We are being told, by different authorities on child development, that today’s youngsters, lifted and laid by overprotective mums and dads, need to be allowed to take risks when growing up.

How many of these people have ever actually been a parent? I understand where they are coming from, though.

Today’s invention is intended to help encourage tree climbing by the offspring of even the most timid.

It consists of a foam-filled, disc-shaped cushion made of the same plastic-coated material as eg punchbags.  Laid at the base of a big tree, a cylindrical hole would be left in the middle (of diameter say 50cm) to accommodate the trunk.

The disc could be designed in two half circles, linked by large velcro patches, more easily to fit in the back of an estate car.

The outer diameter could only be around 4m, thus also limiting the height of trees which it could be used on…an extra safety feature.

Whoever thought that wrapping the windscreen of vehicles all the way round was a good idea?

Now that we are in the era of experimenting seriously with autonomous vehicles, do we really need to stare at the road through a glass bowl?

Today’s invention is a roadgoing vehicle bodyshell with no windows. The driver, if there is one, would see only a wraparound image of the outside world projected onto the inside surface via a redundant array of high-quality cameras.

A shell such as this would provide ample room for internal wiring and airbags, hugely increased impact resistance and improved visibility for a wider range of body sizes (with no pillars to get in the way).

An additional benefit would be that all roadsigns could be removed (they deface the visual environment anyway) and replaced by icons injected into the display at GPS-determined locations.

For those of us not blessed by an ability to make coordinated movements, learning any kind of formal dance moves is torture. It’s especially difficult to concentrate when holding a member of the opposite sex.

Today’s invention is a mannequin torso equipped with a small screen, mp3 player and a webcam.

The camera is attached to the base of the torso and relays an image of one’s feet to the screen. On this screen (mounted on the mannequin’s shoulder) is also displayed a pair of footprints showing the correct foot placements -coordinated with the music being played, via headphones, on the mp3 player.

One assumes no need to show the feet of a competent dance partner. It might even be possible to play the music at reduced speed -for complete neophytes or the terpsichoreally-challenged.

So, no more counting “1,2,3” whilst sweating into somebody’s corsage.

Sunblinds. There’s a piece of technology unchanged since the model T. It’s not that I’d ever advocate change for its own sake but sunblinds just don’t work well.

Turn towards the sun and flip that foam-covered velour screen down. Suddenly your driving world changes from sun-dazzled to ubiquitous, impenetrable, dusky gloom. You then have to drive along peering under the blind and hoping that those indistinct objects moving about outside aren’t on a collision course.

Today’s invention is to replace those unsightly blinds with a smoked-glass disc attached to each windscreen wiper. Each wiper would need to be driven by a big stepper motor because the glass disc would be constantly moved by the wiper in an arc to lie directly between the occupant’s eyes and the sun.

The wiper arms would be constantly repositioning by using data from a clock-compass combination (to tell when the vehicle was turning into the sun). A disc of only around a 10cm in diameter would be big enough to cope with almost all changes in road gradient (it would have to be initially positioned according to the height of each driver). This would mean that only a small section of the visual field would be obscured and driving safety enhanced.

Admittedly, when the wipers are required to drive rain off the screen, this whole approach would cease to work, but you don’t get that much rain on days when the sun is bright enough to impede driving.

It always surprises me that tills in shops are now surrounded by screens. Surely, by the time customers are there, the buying decisions have mostly been made? (apart obviously from the last minute chocolate impulse).

Today’s invention is to link the tills to a big screen in the shop window.

As each item is rung up, an advertisement image of the product appears in the window (including pricing information).This is intended to attract attention, illustrate strong trading activity and drive buying behaviour (just as when market traders ‘plant’ customers apparently spending large amounts of money).

I noticed a motorcycle rider hammering down the motorway the other day. He stood out against the traffic, which included lots of other bikers, because be was wearing a tattered old plastic vest over his tattered old leathers. The vest itself had once been luminous green but was now a dirty shade of grunge. What made him so noticeable was its movement in his slipstream.

This set me thinking about how to make motorcyclists more visible by equipping them with a source of illuminated flickering. We are super sensitive to this kind of motion: perhaps because it resembles fire.

The trouble is convincing riders to wear anything that is a) uncool looking and b) tainted with the word ‘safety’.

Today’s invention is to provide each new machine with a small harness of fibreoptic cables attached to a variable speed strobe lamp at one end. The cables would be distributed around the machine (avoiding the rider and pillion) providing it with a christmas tree effect when in motion.

In order to avoid being described as such, the lights could be lit in flickering, wave-like sequences which resemble streamlines or flames and in colour(s) to match the bike itself.