Order of Constantine and past Consul, Tom Downing (62-F), did not let the grass grow under his feet during the pandemic.  Tom’s father was a doctor of osteopathic medicine, and during his career he researched new tools to improve the efficiency of his practice.  In the process he held several patents for medical instruments.  Thus on Tom’s bucket list since he was three years old was to also invent something and obtain a patent. 

Tom was working on his invention, the SmartClipz, for a couple of years, and he applied for and received a patent.  The SmartClipz is a device to hold a cell phone in place when a person bends over, thus preventing the phone from slipping into water or being damaged in a fall.

Contributed by Tom Downing: After my second drowned phone, I was expecting some real sympathy.  But all I got were stories from others of similar, and even more involved, phone damage and loss.  I checked cell phone stores and they knew what I was talking about, but sold nothing to solve this common problem.  So, I began “doodling” with various ideas.  The ideas soon evolved into a prototype that I was able to patent. 

Carrying your phone in pants pocket is safe but very inconvenient especially while driving, (Don’t text and drive).   Your shirt pocket is the perfect place.  Ladies tell me too, that they could use it when carrying their phones in their pants back pocket. 

 

I am, an older, recently retired dentist and adapting to all this new, communicating technology is not easy.  Maybe it was not being able to bend retainer wires any more or to create an aesthetic, functionally complete denture that made working to solve my cell phone problem a perfect project.  The solution seems so obvious and so simple, one thinks:  “Why didn’t I think of that”.  I like to describe the SmartClipz as:  No tech meets high tech for best tech!

Everyone and everything needs a motto, and Tom’s is, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

Tom engaged a marketing production team including a film crew, and on October 11, 2021 the film director, cameraman, sound technician, lighting expert and three actors converged to film smart phones being dropped into water and on concrete.  It could have been a costly production destroying a couple of dozen iPhones, but the director rented props.