Apart from the enormous expense of patenting, the biggest problem with all these projects lay in the marketing. Often, what seemed like brilliant ideas would wither and die when exposed to the cold commercial reality of the marketplace. In general I found that people are very conservative in what they are prepared to invest in - or buy for themselves. Any dramatically new idea meets a wall of inertia.

However, "never say die" !   I have gained a lot of experience from this about how the business world works, and the current project - the revised 'Copycoder' - shows every sign of being a great success.

So here's a brief description of these projects. Most resulted in products which were taken to market but some remained simply as ideas and one (NBTV) was really a hobby. Click on the links below and enjoy !

The year 1988 saw a continuing economic boom in the UK. Designer objects were in great demand for decorating people's rooms, particularly by the so-called 'yuppies' whose values had become fashionable.

Developed to fill this need, the Harmony was inspired by the round-topped 'cathedral' look sought after by radio collectors. This compact receiver was available in a choice of four colours.

Special features included 'Tailored Tone' for excellent sound quality and 'Artificial Warm-up' on this transistorised set - for mimicking the valve radio experience !  Harmony's colourful dial was screen printed and back-lit by three lamps.

Three alternative approaches were developed to make this ''one-time'' valve, intended for sealing in the necks of whisky bottles - to prevent refilling with counterfeit liquor.

This project never progressed beyond the design stage, since the original golden promises of commercial interest never materialised once I had actually come up with a design.

The Copycoder would also work in reverse, ie. viewing the encrypted copy through it would enable this to be instantly decoded and read.

These crystal-controlled VHF modulators were available for a time. Placed between a video recorder playing a 405-line tape - and a vintage tv - they made possible the viewing of programmes on early television sets using the now-obsolete British transmission standard. For more on vintage television, click HERE.

One of my more 'unusual' hobbies, I spent untold hours constructing these television devices which used various low definition 'narrow-band' (thus NBTV) technical standards, involving mechanical (rather than electronic) scanning of the picture.

Recently, I have rebuilt the 'Grosvenor' and also made a new colour camera which provides it with live pictures. If you want to see these working, come to the annual Narrow Band Television Association convention at Loughborough University.  The NBTVA is a thriving club devoted to NBTV and you can click HERE to take a look.  Lastly you can click HERE to see a 240-line test card as it would appear if transmitted in frame-sequential colour (127KB .avi). Be sure to have your movie viewer set to 'repeat forever' or it won't work.

On inserting a ticket (bearing an invisible message printed in photochromic ink) into the slot, there would then be an internal 'flash'. On removing the ticket - lo-and-behold - you could read the message.

The first product, called the 'Magic Box' had been a unit containing a car radio as the FM tuner and included an AM modulator built up on Veroboard.

You can read the whole story of the project HERE. and take a look at the brochure HERE. There is also more information on the Retrovisor HERE.

DETINNITISER

In April 2003, following an ill-advised course of intensive neck massage, I suddenly started suffering from tinnitus, a distressing condition which causes a phantom 'sound' to be heard continuously. In my case this was a high-pitched shrieking whistle in both ears. Although it would vary throughout the day, there seemed to be no escape from it. My quality of life seemed to have gone. For a while I even considered doing myself in.

I then started to develop various ideas in an attempt to relieve this condition. Two lines of inquiry met with success. The first was to wear a small amplifier which only amplified sound around the tinnitus frequencies. This replaced the tinnitus 'noise' with information-bearing sound and the brain then couldn't hear the tinnitus. The second method involved generating a special signal which exploits a natural effect in the hearing system called 'residual inhibition'.

Today this has been taken much further and already the third version of the now established 'Detinnitiser', which does all the above (and much more) is in preparation.

Please click here for more information: www.detinnitiser.com

Today this continues as an occasional design-to-order web design business.