Toluu

The IdeaConnection Blog » Inventions

Innovation and Inventions from around the World

Toyota’s new robot can play the violinMay 14

Toyota is of course very well known for making cars, but not really for making robots - this is Honda domain. That being said, Toyota has been working on this robot for 3 years, and has now decided that it is ready for public viewing.

The Toyota violin robot is performing daily at the Japanese Pavilion, at the The Shanghai World Expo. Here’s a short video of the robot performing a distinctly Chinese tune at the Expo:

While I don’t think that the robot will be putting orchestra players out of work anytime soon, the technology involved in manipulating the violin bow and fretting the strings is quite amazing.

Numbrella UmbrellaFebruary 17

Just because it works doesn’t mean it’s pretty. Sometimes products are designed without questioning their actual target audience. Sure it rains all over the world, and yes, we all need umbrellas, and true, it would be nice to have our hands free - to talk on our cell phones and ride our bikes, but as the saying still holds, fashion before function people.

The Nubrella is the first hands-free umbrella and sits on shoulder straps to keep the top from pressing onto your head, and a strap in front that keeps it from blowing off. It is totally windproof and looks a bit like your own personal space bubble. People may laugh at first, but this invention may actually take off.

Check out other new inventions or sell your invention.

Backwards InnovationFebruary 16

Read Peter Lloyd’s latest Right Brain Workout discussing the possibility that the invention of cars may have been a Backwards Invention. He explains that not all invention needs to take us in the direction we presume to think of as forward. Sometimes backwards is forward in the same way that less is more.

Take for example the internal combustion engine; sure cars go almost anywhere faster than their predecessors, the horse and carriage. And they do so in quiet comfort. But cars pollute, consume a dwindling resource and put us at deadly odds with others who want to control the same finite resource.

Read more Right Brain Workouts by Peter Lloyd

Why Didn’t I think of that?February 15

Frustration often begets creativity and innovation.

I really hate having to get the very last remaining bit of toothpaste that collects up at the bottom of the tube.

Well, this new toothpaste tube (designed by Dominic Wilcox and illustrated by Clare Mallison) solves this problem by putting a cap at both ends.

Now when you (or your partner) keep squeezing from the front or middle of the tube, no need to get angry - you can simply open up the other end to get the rest out! It also does the double duty of fixing the problem of your partner gumming up one side of the tube because you can each have your own end cap.

Ingenious.

Fresh from your FridgeFebruary 11

Designer Hanna Sandström teamed up with Whirlpool and Green Fortune to come up with a fridge that will help you grow your own garden greens. Lettuce and herbs purchased from the supermarket can be automatically fed with light and water to prolong life and growth. The Kitchen Garden system can also nurture a seed to a plant ripe for eating. For those of you without a green thumb, or dwelling without space for a garden, this concept refrigerator may be the perfect new kitchen appliance.