Congratulations to Our Newest Inventors!

Paulette Jaques, is a tutor at an elementary school in New Hampshire.   When Paulette’s kids were young, they had a baby gate. The door was such a nuisance to open that she never actually opened it, instead, she would just try to step over it.  The problem was that she often got caught and tripped.  Paulette decided to come up with her own baby gate that can extend as the child grows. It is shorter for when they are crawling but expands to be taller when they are walking.  The adjustable baby gate would be great for different sized pets as well.  It can also be lowered so that Paulette can step over it easily. The baby gate needs to be redesigned because of all these problems, so we are taking on the challenge.

Neil MacAloney has a degree in mechanical engineering and is located in Texas for the military.  Neil has a drawing app on his phone where he takes notes or jots down reminders, but his fingers are too big for exact precision. Another reason for his invention is that he realized not everyone wants to touch a touch-screen kiosk after tons of other people have, due to the germs.  He believes that everyone carries a wallet, so there should be a type of stylus that can be kept in a wallet.  People cannot always carry pens with them, so carrying a normal pen-shaped stylus would be an inconvenience.

Jeff Hufford, from Nashville, TN, is a supervisor for a chain of grocery stores and because of that, he is on the road a lot.  During one of his road trips, he came up with an idea that helps with ironing. He realized that a solution could be found by creating inserts to make the clothes more iron-able. This solves the problem of people spending so much time and energy ironing their clothes.  His idea addresses a common problem in a simple way that does not force people to completely change their routine.

Jim Risser is from Makakilo, Hawaii and spends his time making novelty signs.  Since he has always had trouble with his ear bud wires getting tangled, he thought it would make the cord easier to manage if it had thick and thin sections that would fold with ease and clip together.  Tons of people use earbuds on a regular basis and tangled wires are a well-known problem. Jim believes his idea has a lot of potential because it not only helps to avoid problems with earbud cords, but it can be applied to electrical wires on other products as well.  People will now be able to avoid the frustrations caused by the uncooperative cords because Jim’s solution is easy to use and it simplifies the process of using and transporting earbuds.

Rick Perea, a consultant for a regional bank from Los Banos, CA, came up with an idea to incorporate a fingerprint scanner into a lock.  In the past, he has had a difficult time remembering to bring a specific key with him or had trouble memorizing combinations.  Rick wanted to create a product that could assist the aging baby boomer population.  Sometimes remembering combinations is difficult, especially when  someone has to memorize more than one. Also, keys can be a hassle and easy to forget when someone does not use them on a regular basis. This would be perfect at a gym when those who want to work out do not want to have to bring a key with them.  Plus, he felt that this technology could also be applied to other products, such as bike locks.

Dan Drum is a 5^th grade teacher from Bend, Oregon.  When Dan was in college he would mark up his textbooks with his highlighter.  After the semester was over he would try to return his books to the book store, but because of the markings, was not able to receive the full return price. His idea is to create a highlighter that will dissolve overtime, eliminating the problem and allowing him and future college students to return their books and get full credit for doing so.

Marc Zech is an advertising copywriter from Hamburg, Germany.  One day when he was hanging out with his girlfriend they both wondered why the extension cord in the living room was so ugly.  Marc started to brainstorm ways to make the plug more aesthetically pleasing and arrived at his “Cord-Balls” submission.  He believes that this design will take extension cords into a new era.

Jeff and Stephanie Thirtyacre are from Illinois.  Stephanie is a homemaker and Jeff is in highway maintenance. The couple has an air compressor in their garage, just like at an auto mechanic.  Their family and friends come over and use the air compressor to clean the inside mechanics of their cars and to put air into their car’s tires.  After awhile, they started thinking of a portable air compressor as a good way to clean small electronics, and thought of a hand pump to clean electronics.  They hope that this product will take the place of environmentally unfriendly, canned air.

Maria Morrill is a homemaker from Charleston, South Carolina.  Maria’s children were brushing their teeth when she noticed that her 2 year old doesn’t brush long enough and her 3 year old does not want to put the brush down.  That is when she thought of a timer version for the Bobble Brush.  She thinks that this timer plus the inclusion of a glow in the dark feature will make the Bobble Brush more marketable to kids.  Maria believes that this product will encourage kids to brush their teeth for the right amount of time.

Vicky Laursen is an American living in Denmark for the last eight and a half years.  She currently is a nursing student, volunteer multimedia developer, website owner and administrator of a social community driven website. Vicky knows that bacteria lives in everyone’s hair so it is necessary to keep a clean hairbrush.  If people don’t clean their hairbrush the dirt and oil will build up.  She often struggled with cleaning hairbrushes and wanted a simpler solution to cleaning them for hygienic reasons.  Vicky also thinks that if the hairbrush is designed right it will also make getting tangled hairs out of the hairbrush easier.