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Follow the Leader Inventor: Toshiba Corp Availability: Prototype only To Learn More: www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/ 2005_05/pr2001.htm Robots may not invade anytime soon, but there's no denying that they're getting smarter. The ball-shaped ApriAlpha uses advanced voice-recognition technology to distinguish between voices coming from different locations. When Alpha hears a voice, it fixes its steely digital-camera eye on the person speaking. The taller ApriAttenda can identify a person in a crowd by the color of his clothes and shape of his body, and then follow its target. It even bleeps when it loses track...
...with cutting-edge technology: a stiff, lightweight polypropylene core and graphite rod for strength, and mesh reinforcement for optimal flexibility (too much and you lose projection; too little and the board snaps back in heavy surf). Designed with intermediate and advanced bodyboarders in mind, the Taloa sports a retro shape that's appropriate no matter how you ride - prone, drop-knee or stand-up like the pros. Next Product: Focus Points...
Formfitting Inventor: Rikiya Fukuda Availability: Prototype only To Learn More: snipurl.com/jp3h (Japanese only) A door that fits like a glove? This one does. Fukuda's Automatic Door, designed in Japan, opens just enough to match the shape of the person or object passing through. The nifty motion-detecting portal saves energy by keeping a door from having to repeatedly open all the way. That helps maintain a stable temperature in a room and can prevent dirt and other materials from being swept inside. In addition to people, the new system can be used for small objects, like packages dropped...
When Bob Grinstead landed in Bangkok in March with his wife and daughter, he might have been mistaken for a typical tourist. But the 70-year-old retired computer salesman from Atlanta wasn't in any shape for sightseeing. Since suffering a massive heart attack in 1990, he'd undergone two bypass surgeries and two dozen angioplasties. By last year, any physical effort brought on chest pains - even taking a shower left him exhausted. After his doctors told him there was nothing more they could do, Grinstead turned to the Internet for ideas. Countless searches and phone calls later...
...doorway that conforms to the shape of your body doesn't appeal to you, how about the one-use, recyclable camcorder? If not that, how about the contact-lens sunglasses or the around-the-world airplane or the implantable bandage or the robot exoskeleton that can help the elderly and the disabled walk...