Sometimes, to be fair, inventions straddle the line between genius and silliness. I’ll let you decide what to make of Adrian Bone’s Parking Patch – a device enabling city officials to monitor the length of time a car has been parked in a particular space while also enabling drivers to locate available spaces without engaging in the fruitless endeavor of “driving around.” Bone, a Brit, is implementing the device in Brighton, England and producing them in large quantities with his startup, Deteq Solutions. (The devices draw upon mobile technology as well but I’d be lying if I said I understood the details.) It seems clear, however, that if the device is success the parking meter may be destined for the obscurity of travel agents, phone booths and VCRs.