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Time lists Top 50 inventions of 2009
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As the holidays approach and 2009 comes to a close, get ready to wade through lists of the best gadgets of the year or the best gadget buys for the holidays. I’ve already been invited to several Top 10-like events in the coming weeks.
Here’s a list you’ll want to peruse from the latest issue of Time magazine: The 50 Best Inventions of 2009. Some of these are prototypes not slated to be mass produced any time soon. And they’re not all consumer products. No, the iPhone 3GS and Motorola Droid didn’t make the cut.
The top 50 list is topped off by NASA’s Ares 1 rocket, which was launched on its first unmanned mission Oct. 28. The 327-foot tall Ares (for perspective, the Statue of Liberty is 140 feet tall). is going to be counted on for return trips to the moon and possibly to Mars, so it’s gotta be built for the long haul, compared to the Space Shuttle, which only operated in a low Earth orbit.
I went through the whole list of 50 and rather than regurgitate it for you here, I’ve picked five of the other inventions I thought might relate best to you and your everyday, gadget-filled lives.
No. 4. The Smart Thermostat: This product, due in early 2010, was inspired by the on-dash control display in the inventor’s Prius. The EnergyHub Dashboard communicates wirelessly with your home HVAC system and various appliances, reporting how much energy they are using and how much it’s costing you. It can be programmed to turn up or down climate control systems or turn off appliances to manage energy. It’s expected to be sold through utility companies.
No. 13. The Solar Shingle: Instead of mounting big, heavy solar panels on your roof, replace asphalt shingles with new thin solar panels right alongside them. The solar panels are made of cells of copper indium gallium diselenide, a new substance for making solar cells that will be thinner than traditional panels. Dow Chemical Co. expects to make $10 billion by 2020 marketing the Powerhouse Solar Shingle, which will also save consumers 10 percent to 15 percent compared to the cost of traditional solar panels.
No. 14. The Handheld Ultrasound: The Vscan from General Electric, unveiled Oct. 20, is an ultrasound device (see how the baby is developing) that’s about the size of a cell phone. While intended for medical use, not consumers, The Vscan “could improve the way medicine is practiced everywhere, from cutting-edge ERs to makeshift village clinics.”
No. 27. The Universal Unicycle: The Honda U3-X borrows from the technology of its ASIMO Robot project. It’s a battery-powered unicycle that moves forward, backward, left and right by how the rider shifts their weight. Now the ordeal of walking from your desk to the copier has been eliminated. Honorable mention goes to No. 15, The Yoke Bike.
No. 43. The Eyeborg: Canadian Rob Spence, 37, has had a prosthetic right eye since an injury he suffered at age 9. With the help of four co-inventors and the company OmniVision, Spence has replaced the prosthetic eye with a wireless video camera that can record everything he sees. He looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the last scenes of “The Terminator,” but I see another You Tube sensation in the offing.
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