Show of a thousand inventions

The biggest fair of inventions opened in Geneva, Switzerland, on Wednesday. In its 40th year, the five-day show is once again providing an excellent opportunity for the bright-minded to get in touch with the business community in the hope to market their ideas.

"We're only presenting new items that have never been shown before," the President of the Geneva Fair, Jean-Luc Vincent, said in a statement. "With 789 exhibitors from 46 countries, our show is the most important such event in the world."

Visitors can marvel at about 1,000 different inventions, all of which are waiting to enter the marketplace. Most of them relate to medicine and health care, industrial processes, computer sciences and environmental protection, with the novelties coming from both independent inventors and people working for universities and research institutions.

Among the inventions billed for the show are a luminescent ball that allegedly protects people from electromagnetic radiation in closed spaces such as offices and apartments and a satellite-controlled robot to be used in firefighting operations.

China top of the table

Most new product ideas for the 2012 Geneva fair come from China and Russia, followed by Iran, Romania and Saudi Arabia. Germany only takes 7th position.

Fair managers said the creativity of inventors had in no way been hampered by the global financial crisis and recession in a number of countries. They added there'd been no let-up in endeavors to make life on Earth easier and safer.

In the past, the Geneva fair has helped many inventors to market their ideas globally. Without it, the world probably still wouldn't have inflatable cushions for air passengers, special rail-attached chairs for disabled people to move between different floors in their homes, fully automated vehicle scanning devices for customs officers at border-crossing points and many more useful things.

Author: Hardy Graupner
Editor: Neil King