Using a combination of sail-rigging, boat construction and biomimicry technology, the pod-shaped spheres are suspended among the trees using strands.

Spiral stairways suspend to the ground providing access to the spheres.

Built from cedar or fiber glass, the spheres are insulated and designed to withstand structural impacts.

Source: freespiritspheres.com

Laundry Hamper Becomes Washer

New product inventions are submitted annually to competitions around the world. University student and inventor, Guopeng Liang, qualified as one of nine finalist in the Electrolux Design Lab competition.

Six hundred inventors from 49 countries entered the competition, which invites graduate and undergraduate industrial design students to create new inventions in appliances.

Liang's invention is the "ibasket", a transparent acrylic glass, plastic and aluminum laundry hamper that automatically washes your clothes when it is full.

"I don't have a lot of time to take care of my clothes, nor do I like to," says Leang, a student at Tongji University in China. "I believe the iBasket offers a much more convenient alternative."

The iBasket is programmed to initiate washing once a specific weight is accumulated. It has a built-in air refresh system, LED display panel and wireless messaging capability.

The iBasket can also text message your cell phone or PC when your laundry is done.

Source: newsroom.electrolux.com

PajamaJeans

PajamaJeans are the latest invention in clothing. The trend towards clothing that is "snuggie" and "cozy" yet stylish and fashionable continues with this new product.

As the name suggests PajamaJeans are designer jeans that wear and feel like pajamas.

The company's slogan says it best, "the pajamas to live in - the jeans to sleep in".

"We noticed people wearing pajamas on airplanes and in grocery stores. But a lot of people have mixed feelings about it because they think it's inappropriate and sloppy," says Stacey Buonanno of The Pajama Company.

"We thought it would be easy to take a pair of jeans, style them similar to a yoga pant, give them all the jean detailing, but make them stretchy and soft so that you wouldn't mind wearing them to bed," she says.

The secret is a proprietary blend of spandex and cotton called "dormisoft", which gives the feel and wear of pajamas but look like designer jeans including high contrast stitching and brass rivets.

Source: pajamajeans.com

Photo: PajamaGrams

Heated Gloves

One of the new product inventions in clothing is a thin, flexible, polymer film within the fabric of gloves that conducts electricity to create heat.

The film reacts to the temperature of your hands and regulates electrical current in the fabric from a rechargeable battery in the wrist.

If your hands are warm, the conductivity reduces and shuts off the current flow thereby preserving the energy from the battery.

Source: aevex.com

Doggy Door

This latest technology invention from Joe Ambrose and Pet Doors USA allows your pet to exit and enter your home through a electronic motorized door.

So every time nature calls, you don't have to play doorman.

A programmed, waterproof, battery free, "RFID" chip is attached to your pet's collar. The door slides open when your pet approaches, and closes after your pet goes through. It works like an automatic garage door opener.

A shatter resistant, metal framed, ABS plastic panel is mounted in your door. It has a stainless steel locking bar to maintain security and is air tight for energy efficiency.

The chip won't interfere with security systems. The door won't close if obstructed or free fall with power failure. The motor will not freeze and the chip's pet code is easily changed to unlimited combinations.

Source: plexidors.net

Bug Detector

The bed bug population throughout the world is exploding and many scientists believe it's because the species has undergone a genetic mutation that makes them more resistant to pesticides.

As a result, getting rid of bed bugs often requires powerful poisons delivered directly to the pests but this can be difficult.

Bed bugs are small (size of a pinhead to 4mm fully grown) and they can hide just about anywhere by flattening their bodies into crevices such as seams of clothing or bedding material, cracks or holes in furniture or walls, and usually only come out at night to hunt for blood.

Even when bed bugs bite to feed on your blood for several minutes - you cannot feel or detect them. Only after they have retreated back into hiding, will your skin develop itchy red swollen welts as a reaction to the bites.

Bed bugs can also survive an extreme range of temperatures from -30C (-28F) to 40C (104F) and can go without feeding for two to three months and have been known to starve for a year before dying.

Because of these survival characteristics, bed bugs are well adapted for travel - and move in our clothing, our furniture, and practically anything else we move with us. Bed bug infestation exists in the finest hotels, the most sterile hospitals, the most fashionable stores, the best museums, and even in the pages of books.

Short of saturating everything in our environment with poison, which isn't practical or healthy, exterminators have resorted to specially trained dogs to locate the hiding places of bed bugs, and although effective it is very expensive. These dogs cost as much as $70,000 to train so they don't come cheap.

So inventor, Chris Goggin, a mechanical engineer with dozens of inventions on new technology gadgets - from missile electronics and jet fuel mechanisms to spin fryers - has created his latest invention for bed bug extermination.

Chris invented a handheld electronic device that imitates a dog's nose. It can sniff out the hiding places of bed bugs by detecting their pheromones - the chemicals used by the bugs to communicate with each other.

A fan intakes air through a wand on the device, and sensors detect the bug's chemicals. A color display reads the strength of the scent allowing a user to know whether they are getting closer or further away from the bugs.

Not only for use in your own home, but Goggin's suggests using his device to scan hotel rooms before deciding to sleep in them.

Goggin's bed bug detector won the Popular Science 2011 Invention Award.

To kill bed bugs, Dr. Changlu Wang, an entomologist at Rutgers University invented a homemade bed bug trap that doesn't use pesticides. Here are the instructions on how to make the trap and how it works.

Sources: popsci.com; rci.rutgers.edu; lancaster.uni.edu