The Finnish Invention Foundation finances around 150 new inventions each year, with enthusiastic Finns coming up with a whopping 15,000 new ideas annually.
The organisation’s director Juha Jutila said the number of inventions shows Finnish people’s ability to solve problems. He noted that every Monday his team looks through the new ideas and almost every month find something that excites them.
Jutila explained that the problem for private inventors isn’t a lack of ideas; it’s often simply just a lack of funding. He pointed out that it’s also often extremely difficult to find customers.
Among the most notable inventions was a device by Henry Rimminen’s that analyses the emotional state of a person by measuring changes in the finger. Rimminen explained that emotional states have been measured through the skin’s electrical conductivity for many years, but his invention is smaller and wireless. He noted, however, that such an invention was a big step forward.
Another of the most noteworthy inventions was a home alcohol testing kit. Inventor Petri Sarkela explained that a testing strip measures the alcohol level in your saliva, turning different colours depending on what the level’s at. He added that it can be altered to be in line with the varying limits of different countries.
Tom Ek, meanwhile, invented a removable private handle that enables people to lock a door to keep out children, workmen or animals, for example. He said he has received so many enquiries about the invention, noting that parents may consider it the perfect way to keep the kids out of the bedroom when they want some alone time.