I've just been reading a Washington Post article on Interceptor Body Armor. Using fancy ceramics and composites and fibers this is pretty effective stuff - better than the old flak jackets.
Then I got to thinking, after reading that it has quick-release straps. I'm guessing they're made of velcro. Then I thought 'what if a soldier wants to be quiet?'. Then I thought, 'hey, I want to invent a silent velcro'.
How would I go about doing that? Seriously though, think about it. I've come in late from walking the pooch, wife sleeping, and my old pair of walkie-shoes had velcro fasteners (sometimes I find it difficult to remember how to tie laces)... RIPPPPPPPP is the quietest I could be.
Okay. I will invent silent velcro and get really rich.
Hope no-one thinks of this before I do.
Okay, great. I googled Silent Velcro and tons of bloggers have thought of this too. Swine. Like the time when I was 12 (grade 7) and invented (on a scrap of paper) sunglasses that turn dark when it was bright outside... The invention consisted of 2 sheets of thin glass, containing a liquid crystal solution connected to a small battery that would in turn be connected to a light-level detector (I was a little scientist in those days). When it got really bright, a charge would be allowed to flow - due to the light-detector modulating a capacitor output - through to the liquid, in turn changing the liquid crystal orientations such that the sheet went darker.
Shoulda sold this idea. It turns out that my invention is actually called Photochromic Sunglasses.
Back to the Silent Velcro.. I'm going to start my investigations at active silencing... now that electronics have become more miniaturized and inexpensive, maybe a little electronic doo-dad connected to the backing sheet for the velcro... etc... hmmmm...