New Invention Brainstorm

-DREAM RECORDER

We’ve all experienced a countless number of dreams that were incredibly vivid and entertaining. We want to tell our friends later what our dream was about but we vaguely remember what happened. What if there was some kind of machine that recorded your dreams and allowed you to play them back whenever you wanted? All those times where you were married to your celebrity crush or lived in a world where everything was made of candy could be played back time and time again. Never would you have to struggle to explain to your friends how you went to a pool party at the white house or rode down a volcano with a surf board. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had an amazing dream and when I began telling it to a friend, I would realize wow this was a lot cooler in my head. It is a mystery what happens in our minds when we are asleep. Who knows why we dream the things we do. I believe if this technology was created, it would change the entertainment industry forever. Imagine a YouTube like site made just for people’s uploaded dreams. You could search for nightmares, celebrity’s dreams, certain themes; the possibilities go on and on. It would also benefit the psychological field. Researchers believe if they could understand brain activity, they could discover the make up of our dreams and what they mean on a scientific level. With all the advances we’ve made in the studies involved with the brain, dreams continue to remain somewhat of a mystery. If this device was created in our life time I would be ecstatic. Some scientists say it would be impossible to record the actual imagery that you see in your mind and others say one day we will be able to. In a study by Dr. Moran Cerf, he admits that there is a very long way to go before this simple observation can be translated into a device to record dreams – a “dream catcher.” But he thinks it is a major possibility. However, there are opposing sides that say although this potential of visualizing a dream might be of academic interest, it would not really help in the interpretation of dreams or be of use in therapy. Dr. Roderick Oner is one of the leading clinical psychologists in relation to dreams. “For that you need the entire complex dream narrative, and we are very far away from honing in on this piece.” Dr Cerf believes this technology, once discovered has the potential to interpret the imagination. “For example, instead of just having to write an email, you could just think it. Or another futuristic application would be to think a flow of information and have it written in front of your eyes” (www.bbc.co.uk). I think it would be a dream come true and look forward to the day a breakthrough comes along.

Check out this video to see what steps researchers in Japan are taking.

-HOT BEVERAGE SLEEVE

We’ve all seen the Coors Light commercials where your drink turns blue when it’s “as cold as the Rockies.” What if they developed technology that was the opposite of this? We’ve all nervously sipped our tea or coffee only to scorch our tongue in dismay. There are few less degrading feelings than this one. Especially, when you consume coffee in the morning, you know it’s going to be a bad day if you ruin your tongue before the day even starts. However, I’ve thought of an innovation that would put an end to this problem. If there was a temperature activated coffee sleeve, you could finally approach your hot beverage with full confidence. If Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks developed this product, I know it would be a success. The sleeve on the cup would have five different levels that would be color activated. The top would be severely hot, wouldn’t recommend drinking it. The next bar would be still pretty hot but not lava. The middle bar would be the middle temperature. Not too hot, not too cold. The bar below, that would be still be a little warm but not ideal. And the last one would be room temperature and below. Big name coffee shops are always looking for that next idea to give them an edge over their competitor; this could be it. Looking at how the Coors Light can works, maybe scientists in the near future can reverse the properties to make it adjust to heat. The ability of something to change color with temperature is known as thermochromism, and the Coors Light bottles are printed with a thermochromic ink called a leuco dye.  A leuco dye is a coloring agent which can acquire two different forms: a colorless form and a colored form.  At warm temperatures, the thermochromic ink is colorless, and at cold temperatures, the thermochromic ink is blue.  Put your beer in the fridge, when the ink cools below the color changing temperature, “the Rockies turn blue,” and your beer is ready to drink (www.chemistry-blog.com).

-MOSQUITO REPELLANT PILLS

Mosquitoes are the most irritating creatures ever put on this planet. Living in the woods in Maine, summer nights can become unbearable because of these little bugs. In my opinion, the greatest form of torture would be to sit there and have a mosquito buzz in your ear for ten minutes. I would not wish this upon my worst enemy. Yes you can spray bug juice but then you make your clothes smell awful and half the time it feels like it doesn’t even work. You have to reapply and bundle up in clothes and swat bugs away left and right. It is an agonizing process that no one wants to go through. What if there was a simple pill you could take that would repel mosquitoes for up to 7 hours? This kind of dream seems like it could only exist in heaven but bug repellent technology has been on the rise. In Brazil, there is now a radio station on the FM dial that repels mosquitoes by broadcasting a high-frequency 15kHz tone under its music. This innovation went on to win the Grand Prix in the radio category at the Cannes Lions in June – one of the most prestigious awards in advertising. The tone is inaudible to most adults so it does not distract from the music (www.bbc.co.uk). Although it is debatable whether this radio frequency actually works, the prospect of it is intriguing. The pill would spread throughout your whole body and be twice as effective as bug spray, without the stench and hassle. This idea could not be too far off from being invented. Imagine coming home from a camping trip without a single red lump on your body. This would be the ultimate fantasy. I’m not exactly sure how this technology would work but the prospect of it causes quite a bit of “buzz.”