Given the horrors of trying to fit snow chains, today’s invention is a low-tech alternative.
The user slightly deflates his tyres and slides over them the snow-studded covers which fit snugly.
The tyres are reinflated, providing each with a firmly-attached, much grippier, outer cover.
I was inspired by this system, which allows someone to fly over water, to come up with today’s invention.
It’s a personal ‘jetpack’ the motors of which are supplied with electricity from a self-powered battery cart travelling on the ground. This could be remotely controlled to follow the pilot and avoid stressing the power cable.
The system allows flight only to a limited altitude but the time aloft could be as long as a whole day at a time. The cart might even be equipped with a large air bag in case the motors failed -so that the pilot could safely crash land.
Many firearms help the user ensure they are aiming accurately by shining a laser beam onto their target.
If this happens to be a suspected criminal, they may look down, see the spot and realise their predicament…but they may not.
Today’s invention is an attachment for such a laser equipped weapon which modulates the outgoing laser beam into digital bursts. It can detect any reflected light and determine the distance from the target.
This allows a lens system to deflect part of the beam upwards to where the face of the target person should be…alerting them to the fact that they are in danger.
I’m fascinated by the mechanics of ice crystal formation.
The final, unique shape of one such crystal is a representation of its personal history as it falls through temperature and humidity gradients.
Today’s invention is a system which injects pure, hexagonal seed crystals into an engineering airflow stream at different points and then, by automated image analysis, determines statistically what gradients they have each encountered.
This provides a new form of flow monitoring for low-temperature systems.
I stayed at a hotel in Birmingham recently where I witnessed a biggish fire in an outside ashtray. The staff seemed not to care less, which was their default viewpoint on everything.
Today’s invention is a safer ashtray for those determined to continue lolling about entrances whilst smoking.
It’s in the form of a hollowed-out tree branch with a wooden lid. The branch end and lid are angled to allow the container to be pressed into eg a flowerbed and also so that rainwater will flow in through the hole in the top. This hole is small enough to stop people putting waste paper etc in but just big enough to admit a cigarette.
Before use, some funghi spores are dropped in so that the whole system will be converted to compost -suitable for digging directly into the flowerbed, once full. The rainwater helps the funghi grow and greatly reduces the chances of a fire starting within the branch.
Today’s invention is for athletes of all standards working on a climbing wall.
Shoes and gloves would each be fitted with a small coloured lamp.
Hand and footholds would each have an array of four different coloured LEDs (recessed, but visible).
A trainer could remotely activate a pair of lamps on foot and foothold to indicate were best to step next (or even challenge the wearer to do non-standard moves). This process could also be automated and the speed of ascent adjusted to the experience level of the climber in question.
When using a tripod to take photographs, its positioning tends to dominate the composition.
Today’s invention helps with this by allowing an interior photographer to place his camera wherever required and then extend two scissorlike mechanisms upwards and downwards before locking them in place.
The pads on either end help to form a rigid bridge between floor and ceiling, allowing images to be captured from the desired location and then quickly repositioned.
It’s common practice for a retail website to make (non-competing) product recommendations.
Today’s invention is a way for product labels to advertise other, complementary products.
A label on a coat might say “This is a great product but have you thought about something like this as well? www.webaddress.com/1234 ?” indicating a small range of boots or hats or bags.
The labels would also carry a cellphone-readable barcode so that such products could be reviewed and ordered whilst shopping in a bricks-and-mortar store.
Using ice skates for the first time can be a bruising experience.
Today’s invention offers an easier way to get going. It takes the form of a wedge which attaches to the base of one’s ordinary shoes.
This is positioned, using straps, at one side of the sole so that one can effectively walk on any surface with feet tilted slightly outwards -making contact with the ice using the edge of the wedge and the outer edge of one’s shoe.
When skating, as the newby feels he is about to fall over, he can rotate feet outwards again and regain balance and some braking.
Left to their own devices, books accumulate bugs and dust. Today’s invention provides a way to keep the atmosphere in libraries fresher and less hazardous to asthmatics.
It consists of a pair of bookends and a series of small clips. The clips attach to the book covers, as shown.
The bookends, which are mounted on small wheels, are driven slowly outwards and inwards by a motor in each -creating a bellows effect between the pages of the books.
The frequency and amplitude of the bookend motors’ movement can be selected by the user.
