5. Inventions – Ted Silar

Non-Frightening Ringtone

Awakened and terrified out of your wits by a ringing phone? Nevermore, with the “NON-FRIGHTENING RINGTONE.”

You are sleeping soundly in a very quiet room.

All of a sudden, a sudden noise shocks you awake! Your heart thumps wildly. Your head is a ball of confusion. A near heart-attack for a wrong number.

Ringtones don’t scare everybody. But they do scare some of us, especially old people, light sleepers, and people with PTSD who are sensitive to loud, abrupt noises.

And me! They often terrify me. My pulse rate goes through the roof. Which scares me even more.

It doesn’t matter if the phone is a cell phone or a land line. It doesn’t matter if the ringtone is a song or a beep or a bell.

A ringtone suddenly going off in a quiet room scares the living daylights out of many of us.

Many companies supposedly sell “gentle ringtones,”

But they don’t sound very “gentle” to me.

And they still start up suddenly, abruptly, frighteningly.

Here is my suggestion:

1. RINGTONES THAT DON’T START SUDDENLY, ABRUPTLY.

2. Ringtones that START BELOW THE RANGE OF HUMAN HEARING, and then GRADUALLY INCREASE IN VOLUME.

3. Ringtones made out of a sound that is very SOFT AND SOOTHING, like gentle waves, a trickling brook, white noise, etc.

CUSTOMERS

Old People
Light Sleepers
People with PTSD, who are very sensitive to loud, abrupt noises

Getting rid of the suddenness of ringtones will probably save lives by keeping people’s pulse rate manageable.

Transdermal Skin Patches for Everything

I propose creating “TRANSDERMAL SKIN PATCHES FOR EVERYTHING” that you ingest or inject for health.

Transdermal patches have many uses: anti-nicotine addiction, pain therapy, hormone replacement, contraception, nitroglycerine treatment, motion sickness treatment, anti-hypertension, anti-depressants, ADHD treatment, Altzheimer’s treatment, chemotherapy symptom treatment, and B12 supplementation. An insulin patch is in development.

Patches are usually superior to ingestion because the medicine or nutrition goes DIRECTLY into the bloodstream without the interference of the digestive process.

Patches are superior to injection because they are LESS INVASIVE and less “all-at-once,” MORE “TIMED-RELEASE.”

Theoretically you can make a patch for ANYTHING that you can ingest or inject.

USES FOR TRANSDERMAL PATCHES
THAT HAVE NOT BEEN INVENTED YET

1. ORAL REHYDRATION THERAPY– The cheapest and most effective way to treat dehydration (caused by a variety of diseases such as dysentery, cholera, diarrhea, rotavirus, etc.) is ingestion of a simple solution of salt, sugar, and water, a therapy known as “Oral Rehydration Therapy.”

A patch could be impregnated with salt, sugar, and water. It could be used for those whose esophagus is obstructed, or who need direct and immediate hydration, or when intravenous injection of salt, sugar, and water is not available.

2. NUTRITION – Patches would be much preferable to tube-feeding for patients who are comatose or whose esophagus is blocked, or who suffer from dysphagia.

The army was developing a total, all-nutrition-in-1-patch “Transdermal Nutrition Delivery System,” but it seems to have been discontinued. http://archives.tproc.org/www.sbccom.army.mil/products/food/tdnds.pdf

I propose a separate patch for each nutrient (instead of the Army’s all-in-1 approach): 1 patch with protein, 1 with fats, 1 with carbohydrates, 1 with each important vitamin and mineral.

There already are patches for vitamins and minerals.

But not for protein, carbohydrates, or fats.

I suggest adding “protease,” a protein-digesting enzyme, to a protein patch.

I suggest adding “lipase,” a fat-digesting enzyme, to a fat patch (counter-intuitively, fat is necessary to nutrition).

I suggest adding “amylase,” a carbohydrate-digesting enzyme, to a carbohydrate patch.

Alternately, since protein needs to be broken down by enzymes to be absorbed into the bloodstream anyway, I suggest a patch impregnated with protein already broken down by protease into amino acid—an “AMINO ACID PATCH.”

3. OXYGEN – Oxygen-impregnated patches could help the oxygen-deprived.

TCOT, or “Transdermal Continuous Oxygen Therapy,” continuously bathes wounds in pure oxygen. The “Epiflo” device infuses oxygen into a sterile dressing. But it is a bulky machine. And it doesn’t deliver the oxygen into the bloodstream. http://www.ogenix.com/product-overview/

“Oxygen Infusion Therapy” is a cosmetic facial treatment. It works similarly to TCOT. It also does not deliver the oxygen into the bloodstream. http://www.intraceuticals.com/rejuvenateinfusion.html

I propose IMPREGNATING A TRANSDERMAL PATCH WITH A LIQUID THAT IS ALREADY OXYGEN-INFUSED (possibly blood or blood plasma), and that can be absorbed through the skin into the bloodstream.

4. BLOOD PLASMA – Since transdermal patches infuse material directly through the skin into the bloodstream, it seems as if patches impregnated with red blood, or with blood plasma, could be used for transfusions without needles.

6. CHEMOTHERAPY – There are patches for treating the symptoms of chemotherapy. But patches that administer the various constituents of chemotherapy could also be created.

7. COUMADIN, ANTI-VIRALS, AZT, etc., could be better administered by patch instead of by pill or injection.

CUSTOMERS

Pharmaceutical companies that are already making transdermal patches. Patients who have problems with ingestion or injection. Patients who have problems keeping track of their dosages, who forget to take their pills, etc. Doctors who want easier ways to help their patients access any of these substances. Anyone with a need for direct, non-invasive, timed-release infusion of substances into the bloodstream.

Plastic Bag that Stands Up Like a Paper Bag

Groceries falling all over the floor? What if you had a “PLASTIC BAG THAT STANDS UP LIKE A PAPER BAG“?

ENVIRONMENTALISTS, PLEASE NOTE:

I am with you. Plastic bags are horrible for the environment, there can be no doubt.

But this plastic bag idea will at least make the everyday plastic bag re-usable, rather than disposable. Its re-usability and extra utility will induce people to use less plastic bags over all.

It is not an ideal solution. But it is a step in the right direction, a viable stopgap solution.

Of course, these bags MUST be made of true bio-degradable (not just “degradable”) corn-based plastic, or I am against them.

THE STORY:

Before I got my cloth grocery bags (which are best of all, but too many people don’t buy them or use them), I used to always ask for “paper inside plastic” at the grocery store, even though it was somewhat wasteful.

Why?

Plastic bags have HANDLES, for ease in carrying—and they are WATERPROOF, so they don’t break open when they get wet.

But when you set them down, they fall over, and all your groceries fall out over the floor.

Paper bags, on the other hand, STAND UP when you set them down. Your groceries stay where they are, nicely packed.

But they have no handles and they break open when they get wet.

I wanted bags that:
A. would stand up like paper bags, but
B. had handles (and were waterproof) like plastic bags.

THE SOLUTION

Reinforce the plastic in the plastic bag so that it stands up on 4 corners, just like the paper bag.

How can this idea be a GREEN idea?

A. Plastic bags that are made sturdily enough to stand up would be sturdy enough that customers, and grocery stores, would see the value in CHARGING A DEPOSIT for them.
B. Paper bags are not really green, either. They are also disposable, though more bio-degradable.
C. If stand-up plastic bags are made from true bio-degradable (not degradable) corn-based plastic, then, even if they are thrown away, they will bio-degrade.

The idea is to create grocery bags that are too good to throw away, that are worth the deposit money in and of themselves.

CUSTOMERS
Manufacturers of plastic bags, grocery stores, grocery store customers, anybody who wants a bag that stands up but has handles and is waterproof at the same time.

Folded Potato Chip Maker

Digging for those tastiest-of-all folded-over potato chips? Dig no more with the “FOLDED POTATO CHIP MAKER.”

Have you ever noticed that the best-tasting deep-fried potato chips are the folded-over ones? Have you ever found yourself digging through the bag for the folded-over chips?

And yet, only about a quarter of the chips in any given bag are usually folded over.

What causes potato chips to fold over?

Because raw potato slices that are a little bit thinner in the middle naturally fold over in the deep-frying process.

So I designed a wire slicer (using the same design as a standard wire slicer for vegetables and hard-boiled eggs) to make slices that will fold over.

WIRE SLICER DESIGN

Each wire in the wire slicer has a wire OVAL in the middle that cuts out a little slot at the center of each potato slice, to make it slightly thinner in the middle. (See diagram)

I also thought of a way to mass produce folded-over potato ships.

AIR SPRAYER DESIGN

1. A conveyor belt carries the raw potato slices at an angle down into a vat of boiling oil.
2. Two arms guide a pinch-wire to hold down the middle of each raw potato slice in a row.
3. A row of air sprayers sprays the front half of the row of raw potato slices back.
4. The raw potato slices descend into the boiling oil and cook in a folded-over shape.

CUSTOMERS
Manufacturers of deep-fried potato chips who want to draw more customers, or who need a new improvement to help sales. People who like potato chips. Home-made potato-chip makers who like folded-over potato chips best.

No more digging. The whole bag is full of folded-over potato chips.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-love-folded-over-potato-chips/93040229638
http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/folded_20potato_20chips

Right Shoe-Heel Reinforcement

Right Shoe Heels wear out way before your shoe? Stop the erosion with the “RIGHT SHOE HEEL REINFORCEMENT.”

The outside, rear edge of my right shoe heel always wears away long before the rest of my shoe does.

Why?

Driving. I drive too much. Many of us do.

The right outside rear edge of my right shoe heel rests on the floor while my foot works the gas pedal. And it grinds and grinds and grinds, each time I accelerate or decelerate.

The solution?

An attachment, of molded plastic or metal, for the outside rear edge of the right shoe.

It could be glued on, nailed on, or sewed in.

Or included in the manufacturing process.

Shoes for race-car drivers have a reinforced right shoe heel.
http://www.gasheadmotorworks.com/pilotishoes.html

Why not race-car driver quality shoes for the rest of us?

Because of the right heel, my shoes have to be replaced or re-soled long before they should need to be. With a right-heel reinforcement, my shoes would last longer, without need for re-soling, thus saving me money.

CUSTOMERS

People who drive a lot.
People whose heels wear out too fast.
People who want shoes to last longer.
People who want to save money on shoes or re-soling.

“THIS SIDE UP” Envelopes

Addressing your envelopes upside-down way too often?

You never will again with the “‘THIS SIDE UP’ ENVELOPE.”

I am sure I am not the only one who laboriously addresses an envelope, only to find, when he turns it over, that he has addressed it upside-down. I know that I should always check, but too often, I forget, or I am just in a hurry.

If only I had envelopes with a little arrow on the front telling me where the top is, this problem would never happen again. It would solve a common, recurrent, and infuriating problem.

THREE OPTIONAL DESIGNS

1. The Obvious Option: Print “ THIS SIDE UP ” at the top of the envelope.
2. The Artistic Option: Print an attractive band of arrows on the left and right borders of the envelope.
3. The Hidden Option: Print a little arrow right where the stamp goes, so that it will be hidden underneath the stamp.

CUSTOMERS
Any absent-minded, hurried person like me who mails letters. This is the kind of problem that people forget they have until advertising reminds them of it. They see an ad, a lightbulb goes on in their heads, they snap their fingers, say, “Oh, yeah. Boy, do I need one of those,” and purchase the product.

“THIS SIDE UP” labels are available from many sources.

But no pre-printed, “THIS SIDE UP” envelopes are available. And they should be.

Multiferroic Composite-Electroplating for Heat-Generating Sources

Generate electricity directly from heat with “MULTIFERROIC COMPOSITE-ELECTROPLATING FOR HEAT-GENERATING SOURCES.”

Everywhere, heat is going to waste, not being used to create energy.

There are now 2 types of devices that convert heat into electricity.

1. “THERMO-ELECTRIC (TEGs)” Using “Thermocouples”.

TEGs are inefficient. Nevertheless, work should be done on finding ways to clad all heat-emitting devices in TEGs. Even if a single device only generated a small amount of electricity, if millions of devices, if every heat-emitting device in every household was generating that small amount—it would add up to a very large amount of electricity.

2. MULTIFERROIC COMPOSITES

Recently, a multiferroic composite of nickel, cobalt, manganese, and tin has been shown to create a magnetic field from variations in temperature. This magnetic field can then be used to generate electricity—to generate it much more efficiently than thermocouples.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-06/new-alloy-can-convert-heat-directly-electricity

I suggest finding a way to encase, or house, or clad, heat-emitting devices, like a furnace, with this multiferroic composite.

The multiferroic composite must then be surrounded by a coil, which generates electricity from the magnetic field.

I suggest finding a way to encase, or house, or clad, heat-emitting devices, like a furnace, with this multiferroic composite, during manufacturer.

Alternately, a sheath or covering or attachment could be invented to retro-fit already manufactured heat-emitting devices.

Stoves, ranges, ovens, microwaves, furnaces, registers, radiators, hot water heaters, electric lamps, fireplaces, pot-bellied stoves, and electronics like TVs and computers all generate waste heat in the household.

Car engines generate a lot of waste heat.

Steel mills and other kinds of factories generate electricity generate huge amounts of excess heat.

Power plants—coal-fired, natural-gas-powered, and nuclear—interestingly generate massive amounts of heat generating electricity. If this heat could be used to generate more electricity, a potentially valuable feedback loop might be created.

And geothermal sources like geysers and hot springs generate much excess heat. Just to name a few.

Especially useful would be re-fitting electric ranges, stoves, and ovens, to recycle, in a feedback loop, the electricity the heat of the device generates back into the operation of the device.

Why are cooking devices important?

Cooking devices are necessities. Electric cooking devices pollute and de-forest less. But they use a lot of electricity. If the amount they use could be decreased, electric cookers could be used in third-world villages and run by solar power or by some other locally-generated means.

The amount of electricity generated from heat with multi-ferroic composites is still very small.

But—to reiterate—if every heat-generating source in the world was cladded with them, a lot of electricity would be produced, because there are a lot of heat-generating devices in the world.

Also, the higher the temperature, and the larger the heat generator, the more electricity. Thus, the amount of electricity steel mills, power plants (including nuclear power plants), and geothermal sources create, produce would not be inconsiderable.

CUSTOMERS

Owners and managers of factories, steel mills, kilns, utilities—any commercial buildings that generate a lot of heat.

Appliance manufacturers.

Construction companies.

Do-it-yourself home-builders.

Retro-fitters.

Anyone interested in clean, green energy generation and efficiency.

Fridge-Saver Pizza Box

Huge leftover pizza boxes cluttering your fridge?

Fold them up and save space with the “FRIDGE-SAVER PIZZA BOX.”

Everybody has had the experience of trying to store leftover slices of pizza by putting the slices back into the box and then stuffing the whole box into the refrigerator.

And the box is way too big. It is hard to close the refrigerator door with that big box sticking out, and you have to move around or squash lots of other stuff to get the box in.

With the FRIDGE-SAVER PIZZA BOX, you halve the size of the box, thus halving refrigerator space taken up, while still leaving plenty of room in which to store leftover slices.

THE DESIGN:

1. Take a normal pizza box design.
2. Add perforations where the top attaches to the bottom of the box.
3. Add one fold through the very middle of the bottom of the box (There are two optional ways to do this. See drawings: “Diagonal Fridge-Saver Pizza Box,” and “Rectangular Fridge-Saver Pizza Box.”)
4. Add a second fold to either side of the first fold. This second fold should be as far from the first fold as the width of a side of the bottom of the box.
5. Add pop-out tabs in the sides of the bottom of the box between these two folds, as indicated in the drawings.

Here is how the customer would use the product:
1. Remove the top of the pizza box by tearing along the perforations.
2. Pop out the pop-out tabs on the sides of the bottom of the box.
3. Fold the short side of the bottom of the box into the long side.
4. Place the leftover slices into this half-sized pizza box and put it in the refrigerator.

CUSTOMERS

Companies that make pizza boxes for pizza restaurants and pizza delivery companies. Also, big pizza chains, like Pizza Hut or Domino’s.

Any pizza company that adopts the FRIDGE-SAVER PIZZA BOX can use the box in their advertising, as an extra added appeal to customers over and above the pizza itself. Providing such a bonus shows care and concern for the customer.

EASE OF USE

It is very, very simple.

People who have stuffed themselves on pizza and guzzled a six-pack of beer in the process do not want and will not use a complicated pizza box solution. With the FRIDGE-SAVER PIZZA BOX, all you do is separate the top, pop two tabs, and fold.

SIMILAR BUT COMPLICATED PRODUCT

The “Green Box” design is excellent
http://www.greenboxny.com/HOME.html

The only thing that makes the FRIDGE-SAVER PIZZA BOX competitive with the Green Box is simplicity.

Simply put, The Fridge-Saver design is much easier to manage, especially with a bellyful of pizza and beer!

Forward-View Truck Periscope

Avoid danger, see road signs ahead of time, SEE THROUGH THE TRUCK AHEAD OF YOU BLOCKING YOUR VIEW, with a “FORWARD-VIEW TRUCK PERISCOPE.”

Professional drivers will tell you it is safest to always look down the road as far ahead as you possibly can, rather than to just near-sightedly follow the vehicle ahead of you.

WHY SHOULD YOU LOOK AS FAR AHEAD AS POSSIBLE?

1. TO AVOID DANGER, PROBLEMS AHEAD
You want to see traffic jams, accidents, deer, children, detours, lane changes, construction, etc., way ahead of time, so as to make decisions about what to do, and put them to action in plenty of time.

2. TO SEE ROAD SIGNS AHEAD OF TIME
You want to see a road sign—say, the exit you want—early enough to decide and act, even when a truck is in front of you hiding it. driver of the car behind them

Usually, you can see through or beyond low-slung cars.

But you can’t see through or beyond trucks, SUVs, or mini-vans.

So I invented the “FORWARD-VIEW TRUCK PERISCOPE.”

PURPOSE
Periscopes are used to let you see around and beyond things that are in the way.

Simply put, the “Forward-View Truck Periscope” enables the car behind to see around and beyond the truck, or SUV, or mini-van. in front (See attached drawing.)

MOUNTING
The periscope can be mounted:
1. on the top of a truck at the very back (Placement Option #1 on the attached drawing) or
2. on the side, like a side-view mirror (Placement Option #2).

TILT-BACK OPTION
Truckers might object that these periscopes might prevent them from squeezing through Low Clearance bridges, or tight alleyways. To fix this problem, the periscopes can be made to tilt back flat against the vehicle. They can be made to be tilted back either by adjusting them manually, or with an electronic switch.

VIDEO DISPLAY
A video display mounted on the back of the vehicle, connected to a camera in the front of the vehicle, would work just as well as a periscope for giving an unobstructed view far down the road ahead.

But there are 2 drawbacks to a video display:

COST
1. A video display costs much more than a periscope.
CRASHING
2. Complex electronic devices often crash, for a variety of reasons. The only way a periscope crashes is if it is crashed into.

THE PUBLIC’S MOTIVATION FOR WANTING FORWARD-VIEW TRUCK PERISCOPES
An unobstructed view of the road ahead is self-evidently something that every conscientious driver craves, and would be grateful for.

And the general public knows that tailgating is dangerous. They would welcome something on their own car—anything, in fact—that might help the driver following them avoid crashing into them.

TRUCKERS’, TRUCKING COMPANIES’, VEHICLE MANUFACTURERS’, and VEHICLE OWNERS’ MOTIVATION FOR WANTING FORWARD-VIEW TRUCK PERISCOPES

1. SAFETY FIRST: NO TAILGATING
The periscope can be aligned so that you can only view it properly if you maintain a safe distance behind the vehicle you are following.

Nobody likes tailgating, and it is dangerous. Preventing tailgating increases highway safety, for both the vehicle in front and the vehicle following. More highway safety means less accidents.

2. PUBLIC RELATIONS
The public will be thankful and appreciative of this improvement in their ability to get where they are going and keep themselves safe. The Forward-View Periscope will give the companies that adopt it a high profile, an improved reputation, and increased name recognition.