Jezebel: inventions

"Bending Over To Put On Your Shoes Is A Backbreaking Chore!"

Sadie — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:30:00 EST

Enter "shoedini" - the really long shoe-horn. Unclear if it's from the same people who brought us the Hairdini. (Best part: the woman handling the regular shoehorn like, "what am I supposed to do with this?!") [YouTube Via BuzzFeed]

Wild Ride

Sadie — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:40:00 EDT

This toy, apparently designed to foster an appreciation of Dario Argento's oeuvre, is not yet made in adult sizes. [ScienceBlogs]

Return To Oz!

Sadie — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:20:00 EDT

Meet the world's first wig purifier. It's futuristic and creepy and scored with heroic music and we want one. [Youtube via BoingBoing]

Pillow Talk

Intern Katy — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:20:00 EDT

The Japanese have developed a device to help keep pee-splashing to a minimum: the "Angels Knee Pillow." Perfect for men who can't aim and the women who love them. [InventorSpot]

Eye Of A Needle

Sadie — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:40:00 EDT

Meet Cuchini, "a comfortable, light-weight material that adheres to any undergarment...It smoothes the ridges of a woman's mons pubis area providing a smooth and camouflaged appearance..eliminating what is commonly known as "Camel Toe." [RGS]

High-Tech Love

Intern Katy — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:40:00 EDT

This sweet-but-strange device is intended for long distance couples. It allows partners to project beams of light onto each other's bodies, kind of like a more romantic version of laser-pointer teasing. [BBCNews]

The Semen Detection Spy Kit Comes To Amazon.com

Margaret — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:30:00 EDT

Do you suspect your spouse is cheating? Are you paranoid about your teen having sex? These are just a few of the suggested uses for the Semen Detection Spy Kit.

Available on Amazon.com for $40, the test looks for Prostate Specific Antigen, a protein found in seminal fluid. It's so accurate that you can use it to detect 30-year-old semen stains, assuming you have some parachute pants that haven't made their way into the wash yet. [Inventor Spot]

Earlier: DIY Semen Detection Kit Enables Peopel To Tell The Difference Between Toothpaste And Cum Stains

Eggcellent

Sadie — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:45:00 EDT

"Creme That Egg," in which a Cadbury Creme Egg is destroyed by an elaborate device, has become a YouTube sensation. "Apply to face" has always worked for us. [YouTube, Telegraph]

Custom Lingerie

Sadie — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:45:00 EST

Meet the "Doodle Bra," which "creates positive responses entertaining and engaging young ladies and girls while meeting the needs of essential under garments and providing a way for self expression at the same time." [AdRants]

Invention Lets Women "Practice" Giving Birth With A Balloon

Margaret — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:30:00 EST

An invention filed with the U.S. Patent Office allows pregnant women to partially insert a balloon in the vagina and push it out, in order to practice giving birth.

According to the patent, when inflated in the vagina, the balloon tapers conically toward the waist, which "causes the orifice of the birth canal to dilate in a manner similar to that caused by the emerging head of a baby." Pregnant women can then "exercise by pushing the balloon out of the vagina in preparation for giving birth." Supposedly repeatedly birthing the balloon will make the real thing easier and less painful, but is better to just do it once and get it over with? [Inventor Spot]

Fetal Educator Strap

Intern Katy — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:45:00 EST

Good news for overbearing parents: you can now start educating your child while they are still in the womb! No news on whether this cassette-player belly-strap device actually works though. [InventorSpot]

The Human Stain

Sadie — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:45:00 EST

New mom? Messy eater? Prone to, um, burping up on yourself? Enter Puke Pets, handy animal pins designed to simultaneously camouflage and advertise stains. Do with this information what you will. [InventorSpot]

Is That An Ash Tray In Your Pocket?

Margaret — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:45:00 EST

Japanese manufacturers, who keep making products for needs we didn't know we had, are now selling a pocket ash tray. It's available in five colors, but those concerned with the implications of making smoking fashionable can focus the fact that it keeps butts off the ground. [Random Good Stuff]

Going Through The Motions

Dodai — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:20:00 EST

Inventor Le Trung, 33, has created a "Fem-bot" named Aiko, who can do math, remember his favorite drink, read in Japanese and English, and has a touch-sensitive face and body. "She doesn’t need holidays, food or rest and she will work almost 24-hours a day," he says. "She is the perfect woman." Le, a former software programmer who had a heart attack last year, has taken out loans and used his life savings to create Aiko, who has cost about $20,000 so far. "I may need to have Aiko look after me one day," he says. She wasn't built as a sexual partner, but she could be tweaked to be one: "Her software could be redesigned to simulate her having an orgasm and reacting to touch as if she is playing hard to get or being straight to the point." If this doesn't creep you out, the video of Aiko in action will. [The Sun]

When It Rains, It Pours

Dodai — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:20:00 EST

Romantic, though rather sidewalk-hoggy: an umbrella built for two. [InventorSpot]

Toy Story

Sadie — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:30:00 EST

Betty James, who, with her husband Richard, invented the slinky in 1945, died last week at the age of 90. Although Richard came up with the idea for the iconic coil, Betty named the toy, and the two marketed and demonstrated it together. Moreover, after Richard up and left for a cult in Bolivia in 1959, Betty took over raising their 6 kids and the management of the company. Betty felt strongly about keeping the Slinky affordable, saying, “So many children can’t have expensive toys, and I feel a real obligation to them. I’m appalled when I go Christmas shopping and $60 to $80 for a toy is nothing. With 16 grandchildren you can go into the national debt.” [New York Times, Obit]

The always innovative Japanese have come...

Margaret — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:20:00 EST

The always innovative Japanese have come up with a device to encourage children to chew their food properly. The Kami Kami Sensor is a plastic bar with an electric counter that hangs off the ears like eyeglasses and straps under a child's chin, rewarding kids by playing a song when the counter reaches one thousand. The Kami Kami sells for 11,550 yen (about $120) and seems like the perfect solution for parents tired of yelling "chew your food," because certainly a child who doesn't respond to nagging won't rip this device off her head and throw it across the room. [Inventor Spot]

Snow White Gets Sexualized • Virtual Girlfriend Invented

Maria — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:30:00 EST

• Has Snow White been given a sexy makeover in recent years? • Meanwhile, why doesn't Disney capitalize on its trove of female villains like it has with its princesses? We know some angsty tweens who would love that. • France's Finance Minister, Christine Lagarde, is cool and collected as she prepares for an emergency summit meeting of world leaders in Washington this weekend. • The family of an 11-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome is suing their Manhattan co-op, whicih placed strict conditions on letting the boy get a medically necessary dog despite the co-op's no-pets rule. •

• Is Josh Davis Photography the Glamour Shots of the 21st-century?• Meanwhile, what is with the surge in popularity of people uploading their embarrassing late-'80s and early-'90s mall and school portraits on the internet? (Keep sending those Past Fashions!) • Psycho shut-ins rejoice! The Japanese have invented a tiny virtual girlfriend that you can pointlessly torture to make up for the fact you have no friends. • Recent police raids in Nigeria revel a network of baby "factories" that illegally breed babies to sell to childless couples. • A woman whose husband died in 2006 while trying to scale the summit of Mount Hood, has written a book defending her husband and his climbing companion's decision to climb right as a storm moved in on the mountain. • Tyra Banks finds a way to make Barack Obama's historic election all about her. • The FDA has received 930 reports of health problems caused by wrinkle-fighting injections over the past 6 years. •

The Human Stain

Sadie — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:40:00 EDT

For those of you not allured by the distinctly grayish-purple hue imparted to the teeth by a fine — or, in our case, cheap — Cotes de Rhone, enter the Wine Wipe, a compact filled with wet naps that for some reason are scented with orange blossom. And, no, they don't conflict with the nose of that $7 Yellow Tail. [Serious Eats]