A graphite core would be wrapped in tape in the shape of a helical strip (just like a continuous piece of sharpening).

This would have some message preprinted upon it, so that when inserted into a sharpener and turned, a precise thickness would be removed, corresponding exactly to the depth of the applied tape.

(This could be used to enliven eg promotional pencils by including a secret web address or even a joke).

These are expensive and so today’s invention is intended to help people play competitive games with only one.

The hoop and its frame would be mounted on a wheeled base, running in a semicircular track, as shown (A-B).

Immediately one team gets possession, the hoop flashes around to the end they are playing towards.

The movement could be powered by an electric motor, but I fancy the idea of two teams of supporters, vying, under an official’s supervision, to move the hoop to let their side score.

Today’s invention is to replace each of the many signs on board by a small, square electronic display. These displays would have a camera on board with face detection capability.

On spotting the face of an astronaut, a sign would be able to orientate its text and graphical message to match the crew member’s current alignment.

Today’s invention is a truly sporting rifle.

Instead of being camouflaged, this would have a number of small screens attached, each displaying moving, coloured patterns and with the potential to emit sounds.

The telescopic sight would have a camera embedded within it.

These add-ons would handicap the hunter in a quantifiable way. Users of such rifles would find it more challenging to approach a game animal but when sufficiently close, they would have the option to kill it or photograph it.

For people who don’t need to eat game, I’m hoping that creating an image of such a creature, with their sights superimposed and details of their increased visibility at the time embedded, would allow more bragging rights than returning with a corpse.

This would thus help preserve the lives of many wild animals.

Today’s invention is therefore a small recorder which can be attached to a door (for use within eg stockrooms or on board ships)

As you approach the door, simply say what your current task is eg “find the yellow-handled screwdriver.”

On emerging through the doorway, a speaker on that side would repeat the message, keeping you on track.

Instead, jets’ undercarriages would be arranged so that they could all adopt the same angle of tilt and thus crowd closely together on the deck.

These machines could even be equipped with parking sensors that cars commonly have, in order to minimise contact between closely parked planes.

Today’s invention offers a way to speed things up.

Small areas of the image to be printed would each be written onto a flat, charged plate by dedicated, local lasers.

A bank of such plates would allow both sides of many pages to be printed at the same time.

This would parallelise the process so that the overall print time for a multipage document could be reduced to milliseconds (at the expense of hugely duplicated hardware).

Today’s invention is in the same mould.

It consists of a train the carriages of which are joined by a hinge which can be moved from the base to the roof (pink dots).

The hinges are powered so that carriages can exert torque on each other.

As the train approaches a level crossing where a conventional vehicle is crossing (grey), so the train arches up and over the crossing as a bridge-shaped wave passes backwards through the train.

Today’s invention is a high-heel shoe which has a slight platform sole and in which a gyroscope with a vertical axis is located.

Every time the shoe is placed on the ground, the gyroscope fires up in order to maintain the sole parallel to the floor. This stabilises the wearer’s ankle, making it much less likely that she will fall over.

Once the shoe is lifted off the floor, the gyroscope is braked, so that normal leg movements are again possible.

This might also keep the wearer’s feet warm, whilst traversing eg a red carpet.

A base unit can accommodate any wine bottle, once opened.

A semicircular cam moves laterally backwards and forwards along the base, changing the angle of the bottle from moment to moment.

This it does in order to maximise the surface area of liquid, so as to let it ‘breathe’ effectively, but without spilling any wine.

This is a complex optimisation problem, given the internal geometry of bottles, which is probably best solved by iteration.

Each time wine is drunk from the bottle and it is replaced on the base, the bottle would find a new angle, but stilll not splash any on the table.