# Plausible or soon-to-be plausible inventions you think they ought to have **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 13, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020 "2010-10-13T16:48:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/1 "2010-10-13T16:48:42Z")
I haven’t heard of these possible inventions anywhere else (I don’t think), but at times I find myself idly wondering whether I’ll see something like the following in my lifetime: 1. An Ipad like device that you can stretch lengthwise or widthwise to make it either small enough to fit in your pocket or large enough to cover your desktop, with all the functionality of either a cellphone or a full blown computer. 2. Perhaps in connection with the first device, a virtual physical keyboard that actually rises out of the screen whenever you want it, and then "smooths"back into the screen when you don’t. 3. Ipad-like devices that offer updating Braille text and other tactile sensations for the blind. 4. Turning to the bathroom, a device to replace razors: it’s like shaving cream in that you slather it all over your face, but then it sets and the suspended nanomachines mechanically trim your whiskers closer than any razor today: once it’s finished, you peel it off and enjoy the closest shave of your life. Similar things might offer the perfect manicure or pedicure. 5. A device to let you see things underground in realistic detail. The media will be up in arms about goth teenagers skulking around cemetaries with the device. How about you? ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/2 "2010-10-13T18:17:50Z")
A digital cable box with DVR that isn’t the size of the first goddam Video Cassette Recorders from the mid 1970’s. A cable remote that isn’t an technological abortion. And I don’t even watch that much TV. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/3 "2010-10-13T18:19:31Z")
I’m still waiting for the flying car I was promised. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/4 "2010-10-13T18:24:26Z")
On a long ago TV quiz show, Henry Morgan predicted a subminiature personal barber. It would park on your scalp, and periodically cruise your head to compare and trim each hair according to a memory of a fresh haircut. We have self-directing lawnmowers and floor sweepers. It would be nice to have a device that could recognize and remove lawn weeds while we were doing something else. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/5 "2010-10-13T18:28:32Z")
Google has been working in tandem with another company to develop a self driving car. It’s now driven over 100,000 miles. It’s supposed to still have a driver in the driver’s seat to do most of the work, but I can see a day when the cars are more like the ones on I, Robot where we can sit and read or nap while the car takes care of the travel. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/6 "2010-10-13T18:30:11Z")
I want an electronic reverse toll road box. Like the electronic toll tags/boxes you stick up by the rear-view mirror of your windshield, that are scanned at the toll plaza and the toll is automatically deducted from your account…but backwards. Everywhere a stoplight that was put in so that a real-estate developer could sell houses, but at the cost of adding a potential stop to the people already using the road they’d already paid for with taxes, this device would be triggered whenever I have to stop at that light, and a fee for my time would be deducted from the developer’s profits. That seems like an eminently fair way of sharing the burden created on the rest of us by his decision to impose delays on us for personal profit. This principle could be extended further. Let’s say it uses radar to measure a box in front of my car that represents my safe following distance, automatically varying by speed and weather conditions. Whenever someone cuts into that safe distance, money is automatically deducted from his account and placed in mine. Doubled if his turn signal was not active for two seconds before he made the move. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/7 "2010-10-13T18:47:18Z")
Semipermanent tattoo ink. A tattoo would last about a year, then fade away. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/8 "2010-10-13T18:55:14Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > 1. Turning to the bathroom, a device to replace razors: it’s like shaving cream in that you slather it all over your face, but then it sets and the suspended nanomachines mechanically trim your whiskers closer than any razor today: once it’s finished, you peel it off and enjoy the closest shave of your life. Similar things might offer the perfect manicure or pedicure. We already have depilatories and waxes. But maybe something that gets the job done less unpleasantly. Something that I see as very possible in the near future – a TV remote function that lets you select a character onscreen, pause the show, and open an IMDB window with information on the actor. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/9 "2010-10-13T19:14:29Z")
A device kind of like a microwave except it makes things cold. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/10 "2010-10-13T19:20:34Z")
With the advent of cheap solar power and carbon fullerene sheets, I really want to see dirigibles make a comeback. And since the larger you make a dirigible the more efficient it is, I expect to ultimately see floating cities. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/11 "2010-10-13T19:21:05Z")
> [@mack](#): > > A device kind of like a microwave except it makes things cold. Did you come up with that just after you stuck a few beers into the freezer? (I have. :)) ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/12 "2010-10-13T19:50:38Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > > [@mack](#): > > > > A device kind of like a microwave except it makes things cold. > > Did you come up with that just after you stuck a few beers into the freezer? > > (I have. :)) 😃 Probably. It’s been in the back of my mind for so long I can’t remember exactly. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/13 "2010-10-13T20:21:53Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Something that I see as very possible in the near future – a TV remote function that lets you select a character onscreen, pause the show, and open an IMDB window with information on the actor. This would really annoy my wife. As it is, we’ll be watching TV or a movie and I’ll dash to the computer to check on what else that guy was in, or how old that woman actually is, or whatever. If I could do it without having to go online, watching a movie could take all day! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/14 "2010-10-13T20:31:38Z")
A national toll-road I-Pass system, so the box you bought to drive on your state’s toll roads will work anywhere you drive. I’m pretty sure they could do this tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/15 "2010-10-13T20:50:39Z")
The Caffiderm Patch. Should be self-explanatory. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/16 "2010-10-13T21:03:35Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > A national toll-road I-Pass system, so the box you bought to drive on your state’s toll roads will work anywhere you drive. I’m pretty sure they could do this tomorrow. A good portion of the east coast accepts EZPass. I don’t know how much it’s in use in other parts of the country. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/17 "2010-10-13T23:49:13Z")
[E-Z Pass](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-ZPass) [14 states](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-ZPass#List_of_roadways.2C_bridges.2C_tunnels.2C_.26_airports_that_accept_E-ZPass) and one bridge to Ontario ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/18 "2010-10-14T00:08:21Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > > [@tdn](#): > > > > Something that I see as very possible in the near future – a TV remote function that lets you select a character onscreen, pause the show, and open an IMDB window with information on the actor. > > This would really annoy my wife. As it is, we’ll be watching TV or a movie and I’ll dash to the computer to check on what else that guy was in, or how old that woman actually is, or whatever. If I could do it without having to go online, watching a movie could take all day! An iPod/iPad/iPhone can do this already, FWIW… ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/19 "2010-10-14T02:00:24Z")
A TIVO for my car radio. Whenever I miss a news story or a song, I should be able to rewind and hear it again. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020/20 "2010-10-14T08:25:42Z")
A device that uses the mobile phone network and is implantable in your brain. You think the kids these days text a lot, wait until they can [del]use telepathy[/del] send text messages and IMs just by thinking about it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausible-or-soon-to-be-plausible-inventions-you-think-they-ought-to-have/557020.md?page=2)