Clever ideas are in plentiful supply at the 2008 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition now under way at the RDS in Dublin. Student innovators have built a robot that can warn of fires, a web browser for use by the colour blind and work is under way on a fog detector that automatically switches on a car's fog lamps.
The exhibition is now in its 44th year, but the ideas just keep on coming.
Thomas Dempsey and Daniel Hobbs, two first years attending Maynooth Post Primary School are a case in point, devising an environmentally inclined robot that could also increase safety in the home.
Their project "Envirobot" is based on the Quadrabot, supplied by Longford-based iBOTZ (Ireland) Ltd. This four-legged, mobile robot bug can be programmed in a variety of ways to detect light, smoke or smog and also the intense light given off by a live fire.
"We decided to do a project that mixed technology and the environment," explained Daniel. They had seen a TV programme about the waste of energy in the home and this gave them the idea. "A lot of energy is wasted by leaving lights on in unoccupied rooms," he said, pointing to a chart showing the hundreds of euro wasted each year in a typical home.
For this reason they programmed the Envirobot to locate light sources and either beep or do a little jig once detected.
The robot will also detect smog or smoke which diminishes a light source and can also track down the source of a fire based on light intensity.
"We had to write the programmes and download them to the robot and then make sure it was working," Thomas said. "We have been working on it for about six months," Daniel added. Although only 13, both are veterans of the Young Scientist having participated last year in the primary school section of the event.
Similar clever thinking was evident in the project prepared by Adam Keilthy (14) and Conor Scully (13) second years from Sutton Park School in Dublin. They developed a web browser that first scans and then changes screen colours to improve the view for those with red-green colour blindness.
"We built a web browser that would automatically adjust so you can see it better," explained Adam. Those with this common genetic disorder find it difficult or impossible to differentiate between green and red. Many web pages make ample use of these colours, making it difficult for the colour blind to read them. Adam wrote software that scans pixel by pixel, changing green to turquoise and red to purple.
"You can get yellow-blue colour blindness and total colour blindness, but these two conditions are very rare so we didn't programme for them," added Conor.
They also conducted a survey of classmates finding that 8 per cent of the boys had red-green colour blindness and one girl out of 90 female classmates.
Improving vision in a different way was the goal of Amy Moore (15), Mary Maher (16) and Ciara Horan (16), fourth year students from the Dominican College, Drumcondra. They began developing a way to detect the presence of fog and automatically switch on a car's fog lamps.
The idea came after the death last March in Kildare of Kate Moyle, who died in a road crash related to heavy fog.
"We tried to see if there was a unique component in fog that would trigger a switch," said Amy, but this proved very difficult. They found that a two-part switch was needed, one that responded to moisture and also changing light conditions.
They met weather experts from Met Éireann and built a variety of circuits that could deliver a switch that would improve road safety.
They realised that they did not have the right components for the job but have come up with a new design that might work, and which could provide a project for the 2009 Young Scientist exhibition.