Best Tech Inventions of 2015

Science has come a long way since last two decades or so and 2015 was another terrific year as far as tech inventions are concerned so here's a list of some of the best tech inventions that stole our hearts away this year:

1. Laser Armed Cameras

Now cameras can track moving objects hidden around corners with the help of laser. The scanners bounce pulses of light off targets, and because light travels at a constant speed, the devices can measure the amount of time it takes for the pulses to return. This measurement reveals how far the light pulses have traveled, which can be used to recreate what the objects look like in three dimensions. One potential application of this research is a system that helps cars see around bends to avoid collisions. "If the other vehicle or person is arriving too fast, implying that there could be a collision, then the system could feed this information to the car, which could then autonomously decide to slow down," Faccio told about this new technology. "The ability to see behind a wall is rather remarkable," said the study's senior author Daniele Faccio, a physicist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland.

2. Hoverboards – The Smart Scooters

Some call them hoverboards; others call them smart scooters, even though it doesn’t actually hover—is easily the year’s most viral product, drawing fans like Justin Bieber, Jimmy Fallon and Kendall Jenner. These futuristic gadgets are pretty cool. And the physics and mechanics that make them go are cool, too. The device uses a pair of electric gyroscopes to balance automatically, allowing users to speed forward, backward and around by slightly shifting their body weight. That enables all kinds of fun stunts, ranging from hallway races to motorized dance routines. But what actually makes a "hoverboard" go? It starts with the wheels, according to the folks at BestElectricHoverboard.com. Each of the board's wheels contains a motor, as well as sensors that detect the tilt of the board and its speed. “It could evolve as a new form of transportation for cities and colleges,” Yellin.

3. Bionic Ears

If you’re stuck somewhere with unbearable noise, you essentially have two options: plug your ears, or leave. But what if you could isolate the most grating sound and mute it? Or just lower the volume, much as you would on a TV? That’s the promise of the Here Active Listening system, a groundbreaking set of earbuds from New York–based Doppler Labs. Unlike hearing aids, which amplify or decrease all noises at once, here’s processor syncs with a smartphone app, so users can handpick which frequencies they want to filter. That means you could stand on a subway platform and have a normal conversation as a train screeches by, or even tune out a crying baby on a plane. “It’s augmented audio reality,” says Doppler Labs CEO Noah Kraft, who initially developed here for musicians and concertgoers before pivoting to a general audience.

4. The Virtual Brush and Canvas

In the 450 years or so since its invention, the pencil has become so ubiquitous, it’s easy to forget how remarkable a technology it is. It can write at any angle. Shades get darker depending on how hard you press. Marks can be erased. Reproducing this functionality digitally has vexed computer engineers for years, which is what makes Apple’s latest effort so impressive. The Pencil allows users to draw, paint or write on a screen, just as they would a sheet of paper. And it works in tandem with the iPad Pro, a tablet faster than roughly 80% of laptops sold in the past year, so there’s no perceptible delay. That combination has already sparked chatter about new ways to create art, animations, blueprints and more. “You can rest your hand anywhere and [the iPad Pro screen] totally ignores it and it just reads the Pencil,” wrote Don Shank, an art director at Pixar, after testing the products in September. “It’s pretty amazing.” —Matt Vella

5. Samsung’s 128GB DDR4 RAM

On the surface, this looks like a regular memory stick. Except, you know, there’s nothing regular about it, since that is Samsung’s upcoming 128GB DDR4 RAM chip. That’s right, there’s a whopping 128GB contained inside that slender frame. Yes, we know, its overkill even for the most powerful gaming PCs. Then again, that’s not what Samsung is making these for. Instead, these are aimed squarely at data centers and enterprise servers, which can definitely use such an absurd amount of memory to accommodate the multitude of transactions they regularly handle. No word on pricing, but the Samsung 128GB DDR3 RAM is now under production and likely to go on sale sometime next year.

6. White Laser

The future of home lighting could be lasers. Seriously!! We’re talking about lighting every place in your home, from the living room to the kitchen to the bedroom. Apparently, that’s possible now after a team of scientists recently discovered how to produce white laser.

In a study conducted at Arizona University, a team of researchers showed how a new breed of semiconductor lasers can emit light across the full visible spectrum, producing the full-range of colors necessary to generate white laser. The team used a thin layer of semiconductor with three parallel segments, each one emitting one of the three elementary colors. Depending on how their output is tuned, this layer can produce any color in the spectrum that, when combined, produces laser that is pristine white.

7. Gimball - The World’s First Collision-Proof Drone

Armed with a flood lights and a camera, an aerial drone can be very useful during search operations, allowing you to survey an area without risking your own neck in the process. Problem is, flying drones indoors (such as collapsed buildings to search for survivors) can lead to plenty of collisions, making it highly likely that your flying automaton will succumb to damage before ever finishing its route. That won’t be the case with Gimball. Made by Flyability, it’s a search and rescue drone that’s equipped to be unaffected by the kind of collisions that would normally ground similar aerial crafts. It doesn’t matter whether it gets hit head on, from the top, or any other angle – the “collision-proof drone” will shrug off all contact without taking any damage.

8. Bearings that don’t need grease

Ball bearings have been around for hundreds of years, having been used in things as ancient Leonardo da Vinci’s failed helicopter design and as ubiquitous as bicycles. And while we’ve long been impressed with the modern ball bearing’s seemingly hard-to-improve utility, it does suffer from one glaring problem: it requires a lot of lubrication. That ends now with these Autonomous Decentralized Bearings (ADB), which eliminate the need for grease in order to function properly. Created by Japanese outfit Coo Space, the bearings don’t use cages to separate and evenly space the balls. Because of this, no friction is generated during the bearings’ operation, eliminating the need for lubricants to smoothen things out. According to the company, the Autonomous Decentralized Bearings experience as little as 10 percent of friction compared to traditional bearings, allowing them to perform better even with the lack of lubrication. The company is currently manufacturing prototypes and shopping the product to potential partners that can help bring it to market.

9. Amazon’s Delivery Drone of the Future

Amazon unveiled a prototype drone yesterday that could one day deliver packages to online shoppers' doorsteps just minutes after they press the "buy" button. The new drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), was created for Prime Air, a same-day delivery service that Amazon first announced in 2013. In the new video describing this futuristic service, the company said that its small drones (they weigh just 55 pounds, or 25 kilograms) could deliver packages in 30 minutes or less. The drones can only deliver packages weighing 5 lbs. (2.3 kg) or less. Embedded with "sense-and-avoid" technology, the highly autonomous UAVs can safely fly beyond an operator's line of sight, according to Amazon, which also stated that the delivery vehicles can carry packages to customers within a 10-mile (16 kilometers) radius of an Amazon warehouse.

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