Best Inventions

People who buy solar panels (嵌板）for their home hope to help the environment and save some money. But they end up with large metal boxes on their roof. Tesla, a car company, solved the problem. The solution is the Solar Roof. It is a series of tiles (瓦) made to look like traditional roofing material while using the power of the sun. Tesla developed it with SolarCity, a longtime provider of solar panels. It is now available to the public.

Echo gives users the ability to talk to their tech. Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana do that too. But in many ways，Amazon’s version，Alexa, which is built into Echo，is more powerful. Alexa has grown since it was put on the market in 2014, and today, you can use it to turn on the lights, order a pizza, and more. Echo costs $ 180. Amazon recently developed a junior version, the $ 50 Echo Dot.

Goodyear is reinventing the wheel. It introduced its Eagle 360 spherical tire (球形轮胎) in March, 2016. The tires allow cars to move in many directions, including sideways, and at angles to handle slippery surfaces. The key is magnetic levitation (磁悬浮). Tires are fixed to cars, but Eagle 360s float beneath them. They’re meant for self-driving cars of tomorrow.

Jeff Woolf had a serious bike crash. If he hadn’t been wearing his helmet, he would have been badly hurt. He wondered why so many riders didn’t wear helmets. That turns out it was mostly because helmets were big and hard to carry around. Woolf, an engineer, came up with Morpher. The helmet is made from interwoven plastics (交错编织的塑料). It is strong, but it’s also flexible enough to fold almost totally flat. That makes it easy to carry. Morpher is priced at $ 119.

I believe these ingetions can inspire you a lot.

Fairphone

More than 50 million tons of electronic waste, such as used smartphones, is created each year. But Fairphone makes phones from eco-responsible materials. Made of up to 40% recycled plastic, Fairphone has an expected life-span of five years. It has replaceable parts. You can change your battery, screen, or camera by yourself. It’s hoped that it can be marketed in the near future.

AlterEgo

This headset lets you communicate with a computer without touching a keyboard or speaking. Want to task, such as searching for a weather forecast? Ask the question to yourself silently. Sensors read signals from your face. Then the device uses a web connection to complete the task or your smartphone. Experiments have found that it understands 92% of what its user said, and it’ll be improved before going to the market.

Meeting Owl Pro

It is a 360° tabletop camera. It changes its lens and microphone to whoever is speaking. In online classes, participants will have a better feeling for what’s happening in the room. “It’s able to follow the conversation,” says Max Makeev, who is a cofounder of Owl Labs. It’s widely used by K-12 schools.

CrazyCap

Guduru created a bottle cap. It uses cleansing UVC light. It sanitizes (消毒) water in 60 seconds. It has two settings, One purifies water from taps and fountains. The other purifies water from streams and ponds. The cap is rechargeable. People can use it conveniently especially when they’re on the go. It’s supposed to reach consumers soon.

The kitchen inventions throughout history have paved the way for safer meals. However, do you know how the following kitchen aids came about?

The Oven

Historians owe the invention of the first ovens to ancient Egyptians. The earliest ones were taller and made of baked clay. Inside, they were divided into separate upper and lower chambers(室). The oven was heated by burning wood in the lower chamber. Food to be baked was put into the upper chamber through a hole at the top of the oven.

The barrel

According to historical records from the first century, the first wooden barrels were produced by people who lived in the Alps, Europe’s highest mountains. For centuries, such barrels have been used to store and transport dry goods as well as wine and beer. Because of their curved(弯曲的) sides and round tops and bottoms, barrels can be rolled, which makes them easier than boxes to handle. Today, metal barrels are widely used to store oil and other liquids.

The egg carton

Back in 1911, an argument in British Columbia, Canada, led to a useful invention. Eggs shipped by a local farmer to a hotel owner often arrived broken, and each blamed the other for the damage. To solve the problem, Canadian newspaperman Joseph Coyle invented a paper carton with small and hollow(空的) spaces that cushioned the eggs and kept them separated. Coyle’s invention was so successful that we still use it today.

The knife

Many believe the knife is mankind’s oldest tool, with the earliest forms made from flint(燧石) or a glass­like rock and then from metal around 2500 BC. Through the years, the cutting device evolved into the handy tool we use today.

While we take these inventions for granted now, our lives would be very different without these kitchen aids.