French teen turns heads with 'sunflower' umbrella

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2005

EPINAL, France (AFP) — A 16-year-old French boy, Vincent Bouchard, has won a science award promoted by the French magazine Science et Vie Junior for his invention of a 'sunflower' umbrella, which automatically turns its canopy to block out the sun as it shifts in the sky.

"I don't plan on marketing it, it was just to participate in the competition," Bouchard told AFP Wednesday after picking up the prize and its purse of 2,500 euros (3,000 dollars).

The contraption is fitted with a photo-sensitive plate, an electronic circuit and a motor that draws its power from a nine-volt battery.

© 2005 AFP