Category: Feasible inventions

I’ve noticed that in particularly windy parts of the country, two traffic cones are used at a time, one purely being employed to hold the other one down in high winds. It occurred to me that it would be better to equip each cone with a moulded-in compartment into which water could be poured from the cone laying truck. The weight would allow each cone to stay securely in place in even the wildest weather.

When the roadworks have been completed (it does happen sometimes) a plug could be pulled before loading cones back aboard.

An alternative, involving no extra weight, would be for the base of each cone to incorporate an inverted aerofoil moulding which, as the wind rises, would suck it down harder onto the tarmac (a similar process to the ‘wings’ on F1 racers). This would also be a useful addition to the existing wheelie bin designs which routinely overturn in the wind, spilling household waste all over the pavement.

A clock which allows you to enter some deadline time and then says ‘Two minutes until deadline’, ‘One minute to go’, ‘You are cutting things a bit fine now’, ‘Get a bloody move on’ and eventually ‘…ok, you are now officially late.’

The voice could range from relaxed and encouraging to frantic and hectoring (Think 1980’s Montego but without the velour upholstery).

An attachment for a standard vacuum cleaner consisting of a small, simple robotic ‘mouse’. The mouse is connected to the cleaner by a light flexible, smallbore hose.

It is capable of moving itself about randomly on a floor surface using only tiny battery-powered motors and its small size means that. it can reach into corners and under furniture. The suction is provided by the main vacuum cleaner which remains stationary.

Based on existing, low-cost robotic mouse toys, this device could be fitted with a timer and clean a small section of a floor each day without the owner’s intervention -and it can reach places the $300 Roomba fears to tread.

Where does your cat or dog go when out of the house? Strap a wireless webcam around their neck and your immediate vicinity (within range of your router) starts to accommodate a wildlife safari. Pipe the pictures to a big screen and get close-ups of midnight mousehunting, roadcrossing roulette etc. An inbuilt microphone adds extra excitement.

Now it seems that this has actually been implemented.