Inventions are waiting to be made!

[Anon3587x]

Lets start a thread for crafty inventions.
If you come across a really cool idea that is so simple you don't understand how it wasn't patented already.

Post it here.

In a solution short on cost but long on ingenuity, the duo modified a basic, every day salad spinner into an easy to use and transport centrifuge that successfully separates blood to allow diagnosis of anemia with no electricity. The device costs about $30, can process 30 individual 15 microliter blood samples at a time, and can separate blood into its component red cells and plasma in about 20 minutes.

Salad Spinner Centrifuge: A Cheap, Ingenious Health Care Tool - Healthy Living on Shine

 

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[rod_lleyton]

Interesting thread.

I read somewhere (forgot where) that the guy who invented the common "paperclip" as we know it now would be the richest guy (or one of the richest) on the planet if he had patented the invention. And, if someone could solve the problem of binding bundles of paper together effectively, without damaging the pieces of paper, then they'd make a killing.

Common ways of binding paper together:
* Paperclip
* Bulldog clips
* Staplers
* Cellotape
* Ringbinders
* Spiral binds

The deficiency in the common paperclip is that it's easily destroyed and it doesn't work well for larger documents. Solve these problems, along with having cheap material and manufacturing cost, and you're onto a winner.

That said, with the advent of the ipad and digital paper, could the paperclip be something of the past?

 

[PaulRobert]

I am not sure if the following product is patented but I sure know it is becoming a huge fad among teenagers.

Silly Bandz inventor finally speaking out

Silly Bandz, Animal Rubber Bands

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I am not sure if the following product is patented but I sure know it is becoming a huge fad among teenagers.

Silly Bandz inventor finally speaking out

Silly Bandz, Animal Rubber Bands

I don't get it. Proves that the markets are the only viable gauge for determining marketability and value. What looks like a bunch of useless rubber things is probably making an entrepreneur extremely wealthy ... value is in the eye of the marketplace it attempts to serve.

 

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[w4rl0rdx]

Wow, wtf? typing "silly bandz" in google produces About 12,600,000 results!

When did this fad pop up?

 

[rod_lleyton]

A LOT OF PRODUCTS out there selling well, I don't get. So you never know, a seemingly stupid idea could actually work...

One of my personal training clients suggested a similar wrist band to me, saying that it would increase metabolism and help athletes through the magnetic pulses that it generates (can't recall what the name is exactly, but I'm sure some of you would have heard about it)... I don't know, but just doesn't seem right to me.

I don't think you could patent a simple wrist band though, unless there's something original in the manufacturing, or in the case of the athletic band, how it "increases metabolism".

 

[Infinity]

I don't get it. Proves that the markets are the only viable gauge for determining marketability and value. What looks like a bunch of useless rubber things is probably making an entrepreneur extremely wealthy ... value is in the eye of the marketplace it attempts to serve.

Never heard of Silly Bandz, guess I'm out of the loop - this guy is genius...looks like crappy 1 cent rubber shapes

 

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[Guest3722A]

I like the toilet in the ground idea for dog owners. That's like wow man :smxG:

 

[Guest3722A]

as far as the silly band idea, i would think that all one has to do to sell something to kids is tap into their i want i want relentless mentality and then let their superior sales skills do the rest of the work on their parents. price it low on the ol economic grid to get the most economic bang for the parent's economic buck and woila ! million dollar idea.... or not

 

[Jople]

Might this serve as an invention that, . .

I, "don't understand why it hasn't been patented already".

In any case it has been a interesting topic.

 

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[Jople]

Example of Advertising and Use

 

[Jople]

I guess there wasn't a lot of humor, . . When I said,

" I, "don't understand why it hasn't been patented already". "

Cuz I created the product, when I get enough post in, . I may put it in the forum for making deals, . .

Anyway, is it any good ?

 

[Anon3587x]

Jople if you keep the price tag low I bet it could sale.

Take some samples to a few cell phone chains and see what they think.

 

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[bonkers123]

Example of Advertising and Use

no offense..but isn't that what sunglasses are far? To see with out the sun blocking your eyes..... dont really get the invention and how it differs from sunglasses...

 

[Jople]

UAh Uah, I don't think so !

Wearing sun glasses is like you are on the inside of the cell phone looking out at the sunny day, .

So, Its the other way around for example if you look at a window with the sun shining on it, and you have sun glasses on, . . the sun is filtered on its way to you through your glasses, . . . but as you look at the window, . .you see what is there, . . the reflection on the glass, not what is on the other side of it.

This is a product that will not be the solution for every phone cause their catching up, but its a pretty big problem, as far as I know, and to the best of my knowledge that would include many millions of cell phones.

 

[FDJustin]

If I understand it right, it's a box that you slip over the one side (the obvious part) to block the sun. It then has some mirror system going on where the image behind it is then reflected through a small view-port.

At first I was wondering why it shows the people holding it upside down, but I realize that if I'm right with the mirror system, that might make the image upside down. I'd consider that a major design flaw... The point here would be to keep your off-hand free. (One hand to hold the phone), so the other can dial/flip through options. If it has to be upside down, it ruins the advantage.

Then again, the design requires you place it to your eye directly, like binoculars...

Just my opinion, but if you can come up with a solution that solves the sun issue without obscuring any regular phone usage, you would have a stronger product on hand.


Ok... As for those bands? Those are one of those 'Why the hell didn't I think of that?!' things. Little wrist bands became popular at the mid-point of my teen years and didn't entirely go away. A few years ago there were these.. Thicker bands. Terry fox bands? Something like that which were very popular. If you jumped on the band(tee-hee) wagon and did something like that, well. You see the results.

 

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[FDJustin]

Well Rod... I gave it some thought, and at first my mind was just being silly. I considered having a nut and a bolt, placing a stack of papers against the nut and threading the bolt on until it held the papers in place and calling it "Office Vice!" Even came up with a silly fake commercial for it. Sit around in a chair, wearing "business attire" and yell very loud, and very fast about why you need the power of all new office vice! Be the talk of the water cooler! Get the hot secretary! Your boss will think you're so organized, AND manly with Office Vice!(tm) that he'll think you're part of the mafia and give you a raise!

But that silliness aside, I started thinking of it in earnest. The next thing that came to mind was a little contraption that works like fingers. Twist one knob and it tugs on a piece of string to pinch down. Twist it the other way and it opens. To lock it you would swing the knob in away from side so it can't be turned anymore. That's kind of neat, but slow and bulky.

Then I started thinking about rubber bands again... If you could come up with a material that adheres to itself and not paper, doesn't leave smudges, is sturdy-esque but still going to be removable by hand... You might have something of a niche product. It's still not a perfect idea for this problem, it wouldn't hold the same way as a clip.. You would have to use it like those plastic lines used for news papers. The main thing here is, it would have to be soft. Tape soft.
Design wise you could kind of set it up like tape, where it comes in a spool with one side inactive, and one side active. The active side has to touch a piece of the active side to bind. Makes it a little more of a hassle, but.

The only other thing I can think of is something like two coins fastened together with one of those draw-string thingies with the plastic pinching bit on the cord. Then the problems become 'Is that thingy patented?', 'What stops it from slipping?' and 'Won't people hate the excess string?'

After spending a minute visualizing, I could probably solve the slipping problem with the same mechanics in the pinching idea. (So now it's almost the same thing).

 

[Jople]

Keen Eye Young Man !
It' been a little while since I broke out this drawing, .

The slot you slip the screen into is fitted with a soft
plastic flap, and has a capacity for holding the phone
as its main purpose is to shut out the light, but the
hand should hold the phone, the main intention for
the device is to be used by persons who need it,
and its need came from being at the beach fishing,
finding out who called, what time it is, and photo viewing.

So in the view here in, you see lens in the center,
the phone is inserted into the case, a lens made
for the application is used, and you view the cell
screen in the dark.
There are no mirrors, my mistake leading you there,
my apology.

Just an inexpensive little plastic gadget that can come in very handy.

 

[SuccessInMind]

Silly Bandz

Hey everyone, sorry for bringing up an old thread, but I had a question about the Silly Bandz. For anyone that has read MJ's book, he talks about the five commandments.

Commandment of Need
Commandment of Entry
Commandment of Control
Commandment of Scale
Commandment of Time

My question is, what need does Silly Bandz fulfill? Just asking because I'm trying to understand why Silly Bandz is successful in terms of what MJ wrote about. Answers are much appreciated

 

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[rocksolid]

I would say it creates a need with kids to be popular. I don't think all successful products need to fall into the 5 commandments, but it helps.

 

[Graves]

At some point they got popular enough that they became a must-have item for little kids, but how the hell did that happen ? I understand how Trading Cards and Beyblades got popular, however SILLY BANDZ ? Need to do more googling on this

 

[Nicola]

People aren't logical - they work on emotion. This means that some things will become popular without any sensible reason - look at pet rocks.

 

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[Chicago_DSM]

SillyBandz were profitable because they became a FAD. Its popularity was created through WOM, 'tween-aged' girls and boys seeing others with them and finding out how to get some for themselves. There are a lot of problems with this business though, as expressed in MJ's model. Clearly it was somewhat scalable, they made thousands of variations of these wristbands and sold it through hundreds of different wholesale channels. The problem is fads have a very short product life cycle. Unless this company continues to innovate new products dissimilar to this, they will crumble as demand dries up.

Based on the amount of competitors emerging and my personal observation that kids are already getting bored with these things (and the fact they are down to like 50 cents a pack) I would say this product has reached the height of the maturity stage. There is no brand loyalty to 'sillybandz' over 'gas station bandz' or 'grocery store bandz'.

Just my opinion.

 

[Likwid24]

It's not always about the product. Someone can have the greatest idea in the world and if they don't know what to do with it, it will go no where. On the other hand, the silliest idea can become huge with the right marketing, timing and some luck. For example, look at the Snuggie. The original idea came about in 1992 as the "Freedom Blanket". The product bombed. I'm sure no one here has heard about it. A few years later someone came up with the "Slanket". It was a blanket with sleeves. Pretty much the same as the freedom blanket. This too went nowhere. A few years later a man named Klein Peterson, who was obsessed with his blanket, invented the sunggie. It really wasn't much different that the two previous products. Same exact concept. A blanket with holes cut in it. But with the right marketing and possibly the right timing and some luck, his product took off making him an instant millionaire and one of the greatest success stories of our times. I still think it's a silly idea. All it is is a backwards robe pretty much. But it goes to show you that it's not the idea that sells, it's the person or people behind the idea.

 

[Aspire4More]

It's not always about the product. Someone can have the greatest idea in the world and if they don't know what to do with it, it will go no where. On the other hand, the silliest idea can become huge with the right marketing, timing and some luck. For example, look at the Snuggie. The original idea came about in 1992 as the "Freedom Blanket". The product bombed. I'm sure no one here has heard about it. A few years later someone came up with the "Slanket". It was a blanket with sleeves. Pretty much the same as the freedom blanket. This too went nowhere. A few years later a man named Klein Peterson, who was obsessed with his blanket, invented the sunggie. It really wasn't much different that the two previous products. Same exact concept. A blanket with holes cut in it. But with the right marketing and possibly the right timing and some luck, his product took off making him an instant millionaire and one of the greatest success stories of our times. I still think it's a silly idea. All it is is a backwards robe pretty much. But it goes to show you that it's not the idea that sells, it's the person or people behind the idea.

That's pretty interesting. I definitely know of the snuggie, I usually tell the wife that I am getting her one for her birth day, anniversary etc when I wanna mess with her, lol

I wonder how such similar products were able to come to market with out any patent related issues?

 

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[Anon3587x]

I sleep with my snuggie every night!

 

[DrummerDad]

A perfect example of really good marketing: Fushigi balls.

My kids begged for one of these worthless chrome balls, and I refused to pay $20 for one. The grandparents got them one, and they sit in the toy boxes. I told them it was nothing but a ball, it doesnt do anything. But the commercials had "professional" jugglers, that made it look like they did all kind of crazy tricks.

It does have one trick up its sleeve: itll trick you into paying $20 for a $1 ball of plastic. Thats advertising. I wont let them get rid of them now. I want a reminder in the house of why we dont follow these fads.

 

[Aspire4More]

Currently reading One Simple Idea. I have a toy idea that I feel would be perfect for liscensing.

 

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[Jason!]

Just curious regarding SillyBandz - Was there any way the creator could have protected what he made from copycats? His idea isn't patentable.

 

[lefou]

wow. I really don't understand the point of these!