TIME:
From a genetic testing service to an invisibility cloak to an ingenious public bike system to the world’s first moving skyscraper – TIME’s picks for the top innovations of 2008. Yesterday, we looked at a couple of innovations. Today, two more.
Camera For the Blind
Paradoxical as it sounds, the Touch Sight camera makes it possible for the visually impaired to take pictures. The photographer holds the camera up to his or her forehead, and a Braille-like screen on the back makes a raised image of whatever the lens sees.Enhanced Fingerprints
English physicist John Bond developed a technique for analyzing fingerprints on a gun after it’s been wiped clean. Sweat corrodes metal, so Bond applied an electrical charge and a fine carbon powder to a gun’s corroded part, revealing a fingerprint pattern. Police are already using the four-month-old technology to reopen some cases.Photo by TIME.