Automated HVAC, battery-powered tools and fire-resistant powder to coat buildings feature on Time magazine’s annual best inventions list.
Among 250 inventions across the business and consumer spectrums, Time highlighted the Aria platform from BrainBox AI. It enable users to automate HVAC optimisation and find hidden inefficiencies. Users can track data, make forecasts and then take action.
Jean-Simon Venne, founder and chief technology officer of BrainBox, compares the platform’s predictive powers to a time travel movie. “We go to the future, see how terrible it will be in two hours, and change that,” he told Time. BrainBox says its tools are already being used in 14,000 buildings in more than 20 countries, and can slash energy costs by 25% and curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Time also threw a spotlight on DeWalt’s battery-powered Powershift tools. “We produce 60% less CO2 emissions during use than gas-powered equipment,” Ricky Cacchiotti, director of product development at DeWalt and general manager for the Powershift programme, told Time. The tools were launched earlier this year and will be available in the UK in February 2025.
Also on Time’s best inventions list is the Wildfire Shield coating from NanoTech Materials. The coating contains the company’s insulative ceramic particle technology, a powder that can be integrated into other materials, like plasterboard, to improve fire resistance and reduce heat penetration. Wildfire Shield also prevents the ill effects of noxious smoke. NanoTech also supplies Cool Roof Coat, which it claims can reduce HVAC use by half.
Virtual operating theatre
Those involved in hospital design and operations may find value in eXeX’s ExperienceX – a virtual map of a surgeon’s preference for the layout of their operating theatre. Staff assisting the surgeon can use an augmented reality headset to familiarise themselves with where tools and instruments should be before entering the operating theatre. It is being tested at London’s Cromwell Hospital.
The technology is expected to be commercially available in 2025. “It doesn’t matter how good the surgeon is; it’s controlled chaos,” Dr Robert Masson, chief executive and founder of eXeX, told Time. “There’s massive room for organisational simplicity.”
Don’t poo-poo the AI toilet seat
Finally, construction businesses that really focus on staff welfare may be intrigued by this invention: the AI-powered toilet seat. Time flags Toi Labs’ TrueLoo, an AI-powered toilet seat that optically scans your stool and urine for concerning changes. It’s currently used in more than 50 senior living facilities.
Alerts and data are currently delivered directly to care personnel in such facilities, but the company has plans to release a user-facing app. “I liken it to a team of doctors that can peer into your toilet bowl every day,” device inventor Vik Kashyap, founder and chief executive of Toi Labs, told Time.
Don’t miss out on BIM and digital construction news: sign up to receive the BIMplus newsletter.
