Industry Wired has listed top 10 innovations that made its debut in the 21st century 

Humans have been following the phase ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ for a long time. Ever since humankind became familiar with the technique that rubbing two stones could create fire, we have always been up to something beyond our current holdings. Especially, with the introduction of technology in the past century, innovations got more advanced and futuristic. Even though technology has been around for a long time, it was leveraged at a large scale only in the 21st century. Technological progress has undoubtedly changed the way we work, live and survive. However, all is not good. Such disruptive trends and human greed to go after them has introduced worldly issues like global warming, threat to data security, etc. Fortunately or unfortunately, this doesn’t stop humans from inventing more. Industry Wired has listed top 10 innovations that made its debut in the current century so far.

Top 10 innovation of the 21st century

Hypersonic transportation

Ever since flights came into existence, humans have tried their best to increase the speed they travel in the air. By the end of the 19th century, the fastest a man could travel on a regular basis was 60mph by train. And by the end of the 20th century, it got updated to travel by flight at 600 mph speed. Even though we are unsure what is in the bag for the 21st century, it is anticipated that 6,000 mph won’t be a big deal for humans in the end. If this idea is materialised, humans could travel across the world in 5-10 hours.

3D printing

Like many other inventions, the idea to come up with 3D printing model existed ever since the manufacturing of the topographical maps in the late 19th century. The convergence of cheaper manufacturing methods and open-source software has led to the introduction of 3D printing in recent years. Today, technology has streamlined on a large scale. 3D printing is everywhere starting from car parts manufacturing to enormous size bridge blocks.

Multi-use rockets

Elon Musk has been coming up with breakthrough innovations for a long time now. In the very beginning, people didn’t quite approve or accept Musk’s ideas as they were too futuristic. But today, things have changed. One of the biggest achievements of SpaceX is the multi-use rocket. The company has gone on to develop rockets that can be recovered and reused for other launches.

AbioCor artificial heart

AbioCor artificial heart was first used in an operation in 2001. The artificial heart can sustain up to five years. It powers itself, so has no wires which can cause infection. However, scientists are on a mission to come up with more advanced technology that could make the artificial heart last for an entire lifetime. 

Delivery drones

At the beginning of the 21st century, people were less familiar with shopping items reaching our doorstep. We only had parcel and postal services up until that time. However, in the 2010s, Amazon changed the delivery game with the launch of its high-profile delivery drones. The delivery drones aim to not only speed up the delivery process but also make an impact in cutting down on traffic and energy usage. 

Virtual reality headsets

Augmented reality and virtual reality has changed many things ever since it came to existence. People started believing that the futuristic technologies that are shown in movies could be introduced in real life when AR and VR got streamlined. AR and VR headsets are one such extraordinary innovation used in education, military training, and drug addiction therapy.

iPad

Apple iPad has been around since 2010. This tablet computer is a hybrid of a smartphone and laptop, providing a large touchscreen interface that is used to control the device. iPads bridge the gap between having a mobile device that could be used for personal downtime to a hard-working machine that especially replaces the business workhorse laptop computer. 

Video doorbell

Jamie Siminoff launched the first video doorbell with the name Ring, which was later sold to Amazon in 2018 for more than US$1 billion. Even though we had doorbells and security cameras before this, the video doorbell stood out as it had both the technologies combined. Remarkably, it was affordable to average homeowners.

Google Assistant

Google Assistant was an AI companion that humans longed for a long time. The feature, installed on the Google Home smart speaker, Google phones, and other devices converses with people primarily by voice. With a single command from the user, the technology can compose messages, make calendar reminders, or scan the internet for answers to questions.

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is a field of research and innovation concerned with building things, generally, materials and devices on the scale of atoms and molecules. The concept of nanotechnology was first introduced by American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Richard Feynman in 1959. However, the technology received a wide range of adoption in the 21st century.