Tomorrow's toys: gadgets galore

They may look like the extraordinary creations of eccentric inventor Heath Robinson. But the country's finest young designers believe their creations could be a bigger hit than the clockwork radio or the cats-eye.

They include the Inculpable Killing Machine - a mousetrap connected to a mobile phone transmitter that sends homeowners a message telling them when a mouse is near the trap. They then have to choose whether to let the trap kill the unfortunate creature.

Then there's a hi-tech tooth implant that secretly transmits radio messages through your jaw-bone to your ear; and a set of self-heating plates that keep food warm for 30 minutes.

If the transmitting tooth sounds fantastical, try the alarm-clock duvet, which wakes sleepers with pulses of light from fibres woven into it.

Users simply programme the alarm clock on their mobile phone, plug the phone into a special socket attached to their pillow and wake to glowing beams of light.

All are the creations of post-graduate students of the Royal College of Art.

James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau, the inventors of the "audio tooth implant", admit that their creation sounds far-fetched. But they insist it transmits with perfect sound quality.

Sound reception is totally discreet, allowing information to be received anywhere and at anytime - whether they are spies sent secret messages by their handlers, or cheating lovers being tipped off about the impending arrival of spouses.

Its inventors believe the device could enjoy massive success as an in-body earpiece for mobile phones, allowing telephone calls to be secretly transmitted to the user.

It works like a conventional audio speaker - but, unlike a speaker, it transmits sound through vibrations in bone rather than the air.

The vibrations are created by a tiny electromagnet in the tooth implant - a miniature form of the device inside all speakers - and relayed through the jaw-bone directly to the inner ear.

Auger and Loizeau, who now work for the Media Lab think-tank in Dublin, will visit the Science Museum next week to run a simple demonstration to prove the technology behind the implant.

The tooth won the Future Product of the Year prize last year, alongside a revolutionary design for a pair of crutches.

This year the Inculpable Killing Machine will do battle with the duvet alarm clock and 98 other entries by RCA design students for the award, jointly decided by the Science Museum and the RCA,

All of this year's entries will go on display at the Royal College of Art from 28 June.