Mulyan Public School’s, Daniel Patterson’s idea was deemed among the most original, creative, practical, imaginative and innovative from over 950 entries received nationally.

Daniel is one of four award winners in the Grade 3 and Grade 4 category for his “InvisTel” and is now in the running to win a trip to NASA as the National Winner in his age category.

Daniel’s invention is a multi-use, everyday personal guide for use by people with Autism Spectrum Disorder to make daily living happier and easier.

Daniel sometimes has trouble remembering what to do in the morning or during the day, and while he uses visual charts and stop signs to assist him, they can be annoying as other people can see them.

Using a programmable App connected via Bluetooth to an earpiece and a small side-of-head camera (with audio input), InvisiTel provides reminders for daily routines, sentence suggestions, personal space warnings and more.

Daniel said that while he had had a few ideas his dad helped him to pin down “InvisTel”.

“From the first day I started writing down ideas for different inventions and the next day my dad helped me choose, eventually we got down to the details, wrote everything down and filmed the (entry) video,” he said.

Some of Daniel’s other ideas included a decision maker which was eventually included in IvisTel, a safety button, a pollution extractor for car fumes.

“I had a few others I juggled around and had a play with and eventually my dad helped my chose InvisTel,” he said.

When asked how he felt at being a finalist Daniel said he was “stoked, absolutely stoked”.

The judges commented that Daniel’s idea was a great one that had the potential to make a big difference for people, but Daniel just wanted to thank his dad.

“There were times when I was feeling really confident and times when I wasn’t sure I could go on but dad gave me motivation and that’s kept me going,” he said.

“I’d love to say thanks to my dad he’s helped my the most, he’s given me lots of motivation and I think it’s really helpful to know helped to create a winning idea.

As a finalist Daniel will receive a $1000 cash prize and his school will receive a $500 classroom science kit.

Daniel’s dad Dave Patterson said he was thrilled at the result.

“It’s great hes always had a very inquisitive mind from a young age, this was a great outlet, a school holiday activity, it was good to go through the problem solving and creative process with him,” he said.

“The initial idea was his but it was a process of looking at the judging criteria and simply asking him questions like what problems do you face everyday and how do you think you would solve them and just building the idea and process from there.

Former host of ABC’s The New Inventors and Origin littleBIGidea ambassador and competition judge, James O’Loghlin, said all the judges were impressed with this years entries.

“This year’s winning littleBIGideas have impressed the judges with their interesting use of new and existing technologies to solve problems, with some ideas showing real potential to be developed and find a market,” he said.

Jon Briskin, Retail General Manager for Origin said the future was in good hands.

“If the quality of these entries is anything to go by – then Australia’s innovation future is in extremely good hands. 

“The creativity and innovation displayed in the entries was extraordinary, so all of the children who entered should be extremely proud”.

Origin’s littleBIGidea encourages children to think creatively about how to solve real world problems – and aims to foster problem solving skills, curiosity and adaptability.

Thousands of ideas have been submitted to Origin’s littleBIGidea in the last three years, with some previous winners going on to commercialise their ideas and others using the opportunities presented by the competition to further their study and career ambitions.

Daniel’s “InvisTel” will be competing against, Bridgette Veneris Band student from St Joseph’s in Victoria and her Band Aid Dispenser, Ava Hickcox student from Essex Heights Primary School in Victoria and her Medipoles and lastly Olivia Maddison student from St Hilda's School in Queensland and her Help the Homeless Vending Machine.

While the winners of the won’t be announced until November 9 Daniel said he wanted to keep inventing into the future.

“I wan’t to become an electrical engineer and invent lots of other things, knowing that I’ve made it to the finals has given me the motivation to keep inventing and will give me a boost to keep going,” he said.