时间:2025-07-08 18:09:57 来源:网络整理编辑:休閑
Solving the world's biggest problems requires creativity and perseverance -- and innovators around t
Solving the world's biggest problems requires creativity and perseverance -- and innovators around the globe are taking up the challenge.
From a device that alerts medical workers when to re-bandage a wound to a wheelchair specifically designed for people in developing nations, these inventions are making a massive difference for those who need it most.
SEE ALSO:The 8 most impressive social good innovations from SeptemberWhile certainly not an exhaustive list, here are nine ingenious innovations that made an impact in October.
An estimated 2.3 billion people worldwide live with poor vision due to refractive errors, with many living in low-income regions without access to regular health care. The Folding Phoropter, a cost-effective eye-screening tool, hopes to make essential eye health more accessible to these populations.
The simple, disposable device can be assembled in seconds and allows for hassle-free eyesight diagnostics for refractive errors in low-resource regions. The device won second place at the Clearly Vision Prize competition, a global contest supporting technologies that address poor vision in developing countries.
About 17 percent of the U.S. population has dyslexia, a learning disorder that makes it difficult to develop literacy skills. Dyslexie, a font designed to improve reading skills for people with dyslexia, hopes to solve that problem by making each character easier to recognize.
The font's letters are bolder at the base with larger openings, improving how dyslexic people process words and text.
Though the font has been tested in schools for a couple of years, the company is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter to expand its product virtually, hoping to make Dyslexie available as a Chrome extension, PDF converter font, an iOS and Android browsing font, and a downloadable typeface.
Fist-bumping the president is pretty cool. Fist-bumping the president with a robotic arm that you control with your mind is even cooler.
In mid-October at the White House Frontiers Conference, Nathan Copeland, the first man to have his sense of touch restored with a mind-controlled, sensory-enhanced robotic hand, fist-bumped the president. The robotic arm he used to greet the commander-in-chief is surgically wired directly to Copeland's brain, allowing him to feel when the prosthetic is stimulated, even though his spinal cord is damaged.
Though Copeland didn't get to keep the robotic arm after the greeting, he does get the honor of helping to advance tech that could enhance the lives of people with severe spinal cord injuries.
About half of the coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef has been lost over the last 30 years. The RangerBot -- a low-cost, autonomous robot designed to help protect coral reefs -- is making restoration and preservation of reefs easier and more efficient.
The RangerBot is an underwater vehicle that uses machine learning and computer vision to monitor water quality, map reefs and manage invasive species independently. The innovation, created by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, won a People's Choice Award at the 2016 Google Impact Challenge in Australia.
In the U.S. alone, approximately 3 million people report being allergic to peanuts, one of the most common food allergies. A new skin patch to treat peanut allergies completed a one-year clinical trial in October, proving the patch is effective in protecting against accidental ingestion or exposure to peanuts.
The Viaskin Peanut Patch administers small amounts of peanut protein through the skin, helping the body and immune system get used to peanut exposure. The patch has been especially effective in young children, who are most often at risk.
More than 17 percent of the Indigenous languages spoken in Australia in 2005 were no longer spoken in 2014. But successfully preserving those languages is essential to protecting and celebrating Indigenous culture. To help address this problem, a new software system enables communities to save their traditional languages from extinction.
The Living First Language Project uses software powered by communities to record Indigenous languages, helping to foster traditional language learning for future generations through specialized apps.
The project has produced apps in Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara so far, with more planned in the near future. The effort, spearheaded by the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation, was a finalist in the 2016 Google Impact Challenge in Australia in late October.
Wheelchairs are crucial assistive devices for many people with mobility-related disabilities. In developing regions, however, traditional wheelchairs are often unusable due to rough, rural terrain.
SafariSeat is a low-cost, all-terrain wheelchair propelled forward by hand levers and durable wheels. The product -- which is made of repurposed bicycle parts -- was designed to be manufactured and maintained in developing nations, creating a self-sustaining product.
SafariSeat began crowdfunding on Kickstarter last month, and plans to start production in Kenya in the coming months.
Chinese researchers announced the development of "smart" fibers this month that can be woven like cotton, able to produce and store solar energy to charge electronic devices. The fabric, which could be used for clothing, has the potential to help curb our reliance on fossil fuels for energy, eliminating planet-warming greenhouse gases in the process.
A palm-sized amount of the textile can be fully charged to 1.2 volts through solar energy. An iPhone charger, by comparison, delivers 5 volts. Researchers published their results in ACS Nano, a scientific journal of the American Chemical Society, in early October.
More dedicated research is needed, however, before the fabric makes its way into your closet.
For a large wound to properly heal, it needs moisture. If a medical professional changes a dressing too often, moisture levels can decrease, prolonging the healing process and risking infection. But a new bandage eliminates that guesswork for health workers, helping them to more effectively care for wounds.
The smart bandage, created by 13-year-old Anushka Naiknaware, is equipped with tiny sensors that help medical workers determine whether a dressing has dried out enough to be changed, without having to remove it from the patient.
Naiknaware and her innovation won the Lego Education Builder Award at the 2016 Google Science Fair in early October.
TopicsSocial Good
Ivanka Trump's unpaid interns share cringeworthy financial advice2025-07-08 17:59
媒體人 :對李鐵不拋棄不放棄 是對中國足球喪心病狂2025-07-08 17:55
曝索帥曼聯執教生涯進入倒計時 最快下周被解雇2025-07-08 17:45
安東尼奧 :年輕球員有進步 相信球隊未來會更好2025-07-08 17:30
Aly Raisman catches Simone Biles napping on a plane like a champion2025-07-08 17:22
皇馬前瞻 :戰艦複仇之戰 若平局創52年尷尬曆史2025-07-08 16:56
泰山12次晉級足協杯決賽衝擊第7冠 若遇海港大打對攻 ?2025-07-08 16:53
津媒 :擊敗阿曼是國足唯一選項 全隊無需動員思想高度統一2025-07-08 16:21
One of the most controversial power struggles in media comes to a close2025-07-08 16:12
皇馬前瞻:戰艦複仇之戰 若平局創52年尷尬曆史2025-07-08 15:54
How Hyperloop One went off the rails2025-07-08 18:02
態度問題OR拒絕替補?庫鳥又沒登場 或遭哈維棄用2025-07-08 17:45
曝足協杯河南隊球員出場違規 足協正研究或開罰單2025-07-08 16:56
皇馬前瞻 :戰艦複仇之戰 若平局創52年尷尬曆史2025-07-08 16:52
Tyler, the Creator helped Frank Ocean celebrate 'Blonde' release in a delicious way2025-07-08 16:39
足協杯官方:山東河南首回合比分有效 劉家輝停賽第二回合執行2025-07-08 16:13
安東尼奧 :年輕球員有進步 相信球隊未來會更好2025-07-08 15:53
巴薩再挖中超?冬窗欲免簽巴坎布 用他頂替阿圭羅2025-07-08 15:44
The U.S. will no longer have the final say on internet domain names2025-07-08 15:42
巴薩脆弱天才!法蒂神仙球後傷退 至少休戰一個月2025-07-08 15:26