#1987: LogoLock

It seems that users of Apple laptops are victims of the anomaly that the big Apple logo on the lid needs to lie with leaf uppermost when they are about to open the shell.

Then, when it’s opened, everyone passing sees them using a machine with the logo upside down…(I wonder if Samsung have trademarked the Apple logo thus inverted? ; )

Today’s invention is a simple mechanism to allow this ‘problem’ to be overcome.

In diagram A, a user rotates the apple badge on the outside of the case anticlockwise, using the ‘bite’ for purchase. This disengages a catch (pink) inside the lid.

Opening the lid (B) allows the badge, whose axis is above its center of mass, to fall into the correct orientation as viewed by a passer by.

When finished, the user shuts the lid and spins the badge back until the catch re-engages.

#1986: Scooparking

With the price of metal soaring, the owners of mechanical diggers stand to lose even more equipment from building sites.

This is a particular problem when these machines have to have buckets of different sizes and these all need to be secured overnight (or over the weekend).

Today’s invention is a range of digger buckets which is designed so that the vehicle wheels can be driven into them and parked, as shown. Once the vehicle has its steering lock applied, removal of any buckets is a herculean task.

Each vehicle can have up to four spare buckets, which are made shallow enough avoid fouling the digger wheelarches.

I’d also recommend driving the vehicle until the tyre valves are located deep inside the buckets (to avoid deflation and illicit bucket removal).

#1985: CarriAir

One trouble with air is that it’s mostly nitrogen -which is not much use in combustion engines.

Today’s invention is a mobile cart or trolley which helps eg carrier-based aircraft take off by supplying extra oxygen.

It achieves this by containing a cylinder of compressed oxygen which it sprays into the jet engine intakes as both plane and trolley move in unison along the deck.

This provides a controllable additional burst of engine power -enabling shorter and/or more heavily-loaded takeoffs to occur (without breaking the existing steam catapult mechanisms).

#1984: Linktroduction

Today’s invention is a new feature for LinkedIn.

When the number of your connections exceeds anything like the Dunbar number, you just can’t keep track of all their details.

The invention is therefore a recommendation engine which reads the profiles of all your connections and makes suggestions as to the most valuable (online) introductions you could effect between them.

This would allow the user to select ‘show me only the closest matches between my connections’ or ‘show me matches between people with shared interests but who differ widely in the numbers of their connections’ etc.

In a socially-networked world, there is huge value, and some kudos, in being able to actively create effective links between people with related profiles.

#1983: SwellStable

For those of us who aren’t great sailors, today’s invention allows complete freedom from the effects of water movement beneath a ship.

It is essentially one of those fairground rides in which a container is supported on a set of (very long travel) hydraulic rams.

This would be mounted on the deck, so that a set of sensors would gather data about the vessel’s accelerations and drive the rams so that the box would travel as if on horizontal rails.

This system might also speed its performance by learning to predict the seas’ movement for the next few milliseconds.

A small number of passengers could pay a hefty premium to travel across the world’s oceans without suffering seasickness.

#1982: ClipGrip

Today’s invention is a rigid bracket (blue) which enables the user of an automatic weapon to slot in two magazines -one facing forwards, one backwards.

This allows a very quick swap between these when the first is emptied, but it also provides the weapon with a second handle -particularly good for handguns which need more stabilisation when fired.

#1981: FrameFlask

I came up with today’s invention a few weeks ago in connection with my joint column with Mark Sheahan.

It comprises a drink container which is secreted within a racing cycle’s seatpost.

This could allow drinks to be carried on indoor tracks (which is currently forbidden, due to the danger of spillage).

It also eradicates the drag which would be caused by an external bottle and makes it much less easy to steal the container from a parked machine.

#1980: StreetShare

Today’s invention is street advertising hoardings which get themselves pasted online too.

Adverts on street-level billboards would have a dotted line figure (or figures) included.

People would have their photo taken in this amusing or incongrous setting, so that the image would be posted on say their facebook profile and shared.

The reposting of the image would allow many more people to see the original poster. This process could also result in prizes for those appearing in the most popular images of a given advertisement.

Another version might allow the facial feature distribution of a person imaged to be used as a code to select some additional message or bonus content to be injected into the final, online image.

#1979: Autonomobile

It appears that the world (or at least some US states) is about to allow driverless cars onto its streets.

Today’s invention is to take that to another level by introducing riderless motorcycles.

These could be used in a number of roles. First, they might be employed to deliver packages quickly between offices, using much less fuel than a car and without creating traffic jams (bikes would probably be electric, gyro-stabilised and designed to prevent humans climbing aboard).

Second, they could be injected into motorway traffic streams and, by coordinating their speed adjustments via radio, help smooth out the waves of braking and acceleration which lead to tailbacks and collisions between human-driven vehicles.

#1978: OrderBorder

So many things are now being gamified -in the sense of having ongoing performance ratings displayed publically.

Today’s invention applies this concept to anyone with the urge to wear a uniform.

Scouts, soldiers, police officers and royalty would be equipped with uniforms on the outside of which there would be the outlines of all the awards, badges and decorations they could be awarded.

A corporal would thus wear a single stripe attached within the outline of a sergeant’s three.

All personnel in an organisation would have the same complete set of stencilled markings in order to communicate the idea that even the lowliest member can gain all the available rank badges and bravery decorations.