The great inventors of this generation have gone the extra mile this year. In fact, the James Dyson Award has never received more entries than in 2021! James Dyson, himself, set this award up to motivate the creatives to really stand out and make a positive change. Over the years, we’ve witnessed some truly incredible innovative works – this year is no different.
From health to the environment, these three 2021 winners of the James Dyson Award are making a real difference to the world.
International winner – HOPES, designed by Kelu Yu, Si Li and David Lee
It is estimated that over 300,000 Australians have glaucoma, and yet half don’t even know it. HOPES, designed by Kelu Yu, Si Li and David Lee is a wearable biomedical device for pain-free, low cost, at-home IOP testing.
After setting up a profile in the app, the user wears the HOPES glove with the sensor placed at the fingertip, pressing this against the centre of the eyelid. The fingertip sensor then picks up on signals that can accurately display users’ IOPs.
Sustainability winner – Plastic Scanner, invented by Jerry de Vos
Only 1/3 of Australia’s plastic packaging waste is recycled. The reason for this is that many people assume that it isn’t recyclable, so it is left in landfills or worse yet on beaches, in parks, and on the street. However, with the right technology, plastics can be given a whole new lifecycle as a new product.
But how do we know which material is which? What type of plastics are recycled in which way?
The handheld Plastic Scanner uses infrared light to detect the plastic components. With this, people will be able to not only know what type of plastic is in their materials but also how to properly recycle them.
Medical winner – REACT, invented by Joseph Bentley
Do you know how long it takes for someone to bleed out? Sometimes, under 5 minutes. Over the past 20 years, knives have been involved in almost 40% of Australia’s murders and the average response time for code one emergencies (2018/19) was 24 minutes.
What’s the solution? If response time can’t get faster, then the only way forward is to slow down the rate of the bleeding. The REACT device (which stands for Rapid Emergency Actuating Tamponade) aims to do exactly that.
How does it work?
The device is inserted into the knife wound. The device is connected to the tamponade valve which inflates to a defined pressure depending on the wound. This could theoretically stop potential haemorrhages in under a minute, saving hundreds of lives each year.
To read more about these incredible inventions, click here.