Innovation Videos :: IdeaConnection

Safer Surgeries with Physics

Nikolai Begg discusses how physics helped him re-design the trocar—an important and common surgical instrument that requires great delicacy to ensure a proper incision.

ClearSight Continuous, Non-Invasive Blood-Flow Monitor

Based on the technology used to monitor astronauts in orbit, the ClearSight system from Edwards offers a minimally invasive way for continuous hemodynamic monitoring, which could have significant benefits for fragile, post-surgery patients.

Embracing Innovation by Embracing the Now

Joi Ito discusses the benefits of innovation by becoming a "now-ist," a form of bottom-up thinking that does not try to predict the future, but instead takes advantage of observing what's happening around you right now to think quickly and innovate constantly.

Bio-Bots Combine Nature and Technology

Inspired by how tendons interact with muscles and bone, researchers have developed a 'bio-bot' made up of real muscle and 3D-printed hydrogels that can controlled by electricity.

SAM Junctional Tourniquet Works Where Traditional Designs Struggle

Designed for use by soldiers in the field, the SAM Junctional Tourniquet can be strapped around the patient like a belt to quickly apply the correct amount of pressure to the wound—even under fire.

Downdraft Tower Creates its Own Wind

The Downdraft Tower from Solar Wind Industry, Inc. relieves the burden of relying on the whims of nature by creating its own wind to spin its internal turbines.

Why Innovative Science Requires a Leap into the Unknown

Uri Alon suggests that researchers feeling stuck or stymied can take some lessons from improvisational theater and an optimistic leap.

Trikelet Ultra-Compact Electric Scooter

Being hailed as the world's most compact electric scooter, the Trikelet prototype can fold small and tidy enough to be treated as carry-on luggage, fitting under a train seat or in the luggage compartment.

CityHome Cube Adds High-Tech Space to Urban Apartments

Created by MIT's Design Lab, the CityHome prototype can transform into different functions—such as a bed, table or cooking range—through gesture, touch and voice control, adding up to three times more space to small apartments.

Mid-Air Images from Sound and Dust

The Pixie Dust display creates images in mid-air using tiny particles and sound waves, opening the door to a new generation of display potentials.

Inexpensive Glasses-Free 3D Projector

MIT researchers have created a glasses-free 3D projector that could provide a feasible, short-term alternative to true holographic videos.

Building Extreme Robots

Robots are going extreme at Keio University, where a research group is studying the dynamics of sand and working to improve environment recognition in order to create robots suitable for space missions.

Super-Strong Hydrogel

The team from the Wyss Institute demonstrates a tough new hydrodgel that could have applications in robotic or medicine—as well as a range of other uses.

The Best Computer Interface Could Be Your Hands

Founder and principal of the design firm Patten Studio, James Patten discusses how specialized physical objects could help people interact with computers and software more easily—from streamlining emergency dispatches to conveying emotion during a video chat.

Gesture Recognition Mechanical Keyboard

The Type-Hover-Swipe prototype keyboard from Microsoft can recognize gestures performed both on and directly above the keys.

3D Printing More Comfortable Prostheses

MIT Media Lab researcher David Sengeh discusses how MRI mapping and 3D printing are helping to usher in a new generation of comfortable prostheses.

Wearable Intelligence in Healthcare

Wearable Technologies explores the ways Google Glass could one day be used in healthcare in this conceptual video that follows a stroke patient through the different clinical settings.

Bravo Lifts Where Other Cranes Can't

The Bravo lifting device can raise solar panels and other construction materials to the top of a roof without needing a ladder-shaped rail, which allows it function in areas too narrow for standard cranes.

Bridging the Gap Between Ability and Disability

With compassion and humor, Hugh Herr, head of MIT Media Lab’s Biomechatronics group, discusses the coming generation of bionic limbs and how the human body can never truly be broken.

Meruru Finger-Free Contact Lens Tool

The Meruru lets users insert and remove their contact lenses without ever touching the lens with a finger—both simplifying and sanitizing the process.

Starshade Could Make Distant Planet Photography Possible

The starshade, a prototype spacecraft currently under development, will make it easier to study the darker objects in the sky—such as distant planets—by shading the telescope from the bright light of neighboring stars.

Water Harvesting Billboard

A billboard in Lima, Peru—designed to encourage students to pursue studies in engineering—is able to produce about 26 gallons of water a day by capturing and filtering the humidity from the air.

Folding Paper Microscope

As part of his goal to bring new technology to global health, Manu Prakash demonstrates his 50 cent, folding paper microscope, which won a $100,000 grant from the Gates Foundation in 2012 and could help to bring disease research into the field and developing countries.

Imaging Thoughts

Mary Lou Jepsen, an expert on cutting edge displays and , discusses the possibilities of using extremely-high resolution brain scanners to allow a person’s mental images to be digitally displayed—essentially reading the image from the brain.

Giving People a Voice

Rupal Patel discusses the vocaliD project, which uses ‘donor voices’ to give people who rely on synthetic speech their own, unique voice appropriate for age, gender and even personality.

Necklace Projector Puts Emails in the Palm of Your Hand

The Ambient Mobile Pervasive Display projects emails and digital images in front of the user, allowing any almost any surface to function as a screen.

Creating Novel Flying Machines

Professor Leif Ristroph of New York University’s Fluid Dynamics Lab explains how recreating natural methods of moving through both air and water could help up to create new sorts of flying machines.

The World is One Big Dataset

Dan Berksenstock shares his solution to updating satellite imagery: inexpensive and lightweight satellites able to capture a videostream of lower-quality frames that can then be combined into a single, high-quality image.

Think and Drive Thought-Controlled Van

A group of engineering students from India has used the commercially-available Emotive EEG headset to create the Think and Drive, a concept van that can be controlled by thought, a keyboard or by the conventional manual steering wheel.

First Fully Transparent Display Screen with Multiple Angles of View

By embedding silver nanoparticles in a sheet of glass, researchers at MIT have created the first fully transparent display screen that can be viewed from different angles.

Needle-Free Nanopatch

Mark Kendall discusses and demonstrates the Nanopatch—a cheaper, painless, safer and more effective way to deliver vaccines that could replace the traditional needle.

Information Time Machine

Frederic Kaplan demonstrates his Venice Time Machine and shares his plans to digitize archives of historical information in order to create an “information time machine.”

Robots for Humanity

Paralyzed and left mute by a stroke at the age of 40, Henry Evans discusses how Robotics for Humanity, along with the ever-evolving and increasingly accessible field of robotics, has allowed him to participate more fully in life.

KOMSET Hand Changer Chooses Robot Tools

The KOSMET robotic hand changer was designed to allow a single robot to switch between tools efficiently and automatically in order to to complete a series of tasks.

ReMotion $80 Prosthetic Knee

Krista Donaldson discusses the ReMotion Knee, an extremely affordable prosthetic designed for above-the-knee amputees in developing and war-torn countries.

Origami Solar Space Array

A group of mechanical engineers and an origami expert have teamed up to design a low-cost, compact solar array that will unfold once it has been launched into space.

R-cloud Robot Makes Muscles Visible

The R-cloud rehabilitation support robot helps improve the effectiveness of rehabilitation and training by allowing users to see how their muscles are moving.

Creating Custom Medicines, Faster

Geraldine Hamilton explains how the use of “body parts on a chip” will help to speed medical testing as well as allow for the creation of cures custom tailored to the patient.

Ecology from the Air

Ecologist Greg Anser discusses how using technology such as spectrometer and high-powered lasers to create detailed, 3D maps of nature could lead to a greater understanding of ecosystem and how to help preserve it.

Matternet Connects People with Goods

Andreas Raptopoulos describes his vision of the Matternet, a network of flying machines that would transport goods and supplies to the estimated one billion people on Earth who do not have access to year-round roads.

Invisible Bike Helmet Ready for Market

After seven years in development, the Invisible Bike Helmet is ready for the consumer market—and perhaps poised to help usher in the "bicycle revolution.”

New System Syncs Video and Audio in Real Time

A system able to synchronize video tracks with an independent audio source in real time eliminates the need for a synchronization signal by instead detecting the frequency changes in the audio and syncing the video based on those parts.

Modular Snake Bot

The modular ACM-R5H snake robot from HiBot, a Japanese company that specializes in robots for extreme environments, features detachable sections and payload compartments able to hold custom sensors or cameras.

SafeFlame Water-Powered Blowtorch

The SafeFlame portable blowtorch prototype turns water to fire, using hydrogen and oxygen gas from the water to power the electric torch.

Molecular Control Toolkit Helps Scientists Design Better Drugs

The open-sources Molecular Control Toolkit allows users to control 3D representations of molecules with hand gestures, eliminating the need to learn to complicated mouse and keyboard combinations and making it easier for scientists to visualize molecular constructions.

Innovation VIDEOS