Eureka! A soda bottle with push-button flavors
Tod Woolf has always been an idea guy.
The Sudbury resident once dreamed up an office chair that would exercise your arms and legs while you worked at a computer. He invented a special apron to protect scientists from radiation, an item that's used in labs today.
His latest brainstorm? A bottle that allows you to change the flavor of your drink at the touch of a button.
The 42-year-old cellular and molecular biologist said that he's had ideas for eight or nine zany projects rolling around in his head for the last 20 years, but he never had time to get to them until recently because he was too busy building his biotech company.
When he sold Sequitur Inc. three years ago, he figured it was the perfect time to put a few of those ideas on paper, and founded an invention company, Ipifini, based in Sudbury.
``Every morning he comes down, he has some new idea," said his wife, Laura. ``He's constantly coming up with new ideas."
Collaborating with Glenn Wachler, his best friend since childhood, and Andrew Marks, Ipifini's vice president of technology development, the Harvard PhD says their latest creation -- the bottle allowing people to customize the flavors of their drink -- will be ``huge."
Since Woolf and his colleagues went public with the design this spring, they have attracted the attention of
Here's how it works: When a button on the bottle is pushed, a liquid-filled bubble bursts inside, releasing the flavor. The way Woolf envisions it, a bottle could have buttons for lemon, lime, vanilla, and cherry flavors, not to mention a button controlling its caffeine content.
It could also be an environmentally friendly product, he said. One bottle could be equipped with four lemon, four lime , or four cherry buttons. A customer could refill it with water, press a button, and have a fresh drink in the same bottle.
The trio came up with the concept after honing in on the beverage industry. ``We thought, `Everyone drinks. If we could get a piece of that market, that would be valuable,' " said Wachler, whose other pursuits include designing jeweled statues, writing motivational essays , and building custom homes.
Woolf said he noticed there are dozens of different drinks taking up space on supermarket shelves, with many of them varying only slightly -- one might have a touch of lemon, another a touch of lime. He said the arrangement struck him as kind of silly, and he wondered whether there might be a way to consolidate them.
The inventors considered putting a flavor in the cap but realized someone had already patented that idea. That's when they came up with the button bottles, which they expect will be commonly known as ``choice packs."
Woolf's Sudbury kitchen became his laboratory as he tried to create a prototype by retrofitting soda bottles. ``There would be bottles everywhere, and food coloring," Laura said.
One day she accidentally knocked over and broke one of his prototype bottles. Since then, he has worked on the designs in the basement, where he has set up a lab. He recently rented space in the Mill Village office complex, where he does work as a biotech consultant and for Ipifini.
Ipifini's first invention was the ``innovation engine," a software program that generates new product concepts and helps prepare a patent. Woolf said it was useful in coming up with the idea for the button-operated bottle and preparing their bid for a patent.
The partners have submitted a 150-page patent application for the ``choice pack" bottle. It may be possible to secure a patent within a year, Woolf said.
Friends are not surprised to learn that Woolf is making the transition from biology, where he invented custom chemicals for research, to consumer products.
``That's just another example of how unconventional he is," said Dmitry Samarsky, who served as Woolf's director of technology at Sequitur.
Wachler, who brainstorms with Woolf by phone from his home in Michigan, said he encouraged him to leave the corporate world and do something where his creativity would be appreciated. ``He is a brilliant guy and I always thought he would win some sort of Nobel Prize," he said. ``He's a very unique person in the way he thinks."
Woolf said some other ideas he'd like to pursue are ``three-dimensional keys" for keyboards that type different letters depending on how hard you push them, and software that reduces repetitive stress injury from computer use. But for now, his company is focusing on perfecting the programmable liquid container.
Woolf's three children are among his biggest fans. His youngest, Max, even calls the invention by its longer name, mangling the pronunciation as a 4-year-old is prone to do, Laura Woolf said.
``The kids," Tod Woolf said, ``they really want to see this in stores. They want to go in there one day and say `There's the stuff my dad invented.' And so do I."
