The booming industry of online marketplaces has given life to e-commerce. Today, you can get anything from handmade trinkets, personalized to one’s liking, to doing something like Paid Surveys. There’s no doubt that 2017 was a huge year for innovation across the board. As artificial intelligence, augmented reality and machine learning disrupted industries as diverse as fashion and finance.
But of course not all of last year’s creations were winners.
Below we look at some of the best and worst invention ideas that 2017 had to offer.
The Best
GreenWave 3D Ocean Farm
Aiming to tackle the environmental effects of land farming, Connecticut based GreenWave made Time’s list of the 25 Best Inventions of 2017 for their innovative ocean farming initiatives. The Not-For-Profit has established 14 underwater farms since 2013, growing shellfish and seaweed crops on ropes anchored to the ocean floor. The farms are self-sustainable, and help tackle climate change, feeding on carbon trapped in our oceans as they grow. According to GreenWave director, Bren Smith, a former commercial fisherman, the organization’s mission is to train a generation of ocean farmers and help restore ocean ecosystems.
Petit Pil
Last year saw the unveiling of a product set to change the lives of new parent’s everywhere. Petit Pil is a fabric that will stretch and grow with your kids. London based designer, Ryan Mario Yasin, decided to apply his background in aeronautical engineering and love of origami, to try and save parents money while reducing waste in the fashion industry. The revolutionary fabric is designed to grow up to six sizes and works by folding and unfolding with kids as they move and play, and eliminates discrepancies in sizes, which means they’re always the perfect fit. Garments made with Petit Pil will fit children as they grow from four to thirty-six months.
The Worst
Pause Pod: Literally a tent.
Last year we saw the introduction of the Pause Pod. Described by its creators as a “private pop-up space free from stressful moments” the idea behind it is a portable space you can use in the office when you need a moment to relax and unwind. But Pause Pod received a royal roasting on twitter as users pointed out the team of Swedish inventors had simply designed a tent. The online commentary even prompted one of the team, Adam Mikkelsen, to speak out telling critics “We never claimed that it’s not a tent… But we wanted to shine a light on a problem in today’s society you never think about.”
Juicero: Not that different from any other juicer.
Perhaps the top spot for the worst invention in 2017 goes to Juicero. The $400 cold-press juicer is different to other juicers on the market, the internet-connected device will transform a single-serving packet of chopped fruit and vegetables into a beverage. You could be forgiven if you were wondering what really makes the Juicero any different from any other juicer on the market. Well to start with, you’ll have to buy those fruit and vegetables from Juicero too, and you might find that squeezing the packets with your hands is just as effective as using the machine.