Inflated Car Seats

Car seats that are air bags as well.  Just like the sleep number bed, chambers could add support without it feeling like you are sitting on a balloon.  There would need to be a valve that would release the gas when the pressure exceeds a certain amount.  When a car is rear-ended and the passenger is pushed back in the seat the pressure would increase triggering the gas to be released through the valve.  The release of gas would cushion the passenger and prevent whiplash.

Energy Recovery from Water Towers

Currently, water dispersal is dependent on pumping water into a water tower. This hydraulic head and gravity then distribute the water to homes, there seems to be a way to recover some of the energy required to pump the water.  As the water is leaving the tower, a mini-hydroelectric plant could be installed. The subsequent energy produced could be either pushed directly back into the grid or stored in a battery for extended duration power outages.  This would help to offset the energy required to push water into the tower.

*Today 1/5/17 on Facebook I saw that Portland was installing water pipes that did just this, cool!!!

Plumb driver

Putting up drywall and other sheets can be daunting.  Hitting the stud behind can be hit or miss, literally.  Just because you find the stud once doesn't mean you can find it again.  What is needed is a drill/driver with a laser plumb level built in.  After you find the stud with the first screw, pass the plumb laser line directly over top of it giving the line of the hidden stud behind the wall.

Powerwall

Elon Musk is producing a whole home battery, the Powerwall.  It will be produced in the 7 kWh and 10 kWh sizes. The 10 kWh size will retail for $3500 + some installation extras.  Not bad.  His vision is that it would be combined with solar panels to charge the battery.  I think these would be good additions to homes with or without solar panels.  If connected into the power grid to stay charged it could be used in place of a generator in times of power failure.  It could also be charged during off-peak hours and used to supplement during peak hours. 

 

 

Update 8/23/20 (5years later):  Must have been a good idea because Generac is marketing their PWRcell for this purpose.

Headset

This idea is a bluetooth headset that syncs with another bluetooth headset for conversations where cellular communications aren't ideal and you can't sit close enough for face to face communications. Uses for this would involve planes or other areas without cell reception. My daughter said, "that sounds like a walkie talkie" and I have to agree, but it would be in the form of a headset that was securely synced to another to provide adequate privacy.