时间:2025-04-26 21:19:10 来源:网络整理编辑:探索
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
Olympic security asks female Iranian fan to drop protest sign2025-04-26 21:12
34歲布斯克茨從西班牙國家隊退役(梅西為什麽不退役)2025-04-26 20:56
球王貝利病情最新消息,女兒依偎在父親病床前,醫院證實他還活著(海賊王貝利的結局)2025-04-26 20:53
大力神杯要來了 !阿根廷輕鬆拿下4強賽 ,辦公+看球筆記本它最香(阿根廷聯合會杯亞軍)2025-04-26 20:37
Fyvush Finkel, Emmy winner for 'Picket Fences,' dies at 932025-04-26 20:14
球王梅西 :暫不退役 (梅西退役嗎?)2025-04-26 19:30
梅西與C羅退役後 ,誰會擁有更高的足壇曆史地位 ?(梅西:不會從國家隊退役吧)2025-04-26 19:30
上班時間就能看梅西踢世界杯!首場遭遇世界杯慘案隊(2018年世界杯梅西進了幾個球)2025-04-26 18:56
Major earthquake and multiple aftershocks rock central Italy2025-04-26 18:48
皇馬為姆巴佩準備10億歐元!姆巴佩如果加盟皇馬,能超越C羅嗎 ?(尤文官宣c羅正式加盟)2025-04-26 18:32
Two states took big steps this week to get rid of the tampon tax2025-04-26 21:11
梅西要成為總統了?靠不靠譜,看看這個從CCTV5到CCTV1的男人(梅西進巴黎第一場比賽)2025-04-26 20:50
2億歐年收入!多家媒體證實 :C羅團隊已與利雅得勝利達成加盟協議(c羅同意加盟巴黎)2025-04-26 20:48
巴薩大勝背後的隱患:告訴你梅西為什麽不續約(梅西不再和巴薩續約)2025-04-26 20:40
Olympian celebrates by ordering an intimidating amount of McDonald's2025-04-26 20:00
梅西奪冠後發聲!親承不會退出國家隊 :想以世界冠軍身份繼續踢球(梅西不是退役了嗎知乎小說)2025-04-26 19:55
阿根廷隊具有奪冠實力(美洲杯阿根廷首發陣容)2025-04-26 19:48
比奪冠更重要 !梅西做出偉大承諾,不會退出阿根廷 ,球王還要繼續(梅西不是退役了嗎)2025-04-26 19:31
Two astronauts just installed a new parking spot on the International Space Station2025-04-26 19:13
梅西正保持和決賽可能打破的世界杯紀錄 :5屆世界杯都有助攻入賬(梅西世界杯進過球嗎)2025-04-26 18:45