a snap on adapter valve since can size is standard and they all have a rim for a gadget to clip onto).

Help is at hand, Watercolour Artists solved that little problem ages ago. I have several .....containers......that will fit the requirements....other than to keep the coffee hot. They might need a Vacuum-Type Cozy? Also a question, "Do you mind drinking Coffee with a straw?".....That is the hole where the paint brushes go.

Cheers.

Photo's on the way. They only cost a quid (£1) any colour preferences? Blue, Red Yellow, Green?

Well done Yuval, I prefer my Watercolour pots, with the stopper in, they never leak either. if driving, you can pull the stopper out with your teeth, but that is also a driving offence, "due care and attention"..... can't see a problem with that on an empty long road way out in the wilderness.

Hi Yuval, I was just about to email Merlin & David with some quotes from CR4,

AOL sent a message Southesk, it said was not a known member!

E@Hay
Southesk. (A COPY)

I think it's TIME Fu Coffee Myself!

Dear Merlin & David,

Here are those CR4 quotes. (Nice Feedback, thanks Admin)

"Everything you can imagine is real." -- Pablo Picasso

"Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving." -- W.T. Purkiser

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." -- Mark Twain

"Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to create." -- Nicolas Malebranche

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." -- John F. Kennedy

"Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand." -- Neil Armstrong

"Pleasure in the job put perfection in the work." -- Aristotle

"Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability." -- John Wooden

"Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to create." -- Nicolas Malebranche

"It isn't life that matters, it's the courage you bring to it." -- Sir Hugh Walpole

"My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose -- somehow we win out." -- Ronald Reagan

"I say luck is when an opportunity comes along and you're prepared for it." -- Denzel Washington

All times are displayed in Etc/Greenwich (GMT) (Change time zone)

"Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones." -- Winston Churchill

"Begin with the end in mind." -- Stephen Covey

"March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path." -- Kahlil Gibran

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." -- John F. Kennedy

"Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope -- a slight change, and all patterns alter." -- Sharon Salzberg

"My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose -- somehow we win out." -- Ronald Reagan

"It isn't life that matters, it's the courage you bring to it." -- Sir Hugh Walpole

"Be the change you want to see in the world." -- Mahatma Gandhi

### "Persistence prevails, like a stream that is temporarily blocked by boulders and then collects force enough to overflow onward." -- Vernon Howard

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." -- Will Rogers

"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility." -- Albert Einstein

We know what we are, but know not what we may be." -- William Shakespeare