Inventors and Their Inventions

James Delaney
Trampoline video game controller
Delaney's wife is the origin of his idea: "Nyssa asked me to get her a mini trampoline as a gift. After about a week of using it, she said it was getting boring. Then she asked if it could be hooked up to a video game. I figured that this would be easy. It turned out to be a little harder than I imagined." Delaney is presently attempting to obtain a patent. The current version of the controller relies on a solid piece of plastic instead of LEGO, which is employed in the prototype version pictured above.

• 50 Best Inventions 2009