# Inventions That Are Long Overdue **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 14, 2020, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032 "2020-12-14T16:25:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/41 "2020-12-14T20:23:25Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Because it’s principally drinks that people want to be cold, I remember something about a self-cooling drink can – an extra pressure volume that was used to cool the drink when it was opened ?? I can’t find anything now, but the internet is so full of stuff about cold drinks, I can’t see anything. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/42 "2020-12-14T20:25:42Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > The technology isn’t there yet with phone-to-phone, though. Bluetooth is short range, perfect for contact tracing, but no more than shouting distance, so I don’t think the range is yet very useful for emergency purposes. Most phones have WiFi, and some have WiFi sharing. The missing link is the bit where it’s available for and restricted to emergency calling. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/43 "2020-12-14T20:26:53Z")
What’s the typical range if you use your phone as a WiFi hotspot? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/44 "2020-12-14T20:27:46Z")
I’d like to see invented a beach blanket equipped with a zipper around the edge that zips up to become a private changing chamber, but otherwise is just a beach blanket. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/45 "2020-12-14T20:29:28Z")
I use my phone as a wi-fi hotspot at home and it covers the entire house and basement (1200 sqft each). I can go out into the yard about 60-80 feet from the house before I lose signal. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/46 "2020-12-14T20:36:17Z")
Wow, that’s impressive, I didn’t realize that. Then I retract my comment that we’d need significant hardware improvement before a phone-to-phone mesh network could be useful. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/47 "2020-12-14T20:38:40Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > I use my phone as a wi-fi hotspot at home and it covers the entire house and basement (1200 sqft each). I can go out into the yard about 60-80 feet from the house before I lose signal. My wife was following me on the road one day, and had left her phone in my car. I was able to call her because her car’s bluetooth picked up the signal from her phone in my car. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/48 "2020-12-14T20:39:20Z")
They are totally a thing already. Many manufacturers. [https://www.tornadobodydryer.com/](https://www.tornadobodydryer.com/) ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/49 "2020-12-14T20:57:14Z")
I say, why stop at dryers? Why not turn your shower into something akin to a car wash for people. Just step inside and an automated sprayer sprays you down with soap, and then rinses you off, and then you step out into the nice, warm, air dryer. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/50 "2020-12-14T21:17:51Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > I get it now. A paradigm shift would be a shower that doesn’t use water in the first place. Perhaps a sand blaster? How about a shower that sprays dry cleaning fluid? Perhaps something could be invented so that afterwards, you get ironed as well – very useful for those incipient wrinkles as one gets older! ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/51 "2020-12-15T00:33:10Z")
Silent velcro. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/52 "2020-12-15T00:51:32Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I like that idea, but I’d prefer the button to be on the remote, so that I wouldn’t have to get off my couch to go to the TV. Two of my Tivos can do it. > [@filmore](#): > > As to why all devices don’t have a “find my remote” option, my guess would be cost savings by the manufacturer. They’d have to have a receiver as well as a transmitter, and almost certainly an RF receiver since if IR worked, you’d probably be able to see the remote in the first place. Unless they have some other uses for bi-directional communication, it seems like a waste of money. Most people aren’t going to lose their remote so often that they’re willing to pay extra for the feature. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/53 "2020-12-15T00:58:32Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > They’d have to have a receiver as well as a transmitter, and almost certainly an RF receiver since if IR worked, you’d probably be able to see the remote in the first place. Those bluetooth tracker tile things (usually used for keys) are getting pretty small, you could epoxy one to the back of your remote. Then it’s just “Alexa, find my remote” or whatever, and it beeps at you. But a lot of the problem is just that remotes are almost invariably black, and you don’t watch TV with bright lights on. For newer remotes in standard shapes like the Samsung & Alexa remotes I have, you can get brightly colored even fluorescent covers that resolve most of the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/54 "2020-12-15T01:34:46Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I wish there was an effective, cheap and durable device against mosquitoes that killed no other bugs. > **[Mosquito laser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser)** > > A mosquito laser is a proposed device that would use lasers to kill mosquitoes. The primary goal would be to reduce malaria infection rates. > In 2007, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation asked Intellectual Ventures to find a way to fight and eventually end malaria. There, astrophysicist Lowell Wood had the idea to use lasers. Their project received considerable media attention around 2010, but the device was still under development as of 2017. > At a brainstorming session in 2007, to think of solu... Some of the lasers can even distinguish between certain genders and species of mosquitos based on wing flapping patterns, so they only kill the female of the species that cause malaria and don’t kill the male mosquitos or other species of them. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/55 "2020-12-15T01:42:42Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > they only kill the female of the species that cause malaria and don’t kill the male mosquitos or other species of them. I’m not sure that this is a great marketing feature. I unashamedly wish death upon any motherfucker in the vicinity that intends to stab me, drink my blood, and leave me with an annoying itch, malaria or not. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/56 "2020-12-15T01:47:18Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I’d like to see invented a beach blanket equipped with a zipper around the edge that zips up to become a private changing chamber, but otherwise is just a beach blanket. I feel like I’ve seen something very similar to this on Shark Tank. Ah, no it was the [Shower Toga](https://showertoga.com/). Similar concept though. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/57 "2020-12-15T01:51:18Z")
Yes, that’s what I was about to suggest, I saw it on a rerun a couple of weeks ago. It’s a slightly different concept - it converts into a bag, so I guess you carry clean clothes in it to the beach or to some dirty job, use it to cover up while showering, then turn it back into a bag for your dirty clothes. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/58 "2020-12-15T01:53:33Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Those bluetooth tracker tile things (usually used for keys) are getting pretty small, you could epoxy one to the back of your remote. Tile makes those-little buttons that stick to objects, then can be pinged to find them. Great products-changed my life after a traumatic brain injury caused me to misplace things constantly. Tile brand makes the sticky button shape, a thin flat credit card shape for your wallet as well as tag styles for key rings, dog collars, etc. Tile usually has good promotions going most of the time. I have 8 that I use. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/59 "2020-12-15T01:58:34Z")
Since recordable voice chips have been around for quite awhile, I think it’s long past time that someone came out with a personalized electronic bicycle horn. You could program it with different announcements like “On your left!” or “Get outta my way!” ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032/60 "2020-12-15T02:13:30Z")
It has do to one better - it needs to hijack the headphones of the oblivious brain dead walkers on the path so they actually hear the message. No, it has to do two better - it then must clearly explain to the brain dead walker what “on your left!” actually means. No, it takes too long. And they’ll still shoot dirty looks at you. Best to just buzz them and at least earn that dirty look honestly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-that-are-long-overdue/928032.md?page=4)