#2224: FoosBoost

Foosball (table football) is far from the beautiful game.

Today’s invention aims to introduce a bit more skill and less brute force into all those tables located at cool web companies and their imitators.

foosball

Each team figure would have a hexagonal base so that the usual frantic lateral motion could be used to drive the ball forwards or backwards at a more controllable angle.

The figures would also have an internal channel formed from heel to chest.

This would allow the player to scoop a ball from behind and twist the handle to eject it from the chest or to carry it overhead in a kind of bicycle kick.

#2223: Substitube

If you ride a mountain bike (with disc brakes), the last thing you need is a puncture. You might end up carrying the machine for miles (since fitting a puncture kit whilst up some mountain may not be very easy).

Today’s invention is a set of eight to ten, stiff rubber, G-section arcs.

ersatztyre

These would be carried by clipping them around the thinner frame members until a puncture occurred in the tyre (pink).

Then each of these would be pressed into place, as shown, around a spoke.

These would support the wheel rims whilst protecting the tyre from further damage and allow a return home, under pedal power, before bad weather can cause any additional risk.

#2222: WatchTime

The idea here is to provide people with a digital display watchface on which all of the hands move at the same speed on circular scales with radii differing by factors of sixty.

The red circle and attached hand represent seconds, so that the hand completes one revolution per minute.

equalarcs

The black circle has only a segment visible and its hand moves at the same speed, but represents the passage of minutes.

Similarly, the blue circle and hand represent hours.

As time increases from the left to right hand diagram, so the hands all move clockwise at equal speed and the visible sections of the arcs on which they move are adjusted continuously.

Why would anyone want this? Well it makes the passage of even hours visible (imagine zooming in on the small-scale movement of a conventional hours hand).

#2221: CarandVan

In the near future, we may find ourselves driving about town in small electric vehicles (or being driven by them).

Today’s invention is a way to provide more flexible transport, based on a single, cheap motorised unit.

carttrains

Each unit can accommodate one person or a stack of cargo. It is also fitted with a motor and a set of wheels, the front set being steerable.

These units can easily join up, forming a ‘train’ with continuous or subdivided interior -suitable for family trips or public transport.

The motor units talk to each other to provide the optimal distribution of drive along each train, as well as having the steering of the whole controlled only by the front unit.

#2220: Bottlegible

Today’s invention is a new form of labeling for bottled content.

Rather than print on the outside of a glass or plastic bottle, all of the branding and information about contents would be printed on a flexible plastic device as shown.

bottlegible

This would sit or float on the material in the bottle, with the curved surface against the bottle wall, so that the message would be visible from outside.

The advantage would be that the same medicine or food substance could be sold in different, plain bottles, only changing the internal label each time by pushing it in through the neck.

Bottles could therefore be much more easily reused, for different purposes, without the costs of melting them down.

In addition, some extra interest in the products might be generated purely as a result of the novelty involved (labels could take the form of little boats, etc).

#2219: Panelamps

In the world of auto manufacture, creating mass-produced bodyshells which are almost geometrically identical is the name of the game.

The effort to achieve ever-tighter tolerances means that any remaining gaps between body panels at build lines now seem much more prominent than ever before.

Krzysztof_Kozerski_door

Today’s invention is a way for car makers to decrease the visibility of such gaps and give their products a more unified, streamlined appearance (especially on pale-coloured body shells).

Each vehicle would be equipped with an adhesive, flexible striplight located eg around the door sill interior and at other seams.

This device would emit light matched to the colour of the paintwork so that, when eg the bonnet or door were closed, it would come on and lessen the contrast between the car colour and the dark groove where the panels meet.

#2218: WordWall

Bookcases are so the-century-before-before-last.

Despite the fact that books themselves are heading the same way, today’s invention upgrades the idea of book storage.

bookwall

Each book would have the side opposite from the spine gripped by some clips as shown. Each clip would have a magnet bonded onto it (grey) so that books could be attached to and easily detached from a steel wall plate.

This allows books to be placed where you like, aligned or misaligned as required.

Imagine a collection of intersecting regions drawn in pencil on the plate. This Venn diagram would allow each book to be categorised as say SF, by Clarke and 20th Century.

Each of the magnets might take the form of a small motorised cart which would allow the books to be moved around automatically to spell printed words or act as pixels in a book spine scene.

Next, you could use a remote device to say ‘Retrieve “I, Robot” please’.

Life imitating art.

#2217: Pushpegs

Today’s invention is an aid to wash-day, when there is little wind.

A household might have a handful of special clothespegs.

pushpegs

Each of these would be used as usual to hold washing on the line but would also have a small motor and a floppy propeller (of the type employed in personal fans).

Some of these would be placed facing one way (orange) whilst the others would face in the opposite direction.

The pegs would make electrical contract with the metal washing line, so that current could be supplied from a battery in one of the posts.

A time switch would fire one set of propellers and then the other so that the line would swing with increasing amplitude and dry the clothes more effectively.

#2216: Wrenchain

Today’s invention is a special purpose spanner, designed to allow nuts to be undone inside complicated systems without having to dismantle them.

This takes the form of a chain of meshing gears, held together by a set of bars.

spannersnake

At the head of this would be a gear chosen to have a hexagonal interior to match the target nut. It would also carry a small, wireless camera, to help direct the ‘snake’ as more gears are added to the other end.

When the nut has been engaged, the bars would be locked in place and a motor drive applied to the distal end.

This would allow certain electromechanical systems to be diassembled only by the use of such a spanner…potentially increasing resistance to reverse engineering.

#2215: StepSearch

Very few products ever get any kind of stress analysis performed on their components.

Today my tumble drier packed up because of a stupid stress concentration in the door hinge.

stressconcn

Today’s invention offers a simple way to check for such sources of built-in obsolesence.

A manufacturer would apply a small programme to all of its CAD component geometries. Even without any knowledge of the loading regimes, this would detect parts which a) have a sharp change in cross section and b) are made of some brittle material.

These two factors would be enough to show up lots of parts which might make their products malfunction, in time for them to be redesigned (I’m looking at you, Hotpoint).

Local 3-D print shops could do this scanning too, in order to be ready in advance to make replacements for all sorts of machines.