Some of the problems that aren't completely trivial are very hard. These aren't "solved" - instead, there are just very preliminary sketches of potential solutions, which other people have already progressed far further with. For example:
- Day 1: Communicating with someone by voice is hard if you lack a shared languages. The proposed solution is "Integrating voice translation into Skype". This isn't a solution so much as it is a problem, with Voice Recognition and Machine Translation as sub-problems. But it is already done reasonably well by the Google Translate iOS app.
- Day 39: Personalize post-card by covering up a large portion of the image with a scratch off map. Since the front of a post-card is exposed in transit, wouldn't more be scratched off? And is the recipient is expected to be able to interpret a small section of map for an area they may have never visited themselves? An alternative solution is to mount an integrated camera and printer at a scenic location, so users can easily print a postcard that includes them (Post-Me: http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/stories/2010/design_show/)
- Day 1: Communicating with someone by voice is hard if you lack a shared languages. The proposed solution is "Integrating voice translation into Skype". This isn't a solution so much as it is a problem, with Voice Recognition and Machine Translation as sub-problems. But it is already done reasonably well by the Google Translate iOS app.
- Day 45: People forget PINs. There's been a lot of work on graphical/gestural passwords (see http://www.acsac.org/2005/papers/89.pdf), on the memorability and security of passwords in general (https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-500.pdf) and customer chosen PINs in particular (https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jcb82/doc/BPA12-FC-banking_pin_sec...), and on a physical device to replace all passwords/PINs (https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~fms27/papers/2011-Stajano-pico.pdf).
Others seem slightly odd:
- Day 39: Personalize post-card by covering up a large portion of the image with a scratch off map. Since the front of a post-card is exposed in transit, wouldn't more be scratched off? And is the recipient is expected to be able to interpret a small section of map for an area they may have never visited themselves? An alternative solution is to mount an integrated camera and printer at a scenic location, so users can easily print a postcard that includes them (Post-Me: http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/stories/2010/design_show/)