2024 Contest Now Accepting Entries!

Submit your best new product ideas for a chance at $25,000, other great prizes, and global recognition. If you already are registered, log in to access the entry form. Otherwise, click here to get started.

Help build a better tomorrow

Since Tech Briefs magazine launched the Create the Future Design contest in 2002 to recognize and reward engineering innovation, over 15,000 design ideas have been submitted by engineers, students, and entrepreneurs across six continents. You can also join the innovators who dared to dream big and build a better tomorrow by entering this year’s contest.

Read About Past Winners’ Success Stories

Over the past 20 years, many innovators have used the recognition afforded by the contest to advance the development and marketing of their technologies. We highlight some success stories of past winners who have brought their inventions to the marketplace.

Click here to read more

A ‘Create the Future’ Winner Featured on ‘Here’s an Idea’

Spinal cord injury affects 17,000 Americans and 700,000 people worldwide each year. A research team at NeuroPair, Inc. won the Grand Prize in the 2023 Create the Future Design Contest for a revolutionary approach to spinal cord repair. In this Here’s an Idea podcast episode, Dr. Johannes Dapprich, NeuroPair’s CEO and founder, discusses their groundbreaking approach that addresses a critical need in the medical field, offering a fast and minimally invasive solution to a long-standing problem.

Listen now

Thank you from our Sponsors

“At COMSOL, we are very excited to recognize innovators and their important work this year. We are grateful for the opportunity to support the Create the Future Design Contest, which is an excellent platform for designers to showcase their ideas and products in front of a worldwide audience. Best of luck to all participants!”

— Bernt Nilsson, Senior Vice President of Marketing, COMSOL, Inc.

“From our beginnings, Mouser has supported engineers, innovators and students. We are proud of our longstanding support for the Create the Future Design Contest and the many innovations it has inspired.”

— Kevin Hess, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Mouser Electronics

Follow Create the Future

LED/Optic Identity Verification in the Visible and IR Frequencies

Votes: 13
Views: 6298

This is a method of employing a 10+" flexible embedded light-emitting alphanumeric display in conjunction with standard night-sensitive security cameras or portable standard issue FLIR equipment to verify the identify of proper authority on individuals from a distance. Fusing PMMA optical fibers into the rear of a jacket defining the letters or symbols of an agency such as the letters, "FBI" keeps the letters invisible until a wearer decides to activate them to be seen.

Two display options are instantly available for a wearer to activate by simply pressing an embedded switch in the sleeve. One will trigger a high intensity light output in the visible range so that surrounding observers are aware of the identity of law enforcement or a person of authority and the second option allows for one to emit Infrared through the letters for only others in a team can identify without allowing casual observers to see the display with the unaided eye.

In addition, the optical fibers embedded in the jacket have four purposes. 1. Light output in the Visible range, 2. IR Output (940nm.), 3. IR encrypted data output and 4. IR receiver channeling IR data through the optical fibers to a sensor buried inside the jacket. The diagrams show the method of displays and one example shows a security person wearing a jacket with embedded optics transmitting in the IR range. This could be useful for casino security monitors to show their security staff in plain clothes via the light output. IFF for military, police, DEA, classified research facilities, and useful for body armor covers to determine if the downed soldier is dead, hurt, and alive via bio-feedback data from the embedded optics no matter what his position on the ground since the optic receptors and transmitters are unaffected outside of any puncture made to the vest.

  • Awards

  • 2012 Top 100 Entries

Voting

Voting is closed!

  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Harry Wainwright
  • Type of entry:
    individual
  • Profession:
    Educator
  • Number of times previously entering contest:
    3
  • Harry's favorite design and analysis tools:
    Powerpoint
  • Harry's hobbies and activities:
    Inventing
  • Harry is inspired by:
    Imagination and seeing the world through a lens of improvement and convenience.
  • Software used for this entry:
    ppt
  • Patent status:
    pending