Show targets inventors for 'Everyday Edisons'

A new reality series has come up with a way to help those who have an idea for an invention that will change the world but just need someone to help them get it off the ground.\nSaturday producers for the PBS show "Everyday Edisons" will be in Indianapolis looking for new inventions and their creators to feature in the show's second season, which will air sometime next year.\n"We're not looking for anything high-tech, no nanotechnology or anything like that," executive producer Louis Foreman said. "We're looking for things with everyday benefits."\nInventions featured on the first season of the show, which will begin airing nationwide in September, include a new tool for scrapbooking and new food service items, but a successful new idea could be as simple as a board or card game, Foreman said.\nThe important thing is that the idea can be patented, so that the inventor can receive royalties. Inventors featured on the show will receive income from their creations for the \nnext 20 years.\nThough "Everyday Edisons" falls under the category of reality TV, Foreman points out that the show is not out to humiliate people. In the first season, the show follows 14 inventors from the basic outline of their creation to what he calls "the happy ending," where the invention is licensed and put on store shelves.\n"There's more of a documentary element to it," he said. "We want to inspire people, to teach them the proper ways to generate valuable ideas. We're not out to find the \nnext William Hung."\nForeman compared the audition process to that of PBS-mainstay "Antiques Roadshow" because people have the market for their ideas judged and checked for patentability and are then given advice on how to improve it.\nIndianapolis may not be the first city that comes to mind when thinking of hotbeds for innovation, but part of the reason producers chose the city for auditions is the ideas that come from the state's colleges.\n"We tried to target markets with good universities and engineering programs nearby," said Michael Cable, another executive producer of the show.\nCall-outs will be held at WFYI, 1401 N. Meridian St., in Indianapolis. Registration begins at 7 a.m. and those who arrive by 3 p.m. are guaranteed auditions, according to \na press release.\nRegistration forms will be available at WFYI or can be accessed online at http://EverydayEdisons.com.