Here are three new innovations that will change the way we live, work and power our lives.

The Kindle Killer

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my Kindle –it has changed the way I read books forever.  However it was only a matter of time before someone developed an innovative new “passive” screen technology that blows the doors off Kindle’s E-ink nearly static gray-scale screen.  Qualcomm appears to be that company as they plan to launch their Mirasol e-Reader in this coming Fall.

It incorporates a revolutionary new screen technology that uses ambient light to reflect a full range of colors using the same principles that nature uses to produce breath-taking colors in a butterfly’s wings.  Because it uses no backlight to illuminate the screen it uses very little energy.  In fact, Qualcomm claims that it will use even less than Amazon’s Kindle.  In addition, this screen will show full motion video as well.  Check out the YouTube demo below…

Now imagine having your For Sale signs incorporate this kind of screen (powered by a single solar cell).  The only problem is you’d have to post an armed guard just to prevent people from stealing them :0)

Minority Report Minus Tom Cruise

Remember those cool virtual screens with floating images that Tom Cruise manipulated with special gloves?  It was all Hollywood smoke and mirrors back then.  However, the MIT professor the producers hired to come up with a futuristic computer interface for the movie has started a company called Oblong that went ahead and actually created this way of working with computers.  And they gave it a really consumer friendly name: g-Speak Spatial Operating Environment –now there’s a mouthful!  The following video can do a much better job of explaining what this is and how it works.

Some Fortune 500 companies are already using this technology and eventually it will find its way to you and me.  When it does, virtual tours will never be the same!

A Power Plant In Every Garage

If you happened to watch the 60 Minutes show this evening (2/21/10) then you witnessed what could end up being the birth of a whole new energy renaissance.  It highlighted the work of a Silicon Valley company called Bloom Energy that has figured a way to make inexpensive and compact fuel cells that work using most fossil fuels (like natural gas). During the interview, the founder of the company estimated that homeowners could have one of their fuel-cell systems installed to replace the grid for about $3,000.  That’s a whole lot less than solar and it works 24/7, day and night, rain or shine.

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that I got excited when “Cold Fusion” was announced in the ’80′s.  This time it’s different.  First of all, legendary venture capitalist John Doerr is behind it with about $400,000,000 in venture capital (not exactly chump change even by Silicon Valley standards).  And major companies like Google, eBay, Wall Mart, etc. have been using these systems for months to inexpensively power their operations.  Bloom Energy is planning a major unveiling of this technology to the general public this coming Wednesday (2/24/10).  This is something I wouldn’t miss.  Talk about a green-jobs boost to the economy!  This could be one of those innovations that is a game changer and help us out of the current recession.  Let’s hope anyway…