Category: Possible inventions

When a spacecraft takes off, the instruments can shake so violently that they become unreadable by crew members -even if they are experienced test pilots and know what to expect.

Today’s invention is therefore to create a secondary set of instruments which would be electrically connected to the normal displays, but which can be placed on the laps of Pilot and Copilot during high vibration conditions (thus isolating the displays from the vehicle oscillation).

These would indicate their readings as a dynamic, tactile pattern. This might be achieved most easily as a bank of barcodes -one each for airspeed, fuel flowrate, altitude etc.

If critical readings were exceeded, crew could have switches embedded in the remote display, enabling them eg to fire the escape rocket motor or blow the hatches.

The secret of reducing the peak force between objects during any collision is to arrange for the impact to be somehow smeared in time.

People who play American Football sustain frequent head-to-head collisions which may prove to have been bad for their brains.

Today’s invention is a modification to the football helmet. These already incorporate air dampers to prolong any contact force which the wearer’s head feels.

An additional measure would be to embed some neodymium magnets under the helmet surface -all with like poles pointing outwards.

When two helmets are about to collide, the enormous repulsive force between magnets would gradually reduce their relative speed so that the peak impact force would be greatly reduced….thus saving them from potential concussions.

(Helmets left by the side of the field would need special consideration, given that the poles inside one would attract those outside another, so that adjacent helmets would leap together).

Today’s invention is a torch which has the usual battery-powered bulb, but which also accommodates a number of disposable lighters (now that these are no longer needed for smoking purposes).

Each lighter is enclosed by a Davy-lamp mesh.

Tightening the battery slot hatch, makes the lamp’s battery circuit and also forces the lighter switch up against a wedge which ignites it.

The lighters provide a cheap additional source of illumination, which is potentially longer-lasting than regular battery duration.

Today’s invention is an attempt to boost the excitement of car racing for spectators. It consists of a rollercoaster track which runs above sections of a motorracing track.

People board carts on the rollercoaster and their descent is timed to allow them to ‘fly’ just above a car or a pack of competing cars.

The carts might need to be powered by motors, in addition to gravity, so that they are capable of matching the cars’ speeds (albeit for only short periods).

This would add to the drama of such an event, without significantly obscuring the TV cameras’ view of the race. Indeed, extra cameras could be mounted on the rollercoaster carts (which would, themselves, carry sponsors’ branding).

Long ago, storing stuff on optical media seemed like such a good idea.

But the disks are much more fragile than promised and the software for correcting the effects of surface damage is markedly less than perfect.

Today’s invention is an addition to the existing arm which carries the lens over the surface of a DVD or CD (remember CDs?)

Before accessing data on the disk, the lens would undertake a number of radial passes as the disk was rotated (with the lens covered). It would thus detect any areas of surface damage.

At these points, a replaceable buffing pad would be made to contact the disk and oscillated radially backwards and forwards, with the disk still, until the largest surface damage had been smoothed out.

No more random scrubbing with the corner of my old T shirt in the middle of a climactic scene.

Optimising the layout of text for readability, still centres on the spacing of fixed-shape letters along a line (kerning)…a hangover from the days of lead typefaces.

Today’s invention is to ignore the fixed shapes of characters in a typeface.

After each space is typed, the letters in the preceding word undergo a ‘squirming’ process, like the self-organisation which soldiers on parade perform when they are ordered eg to ‘dress right.’ They look at their neighbours and attempt to form a locally straight line (so that a globally-straight rank emerges).

Each character would have its components slightly shifted (on-screen) so as to boost the contrast of the word it’s in.

There is no algorithm for guaranteeing optimality, but in practice, printed components would be alternately thickened and separated (in at least the vertical and horizontal directions).

Once squirming had produced an improvement in word contrast of say 20%, or a time limit was exceeded, the next word would be squirmed.

One of the many problems with tracked vehicles is their behaviour when turning corners. A huge amount of scraping of track on ground occurs when changing direction.

Tanks, for example, when traveling on roads or fields, churn the surface up significantly -making all subsequent travel more difficult and angering local landowners.

Today’s invention attempts to lessen this by creating tracks in independent strips. Each strip is driven by its own sprocket wheel which is powered in turn by a separate differential.

This allows subtracks to move at differing rates (as shown by the shades of blue). The effect is much better grip, less surface damage and potentially greater resistance to attack (since each subtrack can be destroyed without causing immobilisation).

When using an e-reader, people in the vicinity have no idea about your taste in reading (since they lack a book’s descriptive dustjacket or paperback).

In some circumstances it’s not to the reader’s advantage -in that people may want to strike up a conversation about the text in question.

Today’s invention is therefore a small, flip-down mirror with reflects the on-screen title (after inverting it). This can be slotted onto one’s device as an invitation to talk about the book in question or a subtle statement about your taste in literature.

If you are surrounded by people you want to chat to, simply keep the device in the up position (thus it acts as a potential dating introduction device, just as books used to).

Professional cyclists spend a lot of time in the wind tunnel perfecting their riding position.

This must be a very tiring shape to maintain if you’re pedaling your way around the Tour de France.

Today’s invention is therefore a new lattice-type bike frame with no crossbar.

Instead, support rails are tailored to a particular rider’s torso.

Between these would be a rib-and-perineum-saving set of pads (blue) designed to take the weight off one’s arms and not increasing drag beyond that of the rider’s own body, whilst still allowing natural breathing movements.

There is a large amount of computing time being devoted these days to simulation of crowds of people. Whether it’s for traffic management or architecture or fire safety analysis, how crowds behave is both important and hard to model.

I have searched for the following idea in various patent databases but failed to find it. Maybe today’s invention exists in the scientific literature on the subject, to which I have no access.

It is simply to create a simulated crowd using computer games graphics, but instead of making individual avatars move according to some small number of agent-type rules, why not gamify the process?

People would sign up to an individual avatar and see the interior of some building as through their eyes. A large number of people online would then attempt to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, whilst avoiding obstacles and each other. The winners would win a range of large prizes.

This approach includes normal psychology of large numbers of real people and might therefore give a more realistic impression of how crowds actually move when suitably motivated. It might even include physical parameters, like the maximum walking speed of an individual.

Did someone mention the January sales?