T/TAS 40th Anniversary - Inventions from The 2000s

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2000

The Segway Human Transporter.

Environmentally friendly transformer fluid from vegetable oils

2001

AbioCor artificial heart invented by Abiomed, groundbreaking medical miniaturization technology.

Artificial liver invented by Dr. Kenneth Matsumura and Alin Foundation.

Fuel cell bike.

Self-cleaning windows.

The iPod, the Apple portable music digital player.

2002

Braille Glove.

Nano-tex - nanotechnology wearable fabrics.

Birth control patch.

Solar Tower.

Virtual keyboard.

2003

Toyota's Hybrid Car.

Java Log, a log for your fireplace made from used coffee grinds.

Infrared Fever Screening System used in public buildings to scan for people with a high temperature from a fever or SARS.

The No-Contact Jacket, protects the wearer by electric shocking any attackers.

2004

Adidas 1, thinking shoes with a built in microprocessor that decides how soft or firm support the wearer needs.

Translucent Concrete called LitraCon and based on a matrix of parallel optical glass fibers embedded into the concrete that can transmit light and color from the outside.

Intel Express Chipsets, chips that will provide superior and inexpensive built-in sound and video capacities for the PC.

SonoPrep - a device that will deliver medication by sound waves rather than injection.

2005

YouTube - the online video sharing and viewing community.

A master switch for cancer - An international team of British, American, and Japanese, scientists believes it has found a master switch for cancer which they have called Pokemon (for POK erythroid myeloid ontogenic factor).

Smart plastics - programmed materials that change shape when struck by light at certain wavelengths and return to their original shapes when exposed to light of specific different wavelengths.

2006

Infrared alcohol test is invented in Albuquerque, N.M. for quickly identifying drunk drivers.

The Clever Car which runs on natural gas, getting 108 m.p.g. is invented by BMW, and various European institutions.

Tesla Motors invents the Tesla Roadster 100 that runs on a huge lithium-ion battery taking it up to 250 highway miles.

Shanghai-based Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies invents a toy car powered by hydrogen extracted from tap water.

Aqua Sciences invents, 'The Rainmaker', which harvents drinking water out of the air.

Inscentinel of Britain invents a system to train bees to detect explosions.

HelioVolt invents Solar Skin, which can be printed directly onto glass, metal and other building materials so skyscrapers will go up solar ready.

2007

iPhone - Invented for Apple by Jonathan Ive of England.

A steam/gasoline hybrid car that travels 40% farther than traditional gas powered engines.

A process to grow part of a human heart from stem cells for the first time is invented.

The Espresso Book Machine is invented which prints out a 300 page novel in 3 minutes at $3 a book.

Sony invents the Bio Cell, a battery that runs on any sugary solution and glucose-digesting enzymes to extract electrons creating electricity.

Frank Pringle of Global Resource Corp invents an emission-free process for pulling oil out of shale rock, tires and plastic using microwaves.

The Electro Needle Biomedical Sensor Array is invented. It is a patch that takes blood readings without external extraction of the blood.

Dow Corning invents special clothing for bikers that remains soft unless impacted by a fall upon which time the entire piece of clothing becomes rigid, protecting the body.

2008

TX Active, a smog-eating cement is invented by the Italian Company, Italcementi, which destroy airborne pollutants by up to 60%.

Flying Windmills are invented by Sky Windpower, a San Diego company that extracts energy from the jet stream possibly satisfying the planets energy requirements.

Spray on Skin Gun is developed by Australian Dr. Fiona Wood that uses a persons own stem cells for regenerating skin tissue.

The Nintendo Wii is released which is the first interactive gaming system.

2009

The Sixth Sense wearable gestural interface is invented letting natural hand gestures interact with a computer.

Retinal Implants are invented by the Retinal Implant Research Group. It is a microelectronic implant that restores vision to patients with macular degeneration and blindness.

Tank-bred Tuna System is invented by Clean Seas Tuna of Port Augusta, Australia.

2010

Apple's IPad

Square, a payment platform created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. With the aid of a tiny magnetic card reader that attaches to a smart phone, Square lets anyone process credit cards.

Google's Driverless Car. Driverless technology is logical and efficient, and in the near future, it could transform your commute into stress-free transport on a motorized sofa.

Martin Jetpack. The Martin Jetpack positions itself as the planet's first practical jet pack.

Malaria-Proof Mosquito. scientists at the University of Arizona have genetically engineered a mosquito that's immune to the Plasmodium parasite, the malaria-causing agent it transmits with its bite.

The EyeWriter - Uses low-cost eye-tracking glasses and open-source software to allow people suffering from any kind of neuromuscular syndrome to write and draw by tracking their eye movement and translating it to lines on a screen.

First Synthetic Cell, created by J. Craig Venter, who successfully co-mapped the human genome in 2001.

3-D Bioprinter. San Diego–based companies Invetech and Organovo have developed what amounts to a dot-matrix printer for human organs.

Better 3-D Glasses. Oakley Inc. has partnered with DreamWorks Animation to create specs with optically correct lenses (more clarity, less ghosting), and Samsung, which is releasing prescription glasses for its 3-D TVs.

2011

The Print Brush – A combination camera, inkjet printer that can take a picture and then 'brush' the picture onto any medium.

The Bed Bug Detective - Utilizes a digitized organic compound sensor that detects bedbugs by sensing two pheromones that they produce.

Light Field Camera – A new concept in photography, a small square tube camera with a retro feel to it, that does away with the focus button by capturing all the planes of focus, or as Lytro describes what it does, it captures a field of light, the first consumer camera to do so.

2012

Google Glass - A computer built into the frame of a pair of glasses.

Eliodomestico Solar Water Distiller – A solar-powered distiller for use in coastal areas in the third world that are deprived of freshwater.

LiquiGlide. The plant-based product adds a microscopic slippery coating to almost any material—glass, ceramic, metal or plastic.

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Sources –

http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/a/ModernInvention.htm

http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/tp/2011_Inventions.htm

http://teresacoppens.hubpages.com/hub/Major-Inventions-Timeline-The-21st-Century

http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2029497,00.html

http://techland.time.com/2012/11/01/best-inventions-of-the-year-2012/

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