Invention convention innovators put new products and concepts to test at annual DaVinci Showcase.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: INVENTOR SHOWCASE

With inventions ranging from bamboo sunglasses to thermoelectric generators, the 2012. DaVinci Institute Inventor Showcase is coming off of a banner event. Held on a blustery day last October at the Denver Mart. the annual event featured 88 inventors showing off their latest concepts, prototypes and finished products.

"This is twice as big as last year," said. Thomas Frey, founder and CEO of the DaVinci Institute, a futurist-leaning nonprofit based in Louisville. "We worked very hard to promote it." New for 2012 was a new scoring program developed by Frey's son Darby Frey, a software engineer With Groupon. "We just input the judges' scores and voila!" Frey said.

The keynote speaker was Oliver Kamer, CEO of Edi 9; son ..., winner of the X Prize for making a vehicle that got 100 miles per gallon, or the same energy equivalent. The team behind his gasoline-powered VLC (Very Light Car) rethought the car and ended up getting a whopping 129 miles per gallon.

"The low-hanging fruit is to build a more. efficient car," Kintner said. "All kinds of' cool stuff happens when your car is smaller." Because the chassis is lighter, the engine ran be smaller, which in turns makes for Jill even lighter vehicle, he explained. confidently adding, "I am aware that people like me who want to he a car company always fail. I will be the exception."

Featured speaker Teresa Stanek Rea, deputy director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, focused her remarks on the coming Denver patent office, slated to open near downtown in November 2013. The office is the result oldie America Invent Acts. signed into law in September 2011 and establishing satellite patent offices in Denver, Dallas-Tort Worth and Silicon Valley.

She described each new office's exact business model as a work in progress, but it will directly relate to the local and regional industries and needs. "We're still examining that at this time," she said, estimating a staff of about 100 examiners plus several patent judges. "We're going to be open for business and we're going to work hard to communicate with inventors."

INVENTOR OF THE YEAR:

Power Practical, Salt Lake City, www.thepowerpot.com

Thermoelectric experts David Toledo and Paul Slusser invented the PowerPot in their spare time. "There were no personal power generators on the market.," said Caleb Light, the company's CFO. The PowerPot uses the heat of boiling water to generate electricity and deliver it via a USB cable to a waiting cell phone or...