(by Alberto Minazzi).
A wide variety of innovations are being showcased at the 60 stands of the International Inventors Exhibition opening Friday at the Pala Expo in Venice.
The groundbreaking inventions on display until Sunday include the recreation of a virtual fire evacuation, a 'homeboard' - a skateboard built to go downhill - and an anti-theft device for bikes that blocks pedals and can be used on any bicycle.
The exhibition is also showcasing chairs that can be easily assembled and disassembled, positioning each of the chair's 60 components in a different manner, as well as a home that can be built with bricks similar to those of Lego and Meccano constructions.
Flavio Lanese of Aosta, the man behind the innovative method enabling anyone to build a wall, said he came up with the idea in New York when he saw "a skyscraper being 'dismantled' to build a bigger one, reusing in another destination the old building's materials without destroying them".
Lanese said the bricks are assembled through a modular mechanism, with a steel grid that makes the walls solid and anti-seismic and an internal canalization for wires and tubes.
He added that anyone can do the construction work and no permits are required, because it is not a building intervention due to its characteristics.
The ongoing exhibition also devotes special attention to the disabled.
There is a sound bracelet for blind children and a paddle boat that doubles up as a wheelchair called Silvoga.
Its inventor Silvio Taddei, a native of the northern Trentino Alto Adige region who lives in Peschiera, said the system allows people to get into the water without getting wet through a mechanism that uses retractile oars.
"I was specialized in garage doors, then two years ago I had this idea, which I progressively improved through tests on Lake Garda, and now I can be on the water in winter or swim during the summer since the tilting structure helps to easily get back on board," said Taddei.
After obtaining an international patent, Taddei said he is now looking for investors to turn his prototype into a product.
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