Category: Feasible inventions

When shopping on Amazon, I’m reluctant to check the ‘is it a gift?’ box in case I get stung for some additional wrapping charge.

Today’s invention is some code which would replace this question with ‘Is it for someone else?’

If that box is checked, then the option for giftwrap might appear. If it isn’t, then this particular purchase wouldn’t be included in future recommendations for me.

It drives me mad that I still have to wade through volumes of Harry Potter products because I once bought a daughter a DVD.

Today’s invention is an introversion mapping application.

Introverts (probably one in three adults, but we tend to keep a low profile) would tag locations on their smartphones where there were few people and not much noise. The tags might link to local realtime photos and recorded sounds.

This would include information about the best times to avoid crowds so that other introverts could then go there preferentially.

When the locations began to get more popular, the app users could individually reduce the rating for a given location.

This is all a bit like the El Farol problem I’ve mentioned before.

I can’t believe how much energy my smartphone uses when it vibrates to alert me to the arrival of a new message.

This is a fairly brick-sized Galaxy Note, mind you, and the whole device shakes in my pocket.

Today’s invention is to supply such cellphones with an earbud containing a tiny, out of balance motor.

With the phone in a pocket, the ear piece could be worn in the ear or inserted into a shirt buttonhole.

A new message would only need to buzz a small external mass, thus being more discreet and saving my hard-pressed battery.

Today’s invention is a new feature for LinkedIn.

When the number of your connections exceeds anything like the Dunbar number, you just can’t keep track of all their details.

The invention is therefore a recommendation engine which reads the profiles of all your connections and makes suggestions as to the most valuable (online) introductions you could effect between them.

This would allow the user to select ‘show me only the closest matches between my connections’ or ‘show me matches between people with shared interests but who differ widely in the numbers of their connections’ etc.

In a socially-networked world, there is huge value, and some kudos, in being able to actively create effective links between people with related profiles.

Today’s invention is a rigid bracket (blue) which enables the user of an automatic weapon to slot in two magazines -one facing forwards, one backwards.

This allows a very quick swap between these when the first is emptied, but it also provides the weapon with a second handle -particularly good for handguns which need more stabilisation when fired.

We live in a sleep-deprived world.

People who travel by public transport often try to take the opportunity to fall asleep (fitfully) in transit, but they do so in fear of oversleeping their stop.

Even if there are audible station or bus-stop announcements, these are surprisingly easy to sleep through.

Today’s invention is a smartphone app which determines, using eg GPS, when its owner is within two minutes of his or her stop before buzzing a sharp, personal wake-up call.

In American football, controversy rages about the testing of helmets…ie which to assign the greatest ratings for concussion resistance.

When you crash your motorcycle, you throw your helmet away…assuming it saved your head.

Today’s invention adopts a similar approach to crashes on the gridiron.

The game stops so often and the players are swapped so frequently that each time a tackle occurs, anyone involved could be handed a brand new, high-specification helmet.

Frankly, the sport could afford this easily (even at school level). It would also allow players in major leagues to be seen more by their adoring fans.

In future, I could see these helmets being printed in 3D on the bench and designed to match perfectly the contours of the individual wearers’ heads.