Category: Feasible inventions

Today’s invention is a way for an office worker in a dark cubicle to experience the time of day more viscerally than via a clock.

A small projector plugs into one’s laptop and shines a bright disc on the wall of the windowless office. The position and approximate size of the disc correspond to the Sun’s appearance from the worker’s position -if there were any windows.

A smart system might even scan the geometry of the room and adjust the apparent shape of the projected sun to remain always circular (rather than eg an ellipsoid on an oblique wall).

This might well be enough to keep the worker’s biorhythms intact throughout the year (which is believed to influence strongly one’s body’s responses to drugs and one’s immunity to disease).

Boxers seem to do a lot of damage to themselves simply when sparring. Today’s invention is an upgrade to the standard springloaded punchball.

In addition to the floor-mounted punchball, two other such balls on springy stalks would be provided -each the size and colour of an opponent’s glove. The boxer would attempt to land punches on the main ball, in lieu of an opponent’s head, by avoiding the two smaller balls.

Instead of rebounding predictably, these smaller balls would each be driven by a computer in patterns which were like normal defensive moves -and with an element of unpredictability. This would mean that a boxer could be hit by them pretty forcefully but not so as to sustain unnecessary damage. (Actually it might be possible to have a camera in the main ball with face recognition software driving the ‘gloves’ to hit the boxer back).

The main ball could also be wired to record the number of on-target shots automatically.

Today’s invention is a cheap form of disaster relief shelter which consists of two lengths of reed-type matting; one inserted inside the other and sewn together.

This can be made in double thickness and coated with mud for extra weather protection.

It is intended to provide a family unit with a rapid, structurally tough way to stay warm, dry and as clean as possible.

Today’s invention is an Allen-type bolt which incorporates its own key.

This is normally stored within the core of the bolt (without greatly reducing the strength of the fixture).

When the bolt is to be tightened in place, the key is slid out, held captive in its slot, and rotated to give some mechanical advantage.

Today’s invention is an iPhone app (or equivalent) which provides the user with a visual explanation of the innermost workings of any device against which the phone is held.

This would work only for devices which contained some kind of RFID tag. The phone would sense this and be informed about the relative position and orientation of the two devices.

The phone would then play on its screen an X-ray movie of the guts of the system directly beneath the phone itself -as if a real-time local X-ray were being taken.

I’m told by various family members that in Australia, car crashes sometimes happen because the large and aggressive Huntsman spider likes to hide under the sun visors of vehicles. These crevices resemble the bark of trees: the spider’s natural habitat.

Driving along a freeway on a sunny day, it’s possible to see a 10cm creature drop and scuttle across one’s lap. Forget texting, this has to be the most dangerous distraction ever.

Today’s invention is a simple solution, consisting of a sheet of magnetised steel which can be bonded direct to the back of any sun visor.

Each time the visor is folded back and stowed, the magnet presses the visor hard against the roof of the vehicle -making ingress, by even the most tenacious invertebrates, impossible.

Medical staff are notorious for not washing their hands enough.

Today’s invention is intended to encourage handwashing and thus to protect patients.

Every door handle in a hospital or clinic would be replaced with one which exudes a small amount of harmless chemical when the door is operated. This chemical would smell dreadful (I leave that part to your imagination).

Patients would be quick to complain about being treated by medical staff with smelly hands and thus doctors and nurses (and patients too) would have to keep washing -thus frequently cleaning off the smell as well as the toxic bugs.

I’m prepared to believe that staring at a screen all day, whilst rarely blinking, allows my corneas to dry out (not to mention my contact lenses).

Apparently dry eyes are a problem, but this seems like a ridiculously elaborate solution.

Instead today’s invention is briefly to invert the colours on one’s screen randomly in time (and with a small variation in duration).

This will cause the screen viewer to blink and also remain difficult to habituate to over time (I know because I used to use an ancient terminal which refreshed its screen frequently in a blink-inducing flash). This inversion would minimise any discontinuity in the task being performed.

I’d also propose that the inversion should start at top and bottom of the screen -progressing rapidly towards the middle to more strongly suggest blinking.