Product Inspiration

This new system is able to tell the location of a plane by measuring small fluctuations in Earth’s magnetic filed, caused by the large, moving metal object. The system is actually very accurate (within 7.5 meters), and only requires an array of small, cheap magnetic field sensors. The immediate benefits include better airplane tracking, especially when visibility is poor.

While the effects of an object on our planet’s magnetic field is very small, this could still be a way to sense and locate all kinds of other objects in the future.

http://www.physorg.com/news120407030.html

A few years ago, scientists discovered that geckos do not use any type of glue or adhesive to walk up walls. This is possible because millions of tiny hairs on the gecko foot adhere to the wall through Van Der Waals forces, which are basically small attractions between molecules that are close together. The small forces add up over the millions of hairs, creating a very strong bond.

Since this discovery, scientists have been working vigorously on creating a tape or glue which mimics this method. A recent prototype shows that a tiny square (2cm) of this material can hold up to a pound of weight.

At some point, we will probably see some useful new ‘tape’ for hanging posters (and paintings) on walls from this innovation, and maybe even some far-out science-fiction stuff like suits for climbing walls.

http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2008/02/gecko_glue.html

As you may know, oil and grease stick to just about anything, and can be quite a problem when you are doing your laundry. Well, the eggheads at MIT have developed a new “oleophobic” material which virtually repels oil. At a microscopic level, the material is a mat of fibers made of fluoroPOSS. The resulting effect is that oil droplets are cradled by the material, maintaining the low surface tension of the oil droplets and allowing them to roll off.

While the more novel applications like grease - free automotive attire may come to mind first, there are actually some other uses with much higher potential impact. For example, oil system seals and reservoirs could be improved to use less oil and prevent leaks with this material. Could there also be a use for this in the cleanup of oil spills?

http://www.designnews.com/article/CA6514279.html?nid=2878

Electronic noses are devices which can identify particular molecules and elements in air (or in some cases, in liquids), allowing for the digital measurement of air (and breath) quality. This is a pretty new technology, with a lot of potential benefits down the road, but not a whole lot of practical applications today due to price and lack of developmental maturity. Once it is fully developed, we will be able to monitor and control air quality with an insanely high degree of accuracy, sense bombs and explosives from a long way away, and generally have the use of a highly accurate digital bloodhound to sniff out any airborne agent with remarkable accuracy and sensitivity.

One practical application is the diagnosis of diseases. The presence of certain organic molecules in your breath could indicate a bacterial infection, or certain antibodies could signify a cancerous growth.

While its still a bit early to see much from the electronic nose, lets keep an eye out for new developments which bring this technology closer to mass commercialization. For now, as the article below states, we can look forward to improved early diagnosis of some particular disorders and diseases.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=electronic-noses-could-make-diseas es-something-to-sniff-at

One of the best parts of cooking a cake for any child is the chance to eat the remaining mix from the bowl and beater. For better or worse, this new design takes much of that joy away by scraping much more of the cake or cookie mix from the sides of the bowl, making for more cookies (and less “wasted” dough).

While this is a rather novel innovation, perhaps there’s some other areas where such a side-scraping (or generally, refined mixing element) design could improve functionality. Areas such as masonry, fuel management, and paint mixing. What other ways can you think of to apply this design to other industries?

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/12/sideswipe-self.html

This system, which has been in the works for a few years now, harnesses wind power to save fuel costs for big ocean-going shipping vessels. A large kite-like sail is attached to the ship, and provides extra power to get the boat across the ocean in less time and fuel costs. The first of these sails (which are being developed by multiple different companies) will set sail this year.

Here’s my two favorite things about this technology:

1) Its practically ‘money for nothing’- the system pays for itself in 3 years, and the user reaps the profit for every year thereafter which it is still functional.

2) It borrows from the older version of the same product. While it doesn’t happen often, sometimes the best innovations for a current product (intercontinental shipping) may be inspired by an outdated design (sailboats) of the same product.

What other products could be improved by applying older design aspects to the current form?

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/12/go_fly_a_kite_from_your_ship.p hp

Another feature straight out of science fiction and Hollywood, Kraft is working on ‘programmable food’ that will allow you to customize the flavor of a meal or drink using nanoparticles and a custom-tuned microwave. The process revolves around nano-capsules which contain the flavor and color of the desired drink. To release the contents of these capsules, a special microwave will send energy into the beverage, rupturing the capsules according to a preset frequency.

While this is a very cool concept, I cannot see this being very popular in the near future. New Coke taught us that despite how similar a new product may be, without an identical flavor and look, no one will want to drink it. Lets hope that Kraft pulls it off and actually makes some decent tasting stuff out of this new tech- personally, all I can imagine is a cup of sprite-tasting water that does little more than frustrate my taste buds.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/futureoffood/story/0,,19712 66,00.html#article_continue via medgadget

Controlling a computer with your brain has been the stuff of science fiction for years. It has also been achieved with some limited success in laboratories around the world. Neurosky is one of the first companies who seem to have made a functional and useful product using a brain interface. You wear their headband around your head, and are able to control video games by your thoughts alone.

While the technology has a long way to go before we can throw away our keyboard and mouse, its nice to see that someone’s gotten this technology far enough to sell an actual product based on it.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/10/hands-on-or-bra.html

From Betamax to Minidiscs, from Memory Sticks to Blu-Ray, it seems like Sony is always hell bent on making some type of proprietary format out of any new communication or storage medium.

In its latest attempt, Sony has created ‘TransferJet’, a short range high-bandwidth wireless communication architecture. My gripe is that this technology already exists as Ultra Wideband (UWB), and its currently being used for devices such as wireless USB routers. Basically, Sony took UWB, made some improvements to the widely adopted system, and branded it as their own.

Sony, please stop making all of the proprietary formats. Only a small fraction of other devices are ever compatible with your custom formats, and it ends up giving everyone headaches when their Memory Stick full of pictures can’t be uploaded using a conventional memory card reader. While I’m sure you end up making more money from these custom formats, it sure leaves a bad taste in our mouths.

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=2052100 37

Grabbing technology from one industry and applying it to another is a great ’shortcut’ to making a breakthrough product innovation (and something that we are very big on at PCDworks).

Here’s a perfect example: Power computer users have been using water cooling systems on their desktop PCs for years to keep the chips cool, allowing them to overclock the processor to run extra fast (and at higher temperatures). Some innovative soul realized that this fluid-based cooling design could be useful for regulating our own temperatures, and designed a mattress which uses tubes of fluid and a thermostat to change the temperature of the bed. If having a variable-temperature mattress isn’t good enough, there are two separate controls, so that any mates which share a bed can have different temperatures on their respective sides.

Can you think of any other good places to use fluid based temperature control?

http://gizmodo.com/336850/chilipad-regulates-bed-temperature-you-suppl y-the-hotness