This document lists and briefly describes 10 of the most innovative products from recent years. It includes a smart badge for retail workers that can scan barcodes, check inventory and process sales (Motorola's SB1 Smart Badge). It also mentions a small but powerful cloud computing server from IBM that can support 520 virtual servers (IBM's zEnterprise BC12), and a compact portable shower that packs up small but provides clean water on hiking trips (Pocket Shower). The document summarizes other innovative products like a solar-powered lamp that sanitizes surfaces, a wall with changing color triangles, a bionic arm that provides touch sensation to amputees, and developments in electric vehicles and 3D printing technology.

1. 10 most innovative products
1. Motorola's SB1 Smart Badge
The category of Handheld Retail Devices—for retail and specialty markets—
moves us from the very big to the very small. Motorola has come up with a brand-
new category of mobile device. Motorola's SB1 Smart Badge displays not only a
worker's name and photo, but also has a push-to-talk function for hailing
colleagues, can scan bar codes, perform price checks, get inventory information
and even ring up sales.
2. IBM's zEnterprise BC12

2. Entries for the Cloud Solutions category included many highly innovative
software products. But this year, the award went to hardware. With support for
up to 520 virtual servers in a single box, IBM's zEnterprise BC12 packs an
enormous amount of cloud into a very small footprint—and does so economically.
3. Pocket Shower
Well the distant dream of being able to have a proper shower in the middle
of nowhere is now a reality thanks to the pocket shower. This tiny gizmo
unfolds to reveal a high performance waterproof reservoir that holds a
mighty ten liters of water. The black fabric will (given a sunny day) warm
the water up in no time. You just string it up to a tree and open up the
attached shower head – hey presto, you can now luxuriate in a seven
minute shower, get squeaky clean, and gloat at the wet wiped masses, and
it packs up into a neat package smaller than your fist. Beat the pong with
the Pocket Shower.

3. 4. The solar powered UVonion illuminates and sanitizes
The “UVonion” by Yun Li is an onion-shaped solar ultraviolet lamp that
lightens up your surroundings and saves a tremendous amount of energy.
The UVonion, though it appears to be collecting the solar ultraviolet rays
during the daytime and emitting them at night, sanitizing your home from
the dangers of ultraviolet, but it actually converts solar energy into
electrical energy using solar cells and in turn produces UV light powered by
ultraviolet LEDs.
5. Ever changing Wallnado
It’s one big wall of turn-triangles. Each of these triangles has different
colors on them – white – black – and a slightly unique rainbow shade. As

4. you can see in the first picture here, when the color is on full blast, it makes
a mural all it’s own.
What combination of madness can be made? Choose your own adventure!
Same ideas of changing color wall are proposed before, however, they
designs are based on usage of electricity.
6. Medicine: Touch sensitive bionic arm
Researchers at the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Case Western
Reserve University have developed a new kind of interface that can convey a sense of
touch from 20 spots on a prosthetic hand. It does this by directly stimulating nerve
bundles—known as peripheral nerves—in the arms of patients; two people have so far
been fitted with the interface. What’s more, the implants continue to work after 18
months, a noteworthy milestone given that electrical interfaces to nerve tissue can
gradually degrade in performance.
Reason why it made the list: these breakthroughs in connecting electronic devices
through the nervous system can eventually enable everything from artificial limbs to
sensory organs like eyes and ears. It’ll probably be a while before we can plug into
the Matrix though.

5. 7. TRANSPORTATION ELECTRIFICATION
An electric vehicle (EV), also referred to as an electric drive vehicle, uses one or
more electric motors or traction motors for propulsion. Three main types of
electric vehicles exist, those that are directly powered from an external power
station, those that are powered by stored electricity originally from an external
power source, and those that are powered by an on-board electrical generator,
such as an engine (a hybrid electric vehicle), or a hydrogen fuel cell. Electric
vehicles include electric cars, electric trains, electric lorries, electric aeroplanes,
electric boats, electric motorcycles and scooters and electric spacecraft.
8. MICROSTRUCTURE OPTICS FOR LED APPLICATIONS
Optics for use with Light Emitting Diodes are described. Microstructured optics are
available and customizable for a wide variety of applications. A few of these will be
touched on. A methodology of designing these optics and the photometrics of the typical
technology is overviewed.
With the increasing popularity of LED’s in lighting applications, there is a need for
engineered photometric control. Given exacting output requirements, it is unusual for a
given supplier’s LED to produce the correct emission profile. This can be remedied with
the use of auxiliary optics. Available classes of optics include refractive (continuous
surface and microstructured), reflective (continuous and facetted) and diffractive. This
paper will concentrate on microprism refractive optics with some mention of reflectors.

6. The type of designs considered here are light energy directing designs or “nonimaging
optics”. Some nonimaging design background will be outlined followed by mention of
some specific LED commercial applications. Design methodologies for microstructured
refractive optics will then be explored and a photometric analysis of a sample design will
be presented. Finally a discussion on some salient issues regarding LEDs and
microstructured optics is offered.
9. 3D printers
Simple models came onto the market costing less than £2,000, and a growing
community of modders uploading items which can be downloaded for free and printed
at home. The press got a bit overexcited, with some claiming that soon you’ll be able
to print practically anything at home, really cheap.
Just hold your horses though. Yes, 3D printers have come down a lot in price, but they
still have a while to go before they’re simple enough.