What Are The Future Inventions In Our Future?

What Are The Future Inventions In Our Future?

Think back, what gizmos and gadgets in our current lives were not around perhaps 25 to 50 years ago? What was the status of home computers and cell phones – 25 years ago? How about the GPS we use in our cars or the iPod?

Think back 100 years ago, in 1903, the Wright Brothers achieved their monumental goal of flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Most people don't know that there were quite a few other people trying to build an airplane at the same time. One was Alexander Graham Bell; another was the President of the Smithsonian InstitutiAll of these men were much better funded than a certain little-known pair of bicycle shop mechanics from Ohio with a wind tunnel in their garage. But there's a key difference that led to the Wright Brothers' success. The other guys focused on making a more powerful engine. Orville and Wilbur Wright focused on the plane.
Specifically, the Wright Brothers built their airplane as a glider without an engine - then mounted the engine later, almost as an afterthought. They flew it in the breeze first, then, added power later. That was the key to their success. They discovered that when you're building an airplane, the wings are more important than the engine.

Do you remember the days when computers in a company took up the space of some 400 square feet just to house the computer systems? Today, high end laptops have the same capacity as those clunkers and they are getting better everyday.

That is what innovation was in the past and that is what innovation will continue to be in the future.

Well, what might we expect to see over the next 20 to 50 years from now?

The future of invention will be no different than the past. People will come up with ideas that will help to overcome a problem or a need. The only difference will be that the technology to do that is far more advanced than that of the most recent past. One of the future inventions, we see every once in a while has been improved upon from Japan - robots. These robots in the future will be able to clean our homes, perhaps even drive our cars. The Japanese inventors anticipate that these robots will eventually be able to do the everyday chores that we as humans dislike doing.

Medical innovation has come on strong recently with the development of artificial organs. People in need of a new kidney or even a heart will not have to wait on a donor list. These artificial organs are closer than you might think. The development of artificial arms and legs has already been improved upon over the past 3 years.

Another interesting new product will be in the development of food caplets. These caplets will enable a person to eat a full meal in a matter of seconds. Pharmaceutical companies are working on the development of caplets which will contain the exact number of calories and nutrients that will make our lives fully functional. When you consider the shortage of food around the world, these caplets could make a real difference.

Solar power has been around for about 10 years, but costs for production of solar panels and the maintenance of the solar panels are not yet economical for the production of electricity. This will change, and scientists do expect a breakthrough in our lifetimes. Such a development would be a major breakthrough in our dependence on foreign oil.

Forward thinkers are even discussing new developments for the cell phone, one of the largest growth industries in the technical world. Some of the additions include building in a carbon monoxide detector. Another feature which we could see over the next few years would be health diagnosis – a sensor could measure blood pressure and your pulse level. And there is an exploration of putting a laser pointer into your phones. Even with all of these new ideas, it is expected that the cell phone will become smaller and lighter!

For the blind, a new cane is being developed. Instead of tapping ahead to find an object, there is an ultrasonic detector built into the cane to provide a warning about an obstruction in the path.

What about ‘Forward Thinkers’ in the past? There was an interesting story that's most often told that in 1899 the head of the U.S. Patent Office sent his resignation to President McKinley urging the closing of the office because "everything that could be invented has been invented." It's been told and retold so often that even President Reagan used it in a speech.

The "quote" is often attributed to Charles H. Duell, who was Commissioner of Patents in 1899. However, according to The Great Idea Finder, Duell was far from pessimistic about the future of new inventions and patents. He even encouraged Congress to improve the patent system.

Today the patent office is actually over burdened with new patent applications. So many in fact, the patent office is running behind on issuing new patents. In fiscal year 2007 over 184,000 patents were issued compared to 50,000 in 1980 and 100,000 in 1995.

The list of future innovations is endless and the continued growth of innovation combined with patent applications is expected to exceed 200,000 in the very near future.

That being said, it is now up to you, ‘Future Thinkers’ to continue the innovation process and come up with new ideas that will help us overcome a problem or fulfill a need. Your creativity will help catapult mankind into the future and there is no limit to what can be accomplished.

To Your Success

Vic

http://inventoreducation.com
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