Category: Feasible inventions

Many people who engage in sports find it hard to keep track of the way their feet make contact with the ground. If you are a distance runner, this actually matters: heel striking, even with a 2cm foam cushion on your shoes, can result in all sorts of joint damage over the long term. A small change in cadence/grip can have huge effects on results for a sprinter.

Today’s invention is a set of low-height studs embedded in the soles of trail running shoes. These are good for grip in themselves but each stud has a piezoelectric crystal inside which is deformed by the impacts of running (kids shoes sometimes embody a crude version by which a small light illuminates on landing).

As the foot hits the ground, each stud translates the voltage generated in its crystal to an audible beep at a unique frequency. Studs emitting the same frequency are placed in symmetric positions on left and right soles.

During running, a sound pattern occurs which tells the runner whether they are running too much on heels or toes and, more importantly, whether the left foot impact pattern matches that of the right foot.

I’m someone who eats so quickly my meals sometimes disappear before I have much chance to savor them.

Today’s invention is for people who eat too fast and therefore often cram in more than is healthy for them.

It consists of a transparent disc which clips to the top of any standard sized bowl or plate. Arms extend from the disc under the plate and are locked in position, covering the freshly-cooked meal beneath.

The disc has a central section which rotates (driven by a clockwork mechanism) and which has an octant-sized aperture -allowing a portion of the meal to be eaten through this.

The octant slowly rotates around the plate, so that eating can occur at a restricted pace. When the full 360 degrees have been sequentially cleared, the clockwork releases the clips, freeing the plate for the dishwasher.

I live in a house filled with heavy furniture and large plant pots. The carpet, such as it is, takes a hammering from all this weight, leaving unsightly, flattened patches which tend to fade noticeably less.

Today’s invention is a beermat-sized pad made of translucent plastic. From one side, a matrix of spines points downwards, whilst the top surface remains flat (a bit like a very stiff hairbrush).

The spines are three cm or so in length and act as an inverted bed of nails, supporting the heavy objects, without becoming themselves distorted and without flattening the carpet fibres.

Light can penetrate to the carpet pretty effectively and the pads can be linked at the edges in order to spread any loads more widely, if required.

Wheelchairs tend to be heavy and pretty bulky, but why not take advantage of this shape factor that’s designed primarily for stability?

Here’s one idea I thought up earlier.

In an electrically driven chair, there’s room on board for all manner of useful stuff. Today’s invention is to equip wheelchairs with battery-charging facilities for mobile phones and wireless hubs providing extra bandwidth that can be rented out to other members of the public.

This would make those disabled people who chose to carry a suitable sign, a source of some very valuable (but hard to steal) resources. It might also encourage communication with people who sometimes find themselves overlooked.

Yet another one-handed alternative watch, I’m afraid.

Today’s invention is a watch with an hour hand only.

As the (longer than average) hour hand rotates, so a slider (driven by a counter-rotating cam with a return spring) moves outwards along it from the centre (indicating ‘0 minutes past’) to the end (indicating ’60 minutes past’).

This gives more than sufficient precision for most events and is especially good at allowing the half-past position to be read (due to our sensitivity to symmetry).

Still irritated by the mess which my multiblade razor picks up, I tried oscillating it underwater. Good news, it gets pretty clean; extending its life and saving some of the fortune required to stay shaven.

Today’s invention is a multiblade razor with a handle which fits my electric toothbrush drive unit (in place of the brush head).

Attach razor to brush and hold under warm water. The resulting buzzing seems to work quite well as a way to dislodge the stubble.

Repeating this in the air afterwards holds corrosion at bay and maintains the blades for even longer.