Any entrepreneurs here? My pipe dream has been to design an electromagnet built into the heel piece of a tele binding. The magnet would be paired with some sort of ferrous steel built into the heel of the boot.
Once energized, the electromagnet would secure the boot heel to the heel piece of the binding, making a temporary fixed heel.
Couple issues:
1. Injuries, legal, etc.
2. Failure mode. Believe the "default safe" failure mode for this would be in the unengaged / unenergized state. Not too hard for the electromagnet itself, but may take some clever engineering to ensure any failure to the control loop also fails in the same mode.
3. Source of energy for the electromagnet. Would a couple 9-volt batteries provide enough EM force?
4. Added weight. Would the added weight of the batteries and coils be marketable. Of course, less batteries and/or less coils means less EM force, so there's a tradeoff here.
5. Switch device. First prototype would have a hard wire, but eventually would need to have a wireless actuator (tx / rx) that would accomplish quick & seamless engagement/disengagement. Rx unit could be powered and built into the heel piece. Tx unit, maybe a microswitch that can be designed to be universal to wear on the outside of any glove, or placed on the handle of any ski pole. If market really enjoys this, then work with glove manufacturers to build into the glove itself.
6. One switch, two actuators (left and right ski). If one actuator energizes, and the other does not, this may pose a safety hazard, and would violate the aforementioned "default safe" failure mode. To mitigate, may need a feedback loop with low-level logic board to validate this. If one actuator fails to energize, then the whole system does not engage.
Again, this is a pipe dream, but I don't think it's made out of unobtanium.
How much should this cost? Probably cost about USD$60-70 to manufacturer from the beginning, so should retail for USD$200.
For sure, I cannot be the first one to think about this.
Any interest? Any ideas? Any comments?