Phillip Torrone & Natalie Zee of MAKE magazine (disclaimerFull disclosure: I am editor-in-chief of MAKE) filed an on -the-scene report of their visit to the American Inventor reality TV show opening day in San Francisco.
Some of the ideas came from kid inventors with their parents prompting them to show what they made, from a new board game to aerodynamic car ornament. A farmer who invented an inflatable bra was inspired to design the product by his 3 daughters. A woman spent over $350,000 developing a special diaper bag. An elderly man is working on an odor eliminating toilet seat.
The producers of the show said out of the 400 in LA, they'll call back around 100. The team of judges are patent lawyers, TV executives, and CEO/author Pamela Riddle who , wrote "Inventing for Dummies." Pamela commented on the large number of inventors who unfortunately spend a lot of money and time working with the infomercial "invention" companies who advertise with an 1-800 number late at night. "Every idea is good to them, and it can cost up to $11,000 to be listed in their database, I've never known any inventor in my 20 years in the business who got their product to market with any of these companies," says Pamela.
