A sensor that spots when a nappy needs changing, a machine to remove flies from a room without killing them and an artificially intelligent toaster that delivers the perfect level of brownness every time are among the British inventions sent for patents this year.
Some new items have featured on BBC1’s Dragons’ Den. They include the Bubblebog, a toilet design by Tristan Holbrook that uses “the natural cleaning properties of air and water” to eliminate “smell and blockages”. Holbrook failed to persuade any of the dragons to invest — but was successful in his bid for a patent.
In total, the Intellectual Property Office has received more than 16,000 applications for domestic patents over the past 12 months, although fewer than half are from
