3 Interesting TED Demo Videos for Innovators Part 2

Following our first feature on some great TED videos for innovators, here’s another three that showcase some of the interesting inventions in technology around the world. TED brings great leaders, thinkers, inventors, innovators from all fields and industry together for an exchange of ideas. In our highlight for innovators, we get to see the beginnings of new future technologies.

• Demo 1 – Hod Lipson builds “self-aware” robots: Hod Lipson demonstrates a few of his cool little robots, which have the ability to learn, understand themselves and even self-replicate.

Why it is interesting: There many research labs around the world working on creating self-aware robots, and Hod Lipson here presents some of the robots that he and his team have built. Not yet of Terminator-capabilities, but a good first step in that direction.

• Demo 2 – David Merrill demos Siftables: MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables — cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on learning?

Why it is interesting: These days, “edutainment” is all the rage with devices and games providing entertainment that educates. Here, we see a new type of toy that are interactive cookie-sized computers that allow you to play and learn via combining the various blocks. Check out the video for the paint-bucket and math applications.

• Demo 3 – John La Grou plugs smart power outlets: John La Grou unveils an ingenious new technology that will smarten up the electrical outlets in our homes, using microprocessors and RFID tags. The invention, Safeplug, promises to prevent deadly accidents like house fires — and to conserve energy.

Why it is interesting: Preventing electrical fires, child shock, burn incidents and saving energy at the same time, this invention by John La Grou and his team would be a great tool for households and businesses alike. They also received the 2009 CES Innovation Award.

Editor’s Note: The abstracts of the talks are sourced from TED.com

Related posts:

1. 3 Interesting TED Demo Videos for Innovators Part 1
2. 3 TED Videos on a Greener Future
3. Fight A Robot From Halfway Round The World