Year in Review 2013: Top Inventions of the Year

Virtual reality windshield
To help us when we get stuck behind a bus or transport truck that's lumbering up a narrow country road, giving us no opportunity to see if it's safe to pass them, researchers at the University of Porto in Portugal have designed a new 'virtual reality' See-Through System for your windshield. Cameras on the front of these big vehicles send images to the See-Through System, letting you see what's in front of them and when it's safe to go around.

Windshield that never fogs and never needs scraping
Researchers at MIT have come up with the perfect solution to the problems of our windshields fogging up and becoming covered in frost. They've created a windshield coating that has both hydrophillic and hydrophobic parts that trap and absorb water to keep it from fogging up, and will also repel any excess water to keep it from freezing on the windshield's surface. As a result, it gives perfectly clear windshields under all weather conditions, and how much time will that free up for us here in Canada?

Hollow flashlight
Children around the world have problems studying their schoolwork because they have no electricity to power lights to read by after dark. Victoria, B.C., high school student Ann Makosinki came up with a solution for this problem by building a flashlight that requires no external power source other than the heat from the palm of your hand. Her hollow flashlight won her an amazing prize from the Google Science Fair and it's shining a path towards a bright future for this amazing teenage inventor.

Grasshopper rocket
With the growing problem of space junk in orbit around our planet, Elon Musk's SpaceX team has come up with an excellent solution that seems to reach back into early sci-fi for its inspiration. Their reusable Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) rocket, called the Grasshopper, represents a design idea that will have rockets deliver satellites and mission capsules to orbit and then return to Earth for a soft landing. This will make missions cheaper while minimizing how much junk we put into space at the same time.

Taylor Wilson's safer, cheaper nuclear reactor
Nuclear power would be an answer to all our energy needs, if only reactors could be cheaper to build, safer to run and would generate less nuclear waste. Nineteen-year-old Taylor Wilson has the solution with his new fission reactor design that is smaller, cheaper, can be buried underground and only needs its fuel replaced every 30 years. What's exceptionally cool is that his design is perfect to be used in space travel.

Hyperloop
Elon Musk, one of the most famous inventers of our time, turned his attention to mass transit this year and came up with the Hyperloop. This high-speed rapid transit system will propel riders through tunnels at 1,220 km/h, interconnecting our cities like never before, at a fraction of both the cost and hassle of air travel.

Terrafugia personal flying car
We were made certain promises by futurists of years past that we would have flying cars by now. The people at Terrafugia are looking to finally turn those promises into reality with their TF-X, which will be both street legal and a way to take off and fly to your destination with minimal training. Look for them patrolling the skies by 2021.