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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 in more than 100 countries. Join the innovators who dared to dream big by entering your ideas today.

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Special Report spotlights the eight top entries in 2023 as well as past winners whose ideas are now in the market, making a difference in the world.

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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.

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Floor Surface Safety Lamp

Votes: 0
Views: 5308

Floor Surface Safety Lamp

Walking and stumbling in the dark bedroom at night is a major cause of accidents in the home. Stepping on the dog, the child’s toy, forgotten shoes, or slipping on a slippery surface will tumble both the old and the young. That’s what nightlights are for but the plug-in nightlight lights illuminate one side of the bed and is a big flare of light on the wall.

The Floor Surface Lamp patented under the bed nightlight solves this problem by lighting the floor of the entire bedroom while keeping the bedroom dark. Now there is light to the bathroom from any side of the bed. There is light for the children coming in at 2 AM because of a bad dream.

Floor Surface Lamp works great in children’s bedrooms too. Now there is no scary monster under the bed. Now mother can come in to check on kids in a dark room with only light on the floor.

Light emitting diodes mounted on the outer edge of this thin disk provide the light at night. The cost for electricity is in the order of 50¢
per year. There are no plug-in wall transformers. The efficient power supply is self contained. The lamp is always cool. Expected life time for the LEDs is over ten years.

The lamp is a – plug in and forget – appliance. There are no switches. You can’t see the light during the day. You know it is on at night when your eyes become accustom to the dark. Then the floor is lit but the room is dark.

The market potential for Floor Surface Lamp is very large because it solves a very real problem in the home in a manner far better than the old plug-in nightlight. The appealing shape, design, and color should attract the modern buyer even though it is not seen once placed under the bed. Its high efficiency will appeal to the energy efficient thinking public.

The manufacturing of this lamp would include two molded plastic parts, a few electrical parts on a printed circuit board, and the LEDs set in the rim. In large volume $3 per unit seems plausible. The circuit is similar to that used in new LED lamps that replace incandescent lamps except that the current draw from the power line is only 0.01 Amp. or 0.33 Watts.

This Floor Surface Lamp will improve the night safety in many homes by illuminating the floor of any room where it is placed.

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  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Peter Lefferson P.e.
  • Type of entry:
    individual
  • Number of times previously entering contest:
    3
  • Peter's favorite design and analysis tools:
    Orcad
    MathCad
    TurboCad
    xcel
  • For managing CAD data Peter's company uses:
    Good file magement
  • Peter's hobbies and activities:
    helping inventors prototype and ham radio
  • Peter belongs to these online communities:
    LinkedIn
  • Peter is inspired by:
    Solving a problem and filling a need.
  • Software used for this entry:
    Orcad
  • Patent status:
    patented