6 (very weird) new inventions that could change your life

At BBC Science Focus, we love a good invention – the weirder, wackier and more wonderful, the better (bonus points if it’s actually useful, too).

So, while exploring GITEX Global, and Expand North Star – one of the world’s largest technology and artificial intelligence (AI) expos and its sister start-up conference in Dubai – we went hunting for the most mind-bending innovations that could soon hit the market.

From real-life holograms to smart contact lenses and flying taxis, here’s our pick of the most astonishing tech on show.

1. Flying taxi meets self-driving car

From Blade Runner to Futurama, flying cars have long hovered in our collective imagination. But thanks to advances in drone technology, we may finally be inching closer to zipping through city skylines in our own personal pods.

What few of us imagined, though, is a flying car that actually docks to a regular four-wheeled vehicle. Yet that’s exactly what Guangzhou Automobile Group is proposing with its new GOVY AirCab concept.

Yes, you read that right. The GOVY takes off and lands vertically from an autonomous ground chassis, meaning it can function as both a standard taxi and an airborne one.

So what’s the point of this odd coupling? Hanxuan Liu, a product specialist working on GOVY, told BBC Science Focus it represents the “final vision for the future of mobility,” with the drone-chassis pairing enabling a seamless “one-click journey” – no vehicle changes required. In short, you summon one, hop in, fly where you can and drive where you can’t.

The company has already completed test flights and is now seeking safety certification. Liu expects a public demo by the end of next year and a nationwide rollout in China within two. As for the US and Europe? We might expect to see the GOVY both on the road and in the air within five years, Liu said.

2. Augmented-reality sport

If dodgeball and Pokémon Go had a baby, it would probably look something like HADO – an augmented-reality sport that’s already being played around the world.

Players don headsets and wrist sensors before stepping into a real-world court, where they hurl virtual energy blasts, throw up shimmering shields and duck incoming attacks – all in mixed reality. The result feels part video game, part high-intensity workout.

Dreamt up in Japan in 2014, HADO has since evolved into a full-fledged technosport with professional leagues, school programmes and even a World Cup. Its creators describe it as “a way to promote physical activity while incorporating high technology, making it an excellent way to engage young people”. 

3. The spider silk that could heal hearts

By weight, spider silk is stronger than steel. Yet it’s flexible and more sustainable to produce. Why not start applying nature’s wonder material to our own applications, then? 

Latvian biotech company PrintyMed has developed a synthetic spider silk that mimics nature’s own spinning process, producing fibres that are astonishingly strong, flexible and biocompatible, meaning they're not harmful to living tissue.

Working with the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, the team has engineered proteins that can be spun into silk using a biomimetic process similar to how spiders create their webs. The result is a sustainable material that can be manufactured at scale and used in ways nature never intended.

The company plans to use the lab-grown silk to transform medicine, from ultra-realistic ‘organs-on-a-chip’ for drug testing, to durable, clot-resistant heart valves and advanced wound dressings that promote faster healing. 

And that’s not all: PrintyWeb is also experimenting with using the silk to build artificial organs and tissue scaffolds that could one day help ease the global shortage of transplantable organs.

4. The smart lens aiming to replace every screen

Straight out of a spy movie, XPANCEO wants to make the world’s first truly smart contact lens – a device so advanced it could one day replace your phone, smartwatch and your glasses.

“Current computers are bulky, interchangeable. They harm health, they harm the planet, they’re bad. We need one ultimate interface,” the company’s co-founder, Roman Axelrod, told BBC Science Focus.

“I think we can all agree that the next generation of computing is AI. Then comes what we call AI-powered extended reality (XR) computing. AI is the brain and the heart. XR, be it glasses, helmets, or contact lenses, is the interface. We believe that contact lenses might be the ultimate interface.”

It’s a grand vision: a weightless, invisible lens that merges all your gadgets into one, with features like real-time biosensing, health tracking, night vision and zoom. 

But for now, it’s still early days. Co-founder Dr Valentyn S. Volkov said XPANCEO expects to have a fully integrated prototype by the end of next year – a monochrome display capable of showing simple data and measuring biological signals from the eye.

With smart lenses classed as medical devices, progress will be slow and heavily regulated. Still, if XPANCEO can pull it off, smart glasses might look old-fashioned in the not-so-distant future.

5. Real-life holograms

Beaming into your morning meeting Jedi Council-style may not be confined to galaxies far, far away. Yep, Australian company Voxon is turning science fiction into reality with its VLED technology, which creates live, three-dimensional images that seem to float in mid-air.

Unlike flat 3D projections, Voxon’s volumetric displays are made up of millions of points of light suspended in space, producing 360-degree visuals you can walk around and view from any angle.

The Voxon VX2, for example, is a tabletop device that generates holograms inside a cylinder roughly 25 cm across and high, using a rapidly rotating LED array. 

Within that glowing column, you can view anything from medical scans and molecular models to game characters and architectural designs in full 3D.   

6. A high-tech kennel that keeps your dog safe while you shop

Leaving your dog outside a shop or in your car might soon be a thing of the past. Smartsy, a Serbian startup, has designed an intelligent dog kennel that promises a safe, climate-controlled space for pets while their owners pop into the supermarket or café.

Smartsy’s sleek pods feature automatic safety locks, real-time video monitoring (for those who suffer pooch separation anxiety), and sound- and heat-insulated walls to keep pups calm and comfortable.

A silent airflow system maintains ventilation, while built-in heating ensures the interior stays at the perfect temperature, whatever the weather. After each use, a UV lamp sterilises the cabin, ready for the next furry guest.

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