#1406: Lapbergs

Today’s invention is a freezer block which can be attached to the base of one’s laptop to cool and protect its innards (even when hammering the CPU on some knee-meltingly intensive task on a very hot day).

These pre-cooled units could be manufactured so as to a) have an insulative underside, this avoiding user frostbite and/or b) fit one’s machine of choice perfectly.

It would even be possible to have the blocks made to the dimensions of industry-standard items such as removable hard disks or optical devices (so they could be substituted-in as required).

#1405: Twistlid

Today’s invention is a new form of replaceable roof for a convertible car.

Instead of being stacked in the boot and requiring complicated mechanics to install, this design has bonnet and roof profiles identical. When driving open-topped, the two surfaces mate exactly.

When the weather turns, a pole in the middle of the windscreen lifts the roof away from the underbonnet, rotates it about a near-vertical axis and repositions it facing backwards over the passenger compartment.

#1404: Squeezescreens

Humans are partly defined by our opposable thumbs.

Today’s invention is to equip robots with similar functionality in the form of a cellphone with two touch-screens.

When a robot selects this form of manipulator, the screens can detect and react to a range of different, soft materials (eg a foam rubber sphere will produce different screen imprints, when squeezed, than a grape).

#1403: Gone-dola

Helicopters aren’t supposed to be able to accommodate ejector seats…so today’s invention is one such system.

A rotary-wing aircraft is equipped with an internal, sliding palette to which all the seats are attached within a boat-shaped tub (broadly similar to the way in which large packages or vehicles are air-dropped). This has a drogue parachute and a main chute attached to each end.

In an emergency, the drogue is fired backwards, extracting all personnel strapped into the gondola, supported by the two main chutes.

Even if only one main chute opens, a safe landing can be made (at sea, buoyancy bags would be automatically inflated).

#1402: Hybridrill

Powertools seem to be either cordless (with unwieldy batteries) or plugged into the mains.

Today’s invention is a drill (or whatever) which makes use of the fact that most jobs don’t benefit much from being free from a powercord.

It consists of a power lead with a small cordless battery on the end. This plugs into the tool during normal usage (when the battery is also being charged).

When the need arises, the cord can be detached leaving the small (and therefore light) battery available to drive the device for the short time necessary.

#1401: TumTime

Small changes in internal temperature can apparently be used to drive the body’s circadian rhythms.

This suggests today’s invention: a new remedy for jetlag.

This takes the form of a pill-shaped pellet inside which is sealed a mobile phone receiver and a small motor whose output shaft rubs against the inside of the pellet wall.

When you are to take a flight to a new timezone, you swallow the device and engage an automatic sequence of calls to it. These are timed to occur so that the frictional heating of the pellet interior warms one’s body just enough, during its transit through the gut, to mimic the diurnal temperature variation normally experienced at your destination.

#1400: Flashare

When people take photographs using their cellphones eg at a concert, those cameras on board which have flashguns greatly deplete battery reserves because the cameras work independently.

Today’s invention is a way for such cellphone cameras to cooperate and share their flash illumination, so that everyone has enough light to take their shot.

When many people are poised to take a photo at the same venue, with their fingers on the shutter release at the same time, their cellphones could communicate this fact and calculate how much flash energy should be supplied in total. This would then allow the devices to share the load and individually produce only a small amount of light.

A more advanced version of this could, using GPS, take the relative positions and even orientations into account to create a well lit scene from almost all shooting positions.

#1399: Splashield

When adding food to boiling water, it can be dangerous to remove a saucepan lid and dump it in. The splashing is particularly bad, even if the steam doesn’t get you.

Today’s invention is a saucepan with a handle which behaves like a chute. A small platform at the distal end of the handle allows you to slide food elements (eg gnocchi) into the water, without removing the lid or getting splashed.

Any steam which travels up the handle will be avoidable but most will actually condense on the inside of the handle, lubricating the downwards movement of the food.

#1398: SkySheaf

Skyscrapers have always fascinated me.

Today’s invention is a skyscraper which is constructed from a collection of touching cylinders moving vertically in and out of silos in the ground. This reminds me a bit of Marineville, as created by my all-time hero Gerry Anderson.

The cylinders could be made of reinforced concrete and driven hydraulically. Once in position, ports would be opened between adjacent levels in the cylinders to create a set of communicating rooms on a given floor.

If there was a need to change the relations between these rooms, the towers could be driven to a new configuration (making eg a giant courtyard in the form of a central recess).

If under some kind of attack, or if a fire occurred, the towers could be withdrawn rapidly underground, allowing occupants a way to escape.

#1397: SootNote

I’m sick of having to breathe the exhaust fumes from cars. Carbon dioxide is bad enough but particulates must surely be doing everyone immediate harm.

Today’s invention is an attempt to bring home to people the consequences of driving dirty vehicles.

It consists of a short, porous paper tube (made of eg coffee filter material) which can be placed over the end of a smoky exhaust pipe, without damaging the engine. The closed end of the tube can accommodate a cardboard disc. This disc can be pre-perforated by eg a knitting needle.

When this paper is eventually discovered by the driver of an offending vehicle, a message is highlighted on it by the preferential passage of soot through the piercings -just like the action of a can of spray paint used with a template.

This might say ‘Time for a service?’, ‘This is what you’re doing to my lungs’ or something more direct. I’d be particularly keen on attaching this to taxis which keep their engines running all day.