Inventions that never made it

[Guest c4evap]

General trends you may get right, but individual gadgets and inventions, however, are very hard to foresee.

 

Whatever happened...to Virtual Reality?

 

When Virtual Reality came out it was really, really crude. You could not do much with it and you had this enormous great heavy headset

 

But we were looking ahead ten years to when this was obviously going to be dirt cheap to make, and have really, really good games.

 

So we were really convinced that it was going to take off around the end of the millennium.

 

And it did not.

 

We got it really quite wrong.

 

One of the big problems is the headset.

 

On some of the early headsets coming out in the early 1990s they found that kids were getting eyestrain when they were using it.

 

So you can imagine the lawyers in the companies that might have been making them thinking: "Well we could make this and we could make a few million pounds from selling the headsets.

 

"On the other hand, every single teenager that gets a squint for the next 10 years is going to sue us for damages."

 

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Whatever happened to...the paperless office?

 

The paperless office was the big idea coming out of the Xerox park in 1973.

 

'The idea is that if we have enough computers and we link them all together, then nobody will need paper'.

 

But what happened is during the 1980s, we needed 40% more paper to print out all the information we were generating.

 

Futurologists did not factor in the fact that paper is a really good invention. It is cheap, it is convenient, you do not need an instruction manual to use it.

 

People liked paper.

 

What others come to mind for you?

 

c4 B)

[GorunNova]

The problem is... they haven't really made a computer that replaces a good old notepad and the satisfaction of scribbling words on the pages. The moment they do, I know I'll become paperless! ^^

 

As for VR... the only time I was in a VR thing, all i remember was a swirling sensation and a lot of dizziness and nausea. ;p

[TetsuoShima]

Well, as for VR, it certainly isn'd dead, it's more alive then ever, but the investments required are so big, that it's not going to be for a very long time before the consumer gets any experience with it. At my old uni, they had a special supercomputer that was linked to a VR-room (yes, an entire room), they used this to get a better insight in 3d-moddeling of for example molecules, dna,.... things like that... It was really cool. I haven't been there for 2 years now, but I'm pretty certain it's still in use.

[bones2097]

what ever happened to the flying car i could have sworn that they were showing models of it in the early 1990's...

 

 

guess it didn't take of litterrally!!!

[Tenebrae]

Obvious abortive technologies.

 

Laser-disc. What like, 10 people bought that?

 

Betamax - that was a case of the better technology losing out.

 

Minidisc - I was never really sure how well that went over... I mean it always seemed like they were pumping a lot of money into advertising without big results... and now with the dominance of the iPod and similar, it seems unlikely it'll ever achieve any kind of high uptake.

 

The flying car has been around - if you're talking about the same one I think you are. The guy behind it keeps seeming to say "just 5 more years!". As I recall though, it's pretty much a one man show... it's questionable as to whether it'll ever succeed without major corporate backing. Plus as climate change becomes an ever growing worry, I'm not sure it's the kind of concept that *should* be encouraged.

[Steveo]

Laserdisk had the capability to be of a higher quality than DVD, due to the fact it is an alaogue format (no compression), but that was the weakness, lack of storage space (even though the disks themselves were huge).

 

Betamax didn't die - it became a professional format untill the recent availability of digital recording, because it was a higher quality format than VHS. Mnidisk is used in professional sound rigs, because of its rerecording abilities.

[Tenebrae]

They may not hace been wholly condemned to the dustbin of time but they never achieved commercial success and were ultimately deadends.

[GorunNova]

<- imagines what the storage capacity of a double-sided DVD would be if it were the size of a laserdisk...

[Steveo]

I think the only reason DVDs are the size they currently are was so companies could still use the basic enclosures of CD players/drives.

[bones2097]

noop it harder to play fresbi with a laser disc :)

[juhan]

This reminds me of "Lawnmower Man". Uber cool and scary.

 

Hey, FYI laser discs was actually a big hit for a few years until VCDS came about! (I'm from Malaysia). It spawned a number of laser disc rental shops (legit). Then vcds came and those shops disappeared.

 

[wahaha]

The flying car has been around - if you're talking about the same one I think you are.

That thing will never be sold. For 1 it's too expensive at over $200k, second, if you lose power you WILL die. I don't wanna hear none of this bird sht that the fans will still spin when you're falling. They say the same principle applies to helicopters, and they DIE. They shant fall like a cat, they shall fall with your nose pounded into the concrete, falling through the ground, and landing in satans sun room.

[Tenebrae]

To be honest, I wouldn't really fancy your chances in most powered aircraft if you lose power but yes, at least with a fixed wing aircraft you've got something beyond an engine keeping you in the air but then by your logic, no one should get in a helicopter.

 

Besides, cars are pretty lethal and they never leave the ground.

 

As to the cost - well, I get the impression he was pretty far off being at the point where he could actually sell them anyway and let's face there are going to be just a few issues of flying around town.

[magestorm]

Actually, the flying car is around. However, because of tech limitations, it is only allowed in the US, and the machine is still going through FAA approval, wich takes a LONG time. Add into it that the inventor does not want them classified as an actual airplane, while the FAA is considering just that, and you have the issue where the air car is being held back.

 

And for you naysayers who think a helocopter or this car would crash and burn, take some bloody flying lessons. Part of getting your helocopter's license IS to land one unpowered. If the copter is below 200 feet, it will crash. However, above that altitude, as the copter falls, the rotor spins, creating an effect similar to a maple seed. This keeps it flyable, and at a decent rate that would allow you to walk away from a crash.

 

But once you're close to the ground, a pilot does something called flaring, which temporarily stops downward momentum. A well trained pilot can take a helocopter at, say 1000 feet, bring it down, and land in a fashion that would prevent any damage at all.

 

From what I have seen of the air car, the same pricipal would apply. Also, there are parachutes on the market designed to handle cessnas. So I have little doubt that they could be modified to handle an air car. So, that is really a nonissue.

[ZaphodiLe]

We had something called a cashcard many years ago that really flopped.

Also the zip-drive and wap-phones (imo).

Video-phones (3G) has kinda flopped so far, but will probably take over eventually.

[Mav]

VR was like, awesome for it's time. It was so advanced. I remember cause in America there's a chain of video rental stores called Blockbuster. A new one opened up not far from me and part of their grand opening b.s. they had two VR stations from a local arcade come out to let people try it for free. It was pretty awesome.

 

The graphics were just so....rudimentary at best. Bodies animated with like maybe ten pixels at max, so you can just imagine how blocky and jaggy they were. Sadly it never took off. Though in recent years some graphics cards from ATI and Nvidia have shipped with free 3D tech goggles that supposedly simulate VR/3D based on what you would see in your OS enviroment. You'd think this would have gamers drooling but from what people say they never work quite right and still cause headaches after an hour or so of use. It's still more feasiable to use a dual or tri-monitor setup for the more surround envirmental feel.

 

My suggestion? So many...

 

The Clapper is one. Great idea, poor implementation. You know how many sounds there are that are similar to hands clapping? Studying for a test in school with a large text book? Better shut it carefully or it might turn off the lamp with the thud/smack of all the pages closing (think a really thick book).

 

Metal Detectors (the portable kind you see people using on the beach). They are great tools, for large companies or even the military. Sure consumer level ones work just as well but even today a good one that gets rid of interference and such costs a fortune. Unless you need to find a $10,000 diamond ring you lost in your backyard, picking up pocket change isn't worth the cost of one.

 

Sticky tape and hair wax. Seems simple enough right? Add some hair wax to an adhesive surface, then remove to extract hairs completely from the skin. They always grow back but it's proven that plucking them out this way slows the re-growth more than simply taking a razor to them. Now raise of hands, who's done this or seen it done? Ok, so you know how extremely painful it is. Let's just say as a man, I think a swift kick in the groin is less painful than a wax strip down your back or chest ;( So you can see how it's not as effective as it should be, I mean to top it off most of the home kits you buy for it advertise it as "a quick painless way of removing unwanted body hair". It's quick but it sure ain't painless.

 

Shark suits (the chain mail things) or Shark repellant. Sure you always see on documentaries (or even normal movies) how people are using these, saying they are safe or they've worked in the past. Again raise of hands, who's seen a documentary where a scientist has said this, only to dive or use a cage and have a shark bite through the metal suit or ignore the repellant completely? Yea...for something as dangerous as exploring an enviroment with one of Earth's most fearsome killers you need a complete fullproof method of getting rid of them. I mean when you study lions or tigers in the wild, you keep a gun as protection right? If they attack, a bullet to the brain kills them what 99.9 repeating percent of the time? Metal suit is only as good as the weakest shark.

 

The Club. Cheesey late 80's early 90's "toy" as I call it. Meant to be placed through the rim of a car's steering wheel, the idea was to not allow the wheel to be moved for driving if your car was broken into or attempted stolen. Now it does work but there are so many easy ways around it. You wouldn't believe statisically how many people leave the key to unlock The Club, actually inside their car....Or how easy it is to jimmy open/pick the tiny not-so-secure lock that binds it in place. Hell a pair of larger-than-normal bolt cutters does the job quick and clean.

 

Oh I could go on but those just stand out.

[Tigerplayer]

too bad the zip drive flopped, it's 10 times better than the old floppies.

the wap phones didn't really flop, 95% of all phones today have WAP capabilites

3G phones has flopped so far because the video transmission is kinda unstable still. But in Denmark, where i live, the 3G phones are still a big hit, mainly because you can watch television on some of them. There are TV transmission stations that send TV signals especially to the 3G phones in the 5 largest cities in Denmark.

 

the main reason why zip disks flopped was first: the invention of the 2gb jaz disks from iomega, then the ability to write to CD-R/RW, and later DVD+-R/RW and the USB flash drives.

 

Virtual reality is something i miss to try again. I tried it at segaworld in London about 10 years ago, and it was awesome. Again you can get LCD "glasses" that tries to simulate VR, but they nearly cost the tip of a space rocket. Thogh expensive, I have tried one my friend had once, and jesus christ, imagine playing Counter Strike with them on...

 

though for the time being i'm excited whether HD-DVD or blu ray discs wil win. it's Betamax and VHS all over again.

 

 

[Ressurrector]

I still don't understand why minidisc couldn't make it. I am betting storage capacity was the main factor but the fact the disc itself was enclosed in square plastic exoskeleton shielded from scratches i would think that would be superior to a typical cd for lifespan. But hey where's the money in a music minidisc that last basically forever with rugged use vs a cd in your car for just a few weeks of layin it here or there. hehe

 

 

 

I would like to know what happened to the company called "digiscents" that supposedly invented a real smellovision device. There was all kind of hoopla about it on tech tv several years back now you hear nothing.

[magestorm]

though for the time being i'm excited whether HD-DVD or blu ray discs wil win. it's Betamax and VHS all over again.

 

 

Actually, I see it as the VHS/Betamax battle, with a third player just about to nuke both into the stone age.

 

That's right, HVDs will destroy Bluray and HDDVD. No contest! :cyclops:

[Beawulf]

I still don't understand why minidisc couldn't make it. I am betting storage capacity was the main factor but the fact the disc itself was enclosed in square plastic exoskeleton shielded from scratches i would think that would be superior to a typical cd for lifespan. But hey where's the money in a music minidisc that last basically forever with rugged use vs a cd in your car for just a few weeks of layin it here or there. hehe

 

My flatmate bought a minidisk player (I told him to wait for a HD based sysyem!) it was certainly better than tapes in that you could skip tracks like cds. But they were smaller and dont hold anything other than music. Also there were restrictions that were a major pain in the arse... I borrowed his player on occasion to record dj sets, but the software would not let me copy music from the player to the computer....ended up having to play the MD and record the sound input on the computer.....not convenient!

 

 

...being i'm excited whether HD-DVD or blu ray discs wil win. it's Betamax and VHS all over again.

 

You might be interested to know that the two companies that were behind betamax and VHS all those years ago are now working together to make the HD-DVD.