TASTY TECH EYE CANDY OF THE WEEK CI

Apple Patents Paper Bag, UPS Flies Drones and EV Breaks Record: Photos
By Tracy Staedter, Seeker, 25 September 2016.

This week's Tasty Tech Eye Candy gallery features amazing inventions from the microscopic to the mysterious.

1. Paramecium Robots Deliver Medicine

Credit: via New Atlas

These fast-moving, remote-controlled microrobots are inspired by tiny organisms like bacteria and paramecium, which propel through liquid environments by way of their hair-like appendages. The microrobots, developed by scientists at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea, would be able to swim efficiently through the human bloodstream in order to deliver medicine at a specific location - for example, an organ or a cancerous tumor - where it might be needed most.

2. Fastest Electric Car

It's taken three years and plenty of patience, but Venturi Automobiles finally broke its own electric vehicle speed record. On Monday, Sept. 19, its VBB-3 took off over the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, hitting a top speed just over 358 mph (576 km/h). The previous record was set by Venturi in 2010 with its Buckeye Bullet 2.5 electric streamliner, which went 307.7-mph (495 km/h).

3. Apple Patents a Paper Bag

Credit: US Patent & Trademark Office

When you think of innovative patents from Cupertino, California-based Apple, you think of the iPhone, the iPod, the touch-pad screen and the click-wheel. Not paper bags. But it turns out that Apple filed a patent with the US Patent & Trademark Office to make a high-end retail shopping bag that's not only sturdy, but eco-friendly. A patent for a paper bag may seem strange, but Apple's retail stores are moving away from plastic bags and paper bags made from post-consumer waste are generally flimsy. Yup, nope. A patent for a paper big still seems odd.

4. Kinetic Car Seat Made from Spider Silk

Lexus must have had creature comforts in mind when it designed its Kinetic Seat, woven from synthetic spider silk and designed with a web in mind. The car company says that the seat is extra comfortable and offers better stabilization than conventional seats do.

5. UPS Testing Drone Deliveries

Amazon's got them. DHL has been working on them. And now UPS is getting into the game. Yes, we are talking about delivery drones. This week, United Parcel Service of America announced its partnership CyPhy Works to test how to handle commercial deliveries of packages to remote or difficult-to-access locations.

6. Hydrogen Fuels Powers Train

This week at InnoTrans, the largest trade fair for the railway industry, French railway firm Alstom presented a hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered train. The Coradia iLint is designed to carry 300 passengers and produces zero-emissions.

7. Textured Token Makes Payments

San Francisco-based design studio, New Deal Design, has a nifty little concept they call "a modern replacement for cash." We know what you're wondering: Isn't paying with a phone the modern replacement for cash? Yes, but New Deal Design says paying that way makes it too easy to overspend because the money is out of sight. Their Bluetooth-enabled metal token called Scrip returns money to the tactile world. It features a pattern of diamonds across the surface that rise and fall during use.

8. Luxury 'Sting Ray' House Floats

This 9,000-square-foot house, the Sting Ray, resembles its namesake and seems just as comfortable in the water. It comes from Boston-based design firm Schopfer Associates, who are building a version of the structure off an island in the Aegean Sea. The tail serves as a driveway and also a towline if the home needs to be relocated to a different beach.

9. Smart for Two's Electric Car

Daimler's automaker, Smart, is now the only manufacturer in world with a line of internal combustion vehicles that also come in all-electric. The Smart ForTwo, the ForTwo Convertible and the bigger ForFour can all be purchased with the new Smart Electric Drive, which provides a range of up to 160 km. With that range and the compact profile, these Smart cars are perfect for city drivers.

10. Zip-Tie Bike Lock

Credit: OttoLock/Kickstarter

In the category of Why Didn't I Think of That comes a lightweight but heavy-duty bike lock inspired by plastic zip-ties. Currently fundraising on Kickstarter, the OttoLock is impossible to sever with bolt cutters. That's because it's made from four thin bands of stainless steel as well as one layer made of Kevlar. The cinch-lock has a three-digit combination and rolls up into a compact package when not in use.

Top image: Sting Ray luxury floating house. Credit: Tangram 3DS.

[Source: Seeker. Edited. Top image and some links added.]