Top Ten Unnoticed Technological Developments of 2006

There was much that was publicized over 2006 in terms of technology. Most of the limelight was hogged by the battle of the gaming consoles, a few newer laptops, and other technological developments. However, there were also a ton of the technological developments that went unnoticed over 2006. Some of these are useful, some are prototypes, some just useless, some too expensive and some are waiting to be put in action on a larger scale, but all of them are impressive feats of technology that should be mentioned somewhere! Here are the Top Ten Unnoticed Technological Developments Of 2006:

Tru-Touch's Skin Alcohol Test - Say goodbye to the days of breath tests for drivers to see if they've been drinking. Tru-Touch has come up with a new system that can detect alcohol readings in the bloodstream just through touch. This is more accurate, easier to administer, harder to beat, and safer for an officer who doesn't want the suspect to get out of the car.

Morphis ESP - An extremely pricey machine at $300,000, the Morphis is still an impressive technological development. Capable of simulating just about any ride (on the rod, in the air or one at the amusement park), the Morphis ESP is impressive...although I'd rather just go to an amusement park instead of paying $300,000 for this brute.

FreeStyle Morphing Keyboards by Kinesis - This is as close as you can get to completely customizable other than just re-locating each of the keys. The Freestyle keyboard developed by Kinesis can be separated into two halves, tilted and placed in a variety of configurations. Will it catch on...I doubt it...but it's still cool.

N700 Series Shinkansen - Continuing their saga of the bullet trains, the Japanese have developed the N700 series - a 16 seating train car that even on turns moves at the speed of 167MPH. It does this with the special ability to tilt as it turns (only 1 degree, but that's more than enough)!

Mini Cube USB device - This actually looks like a small, flat square instead of a cube...but oh well! It's still an impressive feat of technological development. Capable of holding in excess of 12GB of data, this USB device can also be used to sync stuff with your computer and is very affordable at just $129 for what it has to offer.

Fujitsu Black Box For Cars - There are way more car crashed every day than plane crashes...so it makes sense for the Japanese Fujitsu to come up with a Black Box for cars. At just $500 or so, this is an addition that every manufacturer would consider using. It records the very last few instants before a car crash and can sense sudden changes in vibration, speed, gravity and other collisions.

Brando 55-in-1 card reader - It reads everything you've got without adapters, cables, or wires. Costs under $35. Nuff said.

DT-1 by TokyoFlash - After hybrid cars, here's a hybrid watch that used OLED/LCD systems. My qualm with this watch? It's nearly indecipherable. Instead of using numbers and needles, it uses two rings of lighted dots (outer for hours, inner for minutes), and a pattern of 30 tiny squares that count up till 30 and then countdown till 60/0. Except for the fact that you will spend a few weeks getting used to reading the time and the high costs, this just might be something to look forward to.

The E-Book LG Laptop - A laptop developed by LG that runs on bioenergy by using a Microbial fuel cell. Other than the fact that the price is a biohazard, this just might indicate a good trend for the future.

Robot Lobsters - The only non-consumer related technological development. A bunch of robotic lobsters that look, and act like lobsters were developed. They will spend months underwater to help understand more about lobsters. I don't see why lobsters are suddenly so important...but it's still pretty cool.