When washing with a bar of soap, there comes a point at which it just gets too thin to be used. The common solution is to press the remains onto the outside of a new cake.

Sadly, this usually doesn’t work well (at least without Herculean levels of compressive force being applied -which, with slippery soap, is quite a challenge).

Today’s invention is a way to overcome this minor issue and also appeal to the increasingly frugal buying public.

It consists of a slot moulded into each bar of soap (always a favourite marketing tactic, to reduce the volume provided, per unit cost).

When that bar has been mostly washed away, it’s remnant can be inserted into the wedge-shaped recess provided in a new bar, making their amalgamation much easier.

For those of us who like to screwdriver open the various items of electronic equipment we own, today’s invention provides an additional note of caution.

Each enclosure would be equipped with a wireless connection to the internet. Opening such a box, outside an authorised workshop, would automatically trigger an auditory alert to be issued from the device (this might also say DANGER).

If the enclosure remained open, say for a further 30 seconds, the device would transmit a message to its manufacturer invalidating the warranty. This would be copied to the owner.

No fan of television, I -but I do sometimes have to recognise that there are some good/useful/interesting programmes out there which I’m missing because of my obsessive online urge to avoid boredom.

Today’s invention is a newsfeed for browsers which directs the visitor to anything just about to appear on tv which is relevant to his/her stated interests, location, browsing history and channel subscriptions.

I came across this product recently which seems to have been intended as a cure for office boredom.

Today’s invention is inspired by that sentiment. It consists of a dance mat laid out in a keyboard arrangement -with responsive areas acting as keys which are large enough to accommodate the toe of a shoe but which cause the mat itself to be no more than say 1sqm in size (allowing it to be dropped on any floor).

This device would communicate with one’s phone and allow messages to be danced out and sent direct to eg Twitter.

The mat might also have one’s friends pictured down one side, enabling them to be selected and eg texted individually.