Inventions Of The Year - Page 2

AIWANNABE · 11-29-2004, 09:55 PM

Safety Net

BUG BARRIER
Nguvu ya Ajabu Mosquito Net

Inventor: Sumitomo Chemical
Availability: Now; free from some relief agencies and clinics, or $7 to $8 per net
To Learn More: acumenfund.org
Dangerous malaria-carrying mosquitoes in Africa have a new foe: the next-generation Olyset bed net, which is made of a durable plastic weave impregnated with the insecticide permethrin and stays potent for five years. Lighter, cheaper and more colorful than previous versions, the Nguvu ya Ajabu (Swahili for Magic Power) is being manufactured in Tanzania for cost-effective distribution. Also new: curtains and door screens cut from the same material.

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AIWANNABE · 11-29-2004, 09:57 PM

For Your Health

SMOOTH OPERATOR
The Rheo Knee

Inventors: Ossur, M.I.T.
Availability: Now, at select clinics
To Learn More: ossur.com
U.S. soldiers who return from Iraq missing a leg from the thigh down are getting back on their feet a lot faster these days, thanks to the Rheo Knee. The new prosthetic joint, developed in Iceland, is designed to learn the nuances of an individual's movements and adjust itself. An innovative control module—made up of sensors, a computer chip and software—reacts instantaneously to changes in the wearer's gait, so there's less strain on the hips and back.

THE LIGHT STUFF
Violight Toothbrush Sanitizer

Inventor: Violight
Availability: Now, $49.95
To Learn More: violight.com
Here's something nobody wants to think about: bathrooms are a great breeding ground for bacteria, and so are toothbrushes. No, rinsing them doesn't do much to help the situation. Enter the Violight toothbrush sanitizer, a high-tech toothbrush holder. Pop your toothbrush inside (it holds four), push a button, and the Violight bathes it with ultraviolet light, which eliminates 99.9% of germs and bacteria on the brush within 10 min.

TAKING THE BLINDERS OFF
Verisyse Corrective Lens

Inventor: Jan Worst
Availability: Now, $3,000 to $4,000 an eye
To Learn More: visioninfocus.com
You're sick of wearing glasses, but the LASIK people turned you down. Here's help: the new Verisyse corrective lens, which treats nearsightedness too severe for laser surgery to fix. The lens is implanted between the cornea and the iris through a 6-mm incision. If there are complications (infection, cataracts), it can be removed. A competing implantable lens, the Visian ICL, developed by Staar Surgical, still awaits FDA approval.

NEEDLE FREE
Oral HIV Test

Inventor: OraSure
Availability: Now, price set by clinics
To Learn More: orasure.com
Getting an HIV test has never been easier. With the new OraQuick Advance, a health professional simply swabs the inside of a person's mouth along the upper and lower gums and then inserts the stick into a vial of solution that tests for antibodies to the HIV-1 and HIV-2 virus strains. Within 20 minutes, the results appear on the stick. (Two reddish-purple lines indicate a positive result.) The OraQuick's accuracy rate: over 99%.

PERFECT AIM
Vein Contrast Enhancer

Inventor: Conenhill Biomedics
Availability: 2005, price not set
To Learn More: conenhill.com
Getting stuck with a needle is bad. Feeling like a pincushion while a medic looks for a vein is worse. Thanks to OnTarget, a so-called vein-contrast-enhancement device, doctors will soon be able to navigate your veins with a virtual map. Using a near-infrared camera, OnTarget takes a real-time video image of blood and projects it onto the skin—blood appears dark, and fat and tissue look light—highlighting placement of veins within 0.06 mm.

AIWANNABE · 11-29-2004, 09:59 PM

Fresh Ideas

NO NEED TO SQUEEZE
RipeSense

Inventor: HortResearch
Availability: December
To Learn More: www.ripesense.com
Judging the ripeness of fruit has always seemed more art than science. Now a firm in New Zealand has developed a sensor that detects when pears are ripe by analyzing the aromas emitted by the fruit. Attached to the inside of the fruit's plastic wrapping, the sensor goes from red to orange to yellow as the fruit ripens. Sensors for avocados, kiwis, melons and mangoes are in the works.

VISIBLE INK
Temperature-Sensitive Wine Label

Inventor: William Grant & Sons
Importers: The Mar de Frades winery
Availability: Now, about $16 a bottle
To Learn More: grantusa.com
The label on the Mar de Frades 2003 Albariño, a crisp white wine produced on the northwest coast of Spain (it's great paired with seafood), uses thermosensitive ink to let you know when the contents of the bottle are suitably chilled. When the wine registers 52ºF (its optimal serving temperature) or colder, a little blue ship appears on top of the aqua waves.

MINI-MELON
Miniature Watermelons

Inventors: Seminis (Bambino), Syngenta (Pureheart)
Availability: Year-round, $3 to $5 each
To Learn More: seminis.com, dulcinea.com
Behold the Bambino. It looks like a watermelon and tastes like one too, but it's not the hulking mass you've had to lug home from the grocery store for the family picnic. And it took only 10 years to breed. The fruit typically weighs 4 lbs. to 6 lbs., about the size of a large cantaloupe. Seedless, it's sweeter than its larger cousin. The competition: Dulcinea Farms of Ladera Ranch, Calif., grows a similar breed called the Pureheart.

AIWANNABE · 11-29-2004, 10:00 PM

Cook Smart

SQUARE MEALS
Lock n' Bake Pan

Inventor: Aneela Rajusth
Availability: Spring 2005, price not set
To Learn More: locknbake.com
It's a cook's nightmare: you make a beautiful cake or lasagna and then struggle so hard to wriggle a piece out of the pan, it looks like a collapsed mess by the time it hits the plate. Enter the Lock n' Bake pan—a 2004 winner in Hammacher Schlemmer's Search for Invention competition—which solves that problem with sides that fold down after baking and a flat, removable tray for neater serving.

AIWANNABE · 11-29-2004, 10:01 PM

Hot & Cold

BOILING POINT
Jetboil Personal Cooking System

Inventors: Dwight Aspinwall, Perry Dowst
Availability: Now, $79.95
To Learn More: jetboil.com
Smokey Bear would love the Jetboil Personal Cooking System, which cuts the risk of forest fires by allowing campers to prepare soup, pasta, rice and beans—any single-pot dish—quickly and safely. How? The flame is contained within the Jetboil's patented Flux Ring, which channels the heat from a butane burner directly into the vessel. (Fuel canisters sold separately.) Bonus: a neoprene cover insulates the food while protecting campers' fingers from the heat.

THE BIG CHILL
Environmentally Safe Ice Cream Freezer

Inventor: Steven Garrett
Availability: Prototype only
To Learn More: benjerry.com
When ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's asked a Penn State scientist to build a freezer that won't contribute to global warming, the result was like a frat-house experiment gone right. The apparatus uses sound waves to compress and expand helium, which in turn chills a liquid cooling agent—in this case, vodka. Bizarre, but it works: the stainless-steel canister was used last April to cool pints of Cherry Garcia and Chunky Monkey at a New York City scoop shop.

AIWANNABE · 11-29-2004, 10:02 PM

Now Hear This

GOOD VIBRATIONS
The Jawbone

Inventor: Aliph
Availability: Now, $150
To Learn More: jawbone.com
Poor reception is the curse of all cell phones. While there is little you can do about your carrier's spotty coverage in any given location, you can make it easier for others to hear you by investing in a better headset. The Jawbone has a sensor that rests on your cheekbone and picks up vibrations emanating from your head as you speak. It then uses those data to filter out background noise. You may not notice the difference, but the person on the other end will hear you much better.

AIWANNABE · 11-29-2004, 10:05 PM

Cutting Edge

SAY IT WITH FLOWERS
Flower Speaker

Inventors: Keiji Koga, Hiroshi Shiraki, Let's Corp.
Availability: Now, only in Japan: $284 for the vase version; $473 for the potted plant
Imagine flanking your home stereo with birds of paradise rather than a pair of speakers. The Ka-on flower speaker, housed in a vase, below, or pot, uses real plant parts—stems to conduct sound waves, leaves and flowers to serve as cones—to fill a 16-ft. radius with music. Its audio quality is closer to that of a vinyl record than a CD, but for some audiophiles, that's a good thing.

A LIFESAVER—FOR DISCS
d_skin

Inventor: d_skin
Availability: Now, five for $5.99 or 20 for $19.99
To Learn More: d-skin.com
Tired of scratched CDs and DVDs that don't play anymore? d_skin is a clear plastic coating that you can put over a disc to protect it. You leave the cover on all the time, even when you play the disc. The laser from the player simply passes through the cover to read the data it needs. And because the d_skin is so thin—it measures just two-thousandths of an inch—it will work with any player.

NO MORE FADE TO BLACK
Philips MiraVision Mirror TV

Inventor: Philips
Availability: Now, $2,799 to $3,999
To Learn More: mirrortv@philips.com
Now that you've got that snazzy LCD TV hanging on your living room wall like a fine work of art, it seems a pity to have it go blank when you turn it off. Philips' MiraVision Mirror TV avoids that by turning into a mirror. A polarized coating on the front of the screen reflects light when the set is off. Available in 17-in. and 23-in. models, the Mirror TV also comes in a split-screen style, left, that's already being used in hotels.

GET THE MESSAGE
Lolita, the text-messaging chandelier

Inventor: Ron Arad
Availability: Now, $138,435
To Learn More: swarovskisparkles.com
When the Swarovski crystal company asked ultramodern furniture designer Ron Arad to create a chandelier last year, he promptly declined, saying, "Crystal is the epitome of kitsch. It is not my planet." This year he changed his mind and created Lolita, the first text-messaging chandelier. Made of 2,100 crystals and 1,050 white LEDs, the 5-ft. spiral displays SMS messages sent by any phone. Of course, you'd need Lolita's number ...

TIME FOR CHANGE
Monaco V4 Concept Watch

Inventor: TAG Heuer
Availability: Prototype only
To Learn More: tagheuer.com
Before the Swiss watchmaker Jean François Ruchonnet designed the Monaco V4 concept watch, he lifted the hood of his Maserati, gazed at the engine and thought about the belts. Then he decided to create a similar belt system in miniature to replace the interlocking gears in mechanical watches. Each belt replaces five to six gears, thus simplifying construction. Visible on the underside, at right, the belts are also better at absorbing shock, for a more reliable and accurate timepiece.

AIWANNABE · 11-29-2004, 10:07 PM

Fire Fighter

SPLASHING
3M Novec 1230 Fire Protection Fluid

Inventor: 3M
Availability: Now
To Learn More: tycofireandsecurity.com
It looks like water. It pours, flows and sloshes like water. But it doesn't get things wet. Its name is 3M Novec 1230 Fire Protection Fluid, and its chemical formula looks like alphabet soup. (It's technically a fluorinated ketone, whatever that means.) But you can dunk a laptop computer in it, and it'll come out bone dry and working fine. That makes this wonder fluid perfect for putting out fires in offices, computer rooms and museums. Just don't try drinking it.

AIWANNABE · 11-29-2004, 10:08 PM

Light Touch

MAGIC MATERIAL
LiTraCon

Inventor: LiTraCon
Availability: Now, $1,828 per cu. ft.
To Learn More: litracon.com
Mixing glass with cement may seem strange, but that is what Aron Losonczi, a Hungarian architect, has done to create a transparent concrete called LiTraCon. Glass in the form of fiber optics allows light to filter through the material, creating a surreal effect. Available in sheets 2 in. or more wide, LiTraCon is as strong as regular concrete and can be used for walls, flooring or sculpture. It is on display at the National Building Museum in Washington through Jan. 23.

LOST IN A CLOUD
The Cloud

Inventor: Monica Förster
Availability: Now, $5,900
To Learn More: urbanpeel.com
Swedish designer Monica Förster says that she often stares at clouds outside her airplane window and wonders what it would be like to step inside one. After learning that cumulus clouds form in the morning, then dissipate at night, she decided to create a nylon "cloud" that could serve as a quiet meeting space by day and collapse at night. Förster's Cloud is 8 ft. tall and 18 ft. long. A fan inside its carrying case inflates it in 3 min. Total weight: 33 lbs.

AIWANNABE · 11-29-2004, 10:11 PM

Kid Friendly

DIRTY WORK
Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser

Inventors: BASF, Procter & Gamble
Availability: Now, about $4 for four
To Learn More: mrclean.com
It used to be that if your kid decided to redecorate the house in crayon, you had two choices: embrace the new mural or repaint. But now there's Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, a block of melamine foam that lets you remove stains and scuff marks swiftly without breaking a sweat. The material's unique chemical makeup makes it a great cleaner. But beware: rub too long or hard on the same spot, and you'll take the shine off a semigloss surface—or worse.

SITTIN' PRETTY
Stokke Xplory Stroller

Inventor: Stokke
Availability: Now, $749
To Learn More: stokkeusa.com
Particularly tall parents sick of stooping as they push their toddlers about town will appreciate the new Xplory. Its push bar can be positioned nearly 4 ft. off the ground, and the seat can be raised high to keep the child above the fray. This stroller can be adjusted to accommodate passengers from a newborn to a 40-lb. preschooler; a special latch turns it into a two-wheeler for negotiating stairs. Bonus feature: a zippered sack for groceries.

BABY, DON'T CRY
Caring Cot

Inventor: Garry Cho
Availability: Prototype only
To Learn More: garrycho@gmail.com
Sometimes all babies need is a little rocking to fall asleep. The Caring Cot, created by an English industrial designer, is a motorized crib that rocks for about a minute if the baby in it cries for 30 sec. If the baby doesn't stop after about 5 min., a signal is sent to the parents via remote. A sensor goes off if the room gets too hot or cold. And for parents fearful of sudden infant death syndrome, a motion detector indicates if the baby has stopped moving for too long.

ALL TIED UP
Shloops Shoelace Fastener

Inventor: Troy Christy
Availability: Now, $2.99 a pair, in a range of colors
To Learn More: shloops.com
Problem: during soccer games, your child often has to bend down to retie her cleats' laces or risk tripping during a critical dribble-shot-score. Solution: Shloops. The patented rubbery tubes, which take mere moments to install, keep shoes securely tied all day, no matter what you're doing. Put them on once and keep them on until your shoes wear out. Whether they offend your fashion sensibilities is a separate issue.

11-29-2004, 09:55 PM	#11
AIWANNABE FORT Fogey Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: The Big Brother House Posts: 9,833	Safety Net BUG BARRIER Nguvu ya Ajabu Mosquito Net Inventor: Sumitomo Chemical Availability: Now; free from some relief agencies and clinics, or $7 to $8 per net To Learn More: acumenfund.org Dangerous malaria-carrying mosquitoes in Africa have a new foe: the next-generation Olyset bed net, which is made of a durable plastic weave impregnated with the insecticide permethrin and stays potent for five years. Lighter, cheaper and more colorful than previous versions, the Nguvu ya Ajabu (Swahili for Magic Power) is being manufactured in Tanzania for cost-effective distribution. Also new: curtains and door screens cut from the same material.

11-29-2004, 09:57 PM	#12
AIWANNABE FORT Fogey Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: The Big Brother House Posts: 9,833	For Your Health SMOOTH OPERATOR The Rheo Knee Inventors: Ossur, M.I.T. Availability: Now, at select clinics To Learn More: ossur.com U.S. soldiers who return from Iraq missing a leg from the thigh down are getting back on their feet a lot faster these days, thanks to the Rheo Knee. The new prosthetic joint, developed in Iceland, is designed to learn the nuances of an individual's movements and adjust itself. An innovative control module—made up of sensors, a computer chip and software—reacts instantaneously to changes in the wearer's gait, so there's less strain on the hips and back. THE LIGHT STUFF Violight Toothbrush Sanitizer Inventor: Violight Availability: Now, $49.95 To Learn More: violight.com Here's something nobody wants to think about: bathrooms are a great breeding ground for bacteria, and so are toothbrushes. No, rinsing them doesn't do much to help the situation. Enter the Violight toothbrush sanitizer, a high-tech toothbrush holder. Pop your toothbrush inside (it holds four), push a button, and the Violight bathes it with ultraviolet light, which eliminates 99.9% of germs and bacteria on the brush within 10 min. TAKING THE BLINDERS OFF Verisyse Corrective Lens Inventor: Jan Worst Availability: Now, $3,000 to $4,000 an eye To Learn More: visioninfocus.com You're sick of wearing glasses, but the LASIK people turned you down. Here's help: the new Verisyse corrective lens, which treats nearsightedness too severe for laser surgery to fix. The lens is implanted between the cornea and the iris through a 6-mm incision. If there are complications (infection, cataracts), it can be removed. A competing implantable lens, the Visian ICL, developed by Staar Surgical, still awaits FDA approval. NEEDLE FREE Oral HIV Test Inventor: OraSure Availability: Now, price set by clinics To Learn More: orasure.com Getting an HIV test has never been easier. With the new OraQuick Advance, a health professional simply swabs the inside of a person's mouth along the upper and lower gums and then inserts the stick into a vial of solution that tests for antibodies to the HIV-1 and HIV-2 virus strains. Within 20 minutes, the results appear on the stick. (Two reddish-purple lines indicate a positive result.) The OraQuick's accuracy rate: over 99%. PERFECT AIM Vein Contrast Enhancer Inventor: Conenhill Biomedics Availability: 2005, price not set To Learn More: conenhill.com Getting stuck with a needle is bad. Feeling like a pincushion while a medic looks for a vein is worse. Thanks to OnTarget, a so-called vein-contrast-enhancement device, doctors will soon be able to navigate your veins with a virtual map. Using a near-infrared camera, OnTarget takes a real-time video image of blood and projects it onto the skin—blood appears dark, and fat and tissue look light—highlighting placement of veins within 0.06 mm.

11-29-2004, 09:59 PM	#13
AIWANNABE FORT Fogey Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: The Big Brother House Posts: 9,833	Fresh Ideas NO NEED TO SQUEEZE RipeSense Inventor: HortResearch Availability: December To Learn More: www.ripesense.com Judging the ripeness of fruit has always seemed more art than science. Now a firm in New Zealand has developed a sensor that detects when pears are ripe by analyzing the aromas emitted by the fruit. Attached to the inside of the fruit's plastic wrapping, the sensor goes from red to orange to yellow as the fruit ripens. Sensors for avocados, kiwis, melons and mangoes are in the works. VISIBLE INK Temperature-Sensitive Wine Label Inventor: William Grant & Sons Importers: The Mar de Frades winery Availability: Now, about $16 a bottle To Learn More: grantusa.com The label on the Mar de Frades 2003 Albariño, a crisp white wine produced on the northwest coast of Spain (it's great paired with seafood), uses thermosensitive ink to let you know when the contents of the bottle are suitably chilled. When the wine registers 52ºF (its optimal serving temperature) or colder, a little blue ship appears on top of the aqua waves. MINI-MELON Miniature Watermelons Inventors: Seminis (Bambino), Syngenta (Pureheart) Availability: Year-round, $3 to $5 each To Learn More: seminis.com, dulcinea.com Behold the Bambino. It looks like a watermelon and tastes like one too, but it's not the hulking mass you've had to lug home from the grocery store for the family picnic. And it took only 10 years to breed. The fruit typically weighs 4 lbs. to 6 lbs., about the size of a large cantaloupe. Seedless, it's sweeter than its larger cousin. The competition: Dulcinea Farms of Ladera Ranch, Calif., grows a similar breed called the Pureheart.

11-29-2004, 10:00 PM	#14
AIWANNABE FORT Fogey Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: The Big Brother House Posts: 9,833	Cook Smart SQUARE MEALS Lock n' Bake Pan Inventor: Aneela Rajusth Availability: Spring 2005, price not set To Learn More: locknbake.com It's a cook's nightmare: you make a beautiful cake or lasagna and then struggle so hard to wriggle a piece out of the pan, it looks like a collapsed mess by the time it hits the plate. Enter the Lock n' Bake pan—a 2004 winner in Hammacher Schlemmer's Search for Invention competition—which solves that problem with sides that fold down after baking and a flat, removable tray for neater serving.

11-29-2004, 10:01 PM	#15
AIWANNABE FORT Fogey Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: The Big Brother House Posts: 9,833	Hot & Cold BOILING POINT Jetboil Personal Cooking System Inventors: Dwight Aspinwall, Perry Dowst Availability: Now, $79.95 To Learn More: jetboil.com Smokey Bear would love the Jetboil Personal Cooking System, which cuts the risk of forest fires by allowing campers to prepare soup, pasta, rice and beans—any single-pot dish—quickly and safely. How? The flame is contained within the Jetboil's patented Flux Ring, which channels the heat from a butane burner directly into the vessel. (Fuel canisters sold separately.) Bonus: a neoprene cover insulates the food while protecting campers' fingers from the heat. THE BIG CHILL Environmentally Safe Ice Cream Freezer Inventor: Steven Garrett Availability: Prototype only To Learn More: benjerry.com When ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's asked a Penn State scientist to build a freezer that won't contribute to global warming, the result was like a frat-house experiment gone right. The apparatus uses sound waves to compress and expand helium, which in turn chills a liquid cooling agent—in this case, vodka. Bizarre, but it works: the stainless-steel canister was used last April to cool pints of Cherry Garcia and Chunky Monkey at a New York City scoop shop.

11-29-2004, 10:02 PM	#16
AIWANNABE FORT Fogey Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: The Big Brother House Posts: 9,833	Now Hear This GOOD VIBRATIONS The Jawbone Inventor: Aliph Availability: Now, $150 To Learn More: jawbone.com Poor reception is the curse of all cell phones. While there is little you can do about your carrier's spotty coverage in any given location, you can make it easier for others to hear you by investing in a better headset. The Jawbone has a sensor that rests on your cheekbone and picks up vibrations emanating from your head as you speak. It then uses those data to filter out background noise. You may not notice the difference, but the person on the other end will hear you much better.

11-29-2004, 10:05 PM	#17
AIWANNABE FORT Fogey Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: The Big Brother House Posts: 9,833	Cutting Edge SAY IT WITH FLOWERS Flower Speaker Inventors: Keiji Koga, Hiroshi Shiraki, Let's Corp. Availability: Now, only in Japan: $284 for the vase version; $473 for the potted plant Imagine flanking your home stereo with birds of paradise rather than a pair of speakers. The Ka-on flower speaker, housed in a vase, below, or pot, uses real plant parts—stems to conduct sound waves, leaves and flowers to serve as cones—to fill a 16-ft. radius with music. Its audio quality is closer to that of a vinyl record than a CD, but for some audiophiles, that's a good thing. A LIFESAVER—FOR DISCS d_skin Inventor: d_skin Availability: Now, five for $5.99 or 20 for $19.99 To Learn More: d-skin.com Tired of scratched CDs and DVDs that don't play anymore? d_skin is a clear plastic coating that you can put over a disc to protect it. You leave the cover on all the time, even when you play the disc. The laser from the player simply passes through the cover to read the data it needs. And because the d_skin is so thin—it measures just two-thousandths of an inch—it will work with any player. NO MORE FADE TO BLACK Philips MiraVision Mirror TV Inventor: Philips Availability: Now, $2,799 to $3,999 To Learn More: mirrortv@philips.com Now that you've got that snazzy LCD TV hanging on your living room wall like a fine work of art, it seems a pity to have it go blank when you turn it off. Philips' MiraVision Mirror TV avoids that by turning into a mirror. A polarized coating on the front of the screen reflects light when the set is off. Available in 17-in. and 23-in. models, the Mirror TV also comes in a split-screen style, left, that's already being used in hotels. GET THE MESSAGE Lolita, the text-messaging chandelier Inventor: Ron Arad Availability: Now, $138,435 To Learn More: swarovskisparkles.com When the Swarovski crystal company asked ultramodern furniture designer Ron Arad to create a chandelier last year, he promptly declined, saying, "Crystal is the epitome of kitsch. It is not my planet." This year he changed his mind and created Lolita, the first text-messaging chandelier. Made of 2,100 crystals and 1,050 white LEDs, the 5-ft. spiral displays SMS messages sent by any phone. Of course, you'd need Lolita's number ... TIME FOR CHANGE Monaco V4 Concept Watch Inventor: TAG Heuer Availability: Prototype only To Learn More: tagheuer.com Before the Swiss watchmaker Jean François Ruchonnet designed the Monaco V4 concept watch, he lifted the hood of his Maserati, gazed at the engine and thought about the belts. Then he decided to create a similar belt system in miniature to replace the interlocking gears in mechanical watches. Each belt replaces five to six gears, thus simplifying construction. Visible on the underside, at right, the belts are also better at absorbing shock, for a more reliable and accurate timepiece.

11-29-2004, 10:07 PM	#18
AIWANNABE FORT Fogey Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: The Big Brother House Posts: 9,833	Fire Fighter SPLASHING 3M Novec 1230 Fire Protection Fluid Inventor: 3M Availability: Now To Learn More: tycofireandsecurity.com It looks like water. It pours, flows and sloshes like water. But it doesn't get things wet. Its name is 3M Novec 1230 Fire Protection Fluid, and its chemical formula looks like alphabet soup. (It's technically a fluorinated ketone, whatever that means.) But you can dunk a laptop computer in it, and it'll come out bone dry and working fine. That makes this wonder fluid perfect for putting out fires in offices, computer rooms and museums. Just don't try drinking it.

11-29-2004, 10:08 PM	#19
AIWANNABE FORT Fogey Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: The Big Brother House Posts: 9,833	Light Touch MAGIC MATERIAL LiTraCon Inventor: LiTraCon Availability: Now, $1,828 per cu. ft. To Learn More: litracon.com Mixing glass with cement may seem strange, but that is what Aron Losonczi, a Hungarian architect, has done to create a transparent concrete called LiTraCon. Glass in the form of fiber optics allows light to filter through the material, creating a surreal effect. Available in sheets 2 in. or more wide, LiTraCon is as strong as regular concrete and can be used for walls, flooring or sculpture. It is on display at the National Building Museum in Washington through Jan. 23. LOST IN A CLOUD The Cloud Inventor: Monica Förster Availability: Now, $5,900 To Learn More: urbanpeel.com Swedish designer Monica Förster says that she often stares at clouds outside her airplane window and wonders what it would be like to step inside one. After learning that cumulus clouds form in the morning, then dissipate at night, she decided to create a nylon "cloud" that could serve as a quiet meeting space by day and collapse at night. Förster's Cloud is 8 ft. tall and 18 ft. long. A fan inside its carrying case inflates it in 3 min. Total weight: 33 lbs.

11-29-2004, 10:11 PM	#20
AIWANNABE FORT Fogey Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: The Big Brother House Posts: 9,833	Kid Friendly DIRTY WORK Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser Inventors: BASF, Procter & Gamble Availability: Now, about $4 for four To Learn More: mrclean.com It used to be that if your kid decided to redecorate the house in crayon, you had two choices: embrace the new mural or repaint. But now there's Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, a block of melamine foam that lets you remove stains and scuff marks swiftly without breaking a sweat. The material's unique chemical makeup makes it a great cleaner. But beware: rub too long or hard on the same spot, and you'll take the shine off a semigloss surface—or worse. SITTIN' PRETTY Stokke Xplory Stroller Inventor: Stokke Availability: Now, $749 To Learn More: stokkeusa.com Particularly tall parents sick of stooping as they push their toddlers about town will appreciate the new Xplory. Its push bar can be positioned nearly 4 ft. off the ground, and the seat can be raised high to keep the child above the fray. This stroller can be adjusted to accommodate passengers from a newborn to a 40-lb. preschooler; a special latch turns it into a two-wheeler for negotiating stairs. Bonus feature: a zippered sack for groceries. BABY, DON'T CRY Caring Cot Inventor: Garry Cho Availability: Prototype only To Learn More: garrycho@gmail.com Sometimes all babies need is a little rocking to fall asleep. The Caring Cot, created by an English industrial designer, is a motorized crib that rocks for about a minute if the baby in it cries for 30 sec. If the baby doesn't stop after about 5 min., a signal is sent to the parents via remote. A sensor goes off if the room gets too hot or cold. And for parents fearful of sudden infant death syndrome, a motion detector indicates if the baby has stopped moving for too long. ALL TIED UP Shloops Shoelace Fastener Inventor: Troy Christy Availability: Now, $2.99 a pair, in a range of colors To Learn More: shloops.com Problem: during soccer games, your child often has to bend down to retie her cleats' laces or risk tripping during a critical dribble-shot-score. Solution: Shloops. The patented rubbery tubes, which take mere moments to install, keep shoes securely tied all day, no matter what you're doing. Put them on once and keep them on until your shoes wear out. Whether they offend your fashion sensibilities is a separate issue.