The Inventions That Shaped the Year

Time magazine has picked the 25 best inventions of the year. They touch how we dress, eat, live and travel, and range from 3D printing to the selfie stick. However odd they sound, they share one thing: they make the world a better place to live.

Time's annual list sets out to name the inventions that most influenced the world that year. In 2007 the award was still split into 10 categories, such as "Automobiles," "Aerospace" and "Robots," each judged separately. In 2010 Time merged several categories and began publishing "The 50 Best Inventions." In 2013 it cut the number to 25, and it has held to that strict limit since. Before this year's selection, Time stated its standard: "They make the world better, smarter, and also fun." Below is Time's list of the 25 best inventions of 2014. Let's see which of them changed our lives over the past year.

1. A Hoverboard, $10,000

A skateboard that floats like a magic carpet has been a dream out of reach ever since it appeared in the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II. Now Hendo, a tech company in California, has made it real.

Hendo's board, however, hovers only about an inch off the ground, and only over a conductor such as copper or aluminum laid beneath it. Its battery keeps it aloft for just 15 minutes. With more than $450,000 raised on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, Hendo's founders, Jill and Greg Henderson, plan to develop the magnetic levitation technology further. They hope it can one day steady buildings during earthquakes and protect priceless works of art.

2. A Super-Smart Spacecraft

On September 24, 2014, India's Mangalyaan spacecraft entered Mars orbit, making India the first Asian country to get there. The spacecraft cost $74 million to build, less than the budget of the film Gravity. It carries five scientific instruments and can carry out simple tasks such as measuring methane on Mars and analyzing the planet's surface. The mission matters greatly for India's space program and for its science.

3. A Reactor That Achieves Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear fusion has long been the "holy grail" of energy: limitless and clean, yet still out of reach. In October, however, Lockheed Martin said it had made a technological breakthrough and could, within 10 years, build a fusion reactor small enough to fit on the back of a truck. The reactor is designed to control the fusion reaction with a technique called "magnetic mirror confinement." Some scientists are skeptical, because the company has released few details of how it works. But if the invention proves real, the world's energy picture will look very different.

4. Wireless Power

We already have wireless networks and mobile phones. So why must these devices still be tethered to a wall socket every day? Wireless chargers for phones already exist, but WiTricity aims higher. It has already charged Toyota electric cars and Intel computers wirelessly, using plug-in coils that create a magnetic field to power a device as far as 2.4 meters away. CEO Alex Gruzen says that within 10 years our rooms will be wireless, and every appliance, from lights to TVs to speakers, will draw steady power from a central charging base.

5. 3D-Printing Everything

One machine that can make anything. It sounds like science fiction, but since the 3D printer arrived, the idea has been fast becoming reality. A 3D printer follows a digital blueprint and builds an object from plastic or other materials, one layer at a time.

That is big news for consumers and corporations alike. In the past year alone, middle-school students 3D-printed a car for a physics experiment, scientists 3D-printed human organ tissue, and General Electric used 3D printing to make its jet engines more efficient. Printers from the American company 3D Systems can already print candy and musical instruments. "This is a technology that is closely tied to our lives," says the company's CEO, Avi Reichental.

6. A Watch That Redefines "Smart," $349+

The fate of most smartwatches so far shows the problem: they try to cut the time people spend on their phones, with disappointing results. Apple's Apple Watch, by contrast, rethinks the computer on the wrist, pairing a small touchscreen with a few physical controls for a fresh look. Besides telling the time, it can send messages, give directions, track your health and make wireless payments. "Apple put its heart into designing this watch," says Robert Brunner, a member of the San Francisco design community and a former Apple industrial designer. "They were bold enough to enter entirely new, unknown territory."

7. A Privacy-First Smartphone, $629

According to the Pew Research Center, half of Americans feel uneasy sharing private information on their phones. The Blackphone was built to help owners keep their data private. It puts privacy above everything else, running a customized Android system stripped of features that could pose security risks, such as calendar syncing. It also comes with software that encrypts calls, text messages and browsing history. Even so, Blackphone CEO Toby Weir-Jones warns: "Assuming a magical cloak of invisibility exists is a fairly dangerous thing." Buy it here.

8. A Cooler That Powers Up the Party, $399

This is the world's smallest fully featured party cooler. Besides storing food and drinks, it works as a blender, lights an LED lamp in the lid when you reach for a drink, charges a smartphone over USB and doubles as a Bluetooth speaker. Its big wheels let it roll over any terrain, from beaches to parking lots.

Since a prototype appeared on Kickstarter earlier this year, about 63,000 backers have put up $13.3 million to get the project off the ground. Pre-order it here.

9. A Chip That Stops You From Slouching, $100

The cause of many people's back pain is obvious: we keep forgetting to sit up straight. So Lumo BodyTech invented the Lumo Lift posture corrector. Clip the thumb-sized chip to your shirt, and it tracks the position of your neck and back and vibrates when you slouch. The design has some flaws (it may vibrate while you are on the phone, for instance), but sales passed their target long ago. Half its users are women, which is striking, since early adopters of electronics are usually men. Buy it here.

10. The Sexiest Electric Car, $41,350

To most people, electric cars are slow, unsexy and dull to drive, or else expensive. So when BMW announced it would start selling electric cars, it faced a stiff challenge. The BMW i3 meets it. A three-hour charge gives it 113-177 kilometers of range, and its novel design lets one pedal handle both acceleration and braking: press down to go, lift off to slow. That makes driving more energy-efficient.

11. A Tablet That Replaces the Laptop, $799

Microsoft's latest hybrid, the Surface Pro 3, measures only 12 inches, yet does almost everything an ordinary laptop can. It runs desktop programs such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint smoothly, and it has a thin keyboard that snaps on and off and a built-in stand for desk use. It is especially handy for professionals such as doctors and business people, so it is no wonder Coca-Cola and Seattle Children's Hospital have both chosen it. Buy it here.

12. A Ring That Sends Alerts in Style, $195+

Like many professional women, Christina Mercando kept her phone in her bag, which meant constantly pulling it out to check for important messages. But what if she could get them from something she was wearing? That idea led to the Ringly ring. Once set up, the ring lights up when its wearer gets an email from the boss, a text from an Uber driver or any other message she can't miss. Mercando raised more than $1 million to build it, and it paid off: the first 1,000 Ringly rings, released in June, sold out within 24 hours. Buy it here.

13. A Custom Pill Pack

"My family runs a pharmacy," says T.J. Parker, so he knows well how confusing taking medication can be. Remembering which pill to take when is far from easy, especially when you take several drugs under several prescriptions at once. That is why PillPack, the online pharmacy he now runs, doesn't sell whole bottles of pills. Instead, every two weeks it mails patients a PillPack dispenser holding all the medications they need, already split into small packets and lined up by the date and time each dose is due.

For now, the service is offered only to patients on multiple prescriptions. But Parker's ultimate goal is to make taking medicine simpler for everyone, including patients on a short course of antibiotics. Buy it here.

14. A Banana That Prevents Blindness

In sub-Saharan Africa, as many as 30% of children under 5 risk going blind, for a simple reason: they don't get enough vitamin A, which protects eyesight. Bananas make up a large part of their diet. So what if bananas could be changed to give them more vitamin A? The Australian geneticist James Dale and his team set out to breed a vitamin A-rich "super banana." "These bananas could solve a major health problem," Dale says.

15. A Wheel That Powers Your Ride, $799

Cycling is good for the body and for the environment. But getting around by bike can feel daunting, especially in big, hilly cities. To ease the strain, Superpedestrian, a company in Massachusetts, developed the Copenhagen Wheel. It looks like a standard wheel but holds a rechargeable electric motor, and it fits onto the rear wheel of most bicycles. Riders set their preferences in a smartphone app, and the motor assists either for the whole ride or only on hills. Sensors also track road conditions, temperature and potholes, so riders get real-time advice on the best route. "Cities are approaching the maximum number of cars they can carry," says CEO Assaf Biderman. Indeed, research from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute suggests car ownership in the United States has already peaked. The Copenhagen Wheel, which has raised $6 million, mostly through crowdfunding, will make cycling a likelier way of life. Buy it here.

16. A Seamless Sign Language Translator, $198+

For millions of deaf and speech-impaired people, everyday conversation often means paying for a human sign language interpreter or writing things out at length. Uni, from the San Francisco company MotionSavvy, is a tablet with a special attachment. Using motion-sensing cameras and speech recognition, it translates American Sign Language into speech and speech into text, all in real time. Buy it here.

17. An Ebola Virus Filter

Ebola causes panic above all because it spreads so astonishingly fast. Within days it can replicate wildly and bring down the immune system. The Hemopurifier cartridge attaches to a dialysis machine to help the body regain its balance. As blood flows through, its lectin filter captures and removes the Ebola virus. It has been used on only one patient, in Germany, and it worked. Doctors hope similar technology will one day help treat other viruses, such as hepatitis.

18. The Selfie Stick (and Comb)

If "selfie" was just a buzzword in 2013, by 2014 the selfie had become a cultural phenomenon. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, at least a quarter of Americans have posted a selfie on social media, President Obama among them.

Companies spotted the market and rolled out all sorts of selfie gadgets. The selfie stick lets users hold a smartphone beyond arm's length for better angles. "It's a very practical invention," says Van Baker, a mobile technology analyst at the research firm Gartner. "I see a lot of people using it."

19. An Energy-Saving Air Conditioner, $279

American households spend more than $11 billion a year on air conditioning and release more than 100 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air. Experts say much of that is waste. Garthen Leslie, an IT consultant, saw this for himself last summer while driving to work in Washington: with no way to switch them off remotely, air conditioners hummed away in row after row of empty rooms. There had to be a better way. "So I took the idea to Quirky," Leslie says. Quirky, a website backed by GE, turns people's ideas into products. Four months later, they had a prototype.

That prototype became the Aros air conditioner, which has sold nearly 50,000 units since it went on sale in May. For one thing, it looks elegant; its all-white body has a hint of Apple about it. It is also smart. Through its companion app, it uses GPS to track its owner's location and switches itself on or off depending on how far the owner is from home. It can also tell users exactly how much electricity each cooling session uses. Quirky says owners who use the "smart distance switch" save nearly 10% on electricity.

20. A Room That Helps Prisoners Relax

In Oregon's largest prison, more than 200 inmates in solitary confinement spend 23 hours a day staring at nothing but small white walls. Studies show the experience leaves many prisoners mentally ill and prone to violence or suicide. Last year, officials began trying out a relaxation cell called the "blue room," opened to some inmates during their free time. In this exercise room, videos of deserts, waterfalls and other outdoor scenes play on the walls. Nalini Nadkarni, who created it and studies how surroundings affect behavior, says the room is meant to calm prisoners and relax them "like when we take a walk in the park." It has worked well enough that some guards now use it to head off bad behavior.

21. A Tablet Toy That Gets the Body Moving, $79

Like many children, Pramod Sharma's daughter could hardly put the iPad down. But "when her face was pointed at the tablet all the time, her eyes six inches from the screen, all day long, honestly, I wasn't happy about it," he says. (Research shows that long hours in front of a screen may lead to attention problems and obesity.) So Sharma, a former Google engineer, and his former colleague Jérôme Scholler invented a way to bring children from the virtual world back to the real one. Their Osmo comes with a "reflective AI" kit that turns the iPad's camera into a device that sees the real world. Children arrange colored cards to match shapes on the screen and earn a reward when they get it right. The idea, born in October, has helped Osmo raise $14.5 million, and the toy is now sold in Apple stores. "Several kids can play together," Sharma says. "That means more interaction, and it sparks more imagination." Buy it here.

22. A Smart Coaching Basketball, $200

Look at sports training through a business lens, and nothing is worth more than recorded data. That is why basketball experts use high-tech gear to track everything from defensive passing to fatigue. This basketball aims to bring those tools to ordinary players. It has nine built-in sensors and a Bluetooth chip, and it sends data to a phone app so players can assess their jumping. During a game, it works with the app to coach players by voice, with cues such as "run faster" and "flick your wrist." "When we see someone's game improve because of this technology, it's really exciting," says Michael Crowley, president of InfoMotion, the sports technology company that makes the 94Fifty smart sensor. The market clearly loves it: nearly 100,000 balls have been sold so far. Buy it here.

23. Packaging You Can Eat

"Edible wrapping" sounds like a contradiction, but WikiFoods founder David Edwards doesn't see it that way. He invented a wrapping for yogurt, cheese, ice cream and more. Its shell is strong enough to hold its shape in water, heat or cold, right up until you bite into it. The science: each shell is made from particles of dried fruit or other natural materials, small enough that their opposite electric charges pull them together. Mixing them with sugar and calcium makes the shell stronger still. The packaging is now sold in a handful of Whole Foods stores.

24. An Electronic Screen for Displaying Art, $399

"There are so many painters" making beautiful work on and for computers, says the digital artist Jake Levine, pointing to online communities such as Tumblr. But there has never been a good way to print that art and hang it on a wall. Levine's company, Electric Objects, which has raised $3 million, aims to change that. Its 22-by-13-inch seamless display is made for showing art. Its brightness adjusts automatically to the daylight, and its matte surface cuts glare and gives the feel of a real oil painting. A companion smartphone app lets users switch freely between the works on display. Pre-order it here.

25. A Female Hero Doll, $65

Research shows that the toys girls play with strongly shape their career ambitions. But when Dawn Nadeau and Julie Kerwin, both mothers, went looking for female dolls that broke the Barbie mold, they found that most of them could not move their arms or legs. So they used more than $160,000 raised on Kickstarter to make their own: they founded a company and designed IAmElemental, a line of dolls meant to build strength of character in girls. Each doll embodies one heroic trait, such as perseverance or honesty. "The whole idea came from the very empowering fantasy that women can save the world," Nadeau says. Buy it here.