Solargorilla, a Portable Solar Charger, Among Winners at British Innovations Awards

The winners of the iawards have been announced. I wrote about the iawards back in August to encourage budding inventors to enter the awards which aim to recognise and celebrate the best British achievements in science, innovation and technology. The awards ceremony was held this week at the Science Museum and it saw the teams behind this year's best British innovations rewarded for developing practical solutions to some of society's greatest challenges. Among the winners was the Solargorilla a portable solar charger, from Powertraveller, which extends the power life of laptops and other electronic devices via the company’s Powergorilla device.

The Solargorilla can also directly charge mobile phones, iPods, handheld consoles and other devices from its 5V USB output. It works via two photovoltaic glass solar panels which produce electric current when exposed to light. To make it fit for travelling, it is housed in tough, rubberised casing. It is also water-resistant and has a portable, fold-up design.

Other winners at the awards included:

• Cortexica Vision Systems have developed an intelligent image recognition system based on the human visual cortex. Image recognition (IR) can be used to look for a logo in a stream of video, recognise a human face or match an image against a database of images.
• Visual effects software developers The Foundry have created Ocula, the first set of dedicated tools for 3D film post production. The Foundry's software tools have helped create films including Watchmen, District 9 and Quantum of Solace. Ocula will be used in James Cameron's highly anticipated film Avatar.
• The first automatic hands-free jar opener. The One-Touch automatic jar opener is a kitchen gadget that enables the easy removal of stubborn lids.

You can read a full list of all the winners on the iawards blog.