People watch sci-fi movies and get excited by the crazy ideas presented. Some of them
even go on to become scientists or inventors, and many have helped bring the world inventions
that mimic what they once saw in movies. In a way, these people are making a specific
vision of the future happen, but some of these inventions aren?t really practical and are
really more a form of wish fulfillment than they are moving humanity’s scientific advancement
forward. But there are many inventions humanity could actually use, in a practical sense,
that are also really cool and wouldn’t seem out of place in a science fiction movie…
10. An Accurate Breathalyzer-Type Device To Know If Someone Is High On Marijuana
Today, law enforcement everywhere has a difficult task on their hands when it comes to the roadways.
They have to not only deal with drunk drivers, but drivers who are high on heroin, meth,
and now (legally in many states) marijuana. And this raises a really difficult question
for the police: How do you know if a driver is under the influence of marijuana, in a
way that wouldn?t be instantly thrown out in any court of law in the country? The roadways
need to be safe, but it’s no use prosecuting someone if you don?t have evidence that will
hold up.
Now, a small startup does have a device they are testing with law enforcement that can
also test for alcohol as well, but it’s limited. The device can only tell if you’ve
smoked within the last two hours. This isn?t exactly the futuristic level we were talking
about, but it likely would be a lot of help, and may be enough to keep the roads safe for
the time being. While some people may dispute that they would be safe to drive sooner, two
hours is a pretty reasonable window of time, especially for state regulation.
9. Home Security Systems That Use Carefully Targeted Infrasound To Scare Off Intruders
Today, we have a lot of state-of-the-art security systems but most of them are just concerned
with motion detection, cameras, making loud noises, and so forth. And, of course, all
of them alert law enforcement. However, some have already considered the use of infrasound
detection in order to help find intruders, and with that in mind, infrasound could help
us in an entirely different way. Instead of guard dogs, actual guards, or weapons and
the legal liability they can involve, if infrasound could be properly weaponized you could essentially
scare people off your property.
Infrasound, often known as the ?fear frequency,? usually stirs up the fight or flight feeling
in people, and in the absence of anything to fight, most people just? run. A properly
designed passive system that could detect and target intruders could theoretically use
inaudible sound in order to keep your property safe and secure — almost like a magical
spell that deters intruders. And as we know, it doesn?t get much more futuristic than something
your enemies cannot distinguish from magic. Infrasonic detection could snuff out intruders
quietly and alert the police if needed, but the active component would likely scare them
off before they even broke a window or got up to any other shenanigans. It might even
help deter teenage vandals from your property or, to put it another way: it might finally
get those young punks to stay the heck off your lawn.
8. The James Bond ?Fingerprint? Gun, For Which Only A Partial Prototype Exists
In the recent James Bond movies with Daniel Craig, Q gives Bond a special gun that can’t
be fired without his handprint. Now, while there isn?t anything like this in real life,
a German company did try to make a prototype. However, it involved a separate watch and
the whole thing was all rather cumbersome. This technology, if it could actually be implemented
in a way that truly worked well on a consistent basis and didn?t require any extra components,
could revolutionize gun safety in the modern world, and especially in America.
Of course someone looking to hurt people could still use their gun to do so, but they couldn?t
use their dad?s gun, a friend’s gun, and so on. And, a huge amount of gun deaths are
tragically accidental, like when a kid gets his hands on a parent’s gun and, sadly,
it goes off. Technology like this would keep your firearm from being used against you by
someone who took it, and avoid horrible accidents that would scar you for life and destroy your
family and relationships.
7. An Exercise Bike — Or Bike Switching Station — That Powers A Home Generator As
You Use It
At the moment, this is the stuff of fantasy because of the amount of power it would (or
more to the point, wouldn’t) generate. A bike-powered generator could fuel, say, lights
for a little bit… and that’s about it. Some people have done the math and it really
doesn?t sound like much. However, our imaginations have always wondered about how much power
we could get from our own work, and many of us think of hand crank emergency radios as
a good analogy. Still, those don?t use very much power at all, and that’s the real problem.
While powering some lights is within the realm of reason, the biggest reason people want
electricity after a disaster is heating and cooling.
Those things require a much more significant amount of power, and thus it’s quite difficult
to actually get enough to make a real difference, or do anything for any significant amount
of time. The amount of effort, in comparison to what you actually get in terms of cooling,
or heating, might not be worth it. If a bike with enough gears and an efficient enough
system was created so that a small family could, at least, generate enough power to
keep themselves warm, or cool, as needed, it would be an incredible help in any kind
of big disaster.
6. Ferromagnetic Roadways And Walkways For Practical Hover-Vehicle Technology
Not long ago, people saw the demo of the Hendo Hoverboards and got very excited… only to
quickly crash back down to earth. The Hendo Hoverboard could hold several hours worth
of charge, and really and truly hovered above the ground. It was a dream come true to many
(especially those of us who have been waiting for Hoverboards since Back to the Future II),
until the realities of the project hit. Now, it was a genius bit of engineering and did
use some clever new techniques, but it was basically maglev technology, which requires
a surface with metals that interact with magnets to actually do anything at all. In other words,
unless it was on top of the right metal surface, it was just a big hunk of expensive junk you
could stand on. This meant you could use it nowhere other than places specially constructed
its their use.
However, if we had ferromagnetic roadways, we could have hoverboards, hover cars, and
other hover technology. With the precision of maglev technology, we could likely cut
down greatly on accidents while increasing our overall speed and efficiency at the same
time, which is a big win-win. Of course, this would be ludicrously expensive, but in the
long term, if built right, it would probably also last a lot longer than our current roadways.
5. Researchers Are Looking Into Ways To Use Our Own Body Heat To Charge Our Phones
Several years ago, people latched onto an article about some very experimental ideas
to use a small device in your pocket to generate energy from your body heat, and some magazines
started wildly speculating that you would have body heat-powered smartphones before
you knew it. However, several years of fast-moving technology later, we really aren?t any closer
on that front. The good news is, researchers are looking into it now for real, and not
just looking at something that theoretically could get there for unrelated reasons.
If something like this could be designed, it could at least help with supplementary
power. It’s possible it would only be enough to slow down the battery degradation, and
not charge it enough to go much farther, but with battery technology bottlenecked every
little bit could help. This would allow us to push our phones just a little bit further
without resorting to bulky and cumbersome backup batteries and the like.
4. If We Could Create A Truly Energy-Efficient World, Much Fossil Fuel Use Would Be Eliminated
Today, there’s an incredible amount of energy used that is simply untapped. This source
is motion, in general. Whenever something is moving, a certain amount of force is used.
Some of that energy is transferred (energy, as we know, cannot be created or destroyed).
If we could truly harness all kinetic energy from movement, especially all of our movement
throughout the day, and not waste any energy potential around us, we could greatly cut
down on our reliance on fossil fuel and other energy sources.
One company that found its way onto Shark Tank?called Tremont Electronics?designed a
special device that could help charge a smartphone while you walk. They are working on other
smaller products, but are also thinking big. They hope to one day secure the funding to
test their technology to make ?wave farms,? where energy is generated by using the motion
from… well, waves. That was probably obvious. With this kind of technology, we could take
green energy to an entirely new level most people never before imagined.
3. Affordable Water Filtration Infrastructure That Removes Pharmaceuticals And The Like
?
Today, the water infrastructure of some of the biggest countries — including the United
States — has some huge deficiencies. And we aren?t even talking about places like Flint.
But a huge amount of pharmaceutical?byproducts are ending up in the water supply. Unfortunately,
many water filtration plants are not properly equipped to clean this stuff out of the water.
Even those sites that can get most of it out often only boast success rates of about 95%,
which doesn?t sound so great when you realize the other 5% or so is pharmaceutical byproducts
in your water.
To make matters worse, the FDA doesn?t really even have proper guidelines for this yet in
the USA, and there really isn?t a standardized technology, much less a standardized system
or set of methods get water to a safe level across the country. Part of the problem is
people aren?t even sure what a safe level is with some of this stuff, as hormones have
even ended up in the water can have effects in incredibly low concentrations, which we
don?t even fully understand yet. If someone could invent a filtration method that could
get this stuff out entirely (or, at least, almost entirely), and get water to a safe
level — that could be easily implemented across the country — it would be an incredible
help to humanity.
2. Sound Technology That Allows You To Filter And Hear Only What You Want To Hear
Hearing aids allow deaf people, or those hard of hearing, to hear. There are now special
prototype speakers out there that can direct sound to an almost pinpoint degree, to the
point where it will only be heard in one small location. Now, the second technology is fairly
new and experimental, but with a little tweaking the two could be combined into an incredible
invention. If you could truly direct sound accurately enough, you could make a device
you could fit in your ear that could block out everything except for the sounds you did
want to hear.
Imagine having a device where you could tell it to listen only to the TV in front of you,
and not anything else that might be going on in the background. You could also use it
to pay better attention to a conversation without worrying about background noise, or
just shut out people or things that are bothering you in your environment. Let?s face it: All
of us need our peace and quiet sometimes, and almost everyone would use this.
1. Even In The Year 2018, In The Fanciest Cars, You Won?t Find A Truly Accurate Gas
Gauge
It’s fairly amazing to think that, even in the year 2018 — when most vehicles now
are decked out with all of the most ridiculous new gauges and sensors and features — the
one thing that’s stayed pretty much the same is the gas gauge. It still operates on
the same principle with the floater mechanism where, on inclines, you may think you have
more (or less) gas than you really do, and overall even when you think it?s full, it
often really isn?t.
The truth is your gas gauge is actually designed to lie to you, mainly because car manufacturers
think you enjoy the crazy game of trying to figure out how much gas you have left at any
given time, and like going for broke — psychologically speaking. They also like to give you the false
sense of security you get when you think it’s full when it really isn?t. Apparently, people
really enjoy that feeling and don?t like how quickly the full meter would truly go away.
Now, we believe that in 2018 people are grown up enough to accept the truth and enjoy the
convenience of a truly accurate gas meter. It would lead to fewer people being stranded
on the road, as they’d know the exact percentage at any given time — if this theoretical
design was done right — and it would just be a great convenience for everyone in general.