Taiwanese inventors won 97 medals and six special prizes, including 30 gold medals, at the 2013 International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier this week.
The annual fair, which is considered the world’s largest marketplace for inventions, opened on Wednesday. A 74-member Taiwanese delegation showcased 101 inventions.
The Taiwanese inventors also won 53 silver medals and 14 bronzes.
Photo: CNA
A total of 725 exhibitors from 45 countries attended the fair — now in its 41st year — in which 1,000 new innovations were displayed, the organizers said.
Taiwan has been a medal magnet at the Geneva fair in recent years, due to its vigorous innovative and creative spirit. Last year, it won 45 gold, 52 silver and 25 bronze medals, as well as eight special prizes.
Taiwan Invention Association chief executive Chen Tsung-tai (陳宗台) said Taiwanese inventions are diverse, ranging from sophisticated high-tech equipment to simple items that are useful for people in everyday life.
Taiwan’s six winners of special prizes in the this year’s show are all conventional inventions for use in daily life, such as a “lifesaving electric socket” that shuts off automatically when a fire breaks out and activates a red guidelight to show the direction of emergency exits.
Others include an interactive plant pot that can automatically gauge the amount of water needed to maintain the plant, and a dietary supplement purported to relieve depression and suppress appetite.
The product, which also won a gold medal, is named “Happy Banana” and is made from banana skins. It was developed and produced by Taipei-based biotechnology company TCI Co.
It took two years for the firm’s research team to develop the product, which is offered in both powder and liquid forms, TCI research division chief Su Hsiang-ling (蘇香綾) said.
“Happy Banana” also won medals at invention exhibitions in Italy and Tokyo last year.
The interactive water-saving picture frame for plants attracted a lot of attention at the Geneva fair. One of its inventors, Chan Tien-ying (詹添印), said picture frames can be useful for displaying indoor plants, but the plants need to be watered.
To facilitate this, he, along with teachers and students from Far East University where he heads the General Education Center, began eight months ago to develop a frame that can automatically water the plant. It also makes sounds of insects and birds as people approach the frame.
The team studied camels, and installed a reservoir within the frame that releases water based on temperature, Chan said.
The design is supposed to allow people to have “a green corner in modern life where they can shake away stress and anxiety,” Chan said.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese