Patently Great: Google's car that will stop, look, and listen By listening for hazards that may be out of sight of the cameras on top of the vehicle, it means the car can predict obstacles that lie around the next corner. They claim the system will be able to identify where the crossing is and determine the direction that pedestrians are walking from the sound they make. It also raises the prospect of having a system that can spot other hazards, such as overtaking cars. Google also has a proposal that may help overcome any fears that our cities will become full of beeping traffic lights and talking road signs. It claims that the traditional beeping used on pedestrian crossings could be replaced by the call of a cuckoo or chirp of a bird. Of course, that won't be annoying at all. The power in your hands (arms, legs and feet) Tired of having to press all those buttons around the home and fiddling with the remote control? Now Microsoft is planning to allow you to control everything in your home simply with a few waves of your arm. A patent application by the software company shows that it wants to use the human body as a way of transmitting and receiving information. Essentially, it intends to turn the human body into a giant antenna. Microsoft proposes using a device that can measure the amount of ambient electromagnetic radiation being absorbed by the human body at any time. In the modern world we are surrounded by electromagnetic noise. Every electrical device produces electromagnetic radiation to some degree. For most electronic goods, this it troublesome and creates interference that can harm your Wi-Fi and phone signals. However, Microsoft wants to harness it. By looking for changes in the amount of electromagnetic radiation absorbed by the human body, it believes it can interpret where in the home someone might be, what appliances they are standing near, and what gestures they make. A graph showing how electromagnetic radiation absorbed by the body changes with different gestures The patent uses the example of turning up the thermostat: the user would draw a line in the air upwards beside a wall with their finger in the right part of the house. As they did so, the users arm would detect the changes in electromagnetic noise and transmit it to a computer or smart phone, which would send a command to the central heating system to turn up the temperature. They say the system could be taught different commands, so that, for example, raising an arm in the air would turn on a light. Microsoft claims the system could open up a whole new way of interacting with computers. They even propose allowing people to turn their walls into giant canvases where their brush strokes will be detected and their artworks then projected onto a blank wall. Flat pack romance Vases are good for two things - holding flowers and gathering dust. But Stanley Warder from Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, has dreamed up an unlikely seeming concept to consign the latter to the dustbin. He has submitted a patent application for a vase that folds flat. His design uses water resistant cardboard and even contains a grid to hold the stems. He claims the idea could help stop you from feeling obliged to include a vase in your order when you next get some flowers delivered. For some reason, a milk carton with the top cut off doesn't seem quite as romantic.