Laser Finger

Twenty teams from high schools across the United States are showing off their inventions this week during the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams Odyssey at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge. Last fall, each team received a grant of up to $10,000 from the Lemelson-MIT Program to create a solution to a problem they chose.

The three-day event, which ends Friday, enables students to show off their inventions, which run the gamut from health, safety and environment-oriented gadgets to consumer products and assistance-offering devices.

Palo Alto High School students from California demonstrate the Laser Finger, a head-mounted remote-control device for people who have quadriplegia.