Category: New Inventions

Impact Lab > New Inventions
Breakthrough Thinking, Green Friendly, Health & Fitness, New Inventions

Hybrid Motoryacht Design Powered By Diesel And Electric Jet Skis

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A hybrid boat?

Hybrid cars have been around for a while, but one German grad student is taking the concept to the water. A new hybrid propulsion motorboat designed by Stefanie Behringer, would reduce drag thanks to its three-hull, or trimaran, form.

A jet ski attaches to either side of the main hull, helping stabilize the boat. While the jet skis are electric-powered, the 49-foot long watercraft is also powered by two diesel engines that use Audi’s turbo-charged injection technology. Audi’s Concept Design team in Munich worked with Behringer on the project…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, Historical Perspectives, New Inventions, Science & Technology News

Raspberry Pi: A $25 Bare-Bones PC That Fits On Your Keychain

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Small and inexpensive technology is always handy.

There are a number of barebones/mass-market low-cost devices out there, many of them aimed at the huge developing world market, hoping to outfit people with basic PC functionality for as little cost as possible. The OLPC is among the most famous, but perhaps the most luxurious: with a cutting-edge screen, built-in keyboard and networking, and so on, it has perhaps aimed too high, resulting in (as we’ve seen) increasing price and limited uptake. India’s “$35″ tablet comes to mind as well.

David Braben, perhaps best known for developing the revolutionary Elite, is now leading a foundation called Raspberry Pi to mass produce this ultra-minimal PC and distribute it where even an OLPC is too much. Their device is as bare-bones as it gets, and they’re hoping to sell it for $25…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Ecological Products, Green Friendly, New Inventions, Plant Life, Science & Technology News, Solar Power

First Practical Artificial Leaf Developed

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The first practical artificial leaf shows promise as an inexpensive source of electricity for homes in developing countries.

Scientists debut development of the first practical artificial leaf, one of the milestones in the drive for sustainable energy.  The scientists described an advanced solar cell the size of a poker card at the 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. The solar cell mimics the process, called photosynthesis, that green plants use to convert sunlight and water into energy.

 

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Ecological Products, Green Friendly, Historical Perspectives, New Inventions

Badass Electric Motorcycle Gets 185 Miles on a Charge

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Go Through Your Mid-Life Crisis Without Waking Up the Neighbors

The Sora is a new electric motorcycle by Lito Green Motion, a Canadian company. It looks fairly badass and thanks to its 12 kWh advanced lithium-polymer batteries, it has an electric range of 300 kilometers (185 miles) and a top speed of 200 kph (124 mph). Read on for more specs and photos.

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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries, New Inventions

Thru: The Lucent Mobile Phone Concept

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Translucent phones could be all the rage very soon.

Imagine the possibilites a translucent phone would bring. The wiping of endless fingerprints would be a nightmare but the concept is too cool and too futuristic to ignore.
Freelance designer, Mac Funamizu is at it again, mocking up translucent devices that let the imagination run wild with the clean simplicity. He’s designing the future we’ve always read about and seen in science fiction. Hopefully these designs will someday soon be a reality…

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New Inventions, Science & Technology News

World’s Most Accurate Atomic Clock So Sensitive It Can Detect Changes in Earth’s Gravity

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An atomic clock in Berlin. Scientists have developed an ‘optical lattice’ clock so sensitive it can detect changes in Earth’s gravity

Professor Hidetoshi Katori and his team at the University of Tokyo with the help of Professor Victor Flambaum have conceived a state-of-the-art atomic clock, which is actually so sensitive that it can detect changes in Earth’s gravity and will allow scientists to measure time to a whopping 17 digits! Not only that, the ‘optical lattice’ clock is also touted to remarkably improve GPS tracking systems and will be able to detect insignificant height differences to the range of 10cm.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, New Inventions

Self-Strengthening Polymer Nanocomposite Works Best Under Pressure

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Polymer Nanocomposite

No one keeps carbon nanotubes down — especially not these guys. The always popular allotropes have been enlisted by researchers at Rice University to create a composite material that gets stronger under pressure. When combined with polydimethylsiloxane, a rubbery polymer, the tubes form a nanocomposite that exhibits self-strengthening properties also exhibited in bones. During testing, the team found the material increased in stiffness by 12 percent after 3.5 million compressions…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Great New Product, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Latest News, Latest Trend, New Discoveries, New Inventions

GiftRocket Makes a Gift Card Accepted Anywhere

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A new spin on the popular gift card.

Is the gift card, a surprisingly desirable commodity for gift recipients, in need of a version 2.0? The decades old plastic present, predated by its paper cousin the gift certificate, may be in for a young and hip transformation at the hands of new startup GiftRocket.

GiftRocket’s version of the gift card is place-specific, but not in the traditional sense. The format is designed to open up the $100 billion-per-year gift card industry and allow gift givers to send gift cards to anyone via email for any thing — such as drinks, skydiving or a spa day — at any venue, regardless of whether the retailer sells its own gift cards…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, New Discoveries, New Inventions, New Viewpoints, Video Games

Red Bull Augmented Racing Game Lets You Build Tracks With Red Bull Cans

Red Bull Can Racing

Sure, it may all just be an elaborate scheme to get you to buy more Red Bull, but it is a fairly ingenious scheme. In addition to a plethora of in-game advertising, the new Red Bull racing game for iOS devices also has an augmented reality component that lets you build tracks simply by lining up actual cans of Red Bull on the floor — at least twelve of them for a complete track, and only Red Bull will do, apparently…

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