Best 200 Inventions in 2022

Hey friends, Happy Wednesday!

Answer to the question I posed last week

Last week, we discussed sensor fusion and asked about the aspects in which it’s been used in gaming recently. They’re used for head tracking in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets used in gaming and training.

All my newsletters are analytical except today’s edition. As this is going to be more of an informational one discussing my picks on the best inventions of 2022 by Time magazine in different categories. I aim to write my newsletter issues in a way one can follow them while traveling on a bus, having a coffee, waiting for your food, etc. Let’s jump in!

My picks on the 200 best inventions of 2022 by TIME

The general theme of the top 200 inventions in 2022 chosen by TIME magazine is sustainability, a greener earth, reducing carbon footprint, and saving animals and our planet. Here is my personal pick of one invention per every category in the list. You can read about all the inventions at the end of this section through the attached link.

Accessibility: Virtually Active

Rendeverfit is a VR platform for elderly people living in senior facilities. They can do painting, cycling, and paddling (like ping pong) by wearing their headsets and holding their controllers. Here is the fun part, they can see the leaderboard which has their friends playing the same game.

AI: Automated 3D Rendering

Creating 3D scenes is super expensive and time-consuming in general. Nvidia’s Instant Nerf tool does the same with a few photos and a few minutes of your time using Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF). It could have an impact on 3D graphics like how digital camera has on modern photography. Moreover, it’s free to use!

Apps and Software: Revealing deep fakes

AI can generate images of a car as if it had been in a car crash using the deep fake. Which could then be used for insurance fraud. This won’t be possible after Truepic Lens, a software tool that authenticates the original media capture device and associated metadata. It’s a tool that would be super useful for Airbnb, for example.

AR & VR: Stitch-free 3D

The Dual Fisheye lens developed by Cannon was inspired by the human face, which captures 180 degrees at 8K resolution. The need for taking multiple pictures and stitching them together to produce a 3D image is removed as a result of using this camera. High-end VR content can be delivered as a result.

Automotive: Fighting smog

Autorickshaws in India cause an insane amount of pollution. Power Global came up with eZee, a subscription battery service for drivers who use electric autorickshaws. They can swap their depleted battery with a fully charged one at a station. It costs them less money than it does for filling gas and driving per day.

Beauty: Rich red for Vegan set

The beauty industry uses Carmine, a pigment used for bright red lipsticks that are developed by crushing insects. Hence, Vegans and others stopped using them until recently! Hourglass invented a patent-pending methodology to achieve the same bright red without using Carmine from crushed insects.

Consumer electronics: Smallest chip ever

IBM’s 2nm chip is the smallest chip ever with 50 billion transistors on a space no bigger than our fingernail. This can quadruple the life of phone batteries and can reduce the carbon footprint!

Design: James Webb space telescope

You know it! :)

It offered more than a peek into the history of our universe.

Entertainment: Hyperlocal sound sculpting

Holoplot’s speaker system can project sound to precise locations. It’s designed for public places like auditoriums, railway stations, etc. “You could have one side of the room hearing in French, the other side in English” - Holoplot

Experimental: Reducing e-waste

Empa Water Activated disposable paper battery is a proof of concept for a battery-powered by salt which has a capacity of 1.2V, similar to an AA battery. Basically, add water to a piece of paper and get energy!!

Fitness: Lift without a spotter

Vitruvian trainer+ is a smart floor-based machine that uses electromagnets to provide resistance while you’re using the machine. Also, it uses a multi-cable system that can support 100+ exercises. It decreases resistance if you’re not able to complete the rep and adds load if you can get through them quickly.

Food and drink: Pulling water out of thin air

Kara Pure turns the air’s humidity into 10L of pure water per day. It’s not noisy and uses natural means similar to using silica gel for attracting moisture. Moreover, it had $1M in sales in less than 75 days.

Green energy: Tapping Ocean’s motion power

Conventional devices can tap energy from the ocean using only its up-and-down motion called heave. But, Oscilla Power’s Triton wave energy converter can harness power from the pitch, roll, yaw, sway, and the surge of the ocean. It has a surface float and a submerged ring-shaped generator to form a power grid. It can produce the same power as a wind turbine for the same cost.

Household: Seamless smart home integration

If you’re using multiple gadgets in your home, it’s a hassle as they don’t have a common language to talk to each other. Each has its own platform for control and is independent. So big tech companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, etc. got together and created Thread, a wireless-mesh networking protocol that allows gadgets from different companies to communicate reliably and use less power.

Medical: Continuous stroke monitoring

Every 40 seconds, someone in the US has a stroke. Early detection is crucial but strokes can go undetected for 4 hours sometimes. Neuralert is a FDA designated breakthrough device - which is a pair of smart wristbands that track arm asymmetry or weakness, which is a common symptom of stroke. It alerts the medical staff right after it detects the stroke.

Outdoor: Larq filtration

I had written a blog post on the same, on Larq water bottles. They filtrate and purify water using UV-C light. It’s a bit expensive but does the job of removing lead, and pesticides and kills the DNA of organisms. You can get pure water on the go!

Parenting: Luggage stroller hybrid

TrenX Carry On has the size of a carry-on suitcase that can unfold into a stroller. It can hold 18 liters of stuff and is made of aluminum, and recycled polycarbonate. It can be used both as luggage while traveling and as a stroller for your kid when needed.

Productivity: Simplifying your WFH life

Logitech Dock basically gives users a single point of connection avoiding digital clutter. It has stereo speakers, background noise filtering microphones, Bluetooth connectivity, and plenty of ports for USB and display. The docking station has an ambient light reminder for Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft teams meetings as well.

Robotics: Underwater exploration

Exploring underwater has been important to understand our planet. But at the same time, it has been very expensive and time-consuming to do so. But, now we have Advanced Navigation Hydrus which explores water the same way drones ruled the flight. The autonomous underwater vehicle has powerful lights, a 4K camera, AI image processing system, and can descend up to 3000m while weighing less than 15 pounds! Notably, it’s easy to use.

Social good: Sewage surveillance

There is enormous data in sewage water, we can grab the community’s disease level and opioid use data with a very small sample of sewage water. This has been already in use but Buobot Analytics commercialized the sewage data and is detecting disease outbreaks as well.

Style: Recyclable Fabric

We throw away 50 million clothes every year, so it’d be super cool if we can recycle them somehow. Make way for NuCycl. NuCycl fiber is made by chemically liquefying old textiles and is eventually spun into yarn again. They are fully recyclable and the process currently works for cotton but the company Evrnu aims to do the same with other materials as well.

Toys and Play: A real Inspiration

Barbie dolls are produced under the theme of “inspiring women who took risks”. One of the dolls for example is a Barbie dressed like a renowned chimpanzee expert. The artist has plans of including Maya Angelou, Rosa Parks, and many more in the series.

Transportation: Geofencing

Gothenburg, Sweden partnered with Volvo to create a virtual perimeter that digitally controls public buses. For example, the buses automatically slow down around school zones. And in emission-free zones, it automatically switches to electric mode to reduce carbon emissions.

Wellness: Meditate in the Metaverse

You can try Tripp Wellness platform using your VR headset. It includes psychedelic images, breathing exercises, guided meditations, games, and sounds designed to calm the mind. It’s more about stimulation and they have plans to launch new AR experiences in the future!

Here is the complete list of inventions released by Time for 2022. Enjoy exploring!

Explore all the Best 200 inventions of 2022

Introducing a new Section to my Newsletter

I’m planning to introduce a new section to my newsletter and see how it goes. Every week, I’m planning to write very briefly about a new gadget that was released with the latest tech or a recent invention. Basically, a couple of sentences about what it is, what it does, and my views on it. Please let me know your thoughts on this idea by replying to this email, would love to hear from you.

Question of the week

Which inventions caught your attention and found interesting to you? Share your thoughts by replying to this email, and we can have a discussion.

Blog Post

I’m thinking of writing about an Electric toothbrush or Sleep rate sensor for the next episode S1E9. Also, let me know if you’d like to read about a specific gadget/device.

Have a nice rest of the week, and take care!
Until next Wednesday,
Chendur