review of gadgets and inventions that can change our lives for the better

What might the city’s “urn of the future” look like? How to turn a bed into a table in ten seconds? What do you get if you cross a tent and a hammock? What to do with the remaining paint from the renovation? The answers to these and other questions are provided by old and new inventions with great potential, which Kommersant continues to talk about.

“Burn of the Future” on the streets of New York

Even such a banal item as a street trash can can be one of the inventions whose convenience will be highly appreciated not only by the authorities of a big city, but also by Time magazine, which annually compiles a list of the world’s best inventions. This is exactly what happened with the trash can, designed specifically for New York by Group Project, commissioned by the city’s public utilities department. Just by the name of the urn – Better Bin – it is clear that, according to the inventors, it is better than all the urns that came before it.

According to management experts, Better Bin wins both functionally and aesthetically due to its design.

It is made of three parts – a durable stand that holds the trash can and disguises its contents, the bucket itself, made of plastic and easily removed from the stand, and a lid with a limiter that does not allow bulky waste to be thrown into the bin. In this way, several problems are solved at once: it is easy for cleaners to empty the trash can from garbage, rats will not get into it, liquid waste does not flow out of it, it does not fall from gusts of wind, snow does not fly into it, it does not spoil the appearance of the street, if it breaks, you can do not replace the entire structure, but only the damaged part. Utilities in New York have called the Better Bin “the trash bin of the future” and hope that this model will soon replace all 23,000 bins placed on the city’s streets.

If you eat, you can sleep, if you sleep, you can eat

This development will be appreciated by supporters of minimalism and an innovative approach to furnishing apartments, houses, hotels and offices. Table bed (or bed-table) Tablebed effectively serves as a single or double bed and a work desk for two or a dining table for six, and the transformation from one piece of furniture to another takes ten seconds and literally requires a “light movement of the hand.”

The table bed was invented by Finnish designer Dine Renfors almost by accident, wanting to limit the number of things that clutter up a person’s home and life.

Since the bed and table take up the most space, they attracted the designer’s attention. The result was an innovative piece of furniture, and with it a startup called Tablebed. In the company’s office, table beds are also used, and Tablebed employees have every right to take a nap during a busy day. In Finland, table beds can be seen, for example, in Helsinki at the Valo Hotel. There are rooms that are used as offices during the day and are converted into regular rooms at night simply by changing the function of the table beds. The table bed has already been evaluated in 20 countries around the world, and last year the startup entered the US market.

The tent turns into an elegant hammock

The combination of not only a table and a bed, but also a tent with a hammock turned out to be very convenient. The reason is the same – saving, in this case, not only space, but also weight and, as a result, energy that is spent on a hike. This hybrid was invented by a well-known manufacturer of hammocks and similar structures – the American company Eagles Nest Outfitters (ENO). With a tent model The ENO SkyLite hammock has a zippered entrance, a canopy that protects against insects, internal pockets and carabiners for storing the necessary things.

In addition, it is also convenient to sleep in SkyLite because its sleeping area, unlike conventional hammocks, is almost flat, that is, as if you were sleeping in a tent.

This is ensured by two rods that stretch the base of the hammock, made of nylon using RipStop weave, which provides additional strength. The rods themselves are not heavy, they can be easily disassembled and are made of lightweight aluminum alloy. The total weight of the set is 910 g, and a person weighing up to 113 kg can sleep in a hanging tent. ENO has one more development: a hammock that looks more like a hanging house with a gable roof. This model protects not only from mosquitoes, but also from rain.

Pants using 3D weaving technology

Californian startup Unspun has set out to achieve nothing less than a 1% global reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from human activities. Its founders decided to do this in the industry that interests them—clothing production. Surprisingly, it accounts for 10% of all carbon dioxide emissions in the world annually. In addition, traditional clothing production involves a large amount of textile waste, which is not always recycled and pollutes the environment.

Founders Unspun have developed Vega 3D weaving technology, which allows you to create a specific item of clothing – primarily trousers – directly from yarn, bypassing the fabric production stage. Moreover, each model is created for the figure of a specific person, for which, first, using an application on a smartphone, a scan of the customer’s figure is made, taking into account 30 thousand parameters. Then the style that the customer prefers and the fabric are selected.

All this data is entered into the weaving machine’s software – and in ten minutes the trousers are ready.

And no scraps of fabric. Unspun already partners with several denim brands, including Pangaia, Collina Strada and Weekday, who are launching lines of innovative jeans using the startup’s technology.

A second life for waste paint

Every year, about 10% of paint purchased in the United States ends up being thrown away, which is more than 240 million liters. Moreover, some part of this volume is not recycled and harms the environment: about 2 million liters of paint annually end up in oceans and reservoirs. A non-profit organization came up with an effective way to solve the problem PaintCare together with startup specialists Up Paint. PaintCare has opened collection points for unwanted paint throughout the United States, where it is accepted in any quantity, type, color, etc. Then the paint goes to the Up Paint plant, where it is recycled using technologies developed by the company’s specialists, and then new paint is produced paint. Almost 90% of paint that is recycled gets a second life. The new product is of no less quality than the original; the paint can be used on a wide variety of indoor surfaces, including walls, ceilings, furniture, and also for outdoor use. Since the project’s inception, PaintCare has collected almost 265 million liters of unwanted paint.

Alena Miklashevskaya