Random invention #1: disc golf GPS
By Tim Barnum
News Editor | news@ogemawherald.com
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Have you ever thought of a great invention that you truly believed could benefit millions of people? Me too. I just never followed through with it.
But since my latest idea for an invention could benefit me personally, I decided to share it with everyone.
First, a story.
I enjoy playing disc golf. I haven’t been playing long, and am not that good of a player, but am improving.
Playing here locally in West Branch at the Ogemaw Hills Recreation Complex, however, has caused me a few headaches. It is different than when I played in California, where my friends and I played at a park. At the park, you’d be more likely to hit a child in the forehead with a flying disc than to lose a disc. There were plenty of wide-open spaces.
Here, not so much. I have been out five or six times and lost three discs. There have been treks through tall grass and weeds. Branches have scraped my arms and legs and nearly stabbed me in the eyes.
Once, I even forded through the river at the course after retrieving a disc from the opposite bank near the hole I was playing.
Like I said, I am not that good. But my new idea for an invention — disc golf GPS — could definitely have saved me a lot of time and itchy skin during my adventures in disc retrieval.
The concept is not complicated. All it would take is a simple little chip (or whatever makes GPS devices work) in the disc. After you throw the disc, a little handheld device would beep (or blink, or both) and the closer you get to the disc, the faster it would blink/beep.
When you are pretty much right on top of the disc it would just beep continuously. Then, after you see your disc, you can just push a button on the handheld device to turn off the noise and lights.
I understand there needs to be some tweaking on this invention. Obviously, since there’s water at the West Branch course, the chip (or whatever) in the disc needs to be waterproof.
I would say we need to figure out a way to make sure the chip is lightweight enough that it won’t affect the flight of the disc, but I think in 2012 those things are so small that we don’t need to worry about it.
And that’s it. If you can make this happen, just give me credit for the idea, and you take care of the mechanics and everything else. We’ll split profits 50-50 and make millions.