【推荐1】Four remarkable inventions

For more than half a century, the Consumer Electronics Show(CES) has been the place for companies and inventors to display their newest and coolest gadgets.

Here are our picks for some of the most interesting and creative inventions.

The Sweet Little Rolling Robot

Samsung has released Ballie, a tennis-sized robot that can follow you around the house, answer your questions, and entertain your pets. Since it's equipped with a camera, it can keep an eye on your home while you're away. It's like a smart assistant that goes wherever you do, rolling into your bedroom to ring your wake-up alarm, rolling to the kitchen to turn on the toaster and giving you the weather report as you brush your teeth.

The Insoles to Pick Up Your Pact

Any runner knows the right shoes are key to your speed. But Nurvv insoles promise more than mere cushioning. The insoles transmit data to a coaching app, which offers information on your technique and performance. It measures your foot strike and assesses your injury risk. The app then generates personalized workouts to set targets and help you beat your best speeds. Half marathon, here you come!

The No-Studio-Needed Yoga Class

Can't keep up your commitment to a yoga studio membership? The Yoganotch personal yoga assistant lets you drop into a virtual class any time you want. Follow along with a set series while 3-D sensors tell you whether you need to straighten your legs a bit more. The idea it that it improves your form while reducing the risk of injury.

The Dau-Enhanced Grill

While working by sight, smell and feel, a chef may appreciate Weber's new Smart Grilling Hub. It can monitor your pork and turkey while an app gives advice about cooking technique and safe temperatures.

【推荐2】McMaster student Lianna Genovese, who invented a device called Guided Hands that allows people with limited hand movement to draw, write and paint, has been chosen as Canada’s national winner of the 2021 James Dyson Award.

Genovese was only 18 years old when she created the first version of the aided device in a course that introduces students to engineering design in the biomedical engineering fields. As part of the design projects for that first-year course, students worked with customers in the community. Genovese met Elissa, a woman living with dystopia. “Elissa mentioned that she had a hard time doing the buttons on her shirt, a hard time writing, but one thing that really stood out to me was that she had a really difficult time painting and that she was a talented painter,” Genovese said. “I wanted to help give her back her passion and improve her quality of life.”

Genovese said she saw a way that a device could assist. Her design was made on the principle of a 3D printer, with a person’s hand as the nozzle (喷嘴). The device’s unique sliding mechanical device guides hand movements in all directions when the user grasps a handpiece (手持件) tailored to their level of hand impairment (损伤). The handpiece can hold a variety of writing tools such as pens, pencils, paintbrushes, markers, etc. Genovese had a list of people testing the first few versions. Finally, she found one that worked. “Elissa loved it and she was able to paint again,” she said.

“Then I visited every single hospital, clinic, nursing home and retirement home in my city, and introduced it to over 150 patients and doctors,” Genovese said. One girl named Bella, who suffered cerebral palsy, tried the device out. “As soon as she began painting, the widest smile spread across her face. She turned to her mom and said, ‘Mom, I want one.’ At that moment, I realized this is an invention that can change the lives of so many people,” Genovese said.

【推荐1】A simple paper sensor （传感器）featuring smiley and sad faces drawn in ultraviolet-sensitive （UV-sensitive,紫外线敏感的）ink   has been produced by researchers in an attempt to keep us safe in the sun. Scientists say the different facial expressions appear in sequence as UV exposure increases, offering a low-tech way for people to judge when it is time to cover up.

Further, the sensor can respond to varying levels of the different components of UV radiation. While ultraviolet — A ray （UVA） is thought to cause skin ageing and wrinkles, it is mainly UVB that cause sunburn and leads to skin cancer.

While Bansal noted weather reports often contain a UV index to give a guide to the strength of UV radiation, it doesn⁵t tell people whether they are within safe levels of exposure at that time, and it's usually based on the standard for fair skin.

Writing in the journal Nature Communications, Bansal and his colleagues describe how they sought to handle the issue by creating a cheap device based on phosphomolybdic acid or PMA. This substance turns from colorless to blue in the presence of lactic acid （乳酸）and UV radiation. The team then used this mixture of lactic acid and PMA as an ink to draw four invisible faces on paper, and used some transparent sheets to create filters （滤色片）that were put on top of the faces. This allowed the researchers to finely adjust the intensity of UV radiation reaching the ink so that the faces could change color in sequence as exposure to UV radiation rose from 25% to 50%, then 75%, and finally 100% of a “safe" amount.

By further adjusting the number of filters for each of the four faces, the team were able to adjust the system to produce different sensors to work for six different skin tones, like dark, fair or olive skin. Bansal said that while these devices were designed using UV light in the laboratory, they are currently being tested in outdoor conditions. The team hope that the sensors will be on the market in a year, costing about one Australian dollar a piece.

【推荐2】“Robot, stand up” — Oscar Constanza, 16, gives the order, and slowly but surely a large frame (支架) lifts him up and he starts walking. Fixed to his shoulders, chest, waist, knees and feet, the exoskeleton (外骨骼) allows Oscar — who has a genetic neurological condition that means he was unable to move — to walk across the room and turn around.

“Before, I needed someone to help me walk ... this makes me feel independent,” said Oscar, as his father Jean-Louis Constanza, one of the co-founders of the company that makes the exoskeleton, looked on.

“One day Oscar said to me: ‘Dad, you’re a robotic engineer. Why don’t you make a robot that would allow us to walk?’” his father said in Paris. “Ten years from now, there will be no, or far fewer, wheelchairs,” he said.

Other companies across the world are also making exoskeletons, competing to make them as light and usable as possible. Some are focused on helping disabled people walk, others on applications, including making standing less tiring for factory workers. Wandercraft’s exoskeleton, an outer frame that supports but also simulates (模仿) body movement, has been sold to many hospitals in France, Luxembourg and the United States, for about 150,000 euros a piece. It cannot yet be bought by private individuals for everyday use — that is the next stage the company is working on. A personal skeleton would need to be much lighter, Wandercraft engineers said.

Just outside Paris, 33-year-old Kevin Piette, who lost the ability to walk in a bike accident 10 years ago, tries one on, walking around his apartment, remote controller (遥控器) in hand. “In the end, it’s quite similar: instead of having the information going from the brain to the legs, it goes from the remote controller to the legs,” he said, before making his dinner and walking with it from the kitchen to the living room.

【推荐3】As water levels rise, causing severe erosion, many coastal Puerto Ricans are left watching their homes fall into the sea. A small software company in Puerto Rico called Terra Firma, founded in 2019 by island native Alejandro Mieses, is using satellite data to forecast accurate erosion pain points that might help Puerto Rican city planners better protect their island.

Terra Firma is dealing with the challenge of scattered (分散的) environmental data by creating a single database. Their user-friendly software allows scientists, construction professionals, and government agencies to model and predict environmental risks accurately. Similar to a powerful Google Maps, the software collects data from 1941 to the present, enabling users to predict erosion, landslides, flooding, solar exposure, and wind-related risks for up to 30 years.

This technology, once only available to well-funded projects, is now helping communities and individuals to protect their land. Since Hurricane Maria in 2017, Puerto Rico has focused on rebuilding a stronger island. With Terra Firma’s predictive data on flooding and erosion, city planners can better prepare for severe weather events.

One organization collaborating with Terra Firma is Blue Tide, a non-governmental group devoted to oceanic research and promoting the Blue Economy. After Hurricane Maria damaged coral reefs important for coastline protection, Blue Tide asked Terra Firma to design 3D-printed tiles. These unique tiles, made of clay, will help prevent erosion during future storms. They are shaped like cylinders (圆柱体), creating a nesting space for young coral, and over the next ten years, the clay is expected to dissolve (溶解), forming a complete organic coral reef.

This innovative approach aims to help Puerto Rico deal with erosion caused by storms, and Terra Firma plans to come up with more solutions as weather events get worse. According to Mieses, Terra Firma gives hope to Puerto Rico, which often faces hurricanes, by providing insights to better prepare for future storms and protect important infrastructure.

Currently, Terra Firma operates only in Puerto Rico, but they hope to expand to the southern United States in the next few years. Their work shows how technology can help deal with the effects of climate change on vulnerable coastal communities.