Gadget Nation. FastPencil Premiere

New Hampshire, I would often take Bonnie in the car with me for several hours, and I’d bring along water for her, but it would spill.” The final straw occurred when Rich took Bonnie on vacation and the water bowl spilled right onto the dog bed, leaving Bonnie with a soaking wet bed. That’s when he came to the conclusion there had to be a better way, or at least a drier way.

      Rich is an engineer with twenty-five years of experience. “I looked to see what was on the market,” he says, “and everything either looked good but didn’t work, or worked but was huge”—way too big for an ordinary car .

      “Dogs have a spectacular need for water, and not just in the heat. Even in moderate or cool weather, dogs need a lot of water in the car. I felt I could fill a need that a lot of people didn’t even realize their dogs have: water is so important for both their safety and comfort.”

      Rich already had “20-something” patents to his credit, including the flexible deck on treadmills and the cord that attaches telephones to the back of airplane seats. But it was the idea for a mobile pet water bowl that led Rich to give over the management of his engineering business to his wife and devote himself full-time to developing a no-spill pet water bowl.

      Inspired by travel coffee mugs, which are well-designed to prevent spills, Rich developed a design to fit in an ordinary car cup holder and assembled his own prototypes, which he and his wife test drove in their Jeep Wrangler along their half-mile-long bumpy driveway. “But nothing worked well. As an engineer, I wanted a product that would work perfectly.”

      Using his engineering skills, Rich was able to build prototypes quickly, easily, and inexpensively. After setting up a wooden platform test bed to test his designs, Rich mounted a video camera at very close range to record the tests, and then watched the video frame by frame to find the key to a no-spill design.

      After a few final changes, Rich solved the mystery. “I’m amazed at how well it works now.” And most important, “Bonnie loves it.”

      The Mo-Bowl went into production in September 2005 and is now available on the Internet and at pet stores. Rich’s next steps include getting the word about the Mo-Bowl directly to consumers via media coverage. In one successful appearance, Rich and Mo-Bowl were featured on a Home & Garden television show. He got the lead for this show through a connection he’d made at a local inventors’ club, a networking opportunity he advises other inventors to pursue.

      As for additional advice for would-be inventors, Rich offers these words of caution: “If you have an idea and you want to turn it into an invention, it may take a couple of years of your life full time—that is, if you’re lucky. It will require money, so be careful not to waste $100,000 in the process.”

      Help Alerter™

       He Saw the Light … and It Was Flashing HELP

      When Dave Meester prayed for help, he got the Help Alerter. Dave said something from above gave him the idea for a license plate holder that quickly converts into a flashing Help sign.

      Dave Meester had been downsized out of a job six months before, and his spirits needed a lift. He looked to the heavens for help and found his answer in giving help to others.

      Dave thought of the time his wife, Barbara, had to pull her car to the side of the road and wait nearly three hours before anyone stopped to help her. Add to that the frequent carjacking stories in the news, and Dave realized the need for drivers to have some way to safely alert others that they need help.

      Dave doesn’t think of himself as an inventor. He credits the idea of the Help Alerter to divine inspiration and went straight to his workshop. Weeks later, he came out with a license plate holder that quickly converted into a flashing Help sign.

      He made the first prototype case out of plywood, borrowed the pivot arms from pieces of an old fishing tackle box, and used dome lightbulbs for lighting. Since then, he’s refined the design and spent serious money to have good prototypes handmade by a prototype builder.

      He plans on offering two models—one that is manually activated by getting out of the car and pulling the license plate down, and a more expensive model that is activated inside the car with a button on the floorboard.

      “Say you’re being carjacked. If you have a cell phone, could you use it? If you have OnStar, could you use it? Probably not without jeopardizing your situation. A silent button on the floorboard that activates the Help Alerter might be the only thing that would help you in this situation. This could be the only chance you have. People would see the flashing Help sign and call the police.”

      Dave spent a year of weekends and evenings doing his own market research. “I would find a stretch of road where I’d pretend my car had broken down. I’d pull over to the side of the road, use my flashers, sit inside the vehicle—and wait. The average time I’d sit there before anyone would stop was twenty to thirty minutes. Then I’d do the same thing using the Help Alerter. My wait time was between eight and ten minutes—a drastic reduction in time! Plus, a police officer would stop more often when I used the Help Alerter than when I didn’t.”

      He discovered that the higher police officer involvement was a result of people calling 911 on their cell phones to report a stranded motorist, even if they didn’t stop.

      Dave explains, “A lot of people, especially women, are afraid to stop to help. But when they see that flashing request for help, they will make a phone call.”

      Dave’s not yet at the point of having the Help Alerter manufactured. That’s the next step. I’d guess I have $60,000 to $75,000 invested. A good chunk of that went to three marketing groups, who were supposed to make it a reality and get it to market. None of them produced a good result. That’s why Richard, a retired friend, and I are doing it ourselves. Richard wants to get involved because he feels it will be a hot item. I think they’ll go like hotcakes.”

      Of 250 people Dave surveyed, 80 percent said they would buy the Help Alerter when it becomes available. He’s got believers in the local sheriff’s department, too. The York County, South Carolina, sheriff’s department wants to do a TV commercial to endorse it. Dave knows an official endorsement can go a long way in alerting the public and advancing this venture.

      Dave didn’t think he could get a patent—he says he’s no genius. He was sure someone else had already come up with this simple idea. But the patent was his for the taking. Perhaps there was a bit of divine intervention for this invention. After all, Dave did get a sign.

      Cast Skate™

       Cast Away

      When Bob Bentivegna was forced to take an early retirement from