Category: Feasible inventions

Car drivers are now beset by a large range of electronic information. GPS, radio and performance diagnostics all demand attention that might better be directed towards events on the road.

Several vehicles now have a touchscreen which provides access to all of these sources of information and entertainment…this seems like a bad idea from a road safety viewpoint. Even if mounted somewhere a driver can see it without constantly glancing down, it’s still a less than optimal solution.

Today’s invention is to equip such touchscreens with an algorithm which senses the amount of fiddling about that a user is doing. If this exceeds a certain time limit (which might decrease with the speed of the vehicle), then it would issue a warning to park -or switch off the display until velocity = zero.

Today’s invention is a robotic device which can tilt a cup of freshly-poured latte and, using a dipper, draw shapes in the microbubble milk foam on the top.

This would be a programmable device capable of producing designs chosen by customers from a jukebox like menu.

It would also be able to write short printed messages in the foam, as typed into a keypad by the barrista.

Today’s invention is a way for drivers of left-hand-drive-vehicles to overtake more safely.

A periscope is mounted across the top of the dashboard with a motor driven mirror unit protruding through the window (extendable when overtaking is anticipated.

This allows the driver to rotate the mirror unit and see what’s behind and in front using only small lateral movements of the vehicle.

The unit might obviously be reused to help drivers of right-hand-drive cars in lhd countries.

If you want to distribute aid packages from the air, dropping them in one lump can be dangerous and ineffective (the impact of packages on each other can destroy the contents and the whole lot may disappear into a single lake).

Today’s invention makes use of the lift force generated on a spinning cylinder.

Drop cylindrical packages after they have been spun up to a random speed (and direction) on board the plane (using eg a rolling road device).

As they fall, the packages experience different lateral forces, causing them to disperse over a large area.

I once made a rather ghastly simulation of particles flowing under gravity using the Java-based Agentsheets program.

Now the state of the art has moved ahead significantly.

Today’s invention is a watch which is a simulated egg-timer. The program involved would show an hourglass on-screen through which would flow simulated particles.

This could be calibrated to provide per-minute timings and would operate effectively and accurately -independent of the orientation of the watch itself.

For fun, it could be made with user-settable parameters eg particle size and ‘g’ (as well as having visible particles of ‘air’ flow upwards as the ’sand’ flowed downwards).

Today’s invention is a way for an office worker in a dark cubicle to experience the time of day more viscerally than via a clock.

A small projector plugs into one’s laptop and shines a bright disc on the wall of the windowless office. The position and approximate size of the disc correspond to the Sun’s appearance from the worker’s position -if there were any windows.

A smart system might even scan the geometry of the room and adjust the apparent shape of the projected sun to remain always circular (rather than eg an ellipsoid on an oblique wall).

This might well be enough to keep the worker’s biorhythms intact throughout the year (which is believed to influence strongly one’s body’s responses to drugs and one’s immunity to disease).

Boxers seem to do a lot of damage to themselves simply when sparring. Today’s invention is an upgrade to the standard springloaded punchball.

In addition to the floor-mounted punchball, two other such balls on springy stalks would be provided -each the size and colour of an opponent’s glove. The boxer would attempt to land punches on the main ball, in lieu of an opponent’s head, by avoiding the two smaller balls.

Instead of rebounding predictably, these smaller balls would each be driven by a computer in patterns which were like normal defensive moves -and with an element of unpredictability. This would mean that a boxer could be hit by them pretty forcefully but not so as to sustain unnecessary damage. (Actually it might be possible to have a camera in the main ball with face recognition software driving the ‘gloves’ to hit the boxer back).

The main ball could also be wired to record the number of on-target shots automatically.

Today’s invention is a cheap form of disaster relief shelter which consists of two lengths of reed-type matting; one inserted inside the other and sewn together.

This can be made in double thickness and coated with mud for extra weather protection.

It is intended to provide a family unit with a rapid, structurally tough way to stay warm, dry and as clean as possible.

Today’s invention is an Allen-type bolt which incorporates its own key.

This is normally stored within the core of the bolt (without greatly reducing the strength of the fixture).

When the bolt is to be tightened in place, the key is slid out, held captive in its slot, and rotated to give some mechanical advantage.

Today’s invention is an iPhone app (or equivalent) which provides the user with a visual explanation of the innermost workings of any device against which the phone is held.

This would work only for devices which contained some kind of RFID tag. The phone would sense this and be informed about the relative position and orientation of the two devices.

The phone would then play on its screen an X-ray movie of the guts of the system directly beneath the phone itself -as if a real-time local X-ray were being taken.