You know how there are lists floating around of these awesome inventions by Filipinos and some of them turn out to be hoaxes? This invention, a jeepney coin sorter, I wish was real. Unfortunately it doesn't exist. Challenge accepted... anyone?
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One of my machine design projects when I was still taking up my Mechanical Engineering was a coin sorter and wrapper, made even more challenging by the professor's requirement that it should have a single input action, say a rotating motion. We never finished it and had to change projects halfway through. But remembering it got me thinking... I wonder how much interest there would there be for a jeepney coin sorter?
Jeepney Coin Sorter
Imagine this: assuming the jeepney driver doesn't have a barker collecting the jeepney fare, his eyes would constantly be looking at the money, counting and doing the maths for change, and counting the change before giving it to the passenger, all while driving through Manila traffic. If he could do this in an easier, more organised manner, Manila street will be that much safer, don't you agree?
There are numerous designs of coin sorters in the market, and I suppose most of them are used in banks rather than in jeepneys. Most of them are also bulky electronic sorters, using scanners and weights to determine the type of coin, and sorting them out via vibration or a series of differently sized meshes. The jeepney coin sorter can't be like that.
Design the Coin Sorter
The jeepney coin sorter needs to be compact enough to be placed in front of the jeepney driver without obscuring his view of the street. It needs to be able to receive at least a handful of coins at a time and be able to sort them just via gravity. Because the driver needs to give out change, he should also be able to get sorted money with ease.
An upgrade to this would be installation of an electronic counter which shows (or speaks) how much you have dropped in.
To summarise, your challenge is:
- Design a coin sorter specifically for use in a jeepney, by the jeepney driver
- Coin sorter must be able to receive at least a handful of coins at a time a properly sort them
- Driver must be able to retrieve sorted coins easily to give out change
- Bonus: install an electronic counter to show how much money was placed into the sorter.
Challenge accepted?
I have a feeling someone will take this challenge and a few months from now I will get a comment on this post that they've created the jeepney coin sorter and it is being mass produced for jeepneys all over the Philippines. Or maybe not. Who knows?