Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2014. The products are described as about to launch, such as SCIO’s $2 million Kickstarter campaign, Smart Pipe “still in development” and Ecovative as “a new company”, alongside the then-current Ebola outbreak. Their current status is unknown.
Right now, dozens of inventors and entrepreneurs are shaping countless ideas that are little known to the general public, with technologies that look very simple but have great potential to make a positive impact on our world.
The Huffington Post put together a round-up of some of these new products that are about to see the light of day, although for now it is hard to know whether they will work and turn the profit their makers hope for. These are nine little-known technologies with the potential to transform the world for the better, or at least to ease some of the problems people face.
1. Chewing gum that fixes your teeth
Almost 4 million people in the world suffer from untreated oral diseases such as tooth decay and gingivitis.
The company Sweet Bites has created a xylitol-fortified chewing gum to clean teeth and prevent disease. And it is not only a big step forward for oral health: its creators also hope to boost women’s entrepreneurship and economic development in the poorest communities.
2. A mouthguard that can detect concussions
Detecting a concussion is tricky, and many athletes can suffer permanent brain damage without knowing it if it is not caught in time.
Mamori, which means “protect” in Japanese, is a mouthguard with built-in sensors that can send alerts to players and coaches when a collision is hard enough to cause a concussion.
3. A wearable, internet-connected hand sanitiser
One in four hospital patients in the United States gets sick just from being in hospital, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even though hand-washing cuts these cases by up to 40 per cent, there are few systems to make sure hospital workers wash their hands consistently.
A new tool, SwipeSense, aims to revolutionise hand sanitisers by making them wearable and connected to the network. Hospitals can monitor their staff’s use through an app and make sure far fewer people catch preventable diseases inside hospitals. A good idea, no doubt, in times of swine flu and, more recently, Ebola.
4. A smoke-free solar oven for developing countries
Cooking in the developing world often requires large amounts of expensive fuel and produces harmful smoke as a by-product.
The Infinity Bakery and other similar solar ovens aim to reduce illness and save energy by offering affordable solar-powered cooking to developing communities.
5. A cheap portable water filtration device
Nearly a billion people lack access to clean, safe water.
Portapure is a five-gallon water filtration device that can take dirty water from a lake or stream and turn it into clean drinking water, without purification tablets or electricity.
6. Water pipes that monitor their own leaks
In the United States alone, between 12.5 and 92 million dollars’ worth of drinking water is lost to leaking pipes, according to a 2005 study by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Smart Pipe is a technology still in development that would use nanosensors to monitor leaks in public water systems, making more efficient use of water.
7. A way to scan the nutritional content of food
Although packaged foods carry the required nutritional information, we often have no idea what is in the food we are eating.
SCIO is a pocket spectrometer. The device would measure the calorie and chemical content of food, so that anyone can scan any food or drink and know exactly what is in it. This business idea has already raised 2 million dollars through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.
8. A shower that reuses its own water
Showers waste an enormous amount of water and use a great deal of energy.
The OrbSys shower promises to cut water use by 90 per cent and energy use by more than 80%. It recycles the water being used by pumping it through a filter in a closed-loop system, so not only is water saved, but the newly cleaned water coming out barely needs reheating. If this idea takes off on a large scale, water consumption could fall dramatically around the world.
9. Mushroom packaging
Plastic packaging and materials are made from oil and, as a rule, are not biodegradable, which has a series of environmental and health consequences.
A new company called Ecovative has a solution to the wasteful, environmentally destructive use of plastics in packaging, insulation and cars: materials made from agricultural by-products and mushrooms. “There’s a great future in plastics,” goes the iconic line from the 1967 film The Graduate. Now, if this idea takes off, the future belongs to mushrooms.
All of these are, without a doubt, very innovative and interesting ideas.
Further reading
- 33 profitable businesses of the future and the industries that will create jobs
- The 7 main technology trends of the near future
Featured image: Mycobond, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
