I’m sure you’ve been in the same boat we are…
Where you find yourself constantly thinking up "brilliant" ideas. So brilliant, in fact, that the people your share your great idea with encourage you to patent it.
In mine & Jim’s world…it seems like this happens all the time.
Oh sure, lots of our ideas are dumb. Or they’ve already been patented by someone else & we just don’t know it yet (…like the date-back camera, or popcorn dental floss, or a Music City Walk of Fame). Or they might only seem appealing to a small group of people.
Nevertheless, here are some of the things that we wish someone would invent soon. Because they sure would make our lives easier!
Have a look…
I’ll continue to add to this list as we think of other crazy inventions.
Trust me… these are NOT well thought out ideas. Just ramblings about things that we wish someone would invent:
1. A “universal credit card“.
Aren’t you sick & tired of carrying around so many different credit cards… and debit cards… and insurance cards… and shoppers’ discount cards? I mean, just how many can you literally lug around anyway?
If only there were a way to manage all of your credit cards by carrying around just one card instead!
Then, whenever you want to use your debit, you just “flip a switch” on the card itself, or “click a button” on the credit card swiping machine itself to indicate which account you’d like the money taken from. Or which grocery store you’re at to take advantage of their “frequent shoppers” savings — you get the idea.
In this day & age of barcodes, scanners, and such… it just seems that it would be possible to have one card that tracks the usage of all your cards at once.
Who knows… maybe there would need to be a “mini-bank” or a kiosk or something as a centralized location where the only people with the equipment to consolidate cards provide this service for a fee. Then whenever you wanted to add a new card to your universal card, you’d just pay an activation fee or something.
2. Personalized “who’s calling” notifications.
There’s already a way personalize ringtones for individuals who are likely to call you. But if you’ve got a ton of different rings set for lots of different people, then it’s hard to remember which ring signifies which caller.
What if the ringtones could be set such that when “Terry McMillen” calls Jim’s phone, the ring is a pleasant voice that says “Terry McMillen is calling.” Maybe it would repeat intermittently, like “regular” rings do. Maybe it could be customized with a male voice versus a female voice… or even your own voice!
The point is… whatever name you’ve entered in your phone’s address book for a person is the name that would be “announced” whenever that person phones you. Or, maybe there could be a whole new data field just for voice ringtones where you could enter nicknames, initials, or anything else that you wouldn’t mind other people hearing — if your phone rings in public.
3. A “Jeep rear window glove” — that rolls up.
I think every single Jeep Wrangler owner in the world would want one of these, if they were available.
I affectionately call it “the Jeep window condom” — not just because we believe in safe Jeeping, but also because it slips on, right over the whole rear window itself, just like a glove. (Okay, so maybe “the Jeep window glove” would be a better name for this one.)
When you’re a new Jeep owner especially (or if you tend to use your Jeep Wrangler more as a daily driver than as an offroad warrior), then you tend to “baby” your Jeep and all its parts. I know for us, the last thing we wanted to do was get that rear window scratched! And even the simple act of rolling it up into itself can result in numerous tiny scratches from the minuscule pieces of dirt and grime that tend to collect on the outside of Jeep vinyl windows.
From Day One it’s been important to us to do everything in our power to protect the back window of our Jeep Unlimited from scratches — even when it’s rolled up & out of the way.
The idea: Slip a 3-sided glove of sorts (made of a thin, soft material like felt or velour) over the rear window — starting from the bottom up. Then roll up the window like normal and slip the ends into the elastic straps on each corner. (These are built into all Jeep Wranglers just for the purpose of being able to ride around with your rear window rolled up, without actually having to remove the window or the soft top itself.)
As a workaround, I’ve tried placing a towel over the window, then rolling the window up like usual & placing the ends into the straps. It works, but it’s just not very attractive. If there were a Jeep rear window glove in black, or tan, or gray (the same colors that Jeep soft tops come in), then Jeep Wrangler owners everywhere would be in heaven… and have non-scratched rear windows!
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UPDATE 12.10.06
I just heard Dan Miller (of “48 Days to the Work You Love”) on the radio this evening talking about patents and such. He (or the guest he had on with him) said this:
If you decide that you want to obtain a patent for a particular product, you should do a search first to see if such a product (or one similar to it) already exists. Here’s where you search: United States Patent & Trademark Office
Then, since nothing like his idea existed, he paid $300 to have a patent attorney do an exhaustive search before he proceeded further.
In the end, it cost him $15,000 to patent his idea, and they require that you pay deposits and fees along the way before your idea officially becomes patented.
…I just thought that was fairly interesting — coming from someone who’s been there, done that.
We moved from Florida to Tennessee in 2001. All signs point to the fact that we will probably retire here — by choice. We L O V E Nashville! Our favorite places to live are just south of the City — we’ve had houses in Brentwood, Franklin, and Spring Hill. And we have properties in Leipers Fork, Cookeville, and Lewisburg. This site is where I share my best tips for moving your family to Nashville and/or visiting Nashville for the first time — with the ultimate goal of helping you find fun things to do in Williamson County and Davidson County. When I’m not out & about enjoying the Nashville area, you’ll find me at the corner of Good News & Fun Times as publisher of The Fun Times Guide (32 fun & helpful websites). To date, I’ve written over 500 articles on this site! Many of them have upwards of 100K shares.