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Innovation / Technology

This device makes it possible to communicate with your mind.

This Stroke of Genius Could Allow You to Write With Your Brain

Not Impossible Labs has developed a breakthrough approach to communication

Garrett Foshay rides the Hendo, which hovers about an inch off the ground.

The Hoverboard Fantasy Comes True, Just As “Back to the Future” Predicted

Hold onto your flux capacitors; the future is here

A 2013 satellite view of a settlement of uncontacted people in Acre, Brazil.

Protecting the World’s Last Isolated Communities From Above

Advances in satellite technology mean that untouched villages can remain that way

How to Predict a Famine Before It Even Strikes

Hundred of miles about Earth, orbiting satellites are becoming a bold new weapon in the age-old fight against drought, disease and death

Steven Devor, front, developed the automated treadmill using off-the-shelf parts, including an inexpensive sonar range finder and an existing treadmill. (Photo by Jo McCulty, Courtesy of Ohio State University)

This New Treadmill Automatically Adjusts to Your Speed

A prototype developed at Ohio State makes indoor workouts more like outdoor runs by using sonar to detect where you are on the belt and keep pace

The party doesn't start until Disco Dog walks in.

This Week in Crowdfunding

A LED Vest for Puppies and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

A new tool for runners moves beyond calories to measure the intensity of workouts

MIT Researchers Think They Can Spot Early Signs of Parkinson’s in the Way People Type

By monitoring how long we hold down keystrokes, it may be possible to detect neurological diseases years before other symptoms appear

This winter jacket is light, thin and made of the same special ingredient that insulates astronaut spacesuits.

This Week in Crowdfunding

A Winter Jacket Made From the Same Material as NASA Spacesuits and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

Plus, a high-tech update to the tried-and-true jump rope

A man holds his mobile phone as he sits in the ruins of a house in Minamisanriku, Japan, after the area was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Getting a Push Notification on Your Cell Phone? It Could Be Warning You About an Earthquake

Sophisticated GPS sensors in the average mobile device could be harnessed for seismic early warning systems around the world

The Innovative Spirit

What is the Nine Millionth Patent?

The landmark announcement is part of the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s celebration of the 225th anniversary of the Patent Act

Bringing the toolbox into the 21st century.

This Week in Crowdfunding

A Tricked-Out Toolbox, a Teeny-Weeny Coffee Brewer and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

There’s also a pearl necklace that can store photo and audio files

This apparatus can be used to lay Easter bunny tracks. It dispenses flour in a pattern that resembles paw prints. The same device can be repurposed for Christmas, when it lays Santa's tracks or reindeer hoof prints.

14 Easter Inventions That Never Quite Took Off

This holiday take a look at these products, from egg coloring devices to tomb pendants

Farmers use the machine and provide feedback.

Farmers Can Shell Coffee in a Fraction of the Time With This Bike-Powered Machine

A team at an MIT International Development Design Summit is making coffee production a little easier for small-scale farmers in Tanzania

More than half of the drivers queried in a 2014 insurance industry survey said their cars had been damaged by potholes.

The War on Potholes Has a New Weapon

Researchers at Northeastern University have outfitted a van with sensors, microphones and cameras that can spot the early stages of potholes

Using millions of images and machine learning, Orbital Insight is able to estimate global oil surplus, weeks ahead of traditional estimates, by analyzing the shadows on the floating lids of oil tanks.

A Startup Wants to Track Everything From Shoppers to Corn Yields Using Satellite Imagery

Orbital Insight, founded by a NASA and Google veteran, is quick to predict crop failures and estimate the current global oil surplus

This structure serves as everything from a climbing wall to a bench to a meditation space.

This Week in Crowdfunding

A Bus Stop Climbing Wall and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

Unbreakable shoelaces? They come in stylish colors and patterns

Palazzo Italia

Smog-Eating Buildings Battle Air Pollution

Sunlight triggers chemical reactions in the façades of buildings in Mexico City and Milan to improve air quality

Etude 1, 1967- 1968, is a piece of Thermo fax paper with an image that looks like a four-leaf-clover, with four overlapping circles. Each circle has concentric inner circles composed of individual letters of the alphabet.

New Works by Nam June Paik Are Discovered at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

While inventorying the massive archival materials left by the artist, a researcher comes across forgotten works of art

This Week in Crowdfunding

A Moon Landing in Virtual Reality, Bookniture and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

Could a new material that uses static charge to stick to any surface spell doom for Post-it notes?

An App Helps the Blind to Type Quickly and Efficiently on an iPad

The iBrailler Notes app provides the blind and visually impaired with a Braille writer at an affordable price

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