R&D Magazine has sponsored the "Oscars of Inventions" for 45 years. These research and design awards are coveted by government as well as private industry inventors. The 100 winners selected by R&D Magazine for 2007 are stunning innovations - resourceful, effective, inspiring. A significant portion of the 2007 awards are homeland security/military innovations; others are environmental, health, and there's even innovations for kids, like a must-have-Holiday-toy robot!
Electro Needle Biomedical Sensor Array
Hapsite Viper Chemical Identification System
Chemical detection ability is extremely important t our troops, and this HAPSITE Viper Chemical Identification System uses infrared technology to improve the identification of toxic substances and chemical warfare agents (CWA's) in the environment in a matter of a few minutes. The Hapsite System that can be used inside a vehicle as well as in open space, is one thousand times more sensitive than NATO requirements for such a system, affording greater safety to troops and civilians in the area. Inficon won an R&D environmental award for the system, just one of several detection devices made by the company.
Millimeter-Wave Spectrometer for Remote Chemical DetectionAnother environmental innovation in CWA technology, the Passive Millimeter-Wave Spectrometer for Remote Chemical Detection was developed by four scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois This somewhat larger device can detect harmful nuclear waste from several miles away. Focusing, let's say, on a plume of smoke from a processing plant, the spectrometer can detect the levels of environmentally dangerous particles in the smoke. For use in the U.S., this system is seen to be a boost to Homeland Security efforts and one that may have several other applications in the future.
Functionalized Nanoporous Thin FilmMusically, you may be partial to heavy metal, but few of us care for it in our drinking water. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, has developed a Functionalized Nanoporous Thin Film (FNTF) that behaves like fly paper in attracting the metals in a sample of water. When the FNTF is removed from water, x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) can then be used to identify the metals on the film. The combination of these technologies makes identifying almost every heavy metal identifiable, even when present in minute quantities.
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Comments
Razor Gator should have been in this list.
The world's first disposable razor CLEANER. http://www.razor-gator.com. It's really popular on YTMND.
I'm totally loving the
I'm totally loving the Safe Clothing!
Oh, and nice job with the robot, Lego! But, c'mon... Alpha Rex?!? That is SO Johnny 5. Someone needs to add "Short Circuit" to their Netflix queue, I'm thinkin'.
Great list, thank you! Off to check out the other 90.
The inventions I chose to list...
I usually don't intervene in the comments section, unless a reader addresses a message to me. But I've been watching the comments here and those submitted to Digg and I see that several readers are defending other technologies that R&D Magazine did not choose, such as the IPhone or a computer technology.
I cannot disagree that those technologies are very important. But I do think that the substantive difference is that the 100 R&D Magazine winners, and particularly 9 of the 10 innovations I chose, are potentially life-saving technologies. They can profoundly impact a world greater than the microcosm of those comfortably able to spend their lives using high tech consumer communication technology. There is a larger universe.
Anyway, thanks to all of you for sharing your opinions. They are fun, and sometimes funny, to read.
Myra
Consider the microsoft surface
the technology for that was introduced this year and it drastically improves on the way touch technology is seen. microsoft has created technology that can make any surface, an interactive touch gui by using millions of tiny cameras underneath a surface that respond, and track finger movement along a surface. This technology can pretty much make any surface a touch computer without any risk of touch related damage.
i agree ...
i'd just like to post a comment to say that i agree with "WTF..." ... if you thing that the iPod/iPhone/iWTF is one of the most remarkable and important inventions you need an iBrain or maybe an iLife ... sad ...very sad ... (btw ... no I am not some anti-gadet-kind-of-person ... I LUVVV gadgets !!!)
WTF ipod
you guys are fuckin idiots these are legit inventions to improve the quality and safety of lives......ipod who cares about a damn ipod
thank god! no lphone!
thank god! no lphone!
Brilliant
I like the pure water concept.
<a href="http://mgopinath.blogspot.com">Tech Thoughts</a>
I swear, I had no idea he
I swear, I had no idea he was about to post the whole iPod thing. Still the iPod was not released this year and iPhone was.
But what about..
While these all sound like fine examples, I think personal communications devices took an remarkable turn towards the future with Apple's iPhone. Its not the phone, its the UI that is so remarkable.
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