Some
inventions are so ubiquitous that it's difficult to imagine they started as an
idea scribbled on paper and then a patent application submitted to, say, the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Aluminum foil, adhesive bandages, the ballpoint pen, the computer
mouse, the microwave
oven -- these are just
a few examples of great ideas that became indispensable products we now take
for granted.
Nevertheless,
of the 520,277 applications that inventors filed with USPTO in 2010, chances
are that not even half will be granted patents, and far fewer will become
commercial successes [source: USPTO]. For every new gadget that becomes a
household name and changes our lives, there are thousands of others that
languish in patent office files, unappreciated except perhaps as curiosities.
Some of them are ingenious, but plagued with small but fatal flaws. Others are
too outlandish to ever gain widespread acceptance. A few are simply ahead of
their time.
In that
spirit, here are 10 of the most outré technological advances from recent years
-- inventions that push the boundaries of innovation, yet seem unlikely to gain
widespread acceptance. Enjoy them with a caveat: There were people who scoffed
at the notion that the motorized carriage would ever replace the convenience of
having a horse, and others who figured that nobody would ever need or want to
carry a telephone
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