Home 2008 (Page 7)

Year: 2008

#688: Peegreen

There is, apparently a worldwide campaign to encourage anyone who has just used a lavatory and only left urine, not to flush. This is intended to conserve a vast amount of water (at the expense of some very minor embarrassment).

Although there are numerous scented, disinfectant-laden and usually blue-coloured toilet liquids available, today’s invention is a new one.

Made from grass cuttings, this green liquid, dispensed into the cistern, would disguise the presence of urine and thus greatly decrease the flushing frequency (without adding any noxious chemicals to the drainage system).

#687: Trashdunk

Inspired by IDEO’s fingerblaster and the Aerobie Rocket Football today’s invention is a new way to deal with the mountains of plastic soft drinks bottles which I see littering the roadsides near my home.

Each plastic bottle would be blow moulded with fin-like protruberances at the bottom end. Council waste bins would be equipped, by the drinks manufacturers, with a branded hoop clipped to the top of each one.

People would be encouraged, by a marketing campaign, to see the challenge in firing their winged bottles into bins, rather than just dropping them. Groups of youngsters would be encouraged to film long-distance target practice shots and upload these to YouTube, in order to win a national anti-litter prize.

They might gain extra points by also filming the process of loading their bottles with other rubbish to provide better flight dynamics and clean up their neighbourhood whilst having some extra fun.

#686: Ovfin

I’m given to believe by the nice people who sold me my new, wood-burning stove that it’s about four times more efficient than just burning the fuel in an open hearth. I suspect that it’s actually still horribly inefficient and a pretty good tool for promoting global warming.

Naturally, I thought of searching the patent databases to understand what innovations are out there to improve performance. Lots of ‘prior art’ exists on fitting fins, ducts, baffles etc inside a stove, to improve burning efficiency, or to extract heat from the flue gases.

Today’s invention is a little different in that it consists of a bank of magnetic fins which can be attached to the outsides and rear of a cast-iron stove and which greatly improve the convective heat transfer to the airflow in contact with these areas. Painted in matt black heatproof enamel, these would be comparatively unobtrusive, yet capable of boosting the effective output of many domestic heating stoves.

Repeated heating and cooling would result in eventual demagnetisation, requiring renewal…but these fins could be made with detachable magnets whose replacement could be arranged to occur as part of normal system maintenance.

#685: Dragbag

Responsible dog owners are supposed to collect their animals’ excrement and carry it to a designated dog waste bin (at least in many cities).

Today’s invention is a way for such people to illustrate their responsibility by carrying with them a highly visible, ultra-durable bag marked “Dog Waste.” Any scurrilous owners not thus equipped and allowing their canine pals to defecate literally with abandon could then be approached by dog wardens and, if necessary, fined.

The bags would be inverted to lift the dog mess and also be equipped with a nylon rope so that, when filled, each could be dragged behind the owner in search of a suitable bin, rather than be carried in a pocket. This would further publicise their effort, avoid the dreadful stench and allow their dog, if walking off-lead behind, to follow and catch up more easily.

These bags could be hosed out on returning home which would also reduce the problem of dealing with the millions of plastic bags filled with dog poo left in waste bins.

#684: Paperpatch

When small but visible regions of one’s textured wallpaper get damaged, it is usually painful to have to consider repapering an entire room.

Today’s invention delays the redecoration work by attempting to repair the texture of (monochrome) paper.

A textured surface, A, has sustained a small region of damage, B. A (lightly-greased) matrix of fine rods, C, is then pressed into contact with an undamaged region of texture, so as to take up its surface profile. C is then wedged in place over the offending hole in the paper and a papier-mache pulp (D, in blue) is squeezed through a small gap in the matrix. This can then be repainted conveniently when the pulp hardens and the matrix is removed.

This approach might be obviously adopted for the repair of a range of other textured surfaces.

#683: Insole-ators

Armies tend to get equipped with felt overboots every time their local megalomaniac decides it’s a good idea to pick a fight with Russia (The French army still gets these issued with only a single word of explanation: “Moscow”).

Standing on a Northern railway platform recently, I was reminded of these facts, whilst also thinking that wet leather is a surprisingly good thermal conductor of heat from my feet to the frozen ground.

Rather than go with felt, though, I thought that it would be good to stand on two vacuum flasks.

Today’s invention is a clip-on sole for shoes containing two, flat ‘vacuum’ chambers; one for the forefoot and one for the heel. Each of these chambers would have a thin outer wall made of fibreglass, to sustain the low internal pressure, whilst also minimising the conduction of heat from foot to floor.

#682: SharpShield

Stabbing attacks on e.g. police officers and other public-facing staff are particularly hard to defend against. Even bulletproof clothing can be punctured by a sharp knife.

It’s possible to wear a vest which can withstand a sharp point, but the pressure generated at the tip of a knife blade is enormous and the appropriate protective clothing becomes too bulky to be comfortable.

Today’s invention is a new configuration of shielding consisting of a continuous, flexible sheet of concave hexagons, moulded in tough plastic. When a knife point slams into this surface, it will tend to deflect into the base of the nearest concavity. Each dip contains an embedded metal ring (yellow) which locates the point and spreads its impact across neighbouring ‘cells’, without ever allowing the point to penetrate to the person underneath (pink).

#681: Zipouches

I like to carry my things in some kind of coat, leaving my hands free. I find it helpful to have a single pocket for storing items like my keys, my wallet, phone etc, rather than have them roll around in the same one.

Today’s invention is a coat on the inside of which is a set of short, horizontal zips. To each of these a detachable pocket, from a range of sizes, can be zipped: one pocket for each object being carried.

This allows a selection to be made of what things to take each day, enables e.g. one’s phone to be carried where the user chooses, provides for flexibility if one wants to change one’s wallet position occasionally for security and still manages to stop keys from committing ipodicide.

This idea doesn’t yet extend to a laptop, but I’d really like to be able to buy a modular machine with wires between elements, each of which would be stored in its own ventilated zip-in pocket (which would also distribute the weight much more effectively than any shoulder strap).

#680: Tinetune

It’s always hard to get the attention of waiting staff in a restaurant. You may need to place an order fast or get the bill and leave, but they need to keep an eye on other tables too.

Today’s invention is a way to effectively gain their attention, without any impatient finger snapping or having to stage-whisper ‘Excuse me’ three or four times.

It consists of a table fork, the handle end of which acts as a tuning fork (this would need to be made so as to clearly indicate that that end wasn’t for picking up food).

When the non-foody end is plucked and the foody end applied to the plate surface, a pleasant, pure musical tone is emitted -attracting the attention of the appropriate waiter (each fork would have a perceptibly different note).

#679: Facebank

I was reading today about a Glasgow inventor who has created a software technique for visualising plastic surgery when it’s still at the planning stage for an individual.

It occurred to me that this includes an element of guesswork that could be lessened.

Today’s invention is to store a 3-D scan of everyone‘s face who is involved in hazardous activities eg the armed forces, motor racing, emergency services etc. If they sustain serious facial injury, there will at least be a ‘before’ image which might help a surgeon understand what the end result of reconstructive surgery should attempt to be.