Archive for the 'Inventions' Category
Mother Pitches Invention To QVC
PRBuzz: Have you designed a new product and are now stuck wondering about the next big step? Jasmine Thompson, owner of The Sack Rack, wondered this too; but on March 26th she presented her idea to QVC executives in Los Angeles, California, along with thousands of other inventors. If The Sack Rack is chosen as [...]
Springwise: Denmark’s Smukkeste Festival launched a novel concept for sleeping accommodations—oversized beer cans! The Can Sleep is a joint venture between the festival organizers and Royal Unibrew, Denmark’s second largest brewery. Standing at 11.5 ft with a diameter of 7.2 ft., each unit is fully furnished with a table, chairs, shelves, pegs and a mirror, [...]
BBC: Ever wished you could be in two places at one time? A Japanese scientist has managed it through making a robot that looks and moves exactly like him. The Geminoid was created by Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro using a model of his body and hair actually from his head. When you poke its face, the [...]
Stay-At-Home Moms Get Entrepreneurial
Startup Journal: Tamara Monosoff, a former business consultant and Clinton White House staffer, quit work to stay at home when her daughter Sophia was born. Then she found herself annoyed by the constant need to re-roll the toilet paper Sophia unraveled onto the floor. So she invented a special latch to prevent the problem. Now, [...]
Inventor’s Fin A Stroke Of Ingenuity
North Side Courier: Marcus Lee migrated to Australia in 1988 from England, and within hours of arriving in the country had the idea of creating the “shinfin“. After 19 years of research, the Middle Cove resident and his shinfin will appear on ABC-TV’s The New Inventors on April 25. Mr Lee said the premise behind [...]
Inventor Eyes Big Leagues After Lucky NHL Product Placement
Vancouver Sun: Every Vancouver Canucks hockey fan had sweaty palms Tuesday night when, in the dying moments of the Vancouver-Dallas playoff game, Vancouver defenceman Willie Mitchell swept the puck from his team’s goal line, preserving a Canucks win. Richard Findlay had reason to be more grateful than your average fan. In multiple replays from the [...]
New Bill Would Streamline Patent Appeal Process
Arstechnica: Congress is once again preparing to try and fix the US patent system. The Patent Reform Act of 2007 was introduced in the Senate and House today. The new bill is very similar to bills introduced in 2005 and 2006 that failed to pass. It would change the US patent system from its current [...]
Wired: 1. Viagra. Men being treated for erectile dysfunction should salute the working stiffs of Merthyr Tydfil, the Welsh hamlet where, in 1992 trials, the gravity-defying side effects of a new angina drug first popped up. 2. X-rays. Several 19th-century scientists toyed with the penetrating rays emitted when electrons strike a metal target. But the [...]
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine: It all started with an accident. Late one night, while experimenting with a jet pump and a nozzle for a refrigerator cooling system, Lonnie Johnson shot a stream of water clear across his bathroom. Where some people might have seen a mess to clean up, Johnson saw an opportunity. Thus was [...]
Necessity The Mother Of Invention
FrederickNewsPost: Stephanie Dellamura dreaded taking her toddlers to a public restroom. Visiting parks and fairs was worse, she said. Portable restrooms are often filthy and there’s no place to wash hands. She started carrying plastic sandwich bags for her children to use as gloves to keep their hands clean. The flimsy pockets didn’t work so [...]
Dublin Mother's Baby Goods Gaining In Popularity
MSNBC: In 2002, Meredith Liepelt was a first-time mom living in Virginia and in desperate need of a burp cloth that didn’t bunch up on her shoulder. Dusting off her grandmother’s sewing machine, she whipped up an hourglass-shaped, chenille-and-flannel burp cloth that was beautiful, absorbent and the envy of other moms. Soon she was giving [...]
LA Daily News: Roxanna Bina had a curious packing list when it came to preparing her 9-month-old son, Felix, for his first trip outside the U.S. Then again, the Santa Barbara mom is far from ordinary. A foodie who had sworn off jarred baby food, Bina cooked and pureed gourmet organic dishes for her infant [...]
OC Register: Superman can fly and Barbie has nice clothes, but Francis tamed wolves, Michael slew a dragon and Joan donned armor to lead a medieval army into battle. The Catholic saints, as far as Teri O’Toole is concerned, were the world’s first action figures. There is more to the story. A tragic death, a [...]
Invention Tells Good Eggs From The Bad
Naples Daily News: It’s hard to tell a bad egg by its shell. But, if you want to test the egg for freshness, a local inventor hopes to help you out. Trish Horst, a product developer with five patents under her belt, created Good Egg-Bad Egg! to offer a more exact definition of freshness. The [...]
Entrepreneur: If an idea for a new product is swimming around in your head but you need help bringing that invention to the surface, look to a college inventing program to learn the ins and outs of product design and development. Josh Kerson sought the help of the Lemelson Program at Hampshire College in Amherst, [...]
NY Times: Will there be another puzzle craze after sudoku? Perhaps kakuro? What about nurikabe? If so, chances are it will spring from a Japanese company called Nikoli, run by the self-proclaimed godfather of sudoku, Maki Kaji. Few Americans had ever thought of Japan as a source for puzzles until a little more than two [...]
Inventor Creates Flexible Cake Icing
MCT News Service: Imagine a wedding dress made entirely of icing. Michele Hester did – complete with elaborate lace bustier and sleeves, flouncy skirt and a huge bow that looks like satin. It’s all made of sugar and eggs, a concoction she calls SugarVeil that’s more commonly used for elaborate cakes and other edibles. And [...]
Willy Wonka-esque Flavored Coupons
Entrepreneur: Many dismissed the flavored wallpaper scene in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory as childhood fantasy, but for Adnan Aziz, it was a revolutionary idea with real-life potential. In January 2005, he partnered with seasoned entrepreneurs Jay Minkoff, 48, and Josh Kopelman, 35, to launch First Flavor in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Together, they refined [...]
Mom's Invention Gets Baby In The Swim
Ottawa Citizen: Ever try taking two squirmy, slippery little kids to the pool? It’s not the easiest challenge that a new parent faces. Just ask Catherine Hiscocks. After the birth of her second son, she liked to take her kids to the swimming pool at the Family Leisure Centre in Calgary. One day, Zach, then [...]
Young Mom Manufactures Babywearing Gear For Parents
PRWeb: Rolz & Sassy knows what savvy parents want. They know that when you hold a baby, he cries less. As it’s not practical for parents to hold their baby all day, they’ve manufactured a line of wraps and slings so Mom and Dad can wear their baby — an ideal solution that helps parents [...]
Des Moines Register: Baldes was 10 years into a career as a graphic designer, when she received a six-month break between projects. The mother of two took the time to mess with projects around the house. “I started recovering my kitchen chairs and my husband didn’t like the fabric,” she said. “I tried to bring [...]
Daytona Beach News-Journal: Jim Cairns was a boy, he invented a way to hang pictures in his room without making the holes in the wall that so irritated his mother. He mixed iron powder with paint and spread it on the walls, then he put magnets on his pictures and stuck them to the iron [...]
Dad-Inventor Creates New Baby Care Product
eMediaWire: When a new baby arrives, mom and dad’s brains seem to turn to mush; lack of sleep makes it challenging to remember the simplest things. Greg Sheldon learned this two years ago when he and his wife Kris became parents for the first time. He found that they were asking each other the same [...]
Springwise: Patrons at select pubs and restaurants in Israel, France and Australia no longer need to worry about change for the jukebox or bugging a dj to play their favourite tunes—they can queue up their music choices via text message from their cellphones. SMS jukebox technology, such as c|station by Australian Rippamedia and SMS DJ [...]
Military Mom Has A Colorful Idea
The Dallas Morning News: DaLonna Rimsky had a stroke of business inspiration while trying to help her children cope with their father’s deployment overseas. Ms. Rimsky turned photos of her husband, Michael, into coloring book pages for Colin, now 6, and Paige, 3, and found the activity helped ease their loneliness. She’s hoping to help [...]
Inventor Tells Mosquitos To Buzz Off
American-Statesman: It was one “skeeter” bite too many for Austin lawyer Blair Dancy. Dancy’s two young boys had walked in from backyard play covered in mosquito welts from the garden and patio areas. The sight of his bump-covered, itching boys was the last straw and the mother of invention. A natural problem solver, he invented [...]
Taking Your Invention to a Trade Show
MSNBC: Trade shows offer inventors and entrepreneurs the opportunity to reach a large number of potential buyers and retailers. They also provide a marketing-sales double whammy: You’ll meet buyers seeking products like yours, and even if you don’t make a sale on the spot, your presence creates awareness about your product. You should also use [...]
Amherst Mom Invents iHearSafe To Protect Kids
Union Leader: A few years ago, Christine Ingemi set out to find a way to protect her children’s hearing while they listened to music on their iPods. Now, the stay-at-home mom has found herself on a list of the top 25 inventors in the country for her iHearSafe earbuds. Earlier this month, Ingemi’s earbuds, earphones [...]
Inventor Develops First Energy-Efficient Clothes Dryer
Orlando Sentinel: Michael Brown, a former appliance repairman who developed a hydronic heating element by tinkering in his garage, also said his 2-year-old Orlando company, Hydromatic Technologies Corp., has reached $1 million in private investment. “We’re looking pretty good,” Brown said. Hydromatic Technologies hopes to have a Haier dryer on the market in 2008. Haier [...]
Toilet Paper Inspiration For Company
U.S. News And World Report: As a former Clinton administration staffer and consultant, Tamara Monosoff had experience in the working world. When her first daughter started pulling toilet paper off rolls, and Monosoff got an idea for an invention that would prevent it, she added entrepreneur to her resume. The title came with a few [...]
Associated Press: Boxing great, ordained minister and grilling guru George Foreman has added another job to his resume: reality TV judge. Foreman, 58, will be one of four judges on ABC’s “American Inventor” when it begins its second season June 6, FremantleMedia North America Inc. announced. He will be joined by former NBA executive Pat [...]
Orlando Sentinel: Kristen Nevils wowed the Venture2 “Inventor Search” judges both with her husband’s “Watersafe” invention idea and her presentation polish. Nevils proudly unveiled the emergency water storage product that she and husband Michael Nevils developed after South Florida was hit by hurricanes two years in a row. The Fort Lauderdale residents’ product is a [...]
Patent A Business Plan Or A Business Model?
San Francisco Chronicle: Is it possible to patent a business plan or a business model? Most people think of patents as covering inventions like better mousetraps, not business methods. And until eight years ago, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office rarely granted patents for business models or methods. But the high-tech revolution changed a lot [...]
Invention Has Chance To Become ‘Modern Marvel’
The Daily Times: When Dan Williams gets an idea for a new invention, his goal is to make it as useful on as many different levels as is humanly possible. A former 11-year officer with the Florida Marine Patrol , Williams came up with the idea for the StayAlive while bobbing along in a boat, [...]
Inventor Says His Device Helped Cure Florida Girl’s Long Bout With Hiccups
phillyBurbs.com: Phones were ringing off the hook with calls to buy The Hic-Cup, an invention created by Phil Ehlinger to stop the hiccups, after a 15-year-old Florida girl who had hiccups for more than five weeks told the “Today Show� that the device helped cure them. Jennifer Mee said Ehlinger’s patented metal cup was one [...]
Inventors Hope ‘Bataround’ Is A Big Hit
Lodi News-Sentinel: Whether it’s going to the batting cages or hitting off the tee, baseball and softball players are always searching for ways to add those few extra points to their batting average. But what about a portable device that can simulate pitch speeds upwards of 90 miles per hour? After numerous prototypes and years [...]
Entrepreneur Targets Tennis Players
Contra Costa Times: Bow Rodgers didn’t expect the lessons he learned in Silicon Valley to help his tennis game. But it turns out they have. The longtime technology entrepreneur has co-designed a unique tennis training tool that helps tennis players, including himself, improve their stroke. The WristAssist is a training aid that straps onto a [...]
Inventor’s Baseball Cap To Light World
Stuff.co.nz: Simon Dyer, a software development manager by day and inventor by night, has spent the past three years developing the 2C, a solar-powered baseball cap that includes two high-powered LED lights controlled by a microprocessor. The product is aimed at campers, tradesmen, emergency workers or anyone else who needs a rechargeable source of light. [...]
Entrepreneur Daily: The Patent and Trademark Office is beginning a pilot program that will post patent applications on the internet and open them up to comments and a community rating system. The system resembles the look of the user-created online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. So far, the list of volunteers willing to try the new patent system [...]
Inventor Has 350 Ideas On Market
OC Register: Every inventor has a thousand ideas. But it’s the rare one who has 350 of his ideas actually on the market. Meet Zlatko Zadro, president of Zadro Products. After careers selling large computers and refurbishing real estate, Zadro decided in 1983 to try marketing one of his inventions. The result is an international [...]
KOMO-TV: It sounds like a super hero, but it’s the “Roboflagger.” Drive up to a construction zone, and you may worry about delays – but flaggers worry about you. “My fear is the guy who’s driving down the road, eating a hamburger and reading the newspaper and not paying any attention,” said Denise Smith, a [...]
eCommerce-Guide: Brooks Lambert, who runs TheBeerbelly.com as president of Under Development Inc., is also someone who might have been viewed by some as having a less-than-perfect business model for his venture. But — after the press picked up on his contraption and he got 1 million hits to his fledgling site, as well as about [...]
Mothers Hit The Market With Invention
MediaNews: While feeding a baby, Debbie Stauffer and Kathleen Whitehurst came up with an invention that landed them a spot on “Oprah,” an article in Good Housekeeping and a hit new product. It’s a counter. A simple, cute digital counter in bright colors. If you’ve mined moldy leftovers out of the refrigerator, over-fed your fish [...]
ABC’s “American Inventor� Begins Second Season Search
American Inventor: Fremantle Media North America, producers of “American Idol,� are coming to a major city near you this Spring as they kick off the second season of ABC’s AMERICAN INVENTOR. A nationwide search to discover the ultimate in homespun ingenuity will make one struggling inventor’s dream come true with a grand prize of one [...]
Entrepreneurs Find Market For History Trivia
Lansing State Journal: Starting a business is a little bit like playing a board game. It takes a bit of skill and a whole lot of luck. Take the trio of Sylvia Alexander, Bob Cavin and Germaine Redding. When they rolled the dice on their Test of Time Enterprises about 1 1/2 years ago, they [...]
St. Petersburg Times: It didn’t take long for a curious toddler to figure out how to unclasp the seat belt buckle that held her car seat in place. And it didn’t take long for that toddler’s mother to figure out a way to keep that from ever happening again. Patricia Mandarino of Spring Hill has [...]
Coat Hangers Go Green Like Money
Springwise: 3.5 billion wire hangers are tossed into landfills every year, and that’s just in the United States. While the hangers are light, inexpensive and sturdy, they’re not exactly bio-degradable. Hanger Network has developed an alternative: a dry cleaner’s hanger made entirely from recycled paper. EcoHangers are sturdy and cheap. And because they’re paper, they [...]
From Inventor’s Digest Newsletter: Saturday, February 24 … Upcoming PBS-TV show, Everyday Edisons, is holding its next casting call in San Diego. Inventors of all ages are invited to participate. Of course, those under 18 will need a parent to sign the registration form and give their consent. The auditions will be held at the [...]
Niche Biz: Sexual Energy Drink
Entrepreneur.com Just as an apple once fell on another Newton’s head and inspired him to come up with the concept of gravity, Delmond Newton had his epiphany when considering all of the energy drinks on the market. What if, he thought, there was a drink to enhance one’s sexual energy? Pretty soon, he was contacting [...]
Daily Record: Steve Beckman might be a 41-year-old salesman, but to his kids and, hopefully, customers worldwide, he’s Story Bookman –superhero and “inventurer” of toys and games for educational purposes. Beckman uses his Story Bookman persona to pitch his creation called “Cardtivity.” It’s a system of cards that work like building blocks. The cards are [...]
