Inventors come to town
Sweating mannequins, coconut husking machines and walking golf trolleys are not usually par for the course at your average trade fair.
When it happens in Geneva, it can only mean that the international exhibition of inventions is in town.
This year, around 675 exhibitors from 42 countries are displaying their wares at the annual showcase of inventions, new techniques and products at the city’s Palexpo
Among the 1,000 new products this year are an electric olive-harvesting machine and hormonal therapy from Malaysia for low libido.
Detecting explosives
Over at the Russian stand, Andrey Vishnevkin from the scientific and technical centre, RATEC, in St Petersburg is displaying a new security system, which uses thermal neutron analysis to detect explosives.
It is already in use at Pulkovo airport, Saint Petersburg, and will be installed in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport later this year.
“Nitrogen is inside any kind of explosive and our system can detect nitrogen by thermal neutron irradiation,” Vishnevkin told swissinfo.
“Our system can say whether explosives are present or not, and it does not require a qualified operator.”
Cream cakes
After Russia, Malaysia, Romania and France, Switzerland is the country best represented at this year’s inventors fair.
At the Swiss booths, Heinz Stöckler, chief executive of Pro-Tent Switzerland, is busy assembling and dismantling a folding tent for use as an exhibition stand.
“It’s the first modular, foldable, architectural tent system where you can use the product both indoors and outdoors,” he says.
Meanwhile, Roland Kyburz from Erlinsbach has invented a piece of cutlery for cutting up cream cakes so that they don’t break up.
Kyburz puts his all-in-one knife and fork through its paces, demonstrating how it cuts the perfect slice.
“A colleague said he had problems when he tried slicing cream cakes,” explains Kyburz. “So I told him I’d devise a solution.”
Mastication
If you’re the sort of person who gulps down their food, you’d be advised to check out the Romanian stands where a chronometer for timing the recommended period of mastication is on display.
Sound or light signals are given when it is time to start chewing again.
Another Romanian invention is called “Sleep Well”, which is a harness that fixes to your forehead and massages your head, and is designed to help you sleep comfortably on trains, buses and cars.
My final port of call is a sweating dummy called Walter, who is used to test the breathability of clothing materials.
“This is the first sweating mannequin which sweats all over the body,” says Dr Jintu Fan of Hong Kong polytechnic university.
Each year more than 45 per cent of the inventions exhibited in Geneva are the object of licensing contracts.
Last year, contracts signed by exhibitors during and shortly after the exhibition exceeded $30 million (SFr38 million).
The fair at Palexpo runs until April 4.
swissinfo, Vincent Landon
The 32nd International Exhibition of Inventions runs at Palexpo in Geneva until April 4.
Companies, institutes and independent researchers from 42 countries are presenting about 1,000 new products.
Exhibitors have the chance to meet investors, industrialists and distributors.
Last year, contracts signed by exhibitors during and shortly after the exhibition exceeded $30 million (SFr38 million).
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