Top 10 Best Inventions of the Year 2012
Here's the countdown of Top 10 Best Inventions of the Year 2012
10. A Drifting Fish Farm
Kampachi Farms, a mariculture company in Hawaii, is devising a way to meet our insatiable desire for sushi with a farming method that has near zero environmental impact. By filling 100-ft. (30 m) copper-alloy mesh cages with fingerlings and letting them drift, tracked by GPS, in deepwater ocean, the company hopes to harvest thousands of tons of sustainable sashimi-grade kampachi. In 2011 it tested 20-ft. (6 m) pens 3 to 75 miles (5 to 120 km) off Hawaii. After six months, they yielded 10,000 lb. (4,500 kg) of kampachi, which grew twice as fast as expected.
9. Nike Flyknit Racer
By knitting thread into a single layer to fit around your foot—instead of cutting and sewing together multiple materials—engineers at Nike not only made this sneaker lighter (just 5.6 oz., or 160 g) but also gave it a precision fit: the weave alternately grips and gives despite the absence of liners or reinforcements. Plus, it’s eco-friendly, with less waste left on the factory floor.
8. Indoor Clouds
That’s not Photoshop. The Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde has developed a way to create a small, perfect white cloud in the middle of a room. It requires meticulous planning: the temperature, humidity and lighting all have to be just so. Once everything is ready, Smilde summons the cloud out of the air using a fog machine. It lasts only moments, but the effect is dramatic and strangely moving. It evokes both the surrealism of Magritte and the classical beauty of the old masters while reminding us of the ephemerality of art and nature.
7. The Motion-Activated Screwdriver
The sensors found in smart phones and Nintendo Wii controllers have migrated into Black & Decker’s cordless 4v MAX Gyro, billed as the world’s first motion-activated screwdriver. Tilt it right by a mere quarter of an inch and it screws clockwise to tighten; left, and it turns counterclockwise—all thanks to an internal gyroscope that senses wrist motions, which are measured by a small microprocessor that turns those movements into changes in the drill’s speed and direction.
6. LiquiGlide
Five MIT students and their professor Kripa Varanasi have come up with a way to make a surface that anything will slide off—from ketchup out of bottles to ice off airplane wings. The plant-based product adds a microscopic slippery coating to almost any material—glass, ceramic, metal or plastic.
5. OraQuick Home HIV Test
With just a swab of saliva and 20 minutes, OraQuick can identify the antibodies that signal HIV infection. It’s the first DIY test for HIV—the same one that health professionals use but without the trip to a doctor’s office or the need to wait days for results. The kit includes a 24-hour help line and resources for dealing with a positive result.
4. Techpet
Remember Tamagotchi? A new toy from Bandai, the company that gave us that classic virtual pet, goes even further. Download the TechPet app, dock an iPhone in the robotic doggy frame, and turn your phone into the cartoon face of a canine that’s eager to be fed via touchscreen. This puppy even recognizes gestures and verbal commands via the phone’s camera and microphone.
3. Self-inflating Tires
As soon as the pressure in these Goodyear tires (which don’t have an official retail price yet) gets too low, they know it. An internal pressure regulator opens to allow air to flow into a pumping tube, and as the wheel turns, the flattened part helps squeeze air from the tube through an inlet valve into the tire. Once the air pressure hits an optimal level, the regulator closes—all without the driver’s realizing anything was wrong.
2. Sony RX100 Digital Camera
Digital cameras have been getting smaller and more capable every year, but that trend took a huge leap forward in 2012 with the Sony RX100, which bridges the gap between point-and-shoots and pro-quality digital SLRs. Sony’s innovative design and 1-in. (2.5 cm) sensor allow the camera to take flawless photos even though it’s 20% slimmer than your average digital SLR—small enough to fit in your pocket.
1. Google Glass
Glass is, simply put, a computer built into the frame of a pair of glasses, and it’s the device that will make augmented reality part of our daily lives. With the half-inch (1.3 cm) display, which comes into focus when you look up and to the right, users will be able to take and share photos, video-chat, check appointments and access maps and the Web. Consumers should be able to buy Google Glass by 2014.
