Boulder City inventor sees gadget as a key to clutter-free office

Dan Kulin

Saturday, Nov. 27, 2004 | 12:18 p.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

November 27 - 28, 2004

Boulder City resident and inventor Dean DeVolpi, tired of his pens falling to the ground while working at his desk, looked at his computer keyboard one day and thought, "Aha!"

And the Keyboard Organizer was born.

DeVolpi created a flip-top keyboard with space for computer disks, pens, rulers and other desk supplies under the keys. Thanks to years of innovations in computer keyboards, the keys need less space inside the keyboards, which are now mostly empty.

"Originally the keys needed a half inch but now it's the thickness of a CD," he said of the depth that the number and letter keys protrude into a keyboard. "It's pretty amazing how much wasted space there is in keyboards."

By splitting the keyboard in half -- top and bottom -- and adding a pair of hinges, DeVolpi added space on his desk to store those small items that once frequently fell to the floor.

DeVolpi invented the organizer in November 2001, and three years later it's for sale in some parts of the world, and headed to the annual Consumer Electronics Show where it is an award-winning honoree.

The Keyboard Organizer is a CES Innovations 2005 Award Honoree in the small office/home office category, according to the CES Web site.

DeVolpi said for him, and inventors like him, the CES recognition is like being nominated for an Emmy Award. As an honoree, DeVolpi's myKeyO Keyboard Organizer is eligible for a Best of Show Award, the winners of which will be announced Jan. 4, before the CES trade show gets under way two days later at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Win or lose, the CES convention gives DeVolpi a chance to show his invention to retailers.

The 47-year-old engineer has been inventing since he graduated from college.

His first invention was for a Chicago-area company Suncom, which no longer exists. He designed a four-controller system for the video game Party Quiz so up to four players could simultaneously answer the questions posed by the trivia game that was available for Atari, Commodore and Apple computers.

DeVolpi said his most successful invention to date is called an i-point, which is a wireless pointer used in place of a computer mouse. In all he's had about 50 inventions and holds about 20 patents, he said.

The Keyboard Organizer has been his simplest invention to date, he said, adding that he needed only one prototype -- typically he goes through six or seven per invention -- before he started having the special keyboard manufactured.

"This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as far as how easy it is," he said. But even easy comes with a price, and DeVolpi estimated he's spent about $220,000 developing and manufacturing the organizer.

The first model hit stores in March 2003.

The organizer can be purchased in Japan, at The Container Stores in New York, Dallas and San Francisco, and at CompuNet, a small computer store in Boulder City where the owner lets DeVolpi test market his inventions.

Information on the organizer can also be found at www.Keyboard Organizer.com.

The basic Keyboard Organizer costs $19.95, the wireless version is $39.95, and a back-lit Keyboard Organizer, on which the keys and inside of the organizer are illuminated, sells for $69.95.

So far, DeVolpi said he's sold about 6,000 organizers and expects the sales to grow as it becomes more widely available.

He said that as soon as he conceived it he had "an immediate revelation that this was going to be hot."