When people hear the words “smart” and “technology” in the same sentence, cell phones usually come to mind. However, there are a lot of upcoming smart technologies, like a bamboo mobile phone and a instant-response touchscreen, that you should be excited about. Continue reading to see five incredible examples.
5. Bamboo Smartphone
London student Kieron-Scott Woodhouse created a smartphone, called ADzero, that’s made from specially treated bamboo that is “just as strong as any kind of plastic.” Woodhouse, a design student in the U.K. at Middlesex University, came up with the idea for ADzero based on his interest in alternative construction methods for phones. In fact, one of his early concepts with which he was just “messing about with materials, trying to find quality materials,” turned into a handset made out of steel and bronze.
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4. Instant Response Touchscreen
Microsoft Research’s Applied Science Group has developed a “a next-generation touchscreen which can respond to touch input in less than one millisecond.” The 1ms touch panel is still in prototype stage and will need a few years before the technology is refined and cheap enough to add to new products.
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3. WVIL Camera
Here’s a first: a camera that has all of its components stuffed inside the viewfinder. Introducing the WVIL Camera, the world’s first model that allows you “to shoot pictures even though the lens is separated from the camera body.” Its main “goal is to have a pro-level digital camera with smartphone functionality.”
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2. Plastic to Oil
You read that right, “Japanese company Blest has developed one of the smallest and safest oil-to-plastic conversion machines out on the market today.” The key to the process is an electric heater, which heats the plastic enough to melt, but never to the point where it burns, thus avoiding any CO2 fumes. Two pounds of plastic fed to the machine gets you a quart of oil.
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1. Brain-Controlled Skateboard
Called the “Board of Imagination”, this high-tech skateboard essentially “takes commands directly from the rider’s brainwaves and transfers them to and 800-watt motor that propels the board forward.” Think of a destination, and how fast you would like to get there, and the Board Of Imagination will take off – hitting a top speed of around 30mph. If you think that’s too fast, it will slow down.
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Honorable Mention – Smart Mirror
Perfect for Halloween, this creepy (yet high-tech) mirror features “a 3-D animal avatar as your reflection, mimicking your facial expressions in a horrifying, mocking way.” You get a different animal every time you walk in front of the mirror, and the animal’s facial expressions mirror and play off your own.
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