What inventions have you come up with but can't be bothered to make?

[sonofsanta]

I figure that at this point in my life, any hope of me gaining sufficient engineering skills to prototype, develop and sell these ideas is long since gone, so I may as well make a halfway entertaining forum thread about it instead.

 

I was having a think earlier while I pondered a room refurb that it would be really handy if retractable power leads existed, or even better... elastic power leads. Imagine a lead half a metre long that can stretch to two metres when necessary. It'd have to be a stretch-and-stay sort of thing, like pulling a blob of blu tac apart, rather than actually elastic, but the cable clutter it could save on would be incredible - cable ties never seem neat enough and then people just end up wanting to stretch the lead that bit further than you've allowed for. The only problem is that I'd need to develop some kind of miracle conductor that could pass electricity just as well at 400% of its length as it could scrunched up, but that aside, y'know, someone should get on this.

 

That brings my tally of Inventions-I'll-Never-Make up to two, alongside the button you'd stick to your telly that was paired with a tiny speaker on your remote, so that when you lost your remote you could click that button and it'd start the remote beeping for you to find it. I figure you always lose the remote but you're never going to lose the telly. To be honest, that's an idea I probably would be capable of engineering but I know I'll never bother

 

 

So, my fellow geekers: what incredible ideas have your churning brains come up with that your hands are incapable of realising?

[Scifigirl]

GPS alarm for train journeys in case trains are late- you wouldnt be rudely awakened too early by your alarm because you have set it to timings.... you could just set the gps to the nearest station and it would go off one stop before.......

 

but gps never seems to work on trains......lol

[BJG]

...alongside the button you'd stick to your telly that was paired with a tiny speaker on your remote, so that when you lost your remote you could click that button and it'd start the remote beeping for you to find it...

 

Wow, that would save me hours.

[tekins]

I've always thought that using rainwater to automatically top up screenwash would be a good idea - it could go through some concentrated screenwash to dilute (no idea how, but the idea is there).

 

Also, me and my bro came up with a quiz program with buzzers for the 48k spectrum that used the joystick port to detect which one had been pressed, we did actually build a couple of protptypes that worked, should've got Jason donovan to do some voice work!

[Mcshammer_dj]

Kinnetic chargers for mobile phones. Attach to belt or leave in a packet and attach to the phone

[Mcshammer_dj]

GPS alarm for train journeys in case trains are late- you wouldnt be rudely awakened too early by your alarm because you have set it to timings.... you could just set the gps to the nearest station and it would go off one stop before.......

 

but gps never seems to work on trains......lol

 

there is an app that will do that using either gps or phone location where possible

[mac_shinobi]

I figure that at this point in my life, any hope of me gaining sufficient engineering skills to prototype, develop and sell these ideas is long since gone, so I may as well make a halfway entertaining forum thread about it instead.

 

I was having a think earlier while I pondered a room refurb that it would be really handy if retractable power leads existed, or even better... elastic power leads. Imagine a lead half a metre long that can stretch to two metres when necessary. It'd have to be a stretch-and-stay sort of thing, like pulling a blob of blu tac apart, rather than actually elastic, but the cable clutter it could save on would be incredible - cable ties never seem neat enough and then people just end up wanting to stretch the lead that bit further than you've allowed for.

 

So it was similar to an airhose lead / wire as below :

 

http://www.wjdennis-rcr.com/Portals/0/Air%20Hose/HAP1425-plan-an.gif

[alan-d]

GPS alarm for train journeys in case trains are late- you wouldnt be rudely awakened too early by your alarm because you have set it to timings.... you could just set the gps to the nearest station and it would go off one stop before.......

 

but gps never seems to work on trains......lol

 

I think that has been done. I'm sure I've seen it on some gadget show or other.

[sonofsanta]

So it was similar to an airhose lead / wire as below :

 

http://www.wjdennis-rcr.com/Portals/0/Air%20Hose/HAP1425-plan-an.gif

 

In purpose, I suppose, but the phone style coil always seems to end up horrifically tangled as well. Easier to engineer than elastic copper though, I'd imagine.

 

Kinnetic chargers for mobile phones. Attach to belt or leave in a packet and attach to the phone

 

I'm sure I keep seeing articles about clothing with the kinetics built in, so you plug your phone into your pocket and charge it as you walk. There's a couple of similar things about already, though.

[Scifigirl]

so as usual- im behind the times---lol

[mac_shinobi]

One that I did see - think it was on the big breakfast on channel 4 a few years back that I thought was quite good ( not one I thought of ) was a little scale electrics type car but had some batteries and a speaker inside of it and you put it on a vinyl record and it played the vinyl record as the car drove around the grooves of the vinyl

 

I was impressed with that !!!

[sonofsanta]

One that I did see - think it was on the big breakfast on channel 4 a few years back that I thought was quite good ( not one I thought of ) was a little scale electrics type car but had some batteries and a speaker inside of it and you put it on a vinyl record and it played the vinyl record as the car drove around the grooves of the vinyl

 

I was impressed with that !!!

 

Not quite the same, but this is always worth sharing:

[Gibson335]

As I haven't yet come back to tell myself that I successfully invented the time machine, I guess that one is out.

[alan-d]

As I haven't yet come back to tell myself that I successfully invented the time machine, I guess that one is out.

 

I knew you were going to post that. Read it twice already!

[NDW]

when in london i could do with an app - possibly called Find me a taxi?

 

i never know where i am and there is never a taxi that is for hire

 

you would sign in, and flag (or order) a taxi using your GPS (ideal for visitors or the lazy). The taxis then recieve the message saying you want collecting and a map to where you are?

 

the taxi driver would accept each job depending on their distance to you.

[chazzy2501]

I remember I had the idea to make an mp3 player that was the same shape as an audio cassette that you could use in your car stereo. Then 2 months later I saw the very thing in a magazine

[pcstru]

Solar powered bird scarer - uses solar PV to split water into hydrogen and oxygen which it then detonates in a tuned pipe making a loud bang.

 

Solar Grazing Sheep - based on the uselessness of solar garden lights, this is a small robotic sheep intended to cut grass slowly by randomly grazing.

 

Universal Quantum Clock - based on Quantum Non-Locality, this allows you to tell the right time anywhere in the universe irrespective of local space-time distortion.

 

All, utterly useless and quite possibly pointless.

[featured_spectre]

i have one going through a patent stage...if successful i will let you know....my nano covered the legal costs so far as she is loaded...so she is my investor.

[tumbleweed]

Genetically modded albino pigs - ready smoked bacon !

[Gibson335]

I have this idea for pre-sliced bread, but I don't think it will catch on.

[mac_shinobi]

when in london i could do with an app - possibly called Find me a taxi?

 

i never know where i am and there is never a taxi that is for hire

 

you would sign in, and flag (or order) a taxi using your GPS (ideal for visitors or the lazy). The taxis then recieve the message saying you want collecting and a map to where you are?

 

the taxi driver would accept each job depending on their distance to you.

 

You could see on said app the different quotes for the trip you want to do so you select your current position as the gps signal or current location and the end point to where you want to go and it would show you quotes from different taxi companies like busy bees, etc which would indicate

 

* Price

* Time to wait - for the taxi to get to where you are

* time of journey from point A to B

* Being able to share your location with friends

 

You then select which quote you want to go with and the taxi comes and collects you etc

[NDW]

it would work - then if taxi drivers pay.. £20 an year admin fee - 99p per app - .5% commission on all trips.

 

it could be a little earner haha

[gibbo_ap]

a toilet door lock with 3 settings: vacant, engaged and "i'd give it 10"

 

in the v2 model there would be a timer too

[mac_shinobi]

a toilet door lock with 3 settings: vacant, engaged and "i'd give it 10"

 

in the v2 model there would be a timer too

 

In v3 you would have a juke box with loads of music run by deezer / spotify which would have an air freshener

[Garacesh]

Nice try, future Dragon's Den contestant