Invisibobbles and other inventions

[Guest]

I read a really interesting article today about the founder of invisibobbles and how they were developed.

Never given it much thought about how the product originated but we have them all over the house. Pain free, tangle less, easy to get in and out. Wish they were around when I was wrestling with my kids hair in school.

Same as the tangle teaser. Some things are just right.

I would love to invent something that made a difference. Always wanted to build a toothbrush that you put in your mouth and cleaned your teeth without moving your arm.

I used to work in a care home and used to think how undignified for the residents to have someone ferreting around in their mouths every day. Saw (in another BBC article a few months ago) that someone has done it. Excellent, just in time for when I will be on the receiving end of it. 😬

What small niggly thing, or big niggly thing, would you like to invent a solution for and why?


Article if interested.

BBC News - 'I reinvented the hair tie from my uni halls'
bbc/news/business-51309340

[marypoppins38]

I would invent a fridge where you would scan the barcodes on things as you put them in there after shopping. It would then give you an alert as to things that were about to go out of date. I hate finding yogurts and things in the fridge that have just gone out of date because the kids have used up the best dated ones! Would save on a lot of waste.

[smithlane]

I would invent a plug in that sucks up dust and dirt so I wouldn’t have to constantly clean! Would just need to change the filter once a month

[PPM]

Originally Posted by marypoppins38

I would invent a fridge where you would scan the barcodes on things as you put them in there after shopping. It would then give you an alert as to things that were about to go out of date. I hate finding yogurts and things in the fridge that have just gone out of date because the kids have used up the best dated ones! Would save on a lot of waste.

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But would the kids still take the longest date ones first?

[marypoppins38]

Originally Posted by PPM

But would the kids still take the longest date ones first?

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Most probably🙄😂

[Guest]

Originally Posted by marypoppins38

I would invent a fridge where you would scan the barcodes on things as you put them in there after shopping. It would then give you an alert as to things that were about to go out of date. I hate finding yogurts and things in the fridge that have just gone out of date because the kids have used up the best dated ones! Would save on a lot of waste.

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I would buy one !

[Guest]

Originally Posted by smithlane

I would invent a plug in that sucks up dust and dirt so I wouldn’t have to constantly clean! Would just need to change the filter once a month

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I'm not Dragon's Den but I would definitely be in for this.

But, changing filters once a month; may be too much effort for me ! 😉

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by FamilyGWales

I'm not Dragon's Den but I would definitely be in for this.

But, changing filters once a month; may be too much effort for me ! 😉

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Oh ok then, let’s say every 6 months 😂

[400ixl]

Originally Posted by marypoppins38

I would invent a fridge where you would scan the barcodes on things as you put them in there after shopping. It would then give you an alert as to things that were about to go out of date. I hate finding yogurts and things in the fridge that have just gone out of date because the kids have used up the best dated ones! Would save on a lot of waste.

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Smart fridges already exist and do tracking of items for re-ordering.

Bar codes do not hold the best before dates, just general product information. You would have to find where the date is printed on the product, but some smart fridges already allow for doing this.

samsung/uk/refrigera...idge-freezers/

You can even make your existing fridge semi smart if you want.

amazon/Smarter-SFC.../dp/B07JNYYCG2

My job is to work with our customers across multiple industries looking at new innovation and demands from either internal or external customers which are not currently being met. More at an industrial scale with startups etc than nick nack type innovations.

It is amazing what ideas people come up with and ways to monetise them.

[Pumpkin Pie]

Slightly different but in the same theme I worked for one of the large banks until I retired. One of the departments I worked for had an ideas reward scheme where anyone could put forward ideas on how to improve things be it saving money or time etc. This would be discussed and if implemented the person got a monetary reward.

I thought it was a great way of improving work practices and made people actually think about how things could be done better.