The Kite patch will offer an alternative to toxic sprays, and a new way to fight the spread of diseases, by using a blend of ingredients that make humans invisible to mosquitoes. The device will be a disposable square only 1.5 inches on each side and will be meant to be worn on the clothing. The patch will be embedded with a proprietary blend of non-toxic, FDA approved compounds that will disrupt the mosquitoes' ability to track humans through exhaled carbon dioxide. Each patch...

A stimulation glove designed for the elderly and stroke victims will help to improve their motor skills and tactile perception. A diminishing sense of touch is common among stoke patients and the aging. To help treat the problem, I suggest developing a glove that will passively stimulate certain nerve cells to improve the communication between neurons.

According to research, each year one in three people 65 or older fall every year, and many of them do not fully recover. A protective belt will be a personal, waist-worn airbag that will expand to help protect the elderly from falls. It will be worn around the waist, where its integrated sensors will monitor the motion of the wearer's hips. If the system determines that the person is falling, the airbag will trigger and expand to cushion the fall before the person hits the ground.

The door-free refrigerator concept will save energy by not refrigerating empty areas. The refrigerator concept will replace the door with a honeycomb wall of hexagonal chambers. Each chamber will be covered by a plate that will move aside when an item is inserted, exposing the item to the system of refrigerated pins. Since only areas with objects in them will be refrigerated, this refrigerator will use less energy than conventional ones. And since the items stay in sight, there...

The idea is to develop self-healing wires able to reconnect at the molecular level even after being completely severed. The self-healing wires will be made from a commercially-available self-healing polymer. Tiny microfluidic channels will be bored in the polymer using solid wire, and then the channels will be filled with a liquid-metal alloy of indium and gallium, resulting in a liquid-metal wire in an elastic sheath. If the wires are cut, the liquid metal will oxidize to...

Why not develop a way to make raw oysters a bit safer to eat by zapping them with electron-beams, which will kill more bacteria than conventional pasteurization. Raw oysters carry a particular risk, and can harbor viruses such as the norovirus, which has no treatment or vaccine. To destroy these bacteria and viruses, which often survive even after pasteurization by heating or pressure, it is now possible to subject the oysters to a beam of electrons. A dose of just under 5...

The small, clip-on translation device will use one-line translation services to translate in real-time without needing to access a smartphone directly. The device will translate up to 25 languages in real-time. It will be equipped with a microphone, speaker and two buttons to designate the first and second language, and will pair with the user's smartphone via Bluetooth, which will allow it to access pre-existing online translation services. The user will set their native language...

The new system will identify the Salmonella bacteria on food within 24 hours--a significant reduction in time from the previous requirement of several days--which could help prevent tainted food from reaching consumers. The technology will detect the bacterial colonies grown on agar plates by scanning them with a red diode laser. Penetrating a bacterial colony will cause the red light to form a unique scatter pattern, which will then be compared to a library of images to identify...

A new thin-film drug-delivery technique could enable medications to be released directly into targeted locations in the body for up to 14 months--drastically altering the way we traditionally treat pain. The technique will make use of biodegradable, thin-films that have been loaded with drug molecules using a "layer-by-layer" method. This layer method will allow the drug to be released steadily and for a longer period of time than previous methods, and the amount of drug being...

Replacing lithium with sugar could create stronger, long-lasting batteries with more energy storage capabilities. The idea is to heat sucrose to as high as 2,700 °F in an oxygen-free atmosphere. This process, called pyrolysis, results in a hard carbon powder that can be embedded in a sodium-ion battery to create a storage capacity 20 percent greater than conventional hard carbon.