Hidayat’s Corner

The fair, which runs until Sunday, features 1,000 new inventions of all kinds by companies, independent researchers, universities and just people with a good idea to remedy smelly feet or prevent hotel staff from stealing money out of room safes.

Labor-saving devices for people averse to exercise are a recurring theme at this year’s 36th edition.

One notable invention is the self-making bed which spreads the linen at the push of a button. The bed sheet is rolled out by two fasteners moving along metal bars on each side of the bed. Once the sheet is spread over the bed, the two bars are automatically lowered.

“I was thinking of people with diseases when inventing the bed,” said the Italian inventor, Enrico Berruti, “but also because I’m a little bit lazy myself.”

After the contraption works, the bed looks neat no matter how messy it was before or how thick the bed sheet is, he said.

Numerous medical inventions range from an injection-performing robot to a tool for diagnosing stomach ulcers with ultra sound. Among the simplest is artificial nose hair.

Two little nubs of coiled pipe cleaner connected by a U-shaped wire block pollen and dust when placed in the nostrils.

The medical device reinforces natural nose hair to protect people from inhaling polluting and allergy-causing particles in the air, said Gengsheng Sun, a physician living in the United States.

“Most people do not have enough nose hair,” he said.

Sun said he got the idea because his wife was suffering from heavy allergies and didn’t want to take antihistamine.

“It’s comfortable to wear and cheap,” he added.

The artificial nose hair can also be impregnated with medicine so that it can be absorbed gradually through the mucous membrane, Sun said. Insulin for people suffering from diabetes, for example, could be administered through the artificial nose hair, instead of injecting it, he said.

The hair can be washed and reused.

Inventions can be entered only once at the Geneva show and must be patented. However, entries are not necessarily tested or screened by national authorities.

Many inventions at this year’s exhibit feature environment-protecting devices.

One machine dries kitchen garbage, eliminating food bacteria and odor. Air circulating in the little oven reduces the waste to dried solid cubes. A filter at the back absorbs odors. It uses the same amount of electricity as a 100-watt light bulb.

“The process turns the food waste into a solid fuel,” said Heeja Lee, chief executive of the South Korean company which sells the machine in Asia.

“Governments pay billions of dollars (euros) to treat food waste every year, but you can do it at home,” she said.

The oven takes between two and eight hours to treat 400 grams of waste. This is much faster than composting your garbage in the garden, she said.

Lee said she wants to sell the oven in Europe and the United States, too.

Some funny items at this year’s show include an alarm clock on small wheels that forces sleepyheads to get out of bed because they have to chase the device around the room to turn off the annoying alarm.

Those who want to be cozy can try on a new blanket with sleeves and gloves. The fleece cover is shaped to make sure all parts of the body are warm when you sit reading a book on a chilly winter day. Freedom of movement is guaranteed.

A wacky invention is also an e-mail analyzer to determine whether the person you meet in the chat room is not a man pretending to be a woman or the other way around.

The computer program developed by a Malaysian university professor analyzes e-mails according to the number of words, exclamation marks, emotions and compliments to determine if the sender is male or female.

Women tend to be more expressive than men, said Dianne Cheong Lee Mei, but she refused to go into detail about how the program unveils the gender of the unseen Internet partner. 

Mari kita adakan di Indonesia sehingga masyarakat segera menyadari untuk kreatif dan kalau bisa menghasilkan efisiensi, lebih efektif dan menguntungkan, alias jadi duit, maka mereka jadi INNOVATOR Dibidang kerjanya masing-2 …

Jakarta, 7 April 2008