Today’s invention is a gyro-stabilised rolling shield for protecting eg ground troops from enemy fire.
This would carry its own motor and have a heavy tread on the circumference.
It would track some LEDS and thus follow its owner closely -helping transport some of his infantry kit, whilst acting as both shield and weather shelter when required.
Before pulling an ejection handle on his seat, a pilot should have his chin elevated by a few degrees, the back of his head forced against the headrest, his elbows tucked into his sides, his back pressed against the seat and his heels firmly on the floor.
Today’s invention is a flying suit, boots and helmet combination which comes equipped with a set of strong tapes firmly attached. These are fed through the headrest, floor and seat back before takeoff and each is attached to a small motor. The tapes would be very lightweight but ultra-strong and lightly attached to the flying suit exterior by breakable threads, so as to ensure no snagging on cockpit interior switches etc.
When the ejection handle is pulled, the motors rapidly retract the tapes, forcing the pilot into the safest possible configuration before ‘punching out.’
Today’s invention is yet another minimal watch design.
This takes the form of a doughnut-shaped bracelet -one half of which rotates relative to the other half, driven by a clockwork mechanism (360 degrees of rotation corresponding to eg one day).
The time is indicated by the position of an arrow on one half relative to the scale marked on the other.
Today’s invention is a way to help launch rockets.
Instead of ‘reusable’ solid rocket boosters, why not attach an array of fighter jets to the outside of any space-born vehicle? These would provide many of the benefits of normal boosters, avoid any o-ring-related difficulties and operate using proven technology.
You would need about 30 conventional planes to match the Shuttle boosters’ thrust, so they would have to be arrayed carefully on an external frame and coordinated electronically.
At a determined speed (still within Earth’s atmosphere), the jets would decouple themselves and fly back to base. These machines could be remotely piloted, but more likely be flown by astronauts-in-training who would provide extra data about launch related physiology.
I’m keen to help these people come up with an alternative to the waste associated with disposable cups.
Today’s invention is therefore a reusable cup which takes the form of an annular bracelet or wristlet. This would be made of thin injection moulded plastic (like normal throwaway plastic cups). Such items are stable and unlikely easily to be knocked over in use. They would also fit existing cup holders.
This design can be conveniently worn under a shirtcuff or trouserleg, when empty, so that it’s always available. It would be slipped off and the annulus filled with beverage. Two such bracelet cups might be nested so that the outer acted as insulation for the liquid-filled inner. A lip is provided to enable easier drinking.
When the user has had enough, to clean the cup, a string is attached through another lip in the base (not shown). This allows the cup to be whirled around (outside) in order to drive all liquid from the cup and air dry it for reuse.
Consider the dashboard…it used to actually be a wooden plank with some holes cut to accommodate the brass dials on one’s horseless carriage.
Odd, therefore, that all of that stuff persists in modern vehicles. Today’s invention is an alternative. Do away completely with all the displays hidden behind the steering wheel. Instead, mount a screen on the car’s roof -just in front of the driver’s head. An image of the screen (suitably reversed) appears on a large, high-quality, soft mirror mounted on the steering wheel itself.
This would be of a type similar to that used in toys for babies, so that, in the event of airbag deployment, the reflective surface would do no more harm to occupants than the bag itself.
The virtual dashboard would maintain its orientation, irrespective of the current steering angle and allow an unobstructed view of the necessary information. Software in the ceiling unit would automatically distort the displayed data to maintain a perfect image as the steering angle was adjusted.
Domestic radiators are both ugly and surprisingly poor at transferring heat to the air which surrounds them. Why else would there be an industry making chipboard boxes to hide them?
Today’s invention is a set of copper finlets which each have a magnetic base allowing them to attach to the sides of radiators, greatly increasing the efficiency of heat transfer to one’s internal environment. The fin ends and edges would need to be rounded to avoid any injury, of course.
These might be made more entertaining by giving them each a small motor in the base which would allow them to move about the rad surface and/or flap -perhaps in response to temperature gradients (using a Stirling engine maybe?) and their proximity to other fins. They could be wirelessly controlled from a PC attached to one’s boiler which would know about the variation in room-by-room heating requirements throughout the day.
I’d actually like to see an algorithm developed which would allow the fins to discover patterns which provided some optimisation of the overall heat transfer (this might then be used in other contexts).
The pilots of fighter aircraft can survive accelerations of over 9g (wearing the right suit and performing the recommended muscle bracing techniques). When being pursued by a missile, their ability to escape is limited by their own physiology, rather than the manoeuvrability of their planes.
People are notoriously bad at behaving randomly, so any missile worth its salt can probably predict a pilot’s changes of direction well enough, once it gets close, to be able to score a hit.
Today’s invention is therefore a system which detects when a missile has locked on, gains height rapidly and then automatically undertakes a rapid, random sequence of spins, jinks and darts, always keeping each acceleration of the plane below the damage level for the individual pilot in question.
(The human body is much more tolerant of g-force when it is applied across the body than along its length and pilots are already tested in centrifuges to determine their passing-out thresholds).
Each plane would thus know the limits of its crew -making for a very rough ride, but no rougher than ejection and certainly preferable to the alternatives.
Hatchbacks are a great idea (especially in this form).
When it comes to reversing them, however, life becomes complicated.
Today’s invention is therefore a small modification to all such vehicles. When reverse gear is engaged, the hatch is unlocked and automatically raised so as to be only slightly higher than the roof of the car.
This allows the driver to see behind him or her very much more clearly (and also acts as an extra signal that a reverse manoeuvre is in progress).
Today’s invention is an alternative to conventional contact lenses, at least for those who are shortsighted. People with this condition (I’m one) have eyes which focus the incoming light in front of the retina, rather than at its surface.
So, why not distort the back of the eyeball inwards just a little? Isaac Newton tried this using a bodkin (packing needle), but I envisage something more like a fat contact lens, made of eg PTFE which would be attached to the outside of the rear sclera, causing the retina to be moved forwards a little but without distorting its shape and staying out of the way of the optic nerve as the eye rotates.
This could be put in place under local anesthetic (and a more advanced version might contain a radio-controlled piezo-electric spring, allowing the amount of distortion to be varied externally).
