Category: Feasible inventions

One surprising thing is that many mountain tops seem to have mobile phone reception. They also often find themselves suddenly shrouded in mist.

Today’s invention is an app for a smartphone (something like this one).

Instead of showing people those stars which are invisible, the app in question would show the view, from anywhere on a mountain walk, which would be visible if the mist had not descended.

This could be a lifesaver for anyone lost, but also it might reduce disappointment for visitors who just happen to ascend on the wrong day to experience the scenic views they require.

I used to have a radio-controlled clock, with an analogue face, which was accurate to half a second per decade or something ridiculous.

My problem was that the mechanics of driving the minute hand were cheap and nasty plastic -so that it was always about half a degree away from the minute divisions on the face. This was especially noticeable because of the visual hyperacuity we all have for detecting misalignment.

Also, the vibration of the end of the minute hand made reading the time annoying…especially since the face was inscribed with various boasts about the device’s accuracy.

Today’s invention is such a clock but with the minute hand drawn on a rotating disk. This allows the hand to be set up in the factory exactly in line with the stationary minute divisions marked around the inner edge of the clock.

It also removes any possible waggling of the minute hand about its proper position.

Wear a race number these days and you will find yourself later being marketed to.

One such business model is about selling pictures of people as they compete. Just like school photographs, these images are shown to the proud prospect in a small format and with the photography company’s name emblazoned across the image. (These measures are supposed to provide the supplier with some assurance that they have given enough information to allow a sale -but not enough to cause people not to buy).

In fact, most people want a small picture that can be shown on their smartphone screen -which puts more pressure on the proprietory text. This often uses a simple, thin font in one colour.

Given that you can do image editing/manipulation on your phone, today’s invention is to create a form of captcha-like text to protect such images. It would have thick letterforms in a serif font so that a combination of paintpot and blur tools couldn’t be used to remove the letters cleanly. The letters themselves would each have a subtle colour gradient to compound the difficulty of removing them -without making them less legible.

There are lots of patents for boxing gloves which contain an inflatable bladder…intended to protect the hand of the wearer and the body of the opponent.

Today’s invention however is a boxing glove with an inner liner that can be deflated.

The wearer would put the glove on and air would be removed from the liner, using a small suction pump, so that an initial fist shape could be supported by the tension in the inner skin as it ‘shrink-wraps’ the fist.

Making the liner long enough to include the wrist, would reinforce that joint too, so that traumatic bending and crushing of all the bones directly involved in punching would be avoided.

The normal boxing glove outer layer would be unaffected by this inner shrinkage.

I read today about a pretty simple approach to seating people quickly on a passenger aircraft. It’s claimed that this may be as much as 50% faster…which would be a great boon to passengers as well as a saving in standing fees to airlines.

The question remains how to get people to arrive at the aircraft in the optimal order? Today’s invention offers a simple approach.

On entry to the departure lounge, passengers are asked to sit in a particular numbered seat as indicated on a small sticker printed onto their ticket when they appear (the lounge seat being determined by any preferences expressed when they bought their ticket).

Boarding would be done in lounge seat order, so that the right window seats fill first, the left window seats next etc. The boarding computer would know the precise seat layout of each aircraft and adjust the lounge seat sticker number accordingly.

(If people don’t mind where they sit, or when they board, or want to sit outside the numbered seat area in the lounge, they would still be free to do so, of course).

Today’s invention offers another way to deal with my bugbears: litter.

Since everything these days has to be gamified, why not that too? We used to get money back on bottles, but the (uniform) value was too small to be sustainable.

Today’s invention is a rubbish-bin-cum-vending machine which contains a barcode reader and some cash.

When someone puts an item of litter into a slot in the machine, its barcode is automatically read (pretty much every discarded product package has a barcode on it somewhere).

If the barcode has been chosen to be ‘lucky’ on a given day, the depositor will receive a cash payout, ranging say from 20p to £100. This will encourage people to seek out a machine before dropping their litter and even to collect what others have dropped.

There are very few safecrackers around, whatever Hollywood might suggest.

Most safes which have attracted the attentions of criminals are carried off and attacked with power tools, in private, over a period of time.

Today’s invention is a coating for safes which consists of irregular, steel protrusions, welded on the outer walls and roof of a safe. These resemble the broken bottles one sees on the top of walls…a major disincentive to even the keenest crook.

Only the keypad and handle would be free of the blades.

Such an approach makes any manhandling of the strongbox (which would be required to get it down stairs, out a window or into a van) almost impossible.

Even wrapping a mattress around or hammering planks onto the blades it would be hazardous, since they would be liable to pierce any such protection when being moved. Anyone foolish enough to attempt entry using explosives would create a cloud of shrapnel.

I happen to be the proud owner of a number of tilting roof windows.

One problem with their operation is that when opened, after even a short period of disuse, large amounts of grit, seeds and leaf fragments, which have collected around the edges of the window, fall inside the house.

This is particularly annoying in the case of the window above my bed.

Today’s invention is a weatherproof robotic vacuum cleaner which can be wirelessly instructed to vacuum the exterior perimeter seals of such windows, just before the catch is released.