The World's Most Innovative Products and Technologies Showcased in the 15th Annual Popular Science `Best of What's New' Issue

Business Wire, Nov 7, 2002

Business Editors/Feature Editors/High-Tech Writers

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 7, 2002

Popular Science Magazine honors the world's most outstanding breakthrough products and technologies in its highly anticipated 15th Annual December, Best of What's New issue on newsstands Tuesday, November 12, 2002.

Throughout the year, Popular Science reviews thousands of new products and innovations and features a select few in its monthly What's New department. A total of 100 winners in ten categories (Auto Technology, Aviation & Space, Cars, Computers, Electronics, General Technology, Home Technology, Medical Technology, Photography and Recreation), including ten Grand Prize winners, make it into the coveted Best of What's New issue. Each award winner represents a significant step forward in its category.

"The range of products and technologies we consider is huge," says Popular Science editor in chief, Scott Mowbray. "This year we've given awards to a genetically modified 'knockout pig' used in medical research, the new Nissan Z car, a remarkable new cell-phone-PDA combination, and a fantastic bit of engineering in Scotland. It's this scope of subject that makes this a reader favorite. And there are dozens of products, from digital cameras to flat-screen TVs, that people will buy with confidence because of our awards."

To celebrate the 15th annual Best of What's New, Popular Science is teaming up with eBay for an auction of select Best of What's New items including a Logitech Pocket Digital, a Taylormade R500 Series driver, an Olympus C-730 and more. All of the auction's proceeds will go to the City of Hope National Medical Center and Beckman Research Institute, one of the world's leading research and treatment centers for cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses. The auction begins November 11 and concludes November 21 at ebay.com/popsci2002.

Popular Science Properties is a division of Time4 Media(TM), the world's leading publisher of leisure-time magazines. Founded in 1872, Popular Science is the world's largest science and technology magazine with a circulation of 1.45 million subscribers and a readership of more than seven million people. Time4 Media(TM) is a subsidiary of Time, Inc., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Time Warner, Inc. (NYSE: AOL).

POPULAR SCIENCE BEST OF WHAT'S NEW--ABBREVIATED LIST

MetaPad/Mobile Computing Core (Computers Grand Award)

Engineer Ken Ocheltree's team at IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, New York, was working on shrinking a PC to the smallest possible size when they hit on an unconventional idea: Break the computer into mix-and-match components, and let users decide how many they need. The result was a versatile, multipart system they called MetaPad.

IBM has licensed the MetaPad design to Antelope Technologies, a newly formed venture that's renamed it the Mobile Computing Core (MCC). In addition to the core ($2,600), Antelope is offering a desktop cradle ($495), a handheld unit ($1,400), a laptop module (about $1,600), a wearable cradle (approximately $500) plus head-mounted display ($2,000) and, in the future, mini-tablet and mega-tablet devices. Because the prices are still relatively high, the early target market is workers in the medical, engineering, and pharmaceutical industries and the military, according to Antelope CEO Ken Geyer. But consumers have already expressed interest in the MCC suite through phone calls and e-mail messages, and Antelope hopes to begin mass production within a year or so to bring the costs within reach.

AirScooter Personal Flying Vehicle (Aviation Space)

After years of development, testing and painstaking weight-shaving, Woody Norris--the man behind hypersonic sound, page TK--brought his AirScooter personal flying vehicle one major step closer to production in 2002: He added a lightweight four-stroke engine, which uses a titanium crankshaft, ceramic-lined cylinder walls and full computer controls. The AirScooter, demonstrated exclusively to Popular Science this summer, clocks in just under 254 pounds, so it qualifies as an ultralight aircraft and thus requires no pilot's license. Yet it'll cruise at 65 mph at 50 feet for up to two hours. Norris hopes to begin selling them next year for around $25,000.

Self-Healing Minefield (General Technology)

We give this award with a little trepidation, but these are antitank mines--not the buried anti-personnel mines that kill or injure 26,000 civilians each year. More importantly, their built-in smarts will save soldiers' lives. Developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the minefield--which completed its first phase of testing this year--consists of networked, surface-scattered antitank mines that automatically hop around and reposition themselves to fill in any breaches. Tiny rocket thrusters or mechanical pistons propel them with 1-meter accuracy. But perhaps the system's finest achievement is that operators can deactivate it by remote control; and if the mines lose contact with each other or their commander, they'll self-destruct in 30 days.