Inventor

WHEN Dean Cameron’s six-year-old son Ziggy presented him with a prototype nose muff, the environmental scientist turned inventor knew for sure the condition was genetic.

“My family are all problem solvers,” says Cameron, who lives in Maleny, Queensland, with his partner Jenny Allen and their two children. “I didn’t have a choice, really, about becoming an inventor. We must be genetically coded with the creativity and determination needed.”

That determination, “probably to the point of obsession, but with a vital understanding of scientific methods”, has led to Cameron’s pre-eminence in the sometimes arcane world of inventing.

With his latest product, Joinlox, a joining system that replaces nuts, bolts, welding and glue, Cameron is among 25 finalists in the INNOVIC International Next Big Thing Award, the winners of which will be announced next Thursday.

The award showcases the best in Australian and international innovation. Products Joinlox will be pitted against include a paper water bottle, a musical robot, a biodegradable fishing sinker and a moveable power point.

In 2006 Cameron was an International Next Big Thing finalist with the Biolytix retrofit septic tank. The Biolytix sewage system subsequently won a swag of awards, including the Asian Innovation Award from a field of 260 companies from 16 countries, and Cameron will be in New York on July 16 as a strong contender for the World Technology Award for the Environment.

The former earthmover, horticulturalist and apparatus designer for the University of Melbourne is mixing it with the world’s most creative minds.

It was at Melbourne University that he came up with one of his first inventions: the LED bicycle light.

“I made up a few of them for people at the university and one said I should patent it,” Cameron says. “I didn’t and history has taught me a valuable lesson about the value of intellectual property.”

Later, applying his observations of how nature breaks down waste in moist soil, he invented Biolytix, which has the potential to provide an ultra low-cost sewage system to billions of people worldwide who do not have access to safe sanitation. Biomimicry, copying nature, also helped him design Joinlox: the hooks that join and lock parts emulate the attachment principle used by clams to secure a foothold on rocks in the surf.

“When I learned how they bond I knew I was on the right track,” he says.
Cameron is driven by his passion for his work and belief in his products.

“I often work 16 hours a day. Fortunately I can survive on about four hours’ sleep so I can also have quality time with my family,” he says. “For me, early morning is the best time to do speculative work and it is the time the creative juices are flowing.”

Asked why he invents, Cameron replies: “The same reason people do crossword
puzzles: curiosity and the pleasure of getting it right. I see better ways of doing things and don’t stop until I have improved them significantly.” While he admits he’s a visionary, “at the same time I must know when to let my invention go off to school without me”.

“This is usually at the early stages of commercialisation, when the invention is a business in its own right and a CEO can run it better than me,” he says.

The transition from brilliant idea to commercial reality is where INNOVIC can help.
The Melbourne-based, not-for-profit organisation, established more than 20 years ago, provides a range of practical services to inventors, innovators and small businesses, turning viable ideas into sustainable businesses. Since 1987 INNOVIC chief executive Joss Evans has helped evaluate 30,000 new ideas, from ones she describes as “off-the-wall” — including cheese-flavoured cigarettes and pet umbrellas — to those that provide real solutions in clever and cost-effective ways. “It is dangerous to dismiss ideas out of hand; who would have thought pet rocks or Rubik’s cube would have been successful, and why are we all paying for bottled water?” Evans says.

In her experience inventors come from a diverse range of backgrounds — scientists, housewives, students, white and blue-collar workers — and while mainly in the 30-55 age range, she has worked with inventors in their 80s and 90s.

“People [who] live in country areas tend to be resourceful and innovative. They come up with novel ways of doing things, from picking and sorting fruit to securing fences or saving water,” Evans says. “But whatever their background, inventors seem to share common traits: curiosity, imagination and persistence.” Sadly, if an inventor’s prime motivations are money and fame, they are probably doomed to disappointment.

“Only about 3 per cent to 4per cent are likely to go on to start successful new enterprises or to make money from their new ideas,” she says.

But there are success stories. “Clients INNOVIC has helped, and finalists in the International Next Big Thing Award, generate more than $139 million in sales a year and export to 42 countries,” Evans says.

“They may not all be rich and famous but they are ordinary Australians who have successfully pursued their good ideas.”