Self-lacing Shoes > Nike > Patent

Nike made hundreds of nerd dreams come true by bringing the self-lacing shoes to market. All for a noble cause, too (proceeds to go to Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research).

One of the patents backing this shoe appears to be US8769844, which describes a sensor controlled drive mechanism to enable automatic tying of laces.

A casual search takes to many interesting inventions, such as:

1. Weight activated tying shoe - CA2564152 & US20050198867
2. Drive mechanism based fastener movement - US6691433
3. Elastic strap based lace tying - US5791068
4. Lace cord movement by motors - US7752774

Gosh! So many people trying to automate this step of tying laces!

Laceless shoes: Hey! what about me?

Cooking Robots | Robo Chefs | Intelligent / Smart Cooking Aids > First patent > Chinese stir fry robot

Cooking robots, if not a rage now, will definitely be THE thing to own in the near future.

With the launch of Moley’s Robot Kitchen for purchase in 2017-18, this future is actually very near.

While there are many variations of a cooking robot, the first patent filing talking about a robotic contraption designed to be an aid to the chef is US4503502, which describes a stir-fry machine, somewhat similar to what we see in this image below. This patent has been filed in 1983!

 
Having said that, there are many patent filings (mostly Chinese and newer than this stir fry patent filing) that talk about a cooking robot (in some cases with arms).

Motorcycle - Invention | Basic/Original/First Patent > Daimler Reitwagen

Ideally a 'Motorcycle' is any type of powered bicycle. 

For the sake of simplicity, we consider the widest known and most popular definition of a motorcycle - a bicycle having an internal combustion engine.

The Daimler Reitwagen ("riding wagon") by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach is widely recognized as the first motorcycle in 1885, and Daimler is often called "the father of the motorcycle" for this invention.

Reitwagen had an internal combustion engine powered by gasoline.

The first patent describing Reitwagen is DE36423C. Hence effectively this patent can be called the basic or the original patent of motorcycle.

Reitwagen had an innovative high-speed single-cylinder engine, patented on April 3, 1885 and called "grandfather clock engine".

The original Reitwagen was destroyed in the Cannstatt Fire in the DMG Seelberg-Cannstatt plant in 1903. Now only replicas exist in several places.

Field Effect Transistor (FET) - Invention | Basic/Original/First Patent

The first solid state replacement for vacuum triode for amplifying electric current was patented by Julius Edgar Lilenfeild in the US on Oct 8, 1926. The Patent US1745175 was issued on Jan 28, 1930. The patent can be considered as the basic patent or original patent for field effect transistor (FET). 

It describes a 'method of and apparatus for controlling the flow of an electric current between two terminals of an electrically conducting solid by establishing a third potential between said terminals; and is particularly adaptable to the amplification of oscillating currents such as prevail, for example, in radio communication.'