Category: Feasible inventions

I understand that a significant number of injuries is caused simply by people standing on the blades of electrical plugs…even when wearing shoes, these can twist ankles.

Today’s invention is a low-profile shield into which a plug is withdrawn by a spring. When you want to plug into a socket, this casing is pulled back.

The housing would be made cushioned on the outside and might carry battery-powered LEDs -illuminated only when the plug was within it, in order to reduce trip hazards.

A smarter version could recharge the battery using the power cable’s magnetic field.

Toilet brushes…can you think of anything less sanitary?

Admittedly, sometimes you just need to give the toilet bowl an extra clean down, to avoid being embarrassed and to maintain your membership of the decent human beings club…but I’m never keen to go near that not-quite-white brush handle lurking in the corner.

Today’s invention is a dispenser from which icecream cones (stained blue) can be obtained. These are incredibly cheap and surprisingly strong.

A graphic on the box shows someone inserting some toilet tissues in the open end of the cone and then using this device to clean the loo.

After use, the whole thing is dropped in and flushed away harmlessly.

It’s a source of great irritation that the gas stove on which I cook has an iron framework intended to hold the pots above the nozzles. This gets all too easily snagged on everything (eg passing tea towels) so that hot pots regularly teeter -it’s anything but safe.

Today’s invention is a two-part fitting which can be attached to a wide range of pots and pans. One half consists of an adjustable steel strap which holds a bayonet fitting onto the base of the pan.

The other end clips a bayonet fitting to the gas flame outlet. This holds the pot at the correct level above the heat and allows each item to be attached or detached by rotating the handle through say 60 deg, but prevents anything from knocking the hot containers accidentally off the stove.

Whilst still thinking about customer loyalty, I came across a much loved (and somewhat washed-out) T shirt from a store in the Canadian Rockies.

This inspired today’s invention: the everlasting T shirt. Just as in some coffee shops, you pay once and get unlimited refills free, the idea here is that people could buy (or be given free, with orders over a certain value) a T shirt carrying the logo and web address etc of the store in question.

This would be date-stamped and when, say, two years had elapsed, you could roll back up to the shop in question, wearing your shirt, and be given a new one, free (handing in the old one for recycling).

This would provide extra publicity for the shop in question and increase the chances of customers making return visits.

Today’s invention offers a way to increase swimming speed for eg lifeguards.

Instead of the usual webbed palm paddles, the idea is for the swimmer to wear a neoprene sleeve on each forearm. A hinge (lightly-sprung closed and with a backstop to limit opening) connects each of these to a semicylindrical plastic blade.

On reaching forward, the semicylinder’s end slices through the water and drag force is very small. As the power stroke initiates, it opens the blade from the sleeve, catching a large scoop of water and provides enhanced thrust.

As the arm retreats through the water and up into the air, the blade is forced back flush with the forearm and the process repeats.

Everybody must have had the unfortunate experience of having used the lavatory and reached for the toilet roll, only to find it one sheet away from finished (when you need >>1).

Today’s invention helps to avoid the nightmare of yelling to friends or family for help.

A toilet roll holder contains a small electronic weight scale (this might require the roll to be located on a central, vertical rod in the middle of the scales platform).

When you sit on the toilet seat, this makes a switch and the scales check the weight of the current roll. If it is sufficiently close to the end of its life, a small alarm sounds, warning the user to locate some new roll fast, in advance of using the toilet.

When you drop your laptop on the floor, there is now some chance that it may sense the acceleration and switch off its hard disk before heads and platters weld themselves together forever.

What about the cumulative effects of less extreme impacts, though? I’m aware that I pick up my smallish laptop very frequently and set it down on a desk whilst it’s still running. Each time, even when exercising some care and despite the rubber feet it is fitted with, there is a significant bump…this has to be shortening the life of a pretty fragile instrument.

Today’s invention is a thin, plastic envelope which can be attached to the base of one’s laptop. Each of these is made in the shape of a simple, 1-pleat bellows whose default state is with one edge lightly sprung open to the extent of say 0.5 mm. Each laptop would have two such envelopes fitted each with an open edge aligned with one side of the machine.

When setting the machine down on a hard surface, the first edge to make contact would be naturally cushioned by the envelope material, acting as a pad on that side. Letting the other laptop edge go would result in the envelope on that side being compressed so that the evacuating air provides effective viscous damping during descent -and avoids the uncontrolled second clunk that normally happens.

It seems that people are very good at visually keeping track of a group of objects -if they are of the same colour. So members of a rugby team can gain an instant sense of whether they have an ‘extra man’ locally on the pitch…just enough to stretch a defence thin enough to get past.

This may have had some interesting effects, too, when each army fought in its own, uniform colour. You could see if you were faced by more people than were in your platoon and decide to retreat, thus avoiding unnecessary defeat. Now everyone’s military are clad in a common camouflage, so that being able to track one’s comrades, or opponents, is outweighed by keeping everyone hidden from the enemy.

Today’s invention is a drone aircraft carrying nontoxic paint which it sprays on anything which is deemed suspicious in a given area. It thus avoids accusations of harming noncombatants, whilst highlighting people (and weapons) in a longlasting, dayglo shade. Spraying soldiers in a shocking pink might provide an additional benefit via its demoralisation effect on the notoriously fashion-sensitive military.

Looking at the details of my del.icio.us account, I realised that I could see the notes which other people had stored about the same article as I had just tagged.

I’ve always had a penchant for precis; never really understanding the need for many words when a few, well chosen ones suffice. Today’s invention is a program which looks through the selections of text people have saved in connection with a given article. It then overlays these so that the frequency with which a given word in a passage is saved causes it to be coloured correspondingly.

In this way, sections of text which were widely deemed important would appear bright red, with those slightly less important coloured orange, yellow etc.

This would form a ‘contour map’ of every bookmarked document. The continuously updating maps might be pasted back into the original documents in order to allow for faster, more effective reading (or better editing). Separate maps could be created for eg interest, importance, limited intelligibility etc.