It’s a car that’s propelled by compressed air. Scheduled for U.S. release in early 2010, it’s estimated that the car will reach over 90 mph with a range of over 800 miles and get in excess of 100 mpg. It can be “refueled” in a matter of minutes at gas stations equipped with customized air compressor units at a cost of as little as $2. A video of how the engine works is included below.
The parent company, MDI, plans to introduce a 6-seat, 4-door family-size version of the compressed air …

Why it’s Breakthrough: It’s the light bulb that we hoped to get to: incredibly efficient, without mercury, totally dimmable and it gives off the most accurate color and tones that light’s supposed to give.

The Story: Vu1 is continuing development of its revolutionary Electron Stimulated Luminescence (ESL)™ technology in order to bring consumers a highly energy-efficient light bulb, without the environmental hazards of mercury, limited features, price concerns and poor light quality associated with other lighting sources such as Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) or Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). More than 30 …

Why it’s Breakthrough: It’s an athletic shirt that logs data based on the body’s movement. Specifically, it monitors a baseball pitcher’s motion and mechanics and indicates to others if the pitcher is tiring, or even provoking injury.

The Story: Elbow injuries suffered by pitchers in Major League Baseball occur frequently and result in tens of millions of dollars in losses each season, representing the money that must be paid in salaries to pitchers who cannot perform due to injury.

To address this issue, three Northeastern University engineering students have developed a data-logging …

Why it’s Breakthrough: It’s technology that enables you to speak silently on your mobile phone and having the other person on the other end of your call understand what you’re saying.

The Story: How many times have you wanted to jump on your cell phone to make a call, but thought it might not be advisable in a particular venue — like a movie theater, or a public bathroom stall? Well, some researchers at the Institute for Anthropomatics at The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a technology that …

Why it’s Breakthrough: It’s a portable hydroelectric generator that can be carried like a backpack.

The Story: Bourne Energy, a company based in Malibu, California, creates hydropower systems. Though the majority of its technology has been geared for large-scale operations, with multiple units generating energy on the megawatt scale, the company recently unveiled a hydroelectric generator that can generate 500 watts of power from a running stream, and can be thrown over the user’s shoulder like a 30 pound backpack. It’s actually not like a 30 pound backpack, the Backpack Power …

Why it’s Breakthrough: It’s a touchscreen that gets projected onto your skin so that you can interact with your phone or other small electronic device without struggling to make out the words on the small screen.

The Story: Who knew tapping on the skin of your hands and arm could send readable signals to electronic devices? Some researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research Labs, that’s who. The breakthrough is called Skinput, and it could change the way we interact with those small touchscreen devices.
Skinput’s researchers have shown that it …