Not everyone building devices such as these is interested in making a buck. Phil Torrone, an editor for Make, a do-it-yourself technology magazine, was fed up with taxi drivers who blast grating music or irritating talk shows on their radios and are nearly impossible to reason with. To address the problem, he bought a product from Griffin Technology that allows people to broadcast music from their iPods over FM stations. He pulled out the antenna to increase the device’s range and then downloaded a noiseless track to his iPod.
Now, whenever a cab driver switches on an annoying FM station, Torrone uses his creation to zap it with silence. “I travel a lot and when you are trapped and a hostage, you start thinking of an escape plan,” he says. “This is my escape plan.”
The spread of these behaviour-regulating devices is part of a larger invention boom. There were 442,479 new patent applications filed in the US last year, nearly double the number from a decade ago. In general, any device that sells more than 100,000 units qualifies as a smashing success—and few of them do. One of the more successful products of this kind is the TV-B-Gone—a $20 handset that allows people to shut off loud televisions in public places like doctor’s offices and bars. The manufacturer says it has posted sales of $1.5 million in nearly three years.
Beer Burglar Alarm
Many of these products are little more than practical jokes. A New Jersey company called Outrageous International has sold 300,000 golf balls loaded with magnetic gyroscopes that can be made to zig and zag on the putting green with a remote handset. While some marketing materials suggest using it “if you’re being thrashed by your opponent”, company spokesman Alan Sutton says its chief target is pranksters. “It’s supposed to be a joke,” he says.
Likewise, a British invention called the Beer Burglar Alarm—a $12 device that attaches to a glass or bottle and uses a motion sensor to sound an alarm when anything comes within one foot—was designed as much for laughs as for social utility. One alarm consists of a threatening voice that says “Keepa da hands off ma beer.” James O’Brien, the device’s inventor, says he thought up the idea in a pub. “After coming back from the toilet, I found my friend drinking my beer,” he explains.
According to Tenner, the technology historian, the first widely marketed “countergadget” may have been the Zenith remote control of 1950, since it was invented in part to help people skip commercials. The trend continued in the 1970s, he says, with the proliferation of radar detectors. Though illegal in the US, cellphone jammers have been floating around for nearly as long as cellphones.
But inventors say the current gadget boom is far more widespread. The chief difference is the falling cost of programmable microcontrollers, the integrated circuit chips that were once too expensive for small-scale production. Doug Freedman, a semiconductor-industry analyst, says these chips are smaller and more complex than just five years ago and cost about $1.50 on average, down from about $5 to $6 in 2002. At high volumes, he says, these chips can be found for as little as 75 cents each. Inventors say inexpensive Chinese manufacturers have also helped reduce production costs.