Since I was a kid I’ve been an inventor. My first big contraption and patent application started when I was 19. After watching both my brothers go through thousands of diapers I came up with an electronic gizmo designed to audibly alarm parents of a wet diaper. My idea failed during initial marketing due to fears of electrocution from an electronic device inserted into a diaper.
As I evolve so do my ideas. During last week’s heat spell I came up with my latest ingenious idea. I’m too cheap to fix my car’s air conditioner so I fashioned a ‘wing’ from an old box, wood, and zip ties. The idea was to attach the contraption to my left arm and scoop the air towards me while driving. It proved to be a disaster because at highway speeds it wrenched my left arm.
So many new ideas come out everyday it’s hard to decipher which are going to stick and which are going to be unsuccessful. Most ideas fail prior to production and consumer introduction, while others fail soon after manufacture. Very few make it to store shelves and the minority evolve technology.
Some of the crazier ideas I’ve seen include the solar hat which blows air at the wearer’s face while simultaneously being powered by a solar cell. Another stupid invention was the television mug which embedded a screen into a plastic mug making it impossible to clean. Finally, there’s the toilet paper dispenser iPod dock to which I’m not going to comment.
With all the dim-witted comes some really great things which move us ahead technologically. Cell phones, for example, were inspired by the communicators in the television series Star Trek and in 1973 the first working prototype was demonstrated. Motorola and Bell Labs devised the initial cellular devices available to consumers. Originally people balked at the idea of portable phones but without the first we would still be using wired rotary.
Kodak created the first solid state charged couple device (CCD) in 1975. CCD technology is used primarily in digital cameras and other imaging devices. Placing a lens of the proper focal length in front of the CCD let camera manufacturers snap and save digital images for far less money than their film counterparts. Ironically, Kodak’s film division is nearly nonexistent due in part to the digital technology it helped create.
George Orwell certainly didn’t predict flash memory would be developed in 1984. Essentially, flash memory was created by Toshiba and adopted by Intel for use in its computer BIOS. As years passed other companies adapted bits and pieces of the original Toshiba design for use in USB thumb drives, Micro SD, and other flash memory devices.
I’m sure the inventor of the liquid crystal display (LCD) would have never imagined televisions, computers, and cell phones. LCD technology was devised in 1888 (that’s right, not a typo) using a byproduct of carrots. Since RCA’s 1964 repurposing of the LCD, the technology has been used in alarm clocks, calculators, radios, televisions, computer monitors and cell phones.
Although most inventors don’t see the true potential for their idea, it’s evolution of the design that takes technology to the next level. Because technology didn’t allow pocket sized phones, the original design was several pounds and had a 30 minute battery life. LCD technology sat dormant for nearly 80 years until someone decided they needed a means to display time on a digital clock. I can only hope my diaper alarm launches and takes new shape as other groundbreaking ideas have in the past.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can text him directly at (978) 413-2840 or visit www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)