Made in Hong Kong

Don’t let anyone tell you that Hong Kong isn’t an original city. We invented fiber optics, discovered the bacteria that causes the bubonic plague, enabled NASA’s Beagle Lander to collect soil on Mars and just recently pioneered steps to restore sight to damaged eyes with nano-scaffolds (Do they use bamboo?). So we went down to the Hong Kong Invention Association, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this month, to meet some Hong Kong eggheads and see if they still have what it takes to excite us. God, do they.

The Automatic Musical Barbeque

Inventor: Ricky Cheung
Cost: $128,000
Is Ricky Cheung the most brilliant man in Hong Kong? Very possibly. After all, he did invent the Automatic Musical Barbeque. On the face of it, it’s a steely, rather utilitarian construction: There are a bunch of heating elements, and a rotating drum where you put your skewered chicken wings. But all you have to do is plug in some music – a CD, DVD, even your iPod – and these little chicken wings will… DANCE. That’s right, they’ll dance in time to the beat. Have you ever watched Disney’s “Fantasia”? Think that, but with roasting chicken instead of timpani. Why did he do it? “No real reason. I just like eating barbequed chicken wings, really. My wife inspired me to create it after she woke up one night with the craving for them.” And the music? “Mostly for amusement. Music is important in Hong Kong and helps us to relax, so it made sense to add it to a cooking environment.” Apparently, says Ricky, “There’s a newer Taiwanese version where you can dance to the music. If your steps are wrong, then it deliberately burns your food to punish you. But if you dance well, then it’ll roast the perfect chicken.” If animals were buried, they’d probably be turning in their graves; but as it is, the spit will have to do.

The Phontuner

Inventor: SC Mok
Cost: $185
Has anyone ever told you that you have a voice like a dying hippopotamus slaughtering a pig? If so, SC Mok has the solution to all your tone-deaf needs. He’s invented the Phontuner, musical visualization software you can download to your PDA or mobile phone. Sing into it and it’ll analyze the pitch and tone of your voice and show your notes on a cool spiral “cochlea” display, so you can aspire (aspire, mind you) to perfect pitch. It even works for multiple voices: The software will pick up your (very) amateur barbershop quartet and aggregate the voices into a single diagram. It can also be used to tune your instruments, and works in noisy areas. Mok says, “A lot of our customers are musicians and music teachers. There isn’t actually a single coach who recommends my software: They feel threatened by this invention. However, they do use it personally.” Mok is also responsible for the “Star Wars Phonature Lightsaber” – oh yes, even light sabers get the musical treatment. Simply play your favorite ditty and the Lightsaber will flash along to the tune, alternating in the traditional blue, green and red.

The All-in-One-Toothbrush

Inventor: Sammy Wu
Cost: $20, including two weeks of toothpaste
“One time I went to brush my teeth when the toothpaste I squirted fell into the sink,” Sammy Wu says. “So that got me thinking: If I’m that clumsy, how do disabled and injured people cope? Some kids are clumsy, and since I have children of my own, I did it for them.” The All-in-One Toothbrush has a reservoir of toothpaste in the base, and when switched to automatic mode, it’ll squirt toothpaste onto the bristles. No batteries are required, because you just need to squeeze it. Does it have a tongue scraper? “I toyed with the idea,” he says, “but I think a teaspoon is much more effective.” At the moment it’s just a prototype, but hopefully it’ll go into production soon. Sammy’s other inventions include a self-stabilizing backpack with ventilation system and a built-in weighing scale. “School-bags these days are very heavy; now parents can keep an eye on them.”

The Multi-Function Spoon

Inventor: Wong Kwok-hung
Cost: $98
Have you ever cooked a big meal at home and thought, “Golly, what a gosh-darned lot of cutlery”? Wong Kwok-hung obviously has. “One day I saw some chefs preparing soup and they had to go through many ladles, and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if one ladle did it all?’” So he made one. Now presenting the multifunctional spoon, which boasts seven or eight different functions: traditional ladling, colander-ing, funneling, portioning, isolating, skimming and separating egg yolk. It looks like a ladle, it acts like a ladle, but it’s so much more. Wong says, “I always think of ways to build on and improve things. I’ve always thought up inventions, but this is the first time an invention has worked out for me. I’m going to do a smaller version, which is especially good for hot pot.” Wong also claims, “I was the first one to think of putting a lighter in a mobile phone, but my idea was stolen.”

The Superman Air Motor

Inventor: Kingting Lau
Cost: Patented; but good luck finding one
Yes, it really is a jetpack. Think Sean Connery in “Thunderball.” How cool is that? And what a name. What an invention. It’s basically a jet engine you strap to your back. The thrust comes from the side nozzles, and it’s up, up and away. There’s even a handy parachute in case of drastic engine failure or exposure to kryptonite.

The Fridge-to-Go

Inventor: Jackson Chan
Cost: $90-$300
The Fridge-to-Go started in 2001 when a certain airline company asked Jackson Chan to come up with an alternative to the iceboxes they were using, because the ice was melting too quickly. “It took me 15 minutes; I’m quite experienced. I came up with the idea, and went to my factory in China. It took 30 days to come up with the finished product.” The Fridge-to-Go is basically a high-tech portable icebox. You put the whole thing in the freezer, leave it for a while, and throw in your six-pack of beer and/or sawn-off human appendage for cool and easy transportation to the beach and/or harbor. It’s popular as well: The Fridge-to-Go will be on sale this month in some 6,500 stores across the US. There’s a cheesy TV campaign, and big pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, Roche and Lilly have all ordered the product. “I didn’t know I was an inventor until 2001, when the chairman of the Hong Kong Invention Association found me,” Chan laughs. “Since then, I’ve tried to act and behave more like one.” 

Walk-On-Water

Inventor: Francis Tsui
Cost: At the prototype stage - seeking investors
There are very few inventions in the world quite as cool as Francis Tsui’s “Walk-On-Water” machine. (It’s even got more functions than the multi-functional spoon.) When folded, this big device looks like a regular chair. But move the sides out and they become floats; open the seat and find a tiller; lower the back and it becomes a treadmill that drives propellers under the seat. Stick it in some open water, and voila: Instant Jesus! You’ll be walking on water in no time. But that’s not it – it’s also a jogging machine, a sit-up machine, a lilo and a water-ski. Or add a sail and it’s a windsurfer; add a lamp and you can float in the dark; add sound equipment and an umbrella, and it's all you need for a day at the beach. Tsui thought it up during the lifeguard strikes in the summer of 2004. He received a $100,000 grant from the Innovation and Technology Commission, which covered his patent applications in the US and China. He’s currently looking for investors who can cover the costs of building a prototype. Most impressively, he’s aiming for at least one Walk-On-Water in every car, and making them into life rafts-cum-seats on every boat and airplane. “I’m thinking big, like Donald Trump – he’s my role model,” says Tsui. Well, nobody’s perfect.

That's Not All

Here’s but a small sampling of the city’s many inventions: The Semi-Automatic Finger Escaper; the Musical Slide Rule; the Waterproof Many-purpose Umbrella; Euler’s Relationship Chess; the Smoke Screen; the Super Power Spotlight; the Artificial Intelligence Leg; the Natural Atmospheric Power Generation System; the Tornado Prevention System; the Energy-saving LED Fluorescent Tube; the Cool Coaster; the Continuous Flow Crossroad; Electronic Bat Ears; Non-organic Fireproof Wood; Rubber Soil; Desert Prevention Powder; the Multiple-Function Electronic Crystal Ball; Great Cosmic Chess; “Plasma formed in a liquid”; the Flexiladder; the Pizza Fork; the Sweet Spot Transformer; the Deep Water Bouyancy Balloon Electric Power Generation System; the Palm Energy Light; the Alcohol Device; and Rewritable Paper.

For more information on the Hong Kong Inventor’s Association, visit their website: www.hkia.com.hk, e-mail [email protected] or call 2368-3591.

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