Category: Feasible inventions

Couples, it seems, are endangering their relationships by staring at their separate phones all the time: even during date nights (that’s an old-time concept, of course).

Today’s invention is a rubber ‘chastity belt’ into which a couple can lock their phones when they are supposed to be having some quality time. The phones face each other so that the screens can’t be seen without one person unlocking their lock (probably not a sign of commitment).

This means no selfies or pictures of dinner.

After an agreed duration of the evening’s activities, each person can retrieve their device and catch up on their social networking. Just the pause in the perpetual instagramming may help them realise how futile that is, compared to chatting with their significant other.

You shouldn’t really have your car serviced by people you don’t trust. There is always a first time, however, using a new garage, when you may be unsure about the quality and thoroughness of the work.

People who leave their children with child minders sometimes expect their child’s stay to be monitored by cameras…so why not extend this to those who love their vehicles?

Today’s invention is a set of say six small cameras located around a vehicle (one in the engine bay, each of the wheelwells and the boot or trunk as well as the car’s interior).

These would be highly visible so that anyone working on the car would be clear that their work could be scrutinised (perhaps wirelessly, in real time).

Certain dealerships will already use cameras to show a customer why they are being charged £80 an hour for labour. It seems only fair that car owners should be allowed to check what’s actually being done.

You just can’t run a petrol station with a shop (and even a coffee shop) without providing people enough room to park (Shell UK, I’m looking at you).

What often happens, and drives me crazy, is that folk who don’t think clearly leave their vehicles by the pump and disappear into the shop for several cups of coffee and maybe a bit of cake oh and…Meanwhile, I’m parked behind -waiting for them to move out of the way.

Petrol stations already have automatic number plate recognition and ‘loyalty’ schemes.

Today’s invention is to fit a couple of ground cables to each pump, so that your duration there is recorded.

If you are arriving and leaving within a sensible timescale, the petrol company will credit your loyalty points account with a bonus. This will speed the flow of people through the station, without raising any issues to do with rushing.

(Personally, if people decide to eat their sandwiches, whilst sitting at the pumps, I’d be inclined to impound their car).

Today’s invention is a car designed with tourism in mind.

It has a bank of rear seats which can be driven upward through a giant hatch in the roof, so that occupants can see more of their surroundings and take photos unimpeded by glass windows.

The seat height would be variable and rising out of the cabin would only be allowed when the vehicle was travelling below a certain speed. Sensors would detect eg low bridges.

In the autonomous vehicle future, this will provide occupants with a new way to pass the time on boring journeys.

Adventurous users could select a maximum height of say 4m and drive through safari parks.

When taking down one’s tent, it’s a pain not to be able to pull the poles out (because they separate and get lost or jammed in the fabric).

Today’s invention is to provide each section of tent pole with a very simple lock and key (outlined in green).

The lock would be made by just sawing halfway through the metal end of a pole junction and breaking one end of the material out (left end). This key would need an L-shaped slot cut in the corresponding end of the next section (right end), so that it was always kept away from protruding through any fabric.

This simple bayonet-fit would allow the poles to be joined before putting the tent up and then happily pulled out of the fabric retainers when taking the tent down.

Some motorcyclists can’t ride their bikes safely because their legs are not long enough to have their feet planted on the ground when necessary (even with the seat lowered).

There are lots of boots with thick insoles which help address the problem, but these change the relationship between the foot and the bike controls.

Today’s invention is a set of clip-on external platforms (red) for bike boots.

Each of these allows the controls ((brake on the right (left image) and gearchange on the left (both yellow)) and the pegs (blue) to be dealt with entirely as normal.

The platforms allow a motorcyclist to stand with their feet flat on the road surface and to walk about normally when away from their machine.

Today’s invention is a secure way to carry more fuel on your motorcycle than can be accommodated in the normal tank.

An inverted U shaped tank is firmly secured to the filler cap ring of the original tank (light grey) using the red bolts indicated.

This secondary tank itself has a filler cap (green) which, when opened, allows the petrol pump nozzle (pink) to fill either the original tank, the additional one or both, to whatever levels are chosen.

This arrangement also allows fuel to be stored lower on the machine, thus making it more stable when ridden.

(How cool would it be to be able to have a secondary tank which fitted one’s own upper body: thus supporting some weight and also lessening aerodynamic drag?)