# Inventions you've come up with. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 6, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943 "2012-03-06T17:49:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/61 "2012-03-14T18:28:30Z")
You know those gel pads that you can, like, drop eggs onto without breaking and stuff like that? Where they absorb and dissipate a lot of shock? Put those in old-people underwear. Bam! No more broken hips when granny falls down. “Help! I’ve fallen, but I can get up because my panties are awesome.” ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/62 "2012-03-14T19:34:09Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I actually hold four patents (for a device for measuring liquid heights in bottles I don’t have this skill. I’ll have to check it out. > [@elfkin477](#): > > Count down clocks, designed for children, folks with autism, adults with ADHD, and the otherwise perpetually late. It works like this: program the time for an important event, like your child’s bedtime, or when Elfie has to get her butt out of the house to make it to work on time, and a large LED display will count down to the time - know at a glance how many minutes you have left until IT’s TIME!! There would be an actual time display too, but smaller, situated above the count down. I’ve seem a few but with no time display, uh folks, those are timers, not clocks. Not the same thing at all, so your idea’s safe, but: The Procrastinator’s Clock! [explanation](http://davidseah.com/blog/2007/01/a-chindogu-clock-for-procrastinators/) [web version](http://davidseah.com/tools/pclock/) > [@gommsn](#): > > They’re out there. Bought four of them at the local Dollar Store. $.69 each and the amazing thing is, they work great. I’m not pouring near as much Pepsi down the sink as I used to. Cool! Dollar store you say… last I checked Amazon, they were like $10 there. I bought some lids at the store awhile ago. When I got home I realized I wanted small soda lids, not larger pet food lids. :smack: > [@Why\_Child](#): > > Since this is armchair inventing, what about a combination washer/dryer? Put your clothes in, program it to wash AND dry the way you want it to, and Presto! Don’t have to stop doing whatever to put clothes from washer to dryer! Saves time, saves space. [Sorry, it’s been done](https://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&tok=xzm8AFDCDeJQNMCeFKHxyQ&cp=13&gs_id=aq&xhr=t&q=combination+washer+dryer&pf=p&safe=off&sclient=psy-ab&oq=combination+w&aq=0&aqi=g4&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=4ff7b83d09fcb2a1&biw=1680&bih=855). I considered getting one once. I think they’re a bit slower than two separate loads. It would be good to “set it and forget it,” but personally I never leave the house with either running. The dryer part is usually a condensation dryer, which doesn’t need to vent but sometimes don’t dry as well. And of course another drawback is that you can’t do two loads simultaneously. ---
**Author:** ![Jasper\_Kent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@Jasper\_Kent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasper_Kent)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/63 "2012-03-19T12:55:12Z")
I thought of this about 40 years ago, but didn’t have the technical savvy nor the resources to make a prototype: > **[Innovative Airless Tires](https://www.toxel.com/tech/2009/07/05/innovative-airless-tires-by-michelin/)** > > Toxel.com - Design, Inspiration and Technology Blog ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/64 "2012-03-20T02:53:50Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > In my first nursing job, I worked with people whose veins were very fragile. Putting in an IV just for medications was an ongoing pain for everyone involved. I put together a way to give IV meds without running an IV continiously. It became an approved method throughout the hospital. I didn’t think of patenting it. :rolleyes::smack: > Not much later it was patented by someone else and is used all over the world. It’s called a Heparin Lock. :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: Holy Phlebotomy Batman. Next time I see an RN set a HepLock, I give you a nod. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/65 "2012-03-20T03:12:54Z")
I invented a couple of things that are probably in your computer right now. But my favorite never invention was glasses with lenses of different colors so color blind people could sense color. A second favorite was a set of intersecting counter rotating toroidal surfaces set with magnets like the scales on a pangolin. It would have been a free energy motor. I just never got that many magnets all at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/66 "2012-03-20T06:58:38Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Beers infused with herbal “medicines.” You know, like a holistic health food thing. The flagship brand would be called “Gingko Beeroba.” I can’t believe the Germans haven’t tried this. They’re as into herbal cures as they are into beer. The difficulty would be getting by their beer laws, which basically say that you can’t add additives and still sell it as “beer.” ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/67 "2012-03-20T15:19:07Z")
" Ginkobrauhausgermminatinkmitdersprechelgrübenstrasse " Two a day and you’re a new German !!! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![caveman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caveman/32/7242_2.png) [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/68 "2012-03-20T18:21:34Z")
For an invention fair in elementary school sometime in the mid-1980s, I designed a small contraption composed of a fork, a spoon, and a clothespin spring to squeeze the last bit of tea out of a teabag (cleverly dubbed The TeaSqueeze). Dad helped me weld together a prototype, which my folks have and use to this day. A few years ago, I spotted a set of tiny slotted tongs marketed as a tea bag squeezer. ---
**Author:** ![Mixolydian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Mixolydian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mixolydian)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/69 "2012-03-20T19:48:39Z")
I had an idea for a sensor/transmitter tied to an automobile’s turn signal that effectively “called” for an open spot in a highway lane before taking it, or let the driver know if another car was in the process of “calling” that spot. It was designed to prevent accidents that occur when two cars are vying for the same open spot in a lane between them (car A in lane 1, car B in lane 3, open spot in lane 2) and each is out of site the others’ mirror. I checked a patent site recently; someone has any and all related sensors thoroughly covered with a blanket patent. ---
**Author:** ![Orionizer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orionizer/32/4442_2.png) [@Orionizer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orionizer)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/70 "2012-03-21T14:35:27Z")
I thought it would be a good idea to incorporate something like high powered RFID in speed limit signs and have cars have a receiver that wouldn’t allow the car to go above say 10% of the RFID transmitted signal. Goodbye self important asshole flying past me doing 80 in a 60! ---
**Author:** ![Black\_Train\_Song](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Black\_Train\_Song](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Train_Song)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/71 "2012-03-21T21:23:44Z")
How about voice recognition elevators. Just tell the think what floor you want instead of asking someone to push the button for you and/or squeezing your way to the buttons. ---
**Author:** ![Black\_Train\_Song](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Black\_Train\_Song](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Train_Song)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/72 "2012-03-21T21:26:13Z")
…Or maybe that would be voice _activated_. Also, motion sensors on the approach to escalator so they’re not just running all of the time for nothing. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943/73 "2012-03-21T21:28:25Z")
> [@Black\_Train\_Song](#): > > How about voice recognition elevators. Just tell the think what floor you want instead of asking someone to push the button for you and/or squeezing your way to the buttons. Won’t work: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FFRoYhTJQQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FFRoYhTJQQ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inventions-youve-come-up-with/614943.md?page=3)