Voting results

Central locking for houses - 22.4% Gym Generator - 18.7% Sticky tape end finder - 13.6% Nursery/old folks centre - 13.1% SMS car alarm - 10% Sausage toaster 7% Phone your VCR - 6.4% Folding lunchbox 4.2% Talking roads 2.7% Queen by proxy 1.5%

The UK's most famous inventor, Trevor Baylis, famed for his clockwork radio, was impressed with the idea.

"There's an invention in all of us," he said. But the question people don't know the answer to, when they have had a good idea, is what to do next.

The answer, he says, is to do a search at the British Museum to see if anyone has had the idea before. If no-one has, then the next step is to file a patent.

"Nobody will pay you for a good idea. But people will pay you for a piece of paper which says you own that good idea."

Getting a patent attorney on your side can be important, he says, because they may well foresee other uses your invention could be put to.

As for Central Locking for Houses, though, he fears someone might have had the idea already - probably someone who has a patent on hotel smart card entry devices who saw a potential use in the house.

Next steps for inventors

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"There's no disrespect if someone has had your idea before - great minds think alike of course," he says.

And there is good news if someone has already had your idea - that just shows it was a good idea. And it's perfectly possible to train yourself to come up with more ideas.

"Ideas people" come in all types, from the unsuspecting innocent bystander who is suddenly struck by genius, to the proven masters of ideas who deliver the goods time and again.

Stephanie Beamish of the Institute for Social Inventions says the late Lord Young was such a person. Things he left society include the Open University and the Consumer's Association. He also wrote the revolutionary 1945 Atlee manifesto which brought about the Welfare State.

And while few of us might have the impact on society that Lord Young - or even Trevor Baylis - had, everyone has to start somewhere. Even if that means trying to make a sausage toaster.

The 10 candidates were:

• The sausage toaster Like a bread toaster, says Phil Davies, but intended to simplify the cooking of bangers.

• Gym generators Dynamos to harvest electricity from gym weight machines, treadmills and static bikes would be great for recharging mobiles or Walkmans, say Mark Berry, Ross Sullivan and Mark Ingram

• Sticky tape end-finder If the gum on sticky tape changed colour when it met air, finding the end would be a doddle, says Stefan Thompson.

• SMS car alarm Annoyed by screeching car alarms? A silent alarm which texts the owner's mobile phone (or the police) might be better, says Adam Wray.

• Queen by proxy Her Majesty can't get to every Jubilee street party, so why not have the palace deputise a "Queen for the day" from each neighbourhood to give every bash the royal seal of approval, asks Shi Zhou.

• Folding lunchbox A collapsing lunchbox wouldn't take up space in your bag once you've scoffed your sarnies, says Alice Pierson.

• Nursery/Old people's centre Combined day centres for the very young and very old would bring the generations together, suggests Claire Dickson.

• Set video by phone. Fed up of going out, only to realise you've forgotten to tape something? Anthony Gladman says our videos should respond to phone or e-mail commands.

• Talking roads. The "rumble strips" that alert drivers who veer off the motorway could be modified to "growl" safety messages - or tell you how far to the next services, says Formvision2001.

• House central locking. Shut your front door, and all the other doors and windows in your house should lock too, says Mark Scott.