#1028: SeatSentry

The whole process of booking seats on public transport is a potential nightmare. People sit on your seat and then you have to fight with them so you can sit down, or you may find that you have accidentally parked in a location reserved for someone’s aged relative. In either case, embarrassment ensues.

Today’s invention makes booking a seat a well-defined event. Instead of attaching an inconspicuous piece of paper to the back, train staff flip the base around a fore-aft axis marked X. This locks the seat with a number of random-height hoops sticking up. Impossible to sit on or even put a case on. No danger though of causing anyone injury.

seat

When the seat owner appears, they unlock it using their credit card (or via a keypad), flip the base and sit in upholstered luxury.

A smarter system might have remotely powered seat rotation setup in direct response to the booking computer’s signals.

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