Inventions by Kids

Great inventors such as Leonardo da Vinci, Henry Ford and Hedy Lamarr have impacted people’s lives with their inventions. While their contributions are certainly valuable, other amazing inventions were actually created by children!

The trampoline

Trampolines are great for both fun and exercise, but they are a fairly recent invention. In the 1930s George Nissen was inspired to make a bouncy “net” after seeing a circus performance. He thought it would be more entertaining for performers to continue bouncing instead of landing in a net. So, at the age of 16, he made a “bouncing rig” by stretching thick cloth in a metal frame.

The Popsicle

Cold weather led to the creation of a beloved and delicious invention—the ice pop or Popsicle.

Frank Epperson was just 11 years old when he accidentally created his first Popsicle. He was making himself a soda drink and left his glass outside overnight. When he found it in the morning, it had frozen solid with the stir stick still in the glass. And the first Popsicle was born.

Braille

Even a life-changing written language was created by a kid. Three-year-old Louis Braille experienced a serious eye injury, thus causing him to lose vision in both eyes. Louis struggled to read by moving his fingers across raised letters, which was very difficult. At the age of 12, Louis learned about a silent communication system used by the French military. Messages could be read silently with fingertips. He changed that system and created Braille. It is now used around the world!

This will be an important year for pioneers developing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft (垂直起降飞机), popularly known as flying taxis. Several firms are hoping their craft can obtain the necessary certification in 2023 to start commercial production, getting ready for the first passenger services.

Air taxis generally carry fewer than half a dozen passengers. They land and take off vertically using multiple small rotors (旋翼). With clever software controlling the rotors, they are easier to fly and readily capable of autonomous flight. The plentiful number of rotors also helps with safety, as the aircraft can continue to fly if one or more fail.

Some designs use an extra rotor or two at the back to push the aircraft along during flight. Others, like that produced by Joby Aviation, have rotors like a set of small wings providing lift, making more efficient use of the aircraft's battery and increasing range.

After thinking hard about how to certify(授予专业合格证) these flying machines, regulators(监管者) have been working with developers on safety standards. This is a multi-stage process. Besides obtaining “type” approval, which shows the airworthiness of a new type of aircraft, factories must be certified before production can begin in volume. And an airline-style licence is required if paying passengers are to be carried. Companies are working hard to get these approvals. Piloted operations are expected to be approved before autonomous flights.

In Germany, Volocopter will be flight-testing a family of eVTOLs. The firm is hoping its smallest, the two-seater VoloCity, can be certified in time for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, where the plan is to operate trips between airports and the athletes' village. Other air-taxi firms also hope to provide services in Paris, or at the World Expo, which takes place in Japan in 2025.

With the help of a robot created by Washington State University (WSU) , scientists could help elderly people with dementia and other limitations live independently in their own homes.

The Robot Activity Support System, or RAS, uses sensors equipped in a WSU smart home to determine where its residents are, what they are doing and when they need assistance with daily activities. It navigates through rooms and around obstacles to find people on its own, provides video instructions on how to do simple tasks and can even lead its owners to objects like their medication or a snack in the kitchen.

“RAS combines the convenience of a mobile robot with the activity detection technology of a WSU smart home to provide assistance in the moment, as the need for help is detected.“ said Bryan Minor, a postdoctoral researcher in the WSU School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Currently, about 50 percent adults over the age of 85 need assistance with everyday activities such as preparing meals and taking medication and the annual cost for this assistance in the US is nearly $2 trillion. With the number of adults over 85 expected to triple by 2050, researchers hope that technologies like RAS and the WSU smart home will relieve some of the financial pressure on the healthcare system by making it easier for older adults to live alone.

RAS is the first robot researchers have tried to apply to their smart home environment. They recently published a study in the journal Cognitive Systems Research that shows how RAS could make life easier for older adults struggling to live independently.

“While we are still in an early stage of development, our initial results with RAS have been promising,” Minor said. “The next step in the research will be to test RAS’ performance with a group of older adults to get a better idea of what video reminders and other preferences they have regarding the robot.”