Interesting Inventions
Genius Creations We’ve Seen
By Abigail Strauss
On our travels, we have seen so many cool things. For my blog post, I’m going to tell you some of the smartest and coolest inventions we’ve spotted during our adventures.
Bicycle Related Inventions:
Bike Repair Stations. We saw these all over New Zealand, Australia, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam. They had all sorts of tools, pumps, and props to help you repair your bike.
Bike Circles. While we were in Berlin, almost every playground had bikes that you could ride around in a circle. It was great fun, and we all got so dizzy.
Bicycle Delivery Trucks We’ve seen this in almost every city we’ve been to. Instead of large trucks and vans, there are electric assisted bikes with pedals to deliver mail, food, and all sorts of other things.
Projectors on Bikes. We’ve only seen this once, in London, but since it only works at night, there are probably many more we missed. The bike has a projector on the front, so as you ride along, there is an indication about 3 meters in front of you to warn pedestrians of a bike coming.
Pump Scooter. This isn’t exactly a bike, but it’s pretty cool. You seesaw your feet up and down on a platform, and the pumping motion propels the scooter forward.
Food Related Inventions:
Food Delivery Robot. We’ve only seen one and it was in Stockholm. These little robots roll along the sidewalk and deliver food to houses. Right now, the technology isn’t quite advanced enough (it took 5 minutes to figure out when to cross a street) but it is certainly an interesting invention.
Orange Pickers. While we were in Seville, we saw many orange trees. They line the streets, and when it's time to pick them, huge machines come. They wrap themselves around the trees, and shake the oranges out of the tree into the bucket.
Water Stations. We’ve seen a lot of these all over. There have been two types of water stations that we keep seeing. Misting stations, that are very popular during the hot season, and free water refill poles. These have been great on long walking days.
Drink Vending Machines. We saw these on almost every block in Japan. In addition to soft drinks, we also saw coffee, soup, ramen, and so many other cool things. Definitely a great invention, and every city should have some.
Cotton Candy. We saw a couple of these in Singapore and Paris. They make it for you. You pick your shape, and the machine does the rest. It was really fun, and cool to watch how it was made.
Driving and Crossing Inventions:
Crossing Countdowns. We’ve seen these in many places, including Japan, London, and Berlin. They count down how many seconds are there left to cross or how much time until you can cross. This is great for judging if you can make it in time, or if you’ll get stranded in the middle of the street.
Colored Pads. In Melbourne, there are colored pads on the sidewalks next to the street. They are red when traffic is moving, and green when it’s okay to cross. This makes it so people who are on their phones can know when it’s time.
License Plate Scanners. Almost every city we’ve gone to has these. They scan your license plate as you drive into the parking garage, and keep track of how long you are in there. This is a great invention, and saves a lot of time.
Parking Indicators. We’ve seen these in a couple of places. They’re signs that tell you how many spaces are left in each row and level. This makes for a lot less time driving around trying to find a spot.
Yellow Stoplights. This is something that my parents have noticed. When you’re stopped at a stoplight, the traffic light flashes yellow before green, giving you a heads up that you’re about to go.
Cleanliness and Bathrooms:
Toilet Hand Washing. We saw one of these in our house in Japan. When you flush the toilet, the clean water used to refill the tank goes out of a spigot, allowing you to wash your hands in the water that would be later used to flush. This makes it so the amount of water consumption is much less than what it normally is.
Underground Trash Collection. We saw these in Bergen. When you dispose of your trash, you bring it to one of these disposals above ground. Your trash goes into a metal canister that drops straight down to an underground trash facility, essentially making more space and less stink.
Lottery Recycling. We saw this in Oslo. Whenever you have an empty can, you can recycle it and get some money back. But in Oslo, you can choose to instead choose the lottery option, and the money you could have gotten gets you a couple of chances to win. We never did, but it sure is a good incentive to recycle.
Unisex Bathrooms. We’ve seen these in a lot of places, but still less than there should be. Unisex bathrooms make it so everything is fair. We recently went to a museum where the line for a women’s bathroom was about 40 people, while men was only about 10 people. This unfairness should end.
Squat Toilets. We saw these in Thailand and Bali. Instead of a traditional toilet, you can instead choose a stall where you can just squat over the drain hole. It might sound a little gross, but it’s actually great, and works well.
Miscellaneous Inventions:
Dog Leashes. We saw these all over Australia and New Zealand. Almost all the dog leashes that we saw had this genius invention on it. The dog's name was almost always printed on the leash or harness. This made it really great for us dog lovers. Maybe not the best invention, but it sure was nice.
Night Zoo. We saw this in Singapore. It’s a zoo that you go to at night, and it’s filled with nocturnal creatures. Not only is this a cool idea, but it’s better than keeping the animals in small areas that only look like it’s night time. We got to go on hikes, and a ride through the forest. This is certainly a smart invention.
Apartment Hooks. We saw these in Amsterdam. All throughout Amsterdam you see hooks on top of old apartment buildings. These are narrow buildings, and don’t have very wide stairwells. So how do they get everything up? By using pulleys attached to the hooks. Unfortunately, this has left a side effect of buildings leaning out towards the street.
Disco Booth. We saw this in Berlin. You pick a song, and if you want photos or a video, and then head inside. You then get to rock out inside a tiny space with strobe, fog, lights, and music. I got to do this with my brothers, and had the best time.
Unclaimed Mail. This was also in Berlin. We saw one of these vending machines, where unclaimed mail ends up. You pick the package you want, pay the money, and you get to open up the “mystery” package. We didn’t do it, but we did see some people get some insect repellent.
Personal Note:
This was an enjoyable blog post for me. We all had a brainstorm session, and came up with a ton of awesome inventions we’ve found. I not only got to think back about fun times, but get excited about how many of those will become my daily life. Now that we’re permanent Australian residents, life is going to get very interesting.
