Technology you thought of before it was released

[Kiwiavenger]

This is going to sound really weird but something i read has just bought this up!

When i was in school (mid to late 90's) one of our "projects" was to design a usable product that in the future could possibly be made. Me and a few others though up a Mini camera incorporated in a contact lens and given this it could be possibly the next step in micro technology?

admittedly this was before the invention of camera phones and fully decent DSLR's/compacts and we did incorporate some for of mind control shutter/capture activation but still.

anyone else had something similar?

 

[Night Train]

When I was a little kid, back in the very early 70's, we were asked to draw a picture of 'the things we would like to have in a playground'. One of my 'things' was an off road truck driving simulator with tv screens to show the road and hydraulic jacks to make it jiggle about to simulate the driving.

The teacher told me off saying that 'No kid would want to sit in front of a tv screen pretending to drive and there will never be the technology that could make it happen anyway'.

Really?

 

[redcard]

I'm taking credit for inventing wireless / Bluetooth connectivity for GPS devices. Thought it was a no brainer when I got my Garmin last summer

 

[MontyVeda]

wooden bed...

and before you finish that 'sigh'... a wooden bed, with a wooden mattress.

six foot by four foot of one inch square endgrain blocks (slightly rounded off of course), each mounted on a single spring... when one block is pushed down more than say 1/4", it takes all the surrounding blocks down with it, and so on, resulting in a firm, yet comfortable wooden thing to sleep on. I can't remember when i came up with this concept (late teens, early twenties)... but what i do know, is I saw more or less the same thing a few years later on Tomorrow's World, but made from cold, ugly plastic... it didn't catch on.

I also considered the idea of putting the gears from a racing bike onto a cruiser BMX when i was about 11, thus inventing the mountain bike.

I don't think any of us will top Arthur C Clark's idea of global communications being done via sh!t loads of floaty things orbiting the planet though! in fact, who reckons Arthur C Clark has actually come from the future???

 

[Aperitif]

I don't think any of us will top Arthur C Clarke's idea of global communications being done via sh!t loads of floaty things orbiting the planet though! in fact, who reckons Arthur C Clarke has actually come from the future???

Agree MontyV...but even Art needs to be an 'e' male.

 

[TheDoctor]

I designed and built an LED rear light in 1986.
LEDs were not yet bright enough, so it wasn't really any use, but it did indeed work.
I used a 555 timer chip to flash the LEDs, and had them off for far longer than they were on, in an attempt to eke out the battery life.

 

[TheDoctor]

I don't think any of us will top Arthur C Clark's idea of global communications being done via sh!t loads of floaty things orbiting the planet though! in fact, who reckons Arthur C Clark has actually come from the future???

Just three - up at geosynchronous orbit, at a 120 degree spacing. Except the poles, everywhere on Earth would be line-of-sight for a satellite. He envisaged them being very large and staffed!
Particularly visionary since in 1945 there was no way of getting to space at all, let alone twenty-odd thousand miles up.

 

[MontyVeda]

Just three - up at geosynchronous orbit, at a 120 degree spacing. Except the poles, everywhere on Earth would be line-of-sight for a satellite. He envisaged them being very large and staffed!
Particularly visionary since in 1945 there was no way of getting to space at all, let alone twenty-odd thousand miles up.

I stand corrected

What was that in 2010 about life on Europa? some 20 years prior to us realising the high* possibility of life on Europa

*well... not high... but

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

I built and used a rechargeable front lamp in the late 70's. I had NiCd batteries and used a 0.5A 6V bulb. Remember back in those days we ran 0.5-1W "Never Ready" lamps. My 3W one got drivers to dip!!

 

[Night Train]

Another one, back when I was first building bikes in the late 70's, was mixing hub gears and front derailleurs, and multiple sprockets on hub gears, to increase the gear range and allow shifting while stopped.

 

[Over The Hill]

I "invented" two things, a cats eye in the road that changes colour when there is a risk of ice on the road and an hourglass type timer that could be restarted at any time (for games with a timer in them) .

Problem was, someone had invented them before me!

I do lay claim to inventing the first new type of sundial since Vitruvius 2000 years ago. But some bugger invented watches in the meantime.

 

[Maz]

I stand corrected

I lay claim to that invention - the orthopaedic shoe.

 

[compo]

I had a homemade clockwork radio that I cobbled together in the 1960's long before that Baylis imposter nicked my idea!

 

[captain nemo1701]

Not exactly an invention, but in the 1970's I thought it would be cool to drive about and be able to hold a conversation with the car. I thought it would relieve boredom if you drove by yourself.
1982: Knight Rider
Star trek predicted a bit of stuff. Remember Mr Spock and his coloured computer chips? - compact flash/SD cards now.

Also in the 1970's, my mates and I would by an old bike frame from a scrap yard, paint it black (cool), no brakes (also deemed cool. You had to use your feet), pop some small wheels on it and stupidly wide old style 'cowhorn' handlebars, ride about, doing jumps, attempting silly stunts and falling off a lot. Great fun.
1980's : BMX craze

1974: I took apart my skates and nailed them onto a 12 inch plank of wood. Wobbly, steered a bit like an iceberg.
1977: Massive skateboarding craze (skateboards go way back to the 60's. There are some featured in an episode of the Man from Uncle)

 

[Scoosh]

Equally, not exactly an invention but the idea for one.

In the late 1960's/early 70's I was based in the south of England and, when driving home to Edinburgh, used to stop at a phone box (anyone remember them ? ) 30 mins from home and tell them where I was, when I would be arriving etc, so they would have a meal ready for me (always chicken casserole ).

I remember thinking how great it would be to be able to make the phone call from the car, without needing to stop ... but that would never happen ...