20 most recent innovations

Keep Toilets Germ-Free With Light

Fri, 28 Apr 2017 00:00:00 Z

The Illumibowl Anti-Germ invention will sanitize the toilet bowl as it also shines the way at night.

Developed by the same team that created the IllumiBowl Toilet Night Light, the Anti-Germ goes a step further, using a safe, medical-grade technology that kills germs using non-UVC wavelengths of light. Once in place, the Anti-Germ IllumiBowl will emit its germ-killing light for 15 seconds every two minutes, and eight full minutes every 24 hours.

Helmet-Mounted Brake Light

Fri, 28 Apr 2017 00:00:00 Z

The BrakeFree smart brake light for motorcyclists offers increased visibility by placing a brake light on the helmet itself.

The BrakeFree mounts magnetically to the back of the existing motorcycle helmet, where its sensor array will detect the braking motion and trigger the LEDs to illuminate. The BrakeFree work independently of the vehicle itself, detecting both engine braking and brake activation, and offers a 120-degree viewing angle—much more than the cycle’s small rear brake light provides.

Reusable Zip-Tie Lock

Mon, 24 Apr 2017 00:00:00 Z

Hailed as the first reusable zip-tie style lock, the lightweight yet strong Z Lok from Hiplok can be carried in a pocket.

Resembling a basic zip-tie, the Z Lok was created as a ‘café lock,’ to secure a bike while sitting nearby. The lock’s stainless steel core will resist cutting, and it can be unlocked with the included two-pronged key. As well as securing bikes nearby, the Z Lok can also be used to attach accessories securely, such as helmets or other gear.

Bilateral Laser Distance Measurer

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 00:00:00 Z

Makers looking for an accurate measuring device may be interested in the world’s first bilateral laser distance measure which is being created by Magpie Tech.

VH-80 shoots two pulses of laser light from two sources in opposite directions and measures the amount of time it takes for each pulse to bounce back to its accompanied sensors. Since light moves at a constant, VH-80 can calculate the distance between itself and the targets with high accuracy.

From ancient foot steps to modern laser technology, the measurement tool went through many transformations. But, one factor never changed: the necessity to start from 0 to your destination. Most cases, the measurer must travel with the tool as well. It’s something we may take for granted, a common sense process. But is it?

The drip-free wine bottle!

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 00:00:00 Z

Anyone who has ever poured wine knows about the drips that fall off the side of the bottle. At long last, a Brandeis physicist has figured out a fix.

Drips are the bane of every wine drinker's existence. He or she uncorks a bottle of wine, tips it toward the glass, and a drop, or even a stream, runs down the side of the bottle. Sure, you could do what sommeliers in restaurants do, wrapping a napkin around the neck of the bottle to catch the liquid, but who has time for that? Much more likely, you’ll ruin the tablecloth.

Daniel Perlman — wine-lover, inventor and Brandeis University biophysicist — has figured out a solution to this age-old oenophile's problem. Over the course of three years, he has been studying the flow of liquid across the wine bottle's lip. By cutting a groove just below the lip, he's created a drip-free wine bottle.

Endless Airport Runway

Fri, 17 Mar 2017 00:00:00 Z

The lack of capacity at airports is the major constraint to growth in air transport. Current technology projects optimise the use of the available airport capacity, but unless a structural new approach is followed, the expected three-fold increase in air traffic is not realistic to achieve. Physical constraints on runway operations, like wake vortex separation minima and cross- and tailwind limits, make it hard to improve performance of conventional airport configurations further.

The Endless Runway is a radical and novel airport concept, which applies a circular runway. The concept of the Endless Runway can generate a breakthrough in sustainable airport capacity by avoiding the physical constraints of conventional runways through shifting the lift-off and touchdown points of individual aircraft.

The main feature of the circular runway is that it will become possible to let an aircraft operate always at landing and take-off with headwind. Whatever its strength and direction, the Endless Runway becomes independent of the wind. When allowing limited crosswind, airspace users can shorten the global trajectory of the flights through optimized departure and arrival routes.

The circle of the runway, whose diameter is set to 3 kilometers, is large enough to provide sufficient room for infrastructure preferably inside the circle, even for a hub airport. This makes the airport compact, while allowing current-day aircraft to use the circle without significant structural modifications.

Helix Hand-Held Citrus Press

Mon, 13 Mar 2017 00:00:00 Z

Keep your hands safe from working too hard and use the Helix Hand-Held Citrus Press from Joseph Joseph. This vibrant device utilizes a unique twisting mechanism. With this, the Helix Citrus Press gets all the juice from your fruits with far less effort. Ideal for any citrus, the Helix Citrus Press is perfect for spritzing your dishes with lemon and lime. It even uses bright yellow and green colors in the design. The Helix Citrus Press delivers power to the fruit that would ordinarily put strain on your hands. Additionally, it ensures all of the juice flow from the device and onto your intended food.

Safer Solid Glass Battery

Wed, 08 Mar 2017 00:00:00 Z

A new and more powerful type of battery has sodium as its basic element.

For all of us frustrated with our devices' battery life there might be some good news from ninety-four-year-old John Goodenough, professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery, came up with an idea for a new battery that might shatter the limits of what we currently use.

Professor Goodenough claims, his new battery holds three times more energy, can be charged quickly, does not explode and function without problems at low temperatures. His new development could not have come at a better time, for the lithium-ion battery he co-invented back in 1980 is showing signs of its limitations when used in power hungry devices we have today.

The current lithium-ion batteries use liquid electrolytes, professor Goodenough's idea is to replace this liquid with glass, which should eliminate the possibility of it combusting. The best part of this development is that the battery will cost cheaper, as it replaces the lithium with sodium as a key material, according to Fortune.

Though it may be true that lithium is not that rare, it is still much harder to come by than sodium that can be extracted from seawater. His latest breakthrough, according to UT News, is completed with Cockrell School senior research fellow Maria Helena Braga. Their new technology is discussed in a recent paper published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science.

Drone Safety System

Thu, 02 Mar 2017 00:00:00 Z

One of the big worries regarding the widespread use of drones is that if their motors fail, they could plummet out of the sky and hit us on the head. Equipping them with parachutes is one option, although that adds weight and complexity. Meteorological forecasting company Meteomatics is taking another approach, in the form of a quadcopter that can spin its way down like a top.

The Swiss firm recently received a US patent for the "Meteodrone" concept, in which at least two of the drone's four symmetrically-arranged propeller arms are flat and twisted – not unlike propeller blades, actually. In the event of a motor failure, once the drone starts falling, those arms will act as passive lift elements. This will cause the aircraft to spin horizontally, around its yaw axis.

That spinning motion will keep the drone stabilized, so it comes straight down instead of tumbling erratically. Additionally, the motion will generate some dynamic lift, so the aircraft won't simply drop like a stone – that said, you probably still wouldn't want to be standing beneath it.

When and if the Meteodrone reaches production, plans call for it to be used for measuring weather parameters within the lowest region of the atmosphere.

Proactive Windshield Wipers

Thu, 16 Feb 2017 00:00:00 Z

When you're driving on a rainy highway, the sudden windshield-covering splashes created by passing transport trucks can be pretty unnerving. You can of course quickly flip your wipers up to High – your car's rain sensor may even do it for you – but Sweden's Semcon has developed a system that is claimed to react even faster. An important consideration, when travelling at highway speeds.

Known as ProActive Wipers (PAW), the system is actually a computer program that could be installed on newer vehicles – no hardware upgrades are necessary. Instead, it utilizes the car's existing forward-facing camera, its radar, and its rain sensor.

The camera is used to identify large trucks that are either approaching from the other direction, or that the driver is about to pass. The radar is then used to determine how far away that truck is, and how quickly the gap between it and the driver's car is closing. For its part, the rain sensor confirms that the conditions are wet, and thus that splashing is a possibility.

When the software determines that a soaking is imminent, it automatically switches the windshield wipers on to High. This starts before any water actually hits the glass. By contrast, rain sensors alone typically only activate the wipers once water has been detected on the windshield.

Thin Film Cools Without Electricity or Water

Wed, 15 Feb 2017 00:00:00 Z

Engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a thin, artificially structured “metamaterial” that can cool objects without the use of water or energy. The film works to lower the temperature of the surface beneath it through a process known as “passive cooling,” meaning that it vents the object’s heat through thermal radiation while bouncing off any incoming solar energy that may negate those losses. As described in the journal Science last week, the glass-polymer hybrid material could provide an “eco-friendly means of supplementary cooling” for thermoelectric power plants, which require colossal amounts of water and electricity to keep their machinery chugging along at optimum temperatures.

The film measures a lithe 50 micrometers thick, or just slightly more substantial than the aluminum foil you’d find in your kitchen. And, much like foil, researchers say it can be easily and economically manufactured by the roll for large-scale residential and commercial applications.

Air-Ink Made from Captured Pollution

Tue, 14 Feb 2017 00:00:00 Z

The Air-Ink from Graviky Labs and Tiger Beer lets artists turn pollution into works of art.

The Air-Ink is collected via a proprietary device called KAAILNK developed by a team at MIT’s Media Lab. The KAALINK unit is attached to the exhaust pipe of vehicles or machinery to capture the particulates, with 45 minutes of exhaust producing one fluid ounce of ink. The harnessed soot is processed to a purified, carbon-rich pigment that is then used to create the ink and paints.

LED Emits and Detects Light

Mon, 13 Feb 2017 00:00:00 Z

An innovative new LED able to both emit and detect light could open the door to contact-free phones powered by ambient light.

The team from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign created the LED from nanorods made up of three different kinds of semiconductor materials: one that emits and absorbs light, and two that control the electron flow. The LEDs can shift from absorbing light to detecting light three times faster than the standard LED refresh rate, which causes the display to appear as if it is always on, even as it performs different functions.

Textile Bike Lock

Thu, 09 Feb 2017 00:00:00 Z

The textile-based tex-lock promises to be both more resilient and lighter than conventional bike locks.

Created by a team of German designers, the tex-lock consists of five different materials braided together to provide different sorts of protection: saw resistance, cut resistance, and fire resistance, and as well as waterproofing and dirt repelling. The unique makeup of the tex-lock also makes it lighter and more flexible, so it is easier to use.

Hand-Held Laser Makes Rust Literally Evaporate

Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:00:00 Z

The system uses short pulses of laser light. When aimed at a metal surface, "the dirt layer and any oxides underneath will absorb the energy and evaporate." The metal underneath will not absorb the laser energy, leaving nothing but a clean surface ready for welding or painting.

Dousing Flames With Low-Frequency Sound Waves

Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:00:00 Z

A new type of extinguisher that uses sound waves to put out fires has been built by two engineering students in the US. Both chemical- and water-free, the invention offers a relatively non-destructive method of fire control, which could find applications in fighting small fires in the home, and the researchers now hold a preliminary patent application for their device.

The principle behind the extinguisher is simple: as they are mechanical pressure waves that cause vibrations in the medium in which they travel, sound waves have the potential to manipulate both burning material and the oxygen that surrounds it. If the sound could be used to separate the two, the fire would be starved of oxygen and, accordingly, would be snuffed out.

Glycerin-filled Glasses Feature Electronic Autofocus

Thu, 26 Jan 2017 00:00:00 Z

It can be a hassle, taking your glasses on and off to switch between near and distant vision. There are bifocals, of course, plus there are now glasses on which you can adjust the focus. Scientists from the University of Utah, however, have gone one better – they've developed glasses that change focus automatically, depending on what you're looking at.

Each lens is made up of two clear rubber membranes – one in the front and one in the back – with a layer of clear viscous glycerin sandwiched between them. Three mechanical actuators push the rear membrane in and out, compressing or releasing the glycerin and thus changing the curvature of the lens. This, in turn, changes its focal length.

It's not unlike the technology utilized in the Adlens adjustable-focus glasses, although they're operated manually. By contrast, the Utah glasses incorporate an electronic distance meter in the bridge, which uses pulses of infrared light to determine how far away objects are from the eyes. Whenever that distance changes, it instructs the actuators to reshape the lenses accordingly. They do so in a claimed 14 milliseconds.

Brush Vacuum Cleaner Attachment

Tue, 24 Jan 2017 00:00:00 Z

The main thought behind this invention is, that instead of a single large opening there would be many small suction areas through many tubes. Through these the suction would be optimally distributed. Very small, fine areas could be cleaned and small parts and objects would not get lost. It is based on the principle of a brush. With a brush, you can clean almost any area. It fits onto all uneven surfaces and can be used anywhere. The only disadvantage is, a brush cannot vacuum up dust.

Speaker Integrated In Surface TV Screen

Fri, 06 Jan 2017 00:00:00 Z

Sony has made the whole screen of an TV resonate to produce sound in what the company calls the world-first Acoustic Surface sound system. Aside from making the speakers "invisible," Sony says this approach also lets sound emanate directly from the screen itself, providing sound and image synchronization for the viewer, wherever they're sitting.

Getting the display, which is most likely an LG panel, to act as a speaker has necessitated the mounting of two actuators to the rear of the display, while all inputs have been relegated to a large rear-facing subwoofer that also serves as the TV's stand. Sony says that the vibrations of the screen won't be visible to the eye, even at high volumes.

Elastic Profile Makes Railroad Safe For Cyclists

Thu, 05 Jan 2017 00:00:00 Z

SafeRails focusses on developing a profile which can be implemented in existing tramrails’ gutters. The profile will support a parallel cycling bicycle wheel, however it will also let a tram wheel pass without hindrance by deforming elastically. The key-element in this innovation is its simplicity which makes it easy to produce in large lengths.

Due to the elastic and geometric properties of the product, the profile will compress with a passing tram. However, the SafeRail is engineered in such a way that it will support a bicycle wheel without any trouble!

Such a simple and logical solution. It doesn’t have to be used everywhere, but at busy intersections or those tight spots where cyclists are often forced onto tracks, this could prevent a lot of spills.