Good Thinking

Nobody likes the idea of herbicides in their veggies, yet hiring workers to pick weeds by hand can be prohibitively expensive. The Vulcan farm implement offers an alternative, as it automatically spots and yanks weeds while leaving crop plants alone.

Solar stills provide a clever and simple means of purifying dirty or salty water, but they work at a rather slow rate. A new material has been shown to boost their performance, and it's made from fruit waste which would otherwise be discarded.

The Triangle multitool from Disc features 14 different tools, most of which seem just right for a DIYer who encounters a lot of building projects without a proper toolbox on hand. It even has an oxygen wrench and an earbud holder you may never use.

As compared to today's video gaming systems, pinball machines may seem quaint and simple. Such is certainly not the case with NYC artist Andy Cavatorta's Dual Coincidence, however, as it's probably the most complex electromechanical game ever made.

They may be a little brutal on the eye, but Capable says its visually confusing and very pricey cotton knits are designed to throw off AI facial recognition systems, by fooling machine learning systems into thinking you're an animal and not a human.

Entering passcodes on smartphones can be difficult for the blind, as they can't see the screen, nor can they tell if someone else is peeking at it. The OneButtonPIN app is designed to help, by utilizing vibrations instead of visuals.

The ultimate in assistive mobility, Scewo’s Bro is the only self-balancing wheelchair able to rise up and climb stairs. This two-wheeled personal electric vehicle is delightfully intuitive to maneuver, as I found out first-hand at this year’s CES.

Garrett Brown invented the Steadicam, a tool that revolutionized the field of film production. His latest creation is a device known as the Zeen, which helps mobility-challenged users not only to get around, but also to stand up and sit down.

When you're looking at a tank full of fish at a public aquarium, it can be difficult to figure out which ones are which species. The AI Aquarium is designed to help, by overlaying information that lines up with the individual fish in question.

Plastic straws are the poster child of waste, but alternatives also have issues. A start-up called The Ice Guys is crowdfunding an intriguing solution that fights the plastic boogeyman and keeps your drinks cool at the same time – the Ice Straw.

If you’re a farmer with a herd of hundreds of cows, keeping tabs on them can be tricky work, but we’ve seen how sensor tags might one day ease the burden. New research has demonstrated how smartwatch-style sensors could be powered by animal movement.

If you grab fast food while out and about, there's a good chance that you use the restaurants' disposable plastic cutlery. Uphold offers a more eco-friendly alternative, as it's a reusable modular cutlery set that packs away into a slim case.

When running through an airport, your luggage becomes a liability dragging along behind you. A new ride-on suitcase called the Airwheel, currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, can let your luggage lug you around for a change.

This remarkable desalination device, made from recycled plastic bottles, floats in the ocean and runs on wave power, creating up to 13,000 gallons (53,000 liters) of fresh water a day – and discharging far less toxic brine than other designs.

We've all seen footage of disaster victims being hoisted into helicopters, in litter-type stretchers. It's not a good thing if those litters start spinning or swaying, though, which is what the thrust-vectoring Vita Rescue System is designed to stop.