Ingenuity Matters at Home and Work

By staff reporter ZHANG HONG

100 items from 50 countries give us a hint about our lives tomorrow.

WHAT it would be like if your coffee cup was installed with a sensor and a chip?

Tao Yaya, a middle school student from Kunming in China’s southwestern Yunnan Province, touches the cup she’s demonstrating with her palm; in just three seconds the liquid crystal display on its side displays the amount of water she should drink today. The cup automatically detected and calculated her water needs by measuring the girl’s body temperature and coupling it with a comprehensive assessment of environmental factors.

This is not a fantasy. Such a cup is one of the exhibits at the World Youth Innovation Tour during the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. The program made its debut at the Hanover World Expo in 2000, with an aim to encourage the spirit of innovation among young designers. This time it was mounted with the cooperation of German communication group DauthKaun and its Chinese partners.

There are 100 items on display selected from 50 countries worldwide, all practical in nature. Shen Yu, the program’s director on the Chinese side, said that the eligible entries had to represent innovative thinking and feature interaction with visitors, while their market potential would take a back seat. “Environment-friendly inventions do not necessarily employ complicated, high technology. Sometimes their theories are very simple,” Shen says.

The E-book is one of the exhibits. The slim reading device doesn’t consume paper, doesn’t need delivery, and is easy to carry. “Its digital storage capacity can be as large as a physical library. Buying an E-book saves thousands of trees,” enthuses Liu Yingjian, chairman of the Beijing-based Hanwang (Hanvon) Technology Co., Ltd., a leading e-reader producer in China.

Those on the move will be charmed by a three-wheel electric car that can outstrip its rivals in an endurance race: the vehicle can travel 190 kilometers per charge. If guilt-free dressing is your thing, take a look at the T-shirt that biodegrades into fertilizer half a year after being buried underground. Useful critters on show include a high-efficiency enzyme that when incorporated into laundry products can help save 50 percent of the water and electricity normally consumed. This interactive exhibition focuses on seven fields, including construction, energy sources and health, and has much to offer both the serious and the whimsical.

All the exhibits drew crowds of curious visitors as soon as they were put in place. “There is a spray intended for throat protection and we ran out of it the first day because everybody wanted to try it,” Shen Yu can’t help but laugh while she recounts this. “And the two-wheel car is so cool that everyone wants to test drive it,” she adds, “even though its price is relatively high; but you know, autos were considered relatively expensive 100 years ago.”

Allowed to test the functionality of most of the exhibits instead of just peering at untouchable displays, visitors are experiencing a very different and much more engaging Expo. Although its location is somewhat out of the way, the World Youth Innovation Tour still attracts 6,000-7,000 per day, most of them students and foreign tourists. And the number is expected to climb over the summer vacation period. If you want to get a glimpse of your life tomorrow, put it on the list.

According to Shen Yu, most of the exhibited products are ready for market, with only a small portion still finessing their prototypes. “These are definitely not pie-in-the-sky,” says Shen. So far nearly 100 investors have expressed interest in these inventions. “Also we have paid a lot of attention to intellectual property right protection: video-making without permission of the exhibitors is forbidden,” Shen says.

In a room there is a jacket that looks like a spring or autumn windbreaker; inflate it and you will have an insulated winter coat that is three times warmer than a down-filled one. The most frequent question asked about this product is “where can I buy it?” And the guide repeats endlessly, “It will be on the market very soon.”

Shen plans to index all the exhibits in a database after the Expo and through it to sustain the interaction with Chinese youth. She will also seek cooperation with schools and scientific research centers to cultivate innovative thinking among young Chinese. She’s determined to do her bit for the better life theme in a way that endures well beyond this fair.