Three gadgets that will never make it to market
Friday, 9 May 2008
Many inventors toil to produce an innovative product that they will one day be able to build a business around, or perhaps simply contribute to the world as a useful device.
Each year in the US, however, gadget fans from around the world gather to celebrate the invention of gadgets that are incredibly creative, incredibly colourful – and almost entirely useless.
It’s called the Maker Faire, and it attracted an estimated 60,000 or more people to San Mateo, California. Here are some of the more fabulously impractical devices that were put on show, as reported by CNet:
- The LegoJEEP: a car covered in little studs that allow kids to cover it from top to tail in Lego bricks.
- The Buscycle: exactly what it sounds like – bus powered by the frenzied cycling of its passengers. A set of pedals below each seat are somehow connected to drive the bus’s wheels – now that’s an environmentally friendly form of public transport.
- The Neverwas Haul: a replica Victorian era house – on wheels. And in keeping with the era, the engine is powered by steam. Makes perfect sense.