Some inventions are really innovative, but quickly disappear from the public eye and others are remembered for their innovation or just fun. Here are some of the innovative projects of 2020.
1. Samsung Neon
Samsung Neon is an artificial person. It sounds scary at first but Samsung unveiled just that at CES 2020 in Las Vegas. The subsidiary Star Labs reveals “Neon”, an artificial person as a virtual being that looks and acts like a human. The technology is even said to have emotions and intelligence. This invention is not an AI assistant, but a computer-generated human being, which is supposed to appear in movies or smartphone apps. You can think of it as an avatar that can also have conversations or do tasks. For each neon avatar there should be an individual appearance, which is based on real people. Samsung envisages that neon avatars may be digital financial advisors in the future or act as healthcare providers. A neon is subscribed to and can accompany us through everyday life.
2. The Hoverboard
In 1985, Michael J. Fox raced through the future in with his hoverboard, it is a floating skateboard. People thought that would be a really good invention. Thirty years later, there are two variants of the hoverboard. One really floats, the other just does so – but you can easily buy it for that.
3. Underground Park Lowline
On 5000 square meters under the streets of New York, a real park with benches, trees and meadows is to be created, which is even supplied with daylight. Above the earth, the initiators plan rods with bowl-shaped collectors that capture sunlight that is fed underground via fiber optic cables. The whole thing is planned in a disused station of the former tram.
4. HoloLens Data Glasses
With the HoloLens, Microsoft could land another coup after a long time. The data glasses differ from competing models in that they do not take the user completely into a virtual world, but leave the real world visible. But what appears before the eye is even three-dimensional.
Microsoft imagines the device primarily for recreational applications. For example, while watching a sports broadcast on TV, you could also see a real-looking player up close in your own living room.
5. Stratford Collective Skyscraper
In a student district there is all this: affordable living space, cheap cafes and restaurants, meeting places, recreation areas. But such an idyll is hardly conceivable in a city like London, where you can easily pay the equivalent of 25 euros per square meter in rent. That is why the initiators of theStratford Collectiveare planning a high-rise building that provides for all these things.
In addition, there are small apartments that are rented out at short notice like hotel rooms, or large apartments that function like flats. The 112-metre-high tower with 30 storeys is expected to be completed as early as 2018 – when construction is approved and financed.
6. Samsung’s Safety Truck
Another Samsung invention. Video technology for trucks is designed to make overtaking safer. A camera records the traffic in front of the truck, the image appears in real time on the back. In this way, even in confusing situations, a motorist can see whether he can risk overtaking or not.
After the presentation in summer 2015, the electronics group further developed the technology. This spring, the system will be extensively tested on a track in Argentina, where overtaking accidents are common.
7. Drinkable Book
More than 700 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water. In recent decades, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), this number has fallen significantly, but it still affects around ten percent of the world’s population. The invention of the US researcher Teri Dankovich, called “Drinkable Book” sounds ingeniously simple. The drinkable book is strictly speaking, a collection of paper filters. The leaves are perforated and provided with silver nanoparticles. Making it easy and very inexpensive, a single book could provide a person with clean water for four years.