From Patent office to Home office

Another list inspired by patents we’ve read, to help you working from home.

25th July 2020

Apart from a good video conferencing system, what would make working from home easier? We’ve raided the memory banks and listed some patents we’ve seen with a few ideas.

We’ll start by slightly misquoting Bob Peck’s character, Robert Muldoon, in Jurassic park:

“…lockdown must have closed all the shops, dammit even Boris knew better than to mess with the coffee shops…”

We understand the need for a lockdown, but we can’t function without our morning caffeine.

And with no access to our beloved espresso room, we’re forced to make our own.

Where else can we look but the infamous Nespresso patent. The case of Nestle vs the generic capsule manufacturers is well documented, but the coffee still tastes good and as they collect and then recycle used pods, our environmental impact is minimised.

With the pubs shut too, the distraction of a trip out for lunch with colleagues is gone, and we’re likely to stay sat down at our desks for much longer than we would in the office. So and invention like that described in US7648447 — “Leg exercise device for use with an office chair” is essential.

With options to convert from ‘cycle’ to ‘cross-country ski’ mode, the idea is to “…improve the worker’s mental alertness and long-term health, if the worker is presented with an exercise device that uses a type of motion that the worker is familiar with and not too difficult…”

An organised desk is an organised mind they say, so a simple desk tidy is a must. GB2428407 — “Penholder with audio playback unit” fits the bill, not only can it keep your pens and pencil stored away, it can play music and even boasts a photo frame — ideal for a nice photo of the desk chair in the office that your backside misses so much! (it’s not as if you need pictures of the kids, you can’t get away from them at home)

Nothing helps the work day pass better than a good tune in the background, and Spotify are the obvious candidate for a streaming service. With over 500 patents to their name it’s hard to pick just one for the list, but US10387106 — “Media content system for enhancing rest” seems like a great candidate. Not only does it describe the typical streaming we’ve come to expect from Spotify, this idea also detects your heartbeat and selects songs with fewer beats per minute to reduce stress and help you relax. Anyone else juggling working from home with entertaining/home-schooling children will need little persuading that this invention is industrially applicable.

Need to alleviate the boredom of being stuck in the same place, simply imagine that you aren’t. As is their speciality, our friends at Disney have a way to help us do just that. US10366642 — “Interactive multiplane display system with transparent transmissive layers” aka a multi dimensional screen with moving images, is the perfect ‘fake window’ that can be updated whenever you want. On Monday you could be working at the bottom of the ocean, Tuesday on the Moon, Wednesday in a prehistoric forest with dinosaurs walking about, Thursday on the banks of the Zambezi river overlooking the might Victoria falls, and Friday surrounded by the beautiful hanging gardens of Babylon.

So, if you could set up your very own ‘fake window’ in your office — where would you be working? Let us know via social media.