December 2007 - Page 2 of 3 - Invention Of The Day

2007 December (Page 2)

#389: Traintail

Railway aerodynamics is thought to be important only for bullet trains.

Slower-moving engines and carriages would also benefit, however, in terms of fuel economy, from a less blunt profile to their rear ends in particular. The trouble is that operational flexibility requires that engines and carriages swap positions within a train: none can rely on always being at the trailing edge.

Today’s invention is an inflatable envelope (similar structurally to a rubber lifeboat).

This would be attached to both ends of every blunt railway vehicle leaving a door-shaped aperture to allow normal traffic between compartments or, in the case of engines, forward vision via the windows.

When not on the end of a train, the envelope would partly occupy the air gap between any two items of rolling stock. On sensing that it was on a last carriage or engine, it would inflate using compressed air and provide that vehicle with a smoothly tapering rear geometry. This would greatly lessen the form drag and therefore the running costs.

A version of this could also be developed to smooth off the running gear which, on most trains, is exposed and anything but streamlined.

#388: Buttonsynch

For children who are learning how to get dressed, dealing with buttons is a difficulty. For their parents, having to undo and redo these numerous times is simply a pain.

Today’s invention is colour-coordinated buttons and button holes. “Put the red button through the red buttonhole, dear”.

It would, of course, be possible to manufacture press-on coloured spots for both buttons and holes in any garment.

#387: Heatlock

Opening the refrigerator door allows it to fill rapidly with air at room temperature. This causes the system’s cycle to fire up to cool the interior again. Running the compressor motor every time the door opens is potentially very wasteful of energy -especially if you are cooking a roast at the same time…or returning for ‘just one more spoonful’ of Greek yoghurt every 90 seconds.

Today’s invention is a way to avoid this wastage.

Each fridge door would come with a double-glazed window insert, making the inside clearly visible. There would also be an insulated glove penetrating the door and allowing items to be moved around and placed in the tray of an airlock set into the door.

After the normal (weekly) filling of the fridge, via the main door, the vast majority of articles could be extracted from and replaced into the fridge via this mechanism -without having to flood the cold space with warm air each time.

Restricting the ingress of water vapour in this way would also stop the formation of mist on the window.

#386: Appeteyesers

It’s a fact that food is more attractive (and will be judged tastier) if it is illuminated in the right way. This causes retailers to spend large amounts of cash in lighting fruit, meat and bread in stores (to say nothing of all those colour enhancing additives). Restaurateurs know that shining blue lamps on tables tends to reduce diners’ enjoyment of even the finest cuisine.

Today’s invention applies this knowledge directly to the process of eating. We could build lamps into the crockery (which would be ok, but hard to avoid backlighting making the food look uniformly black).

Instead, each knife and fork would be equipped with a small lamp and a variably-coloured filter. The lamps would act as miniature, widebeam floodlights. Each item of cutlery might be set with a slightly different hue and intensity in order that a more interesting mix of appetising colours could be played on the meal.

The lamps themselves could be automatically activated when picked up and switch off when set down. They might even be set to decrease their intensity over the duration of a meal, in order to help reduce the total amount of food consumed.

#385: Threedeesee

Tracking eye movements accurately, without a massive amount of lab equipment in tow, is still not easy*. If you try to do it by finding the irises in a digital image of the face, for example, the processing required to cope with high speed movements of up to 700 degrees per second is phenomenal…doing that with any degree of precision still poses difficulties.

Today’s invention is a direct contact eye tracker. I’ve talked before about using a single optical mouse to crudely detect movements of the eyes. Now imagine taking the sensors from a dozen or so such mice and embedding them circumferentially in a soft, transparent ring which is lightly held in contact with the eyelids by an adapted pair of spectacle frames.

This approach, which relies on low-cost, high-precision technology, could be especially useful for people with insufficient manual dexterity to control a joystick or by advertisers interested in where people look as they walk freely around eg a shopping centre. A two-eyed version could compute vergence, at least at close range, and provide information about what’s being observed in 3-D space.

*Predicting the direction of eye movement precisiely and quickly might be done by sensing electrical signals to the eye muscles (When preparing to make an eye movement for example, a copy of the ‘movements-to-be-made-next’ program (efference copy) is used to predict where, and at what, we will be looking next. We then compare this expectation to what actually happens. It’s thought that any discrepancy gives a measure of the extent to which external influences eg anomalous head movements, have occurred). As far as I know, there is no easy way to do this non-invasively.

#384: Looklights

I once knew someone who, having made a lucrative deal in an oil town, celebrated by buying himself a 500 horsepower sportscar. He rarely drove it over 50MPH, however, explaining that people couldn’t recognise him in it if he went fast.

Today’s invention attempts to reintroduce personal recognisability into driving.

As each seat is occupied in a car, a small light would shine on its occupant’s face. This would enable travellers in a vehicle to be seen by other road users as individuals, (rather than as the anonymous contents of a car with a fixed personality given to it by some industrial designer).

This being seen would result, I believe, in more responsible road use…people would slow down and be less inclined to road rage if they were appearing in a public space, rather than hiding in the privacy of their own metal carapace.

#383: Weightbelt

Musculoskeletal problems often arise in people who carry heavy items about -especially if the loads are distributed asymmetrically. Classic examples are children carrying a schoolbag crammed with books (and mobile electronics) on a single shoulder and the accountant with a box case full of papers -gripped in one hand. (Actually it’s more likely to contain cash, for which complaint I have less sympathy).

Today’s invention is a new way to enable people to carry such loads more easily.

This consists of a pair of lightweight plastic handles connected by a webbing strap. A large weight can be held by the hook beneath one handle. This is then supported by the nearer hand, in the usual way (fingers fatigue under load, without other backup).

The strap allows the weight to be also spread across the shoulders and the distal hand, which can press down with elbow locked, to help support the load.

#382: Finz

Today’s invention is a simple way to reduce the heat lost by your gloved fingers by about a third.

It also allows me to indulge my limitless admiration for the zip fastener (again).

Each adjacent pair of glove fingers has a zip on the outer surface between them, which can be used to join the fingers together; reducing their area and heat loss.

This also allows e.g. the index finger to be separated occasionally for increased dexterity…just as long as that doesn’t involve something so stupid as operating a trigger.

#381: Verretas

I’ve just been reading in some magazine for high flying corporate execs about the design of wineglasses (before anyone thinks I’ve got a subscription, I should say I was reading it in a waiting room).

I’m really not sure how true any of this stuff actually is because after a glass or two of Pinot, the focus required to conduct rigorous tests obviously becomes less acute.

Anyway, the thinking in wine buff circles is that the shape of a glass affects the taste …by as much as £10 a bottle (ie three times what I pay for a bottle).

This occurs, they say, due to the contact the glass creates between wine and air and because of where in the mouth the glass directs the wine. See e.g. this item on ‘stemware’.

Today’s invention is an attempt to optimise the second (and presumably dominant, effect). This takes the form of an insert which clips to the side of any ordinary wineglass and which holds several plastic drinking straws. The straws then pass, in a tight bundle, through a mouthpiece which forms a seal with the tippler’s lips.

Each of the straws can be extended and rotated within the mouthpiece so as to be pointed at the parts of a drinker’s mouth which are thought to optimise the experience for each particular wine.

Small printed tongue icons, indicating the best straw positions for each wine would be provided (ideally on the rear of the bottle’s label).

#380: Sailing zips

Windpower is a pretty poor source of energy (at least over most of the Earth’s surface and in the absence of a government subsidy). It does, however, provide an effective way to distribute goods around by sea. Now the use of sailing ships is being widely revisited for this purpose.

Conventional sails require to be hoisted and lowered in order to maximise propulsion, and avoid damaging the ship to which they are attached. This is a laborious process, even if the hoisting is undertaken mechanically.

Today’s invention is a set of fixed sails on a large sailing transport ship. The sails stay in position, irrespective of wind condition. Each of these has a series of long, linear cuts made in it. The cuts can be opened or closed using large, robust zip fasteners.

These zips can be driven by computer-controlled winches to different positions in order to tune the drag of the sails and optimise their response to the wind.

Month: December 2007