Just in time for the summer bug season comes this news about a patch you may one day wear to shield your identity – from mosquitoes! The Kite Patch was developed by Olfactor Laboratories, and works like DEET — blocking mosquitoes’ carbon dioxide receptors. Researchers say the chemicals used are so safe they are considered…
Imagine stumbling into your kitchen in the morning and activating your coffee machine – with a yawn! For me, anytime innovation marries coffee experiences, I pay attention. I recently saw an article about coffee roaster Douwe Egberts trying out the yawn-activated technology on unsuspecting, tired airline passengers at an airport vending machine. The machine dispensed…
As we work with leaders across industries, we hear a strong focus on diversity as a way of encouraging innovation from many sources. Open innovation and strategic partnering are two proven ways to add to diversity in your organization. Open innovation, a concept that was formalized at an academic level by University of Cal-Berkeley professor…
University of Toronto engineering students and alumni have won a $250,000 Sikorsky prize for the world’s first human-powered helicopter. Says the AeroVelo website: We’re very excited for the world to learn about this exciting milestone in aviation history. At AeroVelo we hope to inspire people to take on great challenges and accomplish the impossible. We…
Imagine taking a kitchen appliance and adding an online database to control it from anywhere in your house. I came across this story recently of a man who decided that simply microwaving food was not palatable for him as far as user-friendly and custom control commands, so he took the standard design and made it…
A new smartphone app is allowing inventors and entrepreneurs to meet and network with key influencers in their own geographic locations. The “influencer of the month series” is a free iOS app from HereOnBiz, and features a geo-location service that helps bring together like-minded professionals. Influencers simply select a city in which they want to…
Here are some national health statistics that should frighten you out of your chair: Our western sedentary lifestyle is responsible for an estimated $24 billion in direct medical spending. Physical inactivity is responsible for almost 200,000 or 1 in 10 deaths each year. Diabetes accounts for more than $98 billion in direct and indirect medical…
Check out these “telescopic” contact lenses. Could they be the vision of the future? (Credit: Optics Express) Researchers are developing these contacts that can let you see much farther than the human eye was designed to do: The lens experiment came about through DARPA-funded research into vision enhancement devices for soldiers. What the researchers developed…
Recently, I shared with you some of my thoughts on how the most innovative leaders and companies are learning to shape their business culture and environment to their advantage. As part of that discussion, I want to focus on the leaders and behaviors that help transform organizations into thrive engines of innovation. It’s no coincidence…
I find it very interesting that within the past year, the numbers of new Facebook accounts has exploded in Pakistan. Facebook recently broke the 9 million user mark, and it only reached 8 million users earlier this year. So what’s been happening in Pakistan that would account for this growth, and what can we learn…
