He's acted upon enough of his subconscious thoughts to earn 27 patents in the past 10 years, the most by any Rock River Valley resident since 1996.

And unlike many of the leading local inventors, all of Yavitz's research is independently funded, not paid for through a company research and development department.

Most of his inventions have to do with his profession, eye surgery and eye care, but he's branched off to earn patents on golf balls, golf-training devices, Internet downloading and radio reception. He estimates about 50 percent of the ideas he submits have gotten patents.

He received his last utility patent in 2002 but has five applications pending, including one for a way to feed crops through the leaves rather than the roots and one for a device that would alert drivers how fast the car in front is driving away or slowing down.

Yavitz has a theory that traffic jams result from a “slinky effect.” Drivers overestimate how quickly people are driving away and speed up too quickly and the same happens when traffic slows, drivers brake too much and, voila, gridlock.

Of course, there have been more than 7 million patents granted since 1790, and the overwhelming majority of inventors didn't earn a nickel off their ideas. When pressed, Yavitz says he sold three patents early in his career to a company to develop for $3 million and mentions five of his patents have successfully been licensed, then deflects all other talk about money.

Yavitz has had his frustrations. He abandoned several patents because he couldn't find a company to buy the idea and he didn't want to continue to pay the escalating fees to keep the patent. He said a major golf-ball manufacturer essentially stole his method of making a golf ball. He said he had the original idea on how to link caller ID with a photo on a cell phone. It's a common product now, but he has received no royalties.

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