Category: Feasible inventions

According to the latest E&T magazine, Lego bricks get sorted first in the factory into foil bags before being boxed. This prepacking involves weighing a collection of components, in a bag, to within a few mg. If the total weight is wrong, they may have injected some bricks of the wrong shape…but they can’t tell which without a visual inspection.

Today’s invention is a way to tell, from the total weight of such a collection, the numbers of each type of part present.

Maths tells us that any product of prime numbers is unique to them -ie 2x2x3x7=84 can only be reached by multiplying this particular combination of primes together, no other set of primes will do.

We also know that Ln(2)+Ln(2)+Ln(3)+Ln(7)=Ln(84) and since Ln(x) is monotonic, this means that the only way to get to Ln(84) is by adding together the components on the left hand side. If we manufacture each design of brick so that it weighs a unique, prime number of milligrammes, then we can tell exactly what combination of brick designs are contained in a bag -just by weighing it accurately. This assumes of course that the brick manufacturing is undertaken to very tight tolerances in weight (which is true).

Any significant difference in weight from the expected total and we can then diagnose what the rogue bricks it contains (or which are missing) are.

I’ve been baulking lately at the prices charged by picture framers. If you want an alternative to a bog-standard clipframe in a standard size, the process of getting anything bigger than a postage stamp framed is likely to be as costly as the artwork it contains.

Today’s invention is a frame made of sections of a standard strip material, as shown. The strip is constructed from plastic or aluminium, for example and comes in the form of symmetrical lengths, one half with ridges running diagonally upwards and the other half with ridges running downwards.

Grooves formed in the rear faces of the strips allow them to be snapped neatly to the correct lengths, as in this type of propelling knife blade.

Four such snapped-to-length sections can then be glued and or screwed together using the integral ribs on the rear. Sections can also be joined in parallel to create a frame with a wide section.

Such wide frames could be used to accommodate almost any available piece of glass (smaller than the overall frame dimensions), without cutting (ie simply locating the glass on the lower lip behind the frame and allowing it to spill over the frame aperture, as seen from the front.

I have numerous part-used cans of paint in my garage…most of which will lie there until their contents solidify. I suspect that this is a common enough phenomenon.

Today’s invention is a facility to which all such residues could be taken and donated. As well as lessening the chance that this material just gets dumped into a drain, the bank would assess the age and chemical compatibility of deposits.

Many people and local organisations have a need for utility paint -without a strong preference as to colour. The bank would be able to supply them with a large enough volume, by mixing donated paints, at a small enough price, to satisfy their requirements.

You buy a bottle of some delicious (perhaps expensive) drink but don’t want to consume it all at one sitting: what can you do?

Today’s invention is a bottle design which allows a certain amount to be drunk and the rest saved, whilst limiting access to the remaining contents by air.

The hour-glass-shaped bottle would be of plastic and contain several constrictions. When one has removed content to the level of any one such neck, the upper part is twisted so as to close the narrow gap above it and then pressed downwards so as to partially crush the upper portion of the bottle.

Reattach the lid tightly to prevent air entry and the bottle stays in crushed mode, protecting the contents. Untwisting and extending the squashed neck again allows pouring the next glassful.

Watching footage of some office buildings in an earthquake, I was surprised by the amount by which even full filing cabinets were rocked about.

There is always the danger of a ceiling collapse under such circumstances and I was reminded of the use of Morrison Shelters in the UK during the Blitz. These were basically reinforced tables with mesh sides, designed to protect people from falling brickwork.

Today’s invention is to recreate such shelters for office workers in earthquake zones. A quick survey shows that even these days there is an average of about one filing cabinet per occupant.

In the event of a big quake, when stairwells are often crowded or otherwise obstructed, it might be safer to pull the drawers from one such cabinet, topple it over and hide inside the shell until the threat of falling masonry was over.

Existing cabinets could be retro-fitted internally with a layer of stiff foam for added protection and possible also a cheap mobile phone, fixed inside, to enable those sheltering to call for help.

Movie DVDs will soon be replaced by other formats recorded on other media. Until that happens, I’ll continue to be annoyed by boxed sets of discs which which make it really difficult to keep a record of which episode of The Sporano’s seven year run or David Attenborough’s jungle adventures we watched last week.

Today’s invention is a simple recording mechanism built into the media packaging.

Each disk comes in a plastic case (the mechanics of these is awful but I won’t deal with that now). Opening the case would reveal a clock-like set of markers arrayed circumferentially around where the edge of the disc lies. There would be one gradation for each episode on a disc (minor markers could stand for specific timings, if you have a fancy player which can track there accurately).

When you’ve watched an episode, simply put the disc back in the case with the arrow prominently provided on the disc pointing at the gradation on the case corresponding to the next episode to be viewed.

It’s always a pain when someone gets in your car who can’t find the seatbelt attachments or who has difficulty engaging the buckle in the catch mechanism. This is true of eg children or people who find it hard to bend over to see where the various attachments need to go.

Today’s invention is therefore an aftermarket attachment which overcomes these problems.

The seatbelt clip is engaged permanently in the catch device. A crescent-shaped guide (shown in pink) fits under both of the straps and is raised by the driver pulling on a strap which runs over a pulley attached to the vehicle ceiling (not shown) and down the back of the passenger seat.

The crescent guide is then high enough for anyone to sit in the passenger seat without needing to touch any belts. The driver can then lower the crescent, so that the seatbelt drops into the correct position and the standard tensioner makes it fit snugly around the passenger.

Very small digital watches are available at almost no cost.

Today’s invention is a clip-on version of such a watch which is designed to attach discreetly to one’s spectacle lens and thus provide a readable indication of the time, just by glancing upwards and without having to wear a wristwatch.

It might be possible to exploit experimental psychology findings and place the watch display at the location in the visual field to which people naturally attend when thinking about ‘time’.

Today’s invention is a set of pressure sensors which are installed in the feet or casters of an office chair.

These can be used to to pass information to a desktop computer and thus detect whether and for how long the occupant has been seated, their fidgeting or immobility, if they are perched on the edge of their seat and the straightness of their posture. It might even record such data over time and monitor weight and other longer-term changes.

The user’s machine can then issue health-related suggestions, via the screen, such as:

“time for a break?”,”maybe sit up straighter?”,”don’t lean back so far”,”you seem agitated, try herbal tea, not coffee?” etc.