When you load the panniers of your bike before a long trip, it’s difficult to ensure that the weight is equally distributed.
This is also important, so that the machine is safely rideable.
Today’s invention is a balance for the parcel rack on a bicycle.
This has a fulcrum and a lever arm.
The panniers can be filled and the arm slid from one side towards the other until the bags exert equal turning effects clockwise and anticlockwise.
The arm is then locked in place before cycling off.
When I travel on planes or trains, the range of stable seating positions is very limited.
This means that it’s hard to sit comfortably, let alone fall asleep.
Today’s invention is for restive and ill-fitting passengers such as me.
It takes the form of a padded loop wrapped around a variable-geometry frame, the legs of which curve around so that they can be pinned in position by one’s thighs.
This allows a passenger to select a number of comfortable, forward-leaning positions in the course of a long journey.
Today’s invention is a SeatGuru for hotel rooms.
Since most ‘cheap’ hotel chains have internal layouts that are almost identical, when booking a room, it would help determine the relative noisiness of different room numbers.
These data could be based on crowdsourced feedback, from previous guests, as well as a model which would include the (weighted) effects of eg proximity to the lift, firedoor, ice machine, family rooms, kitchen etc.
This invention was inspired by a conversation my wife had with discerning traveller Steve Cook.
I have lashed out lots of cash, historically, on various bits of kit to make the vibram soles on my boots less gripless.
These faux crampons either snap off on tarmac surfaces or simply fail to cope with leaves and mud on the same trip.
Today’s invention is therefore variable shoe spikes.
A small array of cams is fitted to the inside of one’s heel, as shown.
By pulling the orange handle, the cam blades rotate to allow the wearer to set the degree of bite required (from snowdrift to parquet floor).
Naturally I’d like a set with a motor and remote control.
They could also be fitted to the toe end of one’s boots, of course.
Pilots of fast jets have long used ejector seats.
Today’s invention is to fit these aircraft with a number of additional ejection devices, specifically for high-value equipment modules.
The hardware has different maximum acceleration limits from the people on board and so these would be set to fire their pyrotechnics milliseconds after the crew’s seat(s) had departed.
Anything of particular significance…eg secret technology or reconnaissance data might be mounted in a standalone UAV to allow it to attempt to return to base.
Such modules might even have specific self-destruct capabilities so that, if captured, they could obliterate themselves more effectvely than if just involved in a crash.
I know that I’m always advocating a paperless existence, so today’s invention is for people who still hark back to the olden days of vellum, quills and filing cabinets (ie lawyers).
When you want to put your sheet of random paper into a ring binder, there is never a hole punch to hand.
Imagine, therefore, if the prongs on the clips within the binder actually had a circular blade on one side and ‘anvil’ on the other.
Snap these closed on your sheet of paper and a pair of beautifully round holes is formed, allowing the document to be neatly stacked for future reference.
Our consumerist society is so absurd that a whole industry has arisen to allow people in small homes to store the quantities of stuff they have bought but have no room to keep with them.
Today’s invention is a simple way to remind people that this is not very healthy and to help them get rid of their surplus possessions.
When you place items in storage, each is photographed before being consigned to your crate or locker.
These images are later piped to your computer screen as a random screen saver.
This keeps you aware that you already own a set of bone china crockery with matching cruets -and might discourage you from inadvertently buying more. Labelling the images could even allow one’s browser to intercede when you were in the process of making an online purchase of something like the products you already own.
Over time, if the contents of a crate had not been accessed, an owner could authorise that the images be posted to ebay, so that they could be automatically sold without the emotional pain of having to part with one’s superfluous belongings.
I was shocked to hear, from some primary school teachers, that about 70% of 10-year olds can’t use scissors; having been denied access to them for ‘safety reasons’.
Today’s invention aims to fix that silliness.
The scissor blades each have a sheath fitted which is free to slide along the blade (and with an internal spring so that the sheaths want to shoot off the blades).
A wire loop joins the sheaths, via a pair of pegs on the handles.
When the scissors are open, the sheaths move close to the handles, leaving only a very small length of blade exposed for cutting.
As the cutting progresses, the handles move closer to each other and more of the blades are unshielded.
This allows scissors to be used by the inexperienced but prevents even a child’s finger from making contact with any significant length of bare blade.
Today’s invention is a travel toothbrush with a flexible handle.
This contains a small reservoir of toothpaste, so that the handle can be bent around to load the brush, as shown.
Travellers would be able to carry a smaller than usual teeth cleaning package and never be in danger of ending up with one of the necessary components missing.
Even tracked vehicles have difficulties getting through eg mountainous terrain.
I guess that’s one reason why the robotics industry is working so hard to create multi-legged robot vehicles.
Today’s invention is a hexapod transport platform with a twist.
Six small mechanical diggers are backed into a chassis (blue). This locks onto their wheels so that the diggers’ bucket arms are sprung with respect to the chassis.
The blue unit also contains some servomachinery which can manipulate the diggers’ controls -under direction from a driver in a forward-facing cockpit.
In this way, the diggers’ buckets can be made to step in sequence over very rough ground, allowing the chassis to carry troops, food supplies or other equipment.
