Inventor Peter Kennedy Inspires DHS Students

Everyone at some point in their life has come up with at least one good idea for an invention that in some way would improve the way we live.   Most of us, however, rarely write these novel ideas down let alone act upon them.  In fact, we usually ultimately end up forgetting about them entirely.   Luckily, inventor Peter J. Kennedy is not like most of us and has always had a notebook or cell phone on hand to write down his many magnificent ideas.

This week, students at Darien High School in IDEA, Engineering, and AP Computer classes had the privilege of hearing Kennedy speak about his many inventions ranging from the standard layout of the computer keyboard to the “pinch” screen zoom used on the iPhone.  

This unique opportunity was arranged by IDEA teacher Andrea Aaron who learned about Kennedy from his grandson Aidan Kennedy who is in Aaron’s 3rd grade IDEA class at Royle Elementary.   While the 3rd grade IDEA curriculum focuses on inventors, Aaron recognized that students at DHS would greatly benefit from hearing about Kennedy’s creative experiences and asked Kennedy if he would come and share his sage advice with the students.

Kennedy told the students that he always had an interest in how things worked, so much so, that he owned and operated a TV repair shop while he was in high school.   After high school, went on to get a BS in Electrical Engineering and a MS in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Miami.

Kennedy has 13 issued patents, with three more pending, and has published 133 articles.    He has been a Human Factors Manager at IBM, Dell, Compact, Sony-Ericsson, and Apple.   Kennedy started inventing when he was a child living in Florida, where he still lives today, and continues to generate invention ideas from everyday experiences.

Kennedy, for example, was working in the Human Factors engineering at Apple when he noticed the use of proximity detectors on the floor buttons in an elevator.   Kennedy realized the practical implications a proximity detector could have in a hand held device such as the iPhone and created the technology to allow the screen to recognize finger movements such as the “pinch” to zoom in and out (a.k.a. US Patents 7,653,883 and 8,381,135).

Kennedy also invented the intellectual property known as Dynamic Inventory Management for Deployed Assets that enables the military to locate its troops as well as the general public to find their misplaced phones.   Also among Kennedy’s very notable patented inventions are the Mobile Phone Amber Alert Notification System, the System and Methods for Video Conferencing, and the Anti-Aliased Fonts which enable people to read material on a computer screen easier and faster (prior to his invention people read computer material 20% - 30% slower than hard copy material). 

Kennedy assured the DHS IDEA and Tech-Ed students that they all had the potential to be successful inventors.  He advised them that when they think they have finally succeeded in inventing something, to re-construct it a few more times from the start just to ensure its viability.  He told them to document their progress, dating and signing each entry, and once they were certain their invention was solid, to hire a patent lawyer to assist them in establishing their ownership of the intellectual property with a patent. 

The Darien Advocates for the Education of the Gifted or DAEG supports the IDEA program, which is Darien public school’s gifted education program.  The DAEG is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote excellent in education for all Darien students through IDEA as well as through a variety of extracurricular enrichment programs.   Anyone interested in learning about the DAEG or IDEA can visit their website at DAEG.org.