Home Posts tagged "fabby" (Page 23)

Tag: fabby

#1713: AirChair

Economy class fliers don’t get much legroom and the overhead lockers are a source of dispute and potential danger.

Today’s invention is a way for passengers to sit more comfortably.

Airline seats would consist of a back, straps and headrest only. Passengers would bring on board their own seat base. This would have to stay within outer dimensional limits but could be specially padded and formed to fit the user’s back, rear-end and leg shape.

Each of these seats would act as the traveller’s hand baggage, so that overhead lockers need not be provided.

#1705: Diaphrim

Always keen on new cycle designs, I’ve been thinking a bit about filled-in wheels. Racing bikes have these to provide lower drag, but they suffer from sideways gusts of wind -especially when the front wheel is involved.

Today’s invention is a racing bicycle wheel, suitable for both front and rear use. This is a normal wheel which incorporates an iris diaphragm, made of something light like carbon fibre, in the outer rim.

Under calm conditions, the iris would be closed, allowing smooth airflow from front to back.

When the pressure difference from one side to the other crosses some threshold, as when a lateral gust of wind occurs, the diaphragms in both wheels would temporarily spring open, to avoid destabilisation of the machine.

#1704: SpaceFiller

I’ve come across several references recently to refuelling satellites using a gas station in orbit.

Today’s invention is a somewhat simpler approach than NASA are envisaging.

Given that liquid in microgravity forms a sphere, by the action of surface tension, I would release giant blobs of liquid fuel from a series of spacecraft.

Satellites in need of a fill-up would approach such a sphere at low relative velocity, open a port at the front, fly gently through (having first extinguished all potential sources of ignition) and emerge refilled on the far side. They would then be able to alter their course and speed again by firing rockets powered by this liquid propellent.

Such globes of fuel could also be used as a way to help de-orbit ailing satellites by the slowing effects of fluid drag.

#1701: SerialSpoon

I was eating a yoghurt today using a Ryvita crispbread (as you do) for want of a convenient spoon.

As I dipped and crunched, dipped and crunched, it occurred to me that most edible spoons require you to eat off them and then put the same spoon back in the food (yuck)

Today’s invention seems to avoid all of the entries in this category on Google patents (they have just fixed the site to allow image browsing after lots of us nagged them).

It is an edible wafer/bread/biscuit spoon that comes with multiple ‘bowls’, each of which is bitten off and eaten after dipping.

(This one is dedicated to Jess Williamson -an indefatigable supporter of UK startups)

#1699: Full-Lock

I read this and was inspired to suggest today’s invention: a low-weight bike lock.

To secure the bike, the handlebars (grey) would be twisted through 90 degrees so that a bolt (yellow) in the seat could be slid into it and held in place with a normal padlock.

This would encircle a tree or a lampost (brown) and thus resist the removal of the machine.

(Both the handlebars and the seat post would need to incorporate captive flanges as shown, in order to avoid their being removed and the whole system circumvented).

#1626: GeekCake

Faraday made popular the amazing phenomena associated with vibrating plates. (Chladni figures).

Today’s invention is a geeky kitchen toy which exploits this amazing Physics.

There is a saucepan the base of which fits inside, attached by a loose rubber ‘seal’. The base is vibrated by a motor unit beneath, so that icing sugar dropped in the saucepan forms the complicated and beautiful Chladni patterns, which vary with frequency.

When you see a pattern you like, switch off the motor and put a flat-topped cake into the cylinder (top-down) until it’s in contact with the icing sugar.

Invert the whole system and remove the cylinder, leaving the sugar pattern on the top of the cake.

#1605: Bloodrive

Today’s invention is for people with a reduced blood circulation or with a weak heart.

In an attempt to supplement the normal circulatory system, a number of small, external peristaltic pumps would be strapped on, in contact with major veins.

These pumps would detect the user’s current heartbeat rate and the pump rollers automatically driven to rotate correspondingly.

They would thus help return blood from eg arms and legs, lessening the stress placed on the heart itself.

#1598: Heckleback

My Grandfather used to shout at the television when it foolishly displayed stuff he disagreed with.

Today’s invention is broadcast devices, ie TVs and radios, which can take such feedback seriously.

At its simplest, a radio might have a microphone system capable of recognising a small selection of keywords spoken by a listener eg “Nonsense!” These would be transmitted back to the station to provide detailed, realtime feedback about programme content.

Generate enough cries of “Next!” and the programme would step forward to a subsequent item.

#1594: Rollauncher

I’ve always loved the Eureka Magazine Coffee-time Challenge (although I don’t always agree with the published solutions).

The most recent one is about how to launch boats in bad weather and/or when the tide is far out.

Today’s invention is a large tyre-like ring. This starts onshore in a lagoon (right side of the diagram). The ring would be part-submerged (perhaps even tipped to one side) and the boat sailed in onto the water it contains.

The boat’s propeller drives it up against the ring’s front wall and the whole system moves out of the lagoon and rolls down the beach.

When the wheel hits the water, the ring submerges, disgorges the boat and waits for it to return.

#1587: ScentSwitch

When applying deodorant, you can never be sure that you have used enough.

Today’s invention provides a way to make more effective use of deodorant in the form of a solid stick. The stick material would resemble a glue stick or lipstick, being supplied in a tube with a screw mechanism to advance the deodorant.

The stick itself would be clear and non-marking but it would have embedded within it a layer of different perfume every few mm along its length (or whatever spacing was required to provide an armpit with adequate protection).

The stick would be applied to armpit 1 until a new perfume was sensed by the user and then the process repeated on the other side until another new perfume was smelt. Each armpit would smell different, but that might be used to provide a quirky advertising advantage.