Ingenious Inventions That Should Be Implemented Everywhere

These are truly ingenious inventions that should be implemented everywhere!

April 20, 2023・

15 min read

Us humans are an inventive bunch. When we see a problem, we fix the problem; it’s a dance as old as time. While some of our greatest achievements might’ve been total accidents, others are exceptionally engineered to fix problems you never thought existed. Here are some ingenious inventions that should be implemented everywhere!

Self-Flying Umbrella

Magicians can come up with some creative inventions. Like French magician, Moulla, who’s crafted an umbrella that floats above your head! This isn’t magic though; it’s got a fricking drone on it!

The Dronebrella can be controlled through a phone app, but also has AI software which detects the top of your head via a sensor and uses it to automatically follow you! All that tech makes it pretty pricey though, at around $275, you’d kick yourself for leaving this umbrella on the bus! Hopefully it could track you down again afterwards.

Despite the hefty price tag though, it looks like there’re still a few fundamental kinks to iron out. Let’s address the soggy French magician in the room. He’s sauntering around Paris soaking wet like he’s in a fragrance advert; I wouldn’t say that passes the umbrella test.

It also doesn’t fare too well in the wind. And if you’re a city dweller, forget it; all those power lines, low-hanging signs and other people are going to present major obstacles for your floating friend. But aside from those hiccups, this looks like a handy, or hands-free, little gadget.

Electric Chopsticks

You might have tried every diet under the sun: Atkins, Keto, Paleo. But maybe weight loss has nothing to do with diet, or exercise, and instead, the utensils you're eating with. There are electric chopsticks, and if you’re wondering what exactly they electrify, it’s you. More specifically, it’s your tongue.

Before you panic, they’re shockingly smart. The chopsticks attach to a small wearable computer via a wire. This computer emits a tiny electrical impulse through the chopsticks that mimics the salty taste in food.

Our taste receptors function in part due to ion channels that communicate directly with our brains and these channels can be short-circuited by electricity, altering how we taste things! So, depending on the current passed through them, the chopsticks can either enhance or reduce the potency of salt in your food.

High salt diets are a massive global health problem and a cause of high blood pressure, heart disease, and even strokes. We only need about 500 milligrams of sodium a day, which is a measly one sixteenth of a teaspoon. Yet, the average American consumes a staggering 3,400 milligrams!

Electric stimulation could reduce salt intake by a whopping 30% without sacrificing any flavor! And over 80% of shock-stick testers said the stimulation was pleasant enough to use the cutlery every day.

BioBus Powered By Human Waste

Nowadays, we’re all trying to do a bit more for the environment. Whether you’re buying less plastic or taking public transport to work, every little helps. For that reason, commuters in Bristol, England, have found their morning journey to work has gotten a whole lot crappier: their bus is powered by poop and pee!

The Bio Bus has people going number two printed on the side. Instead of running on fossil fuels and releasing harmful fumes into the environment, they use biomethane.

Both fossil fuels and biomethane are made from decomposing organic waste, but fossil fuels take millions of years to break down underground, whereas biomethane comes from fresh organic waste. By heating up sewage and food waste at a custom fuel plant just outside the city, they release the methane and do a load of clever stuff to turn it into fuel.

The natural waste releases methane gas as it decomposes anyways, and that’s bad for the environment. So, by using it as fuel, you’re offsetting the damage and putting it towards something good!

And it really works. Compared to the old diesel engines they were using, the "poo bus" produces up to 30% less carbon dioxide and 80% fewer nitrogen oxides, both of which have a big effect on climate change.

Sneakers With A Built-In Tent

Australian design studio, Sibling, have created a super stylish pair of sneakers that double as an even more stylish tent! The so-called “Walking Shelter” allows the wearer to unfurl a tent from their ankles and pull it up over their head while looking like a fashion icon the whole time. Two waterproof sheets unfurl from each shoe and attach together with Velcro.

Most regular tents need poles to support them, which are cumbersome and heavy. But pop this contraption over your head and you are the poles! It’s even got little loops to peg yourself to the ground in case it’s windy.

BMW iX Flow Featuring E Ink

Anyone who’s bought a new car knows that the hardest decision isn’t what’s under the hood, or the trunk space. It’s what color you get it. Whether you drive a Hummer or a Hyundai, we all want to look sleek and sexy. To solve that problem, a sweet new ride by BMW, the iX Flow, can change colors with just the press of a button.

The body of the car is covered in something called electrophoretic film, which sounds super scientific, but it’s really quite simple. By sending an electric current through the film, thousands of tiny capsules are stimulated, each the diameter of a single human hair.

Inside these capsules are different colored particles which react depending on the electric charge sent through them. So, by alternating between a positive and negative electric charge, you can change the color of your car.

And it’s not just for looking cool. It can also help keep you cool! Because white and black absorb different amounts of light, it can affect the internal temperature of the car as well! If it’s a hot day and you set your car to white, it's going to reflect more of the light that touches it, meaning the car will stay cooler.

Traffic Light Countdown

So, you’ve bought your swanky new car but now all you seem to do is sit in traffic. That’s annoying. However, Serbian designer Damjan Stanković has made sitting in traffic just that little bit more tolerable: he’s modified a stoplight with a countdown timer!

An outer ring with 32 segments ticks on, letting you know exactly how much longer you’ll be held on red for. But it’s not just good for drivers! Pedestrians can also see how long they’ve got to cross safely.

Solar Roadways

What if instead of asphalt roads, we built solar powered ones? Our cities are filled with roads, sidewalks, and driveways. By modifying these with solar panels, we could create loads of renewable energy, while conserving a lot of the land that’s currently being set aside for these projects.

Though still in its early stages, tests of the technology are underway in China and elsewhere, so we could be seeing these roads sooner rather than later! You could even engineer them to be self-heating to melt snow and ice.

Guitar Pee Urinal

A bathroom in Sao Paolo might’ve found the most musical way to take a leak ever. They’ve transformed a urinal into a fully working guitar. By aiming your stream at the buttons in the bowl, an amplifier overhead plays corresponding notes. So, while your guitar gently seeps in wee, you can create a master-pees.

And you can even get your compositions sent to your phone, which are M-pee-3s. Let’s face it, sometimes we need a little assistance with aiming. However, I’m just not sure going number one right next to a load of electrics is the encouragement I need.

The invention below would help you make good use of the guitar urinal, if you’re old enough. A big old pitcher with a nifty ice compartment, that way your beer stays nice and cold.

Self-Building Houses

Every fancy home trend has had its 15 minutes of internet fame. We’ve had tiny homes and van homes, but have you ever seen a transformer home?

These self-assembling houses are the brainchild of British architect David Martyn, and they can triple in size to around 689 square feet in just 10 minutes, all from pressing one button. The fold-out houses have a system of levers that operate on a pretty simple system: if one thing goes up, another must come down.

That’s phenomenal, but it’s no good having a folding house that stays in the same place, right? They’re purpose built to fit on the back of a truck so you can whisk your luxury lodging anywhere you want.

Also, once they’re fully unfolded, the possibilities are endless. Aside from a cozy place to spend the night, you could put schools, medical centers, even safe shelters for disaster relief inside.

You might think that these cost a bomb. However, price estimates start from around $130,000 which, for an entire house, is pretty reasonable, even though the truck isn’t included. The tech is super cool, and the implementation is faultless, so what’s the catch? Well, unfortunately the houses are still in pre-production.

Sensory Exploration At Harrods

The world’s full of wonderful, and not so wonderful, smells. British department store, Harrods, has a brilliant ‘smell before we sell’ set-up for wines and spirits. Customers can use their superb schnozzes to sniff out a good purchase before they commit to anything they aren’t going to like.

Inside a glass cloche, they’ve displayed objects that mirror the tasting notes of the drink. By squeezing a rubber pump attached to a copper pipe, the scent of the object is pushed through it and out of the horn so you can baste your nostrils with the wonderful aromas!

If you prefer floral scents, there’s cherry blossoms. If you like earthy notes, they’ve got coffee beans, or pencil shavings for something woodier. This is a creative way for people to try something without dishing out free samples.

Peeling Apples With A Power Drill

One health-conscious hero in New South Wales, Australia shared a hasty hack for peeling apples. All you need is a vegetable peeler, a steady hand, and a power drill. The skin will come off in about 3 seconds, however you’ll also have apple skin confetti strewn across your kitchen.

"One-A-Day Bananas" Genius Packaging

Our local grocery stores could learn a thing or two from South Korea. They sell bananas in one a day packs, with the leftmost fruit being the ripest, to the rightmost being the greenest. By the time you get to ‘nana number 6, it’ll be as ripe as number 1 was! Honestly, this is humanity’s greatest achievement right here.

Elevators With Foot Pedals Instead Of Buttons

Elevators aren’t exactly a ground-breaking piece of technology, but we’re constantly finding new ways to adapt them for our needs. Like, have you ever thought about how many grubby little fingers touch those buttons every day? Thinking about it makes me feel queasy!

The elevators in the Seacon Square mall in Bangkok, Thailand, use foot pedals instead of conventional buttons to keep those dirty little hands away. Initially, it was integrated to prevent the ‘rona from spreading, but it’s useful for more than just stopping germs.

Imagine you’re a delivery driver carrying some big boxes, you’ve just got to tap a toe and up you go! That’s helpful on so many levels.

Uplifting Shoe Elevator

Here’s something else that’s really going to lift your spirits! Ever been in a sneaker store and had to ask the attendant for your size, only for them to leave you standing there in your socks for 20 minutes?

Well, one store in London’s notorious Oxford Street has made this a thing of the past. They’ve created a shoe elevator that brings the goods straight from the stock room to the floor!

LifeStraw

A quarter of the world’s population drinks contaminated water; shockingly, that’s two billion people. Without a reliable source of clean drinking water, their risk of ingesting parasites or sickness-causing bacteria is insanely high.

However, Swedish company Vestergaard have created what they call the LifeStraw, a remarkable method of filtering out almost all the bad stuff from water. So, you can enjoy all that wonderful H2O hydration, no matter how dirty the water looks!

LifeStraw isn’t just one big straw, it’s actually a big bundle of straws peppered with microscopic holes. These holes let water in, but are too small for dirt, microplastics and parasites to get through.

And with a whopping 3.5 billion people contracting parasites every year, the straw has proven invaluable for the health of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Also, it’s under $20, and each straw can process 422 gallons of water before packing in.

Mud Release Shovel With Holes

Have you ever seen a weird tool like the one below and wondered what it’s for? Sadly, it’s not for draining giant pans of gold. This is a mud release shovel.

If you are someone who digs a lot of holes, you might be aware that mud always sticks to your shovel head and stops it from working properly. But with a mud release shovel, the dirt hasn’t got anything to stick onto; it slips right through!

Stair Climbing Wheelchair

With traditional wheelchairs, many important places just aren’t accessible. But there’s a new wheelchair on the horizon. Instead of using a single wheel, designers are now trying to utilize something called cluster wheels.

It’s a bit like one big wheel, made of multiple smaller wheels. The rotation allows the next wheel to grip onto the step above, pulling the user up the stairs. And, as the old saying goes, “what goes up, must come down”. They seem to still be in the design stage, but hopefully we’ll see these super chairs roll out, up, and down, soon!

Floating Billboard

Advertisers in Miami have found a way to make their message reach more people, by putting billboards in the middle of the ocean! Miami’s beaches get a lot of human traffic. So, float a billboard in front of them, and everyone on the beach is going to see it.

Escalator Handrail Cleaning System

As we've explored earlier in the article, elevators can have grimy little buttons. Well, have you ever considered how grimy escalator handrails could be? Thousands of people touch them every day, but you never see anyone cleaning them.

That’s where this next clever invention comes in. Little boxes shine ultraviolet light onto the handrails as the rails move past, killing any germs dead!

But how can a light kill germs? Well, the UV rays prevent the replication of DNA and RNA, which carry the germ cell’s genetic information. With no way of replicating their vital information, the germs die. It’s a bit like you forgetting how to breathe.

Furthermore, those UV rays are harmless to us. While some UV rays can be damaging, like the ones we wear sunscreen to protect ourselves from, UVC, the germ killing one, can’t penetrate your skin.

Sustainable Trashcans In Norway

The image below shows a trashcan in Norway. These holders are there for a very noble reason, encouraging recycling and helping the poor all at the same time.

The country encourages recycling by taxing plastic bottles and offering the money back if the used bottles are brought to a recycling machine. Some people still toss their plastic in the trash though, and less fortunate people have taken to taking these tossed bottles to a machine to claim the money for themselves.

To save those people rooting around in trashcans, this one has some handy slots on it for recyclable junk. Isn’t that wholesome! Sometimes the simplest inventions have the biggest impact!

Genius Inventions That Make Laundry Easier

Doing chores sucks, especially laundry. You got to get all the clothes, wash them, dry them, and iron them. It just takes so long! But there are a few trusted inventions that’ll make laundry day a breeze.

Clothes racks are a real eyesore, and they take up space. So, why not get one that lowers from the ceiling? This one from Foxydry can heat up so your clothes don’t take forever to dry!

Can you put a price on making chores more convenient? It’s a whopping $490. But is a heated rack really that impressive? What about a closet that could clean your clothes for you?

The Samsung AirDresser shoots hot steam to sanitize clothes, remove creases, and get rid of all that dusty musty funk. It leaves clothes fresh as a daisy and completely wrinkle free, as well as drying them with cool air. Plus, it cleans itself, so you don’t have to.

It’s not the best for hard worn in stains though, which is bad news if you spill mustard on everything! But it’s undeniably useful. A bigger problem is its price tag, at $2,400.

Next up is the real big gun: Laundry Jet. A home-integrated air suction machine that filters your dirties directly into the laundry area. A main pipe branches out into a system of ports that fit discretely into the wall. Once opened, an air machine creates a small vacuum, sucking up anything from damp towels to sweaty gym shorts.

Also, you can even have it fitted so a return loop can deliver your clean clothes back upstairs for you! That means no more carrying them around, just pop them in the wall and boom! This isn’t cheap, though. A full system can cost up to $15,000, and that’s without delivery or set up. But it’d definitely make chore day suck less by sucking more!

If you were amazed by these ingenious inventions that should be implemented everywhere, you might want to read this article about inventions that should be implemented in every city and this article about genius ideas that should exist everywhere. Thanks for reading!