Google Glass

Google Glass is an attempt to free data from desktop computers and portable devices like phones and tablets, and place it right in front of your eyes.

Essentially, Google Glass is a camera, display, touchpad, battery and microphone built into spectacle frames so that you can perch a display in your field of vision, film, take pictures, search and translate on the go.

The principle is one that has been around for years in science fiction, and more recently it's become a slightly clunky reality. In fact, the "heads-up display" putting data in your field of vision became a reality as early as 1900 when the reflector sight was invented.

RFID

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) is ranked among the top 10 of dominant future technologies. RFID technology is being used now for access control cards, tagging of returnable items, production and assembly tasks and will penetrate other market segments soon due to lower costs and more functionalities. Integration of sensor functions in RFID-tags will also give a lot of potential for future applications in healthcare, food packaging, security & safety etc. 

http://www.futuretechnologycenter.eu/content/RFID.php 

The beauty of RFID tags is that they are passive, requiring no power source of their own. Instead, they derive the small amount of electrical power they need from the radio waves emitted by a tag reader. In a way, the reader is like a radio version of a torch, lighting up tags that it comes near and revealing the information they contain. But there is nothing to stop self-powered devices using the same frequencies and protocols to send and receive all kinds of digital information.

Examples of the implementation of RFID include: (RFID Business Benefits )

• Logistics & Tracking 
• Asset Tracking 
• Personal Identification 
• Payment Systems 
• Workflow Processes 
• Healthcare 

In the future smart appliance could use RFID tags to adjust their behaviour, e.g. a smart washing machine could adjust wash cycles and temperature based on the contents of the clothing items present, a smart refrigerator could create shopping lists of items that have expired based on the information provided by the RFID tag of the item in the refrigerator.

28 km bridge to link Africa and Middle East

A 28 kilometer-long bridge is being planned to link the Middle East and Africa. The US$20 billion bridge will become the longest suspension bridge in the world and tower some 400 meters above the water, with at least three spans of around 2700m each. Undoubtedly set to become one of the wonders of the modern world, the project includes plans to build entire cities at each end, linked by a six-lane motorway and a four-track railway. Adding complexity to the enormous task, the bridge it is to be built in an area of intense seismic activity.



What a wonder this will be! Having seen other fascinating man made feats such as the Pyramids in Egypt, Machu Picchu, Christ the Redeemer, and the Collosseum, I would love to see this in the future. They say that the concrete pylons to make the bridge will have to be supported up to depths of 300m and at the same time tower 400m over the water's surface to support the ultra-long span suspension bridge. Each pylon will be 700m. It will be enormous! The pylons will have to be exceptionally strongs. Maybe a radical material such as graphene could benefit this project?

Graphene

Graphene promises to offer the best possible material properties in almost all applications. Such as its extraordinary performance has led many to call it the ‘superlative’ or ‘wonder’ material. 

The Iron and Bronze ages marked the rise of the first urban civilisations.  The Middle ages led to the development of chemistry and the discovery of new elements, but every era has its material.  Steel, plastic, aluminum and silicon were the materials that propelled technological progress in the 20th century. Graphene, the first two-dimensional material ever, has now arrived on the scene and ready to change industrial and scientific paradigms. 

Scientists had previously discovered single-layered carbon structures, such as rolled up sheets of carbon known as nanotubes and hollow balls of carbon commonly called fullerenes or buckeyballs. However few believed that single sheets of carbon could be produced as they were thought to be too unstable. In 2004 Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov took a hunk of graphite and used Scotch tape to peel off layer after layer after layer. Geim and Novoselov then analysed what they had left, and found graphene.

• First 2 Dimensional crystal ever known to us
• Thinnest object ever obtained
• Largest surface area of any material relative to its weight and volume – important thing since chemical reactions occur on the surface of a material
• Lightest material
• Strongest material – harder than diamond and stronger than steel
• Conducts heat and electricity much better than copper
• Transparent material
• Bendable – take any form you want
•  Really stretchy
• Effectively impermeable to other substances
• Gave birth to a new class of crystals that are also just one atom thin and can be shuffled with each other to engineer new materials on demand to meet specific needs of different industries.
• Graphene has the highest known electron mobility (the speed at which electronic information is transmitted by a material)
• It’s a natural product

Mass commercialisation of graphene may still be a few years away until it reaches its full potential, due to a number of product and process obstacles. However Grafoid Inc announced the launch of a trademarked graphene product called MesoGraf™.  This product represents nothing short of the first platform for the industrialisation and commercialisation of graphene. It represents the first tool through which to achieve graphene’s potential, bridging the gap between the growing bodies of graphene research with actual commercialisation of the material, essentially making the science available to the market. Until now, graphene has been limited to development and study in the laboratory; commercial scale applications have not yet been possible. 

Radical Materials

Revolutionary advances in all aspects of science, biology, nanotechnology, medicine, robotics and quantum physics have seen the creation of radical new materials. The past decade has seen some amazing advances in our ability to engineer materials with increasing precision at such a small scale.  Much of this change is thanks to advances in nanotechnology, which investigates the relationship between the structure of the materials at atomic or molecular scales and their macroscopic properties.

Many of these radical materials are still at the research stage.  However scientists are finding that they far outperform conventional materials in their strength, lightness, conductivity, ability to transmit heat, and a whole host of other characteristics. As demands for high performance materials continue to increase everywhere from medical devices to advanced microprocessors and safe, efficient cars to space flight, radical materials will become increasingly common. Brand new materials suitable for the construction, electronics, medical and textile industries will allow for products that cannot be fabricated using current techniques. 

All this attention has created global interest and has attracted massive research and development, capital investment and creating a new generation of industry giants. Fortunes will now be made as scientist partner with big businesses to patent and trademark new materials. The companies that now embrace this rapid change will become leaders of the high technology industries of the future. The huge advances can drive the creation of new products or even new industries, but stable industries also employ materials scientists to make incremental improvements and troubleshoot issues with currently used materials. In other words rather than haphazardly looking for and discovering materials and exploiting their properties, one instead aims to understand materials fundamentally so that new materials with the desired properties can be created.  

Carbon Nanotubes

A carbon nanotube is a nano-size cylinder of carbon atoms. Carbon nanotubes are extremely small, the diameter of one carbon nanotube is one nanometer, which is one ten-thousandth (1/10,000) the diameter of a human hair.

Imagine a sheet of carbon atoms, which would look like a sheet of hexagons. If you roll that sheet into a tube, you'd have a carbon nanotube. Carbon nanotube properties depend on how you roll the sheet. In other words, even though all carbon nanotubes are made of carbon, they can be very different from one another based on how you align the individual atoms. They can come in different forms, it all depends on the chemistry, and how they are arranged.

Carbon nanotubes are classified according to their structures: single-wall nanotubes, double-wall nanotubes, and multi-wall nanotubes. The different structures have individual properties that make the nanotubes appropriate for different applications. It can help benefit many fields such as:

• Structural 
• Electromagnetic
• Electroacoustic
• Chemical
• Mechanical
• Electrical circuits
• Medicine

For instances, with the right arrangement of atoms, you can create a carbon nanotube that's hundreds of times stronger than steel, but six times lighter. Engineers plan to make building material out of carbon nanotubes, particularly for things like cars and airplanes. Lighter vehicles would mean better fuel efficiency, and the added strength translates to increased passenger safety.

The properties of nanotubes have caused researchers and companies to consider using them in several fields. For example, because carbon nanotubes have the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any known material, researchers at NASA are combining carbon nanotubes with other materials into composites that can be used to build lightweight spacecraft.

Gesture Based Computing

Gesture recognition is a topic in computer science and language technology with the goal of interpreting human gestures via mathematical algorithms. We first saw this on the movie, Minority Report featuring Tom Cruise.

Gesture based computing is another form of computer input using, hands, whole body, eyes, facial expressions. Some devices react to shaking, rotating, tilting, or moving the device in space. We already have finger based gesture movements by physically touching a touch screen, such as Apple’s iPhones, iPads, etc.

Businesses will see new applications emerging using gesture based computing, and as they see the benefits with increased control, they will start demanding applications which fit their business needs. This will replace existing technology such as the computer mouse, and even touch screens. Gesture based computing will fit well with some other emerging technology such as improvements in screen technology and voice recognition.

While gesture-based computing has found a natural home in gaming, as well as in browsing files, its potential uses are far broader. The ability to move through three-dimensional visualisations could prove compelling and productive, and gesture-based computing is perfect for simulation and training. Gesture-based computing has strong potential in education, both for learning, as students will be able to interact with ideas and information in new ways, and for teaching, as faculty explore new ways to communicate ideas.

Flexible Displays

OLED is a new display technology, which uses light emitting organic material to create beautiful and efficient displays. These are very thin and can be put on flexible materials like plastic or metal creating the ability to make flexible and bendable displays. This will also enable the displays to be more durable than current displays that require glass thus making them virtually shatterproof. 

Flexible OLED displays could be making their way to our gadgets sooner rather than later as Samsung has seen huge orders for the bendy screens. OLEDs will replace LCD’s as the main mobile display from around 2015 as the screens are thinner and brighter. Samsung has massively invested in OLED-related technologies and will continue to do so. 



There are several companies working towards the commercialising of flexible displays. This is a technology that is starting to come out of the lab. We can classify future display products into two categories:

- Bendable displays such as e-books, e-paper, bendable GPS, curved mobile products.
- Rollable displays such as rollable e-paper, rollerable PC, billboard, roll-up TV.

Thus future converging technology enables us to use flexible displays anywhere, anytime with multimedia functions.

Mobile Internet

Mobile Internet is the use of Internet-connected applications, or browser based access to the Internet from a mobile device connected to a wireless network. Mobile Internet is also being used more for making money transfers, searching, music, advertising, making payments, monitoring health, and near field communication. There are more people, especially the young generation using their mobile devices to listen to music online and jump on social media sites such as Facebook.

Having Internet on the go and being able to connect just about anywhere at any time on your mobile phone is much easier than waiting until you get back home to your PC or heading to a internet café. These days most people like convenience.

The number of people accessing the internet via mobile is growing fast and is expected to overtake the PC as the most popular way to get on the web within the next 5 years. This means many sites will be specifically catered towards mobile devices.

According to Cisco Global mobile data traffic grew 70 percent in 2012. Last years mobile data traffic was nearly twelve times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000.

3D Printing

These amazing machines could be used to scan an object and print highly detailed digital models and an exact copy of your object, whether it is part for a classic car that is no longer made, a lighter and more efficient airplane part or a custom prosthetic limb 3D printed to the patients personal shape and needs.

3D printing as a trend is already here but currently it is hugely expensive and not very accessible by your average person. I see a lot of growth in this trend with the advent of low cost and more friendly 3D printers and printing that will enable a lot of small businesses to compete in various manufacturing niches and circles that were previously unattainable. There are currently several projects and companies working on making 3D printers suitable and cheap to be used in households. Currently most 3D printers are used to produce prototypes or moulds.

Desktop 3D printers for home are already a reality and should cost no more than a few hundred dollars by 2015. 3D printers capable of outputting in colour and multiple materials also exist and will continue to improve to a point where functional products will be able to be output.

The feasibility of 3D printing is here to stay with ground breaking medical miracles conducted. An 83 year old women successfully had jaw implants. Experts from the University of Hasselt in Belgium have helped build a 3D printed lower jaw bone for replacement surgery in an 83-year-old woman. It's not only the first 100% customised implant to replace an entire jaw, but the first time a 3D printed prosthetic has been used, the report said. It was made by printing out the mandible with titanium powder. The method was developed by Research Institute BIOMED at Hasselt University, in cooperation with surgeons from the Orbis Medical Center Sittard-Geleen and companies Xilloc Medical BV, Maastricht and Cam bioceramics BV of Leiden. 

http://www.ibtimes.com/experts-build-3d-printed-jaw-bone-83-year-old-implant-patient-405446

Automotive specialist use 3D printers to recreate parts that are no longer manufactured. Like the automotive industry, the defense forces also use 3D printers to manufacture obsolete or new parts. 3D printers also help devise model crafts, testing aerodynamics and design before printing the big aircraft with hopefully a larger sized 3D printer as anticipated

At this stage one can predict that 3D printers will be common tools of the electrician, plumber, mechanic, etc. As parts break down, the tradesman can instantly print one off. Comedian Jay Leno owns a number of classic cars that require rare parts or parts that no longer exist. Jay uses a 3D printer to redesign and create these replacement parts as he needs them.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/jay-leno/technlogy/4320759

Electric car aims for 700 km/h

A new electric vehicle could shatter perceptions surrounding battery-powered transport. The Venturi VBB-3 will take to the famous Bonneville salt flats in August, with the aim of shattering its own records. 

Built as a joint venture between Ohio State University and Venturi, a boutique French manufacturer of alternative powered vehicles, the car is expected to push the new record to 700 km/h from its current 495km/h mark. 

The car will be powered by a 2230kW engine and driven by Ohio-based test driver Roger Schroer. He was the same driver who hit a top speed of 515km/h in VBB-2 on his way to the current electric powered land speed record of 495km/h in 2010. Land speed records are based on two runs in opposite directions on the same day. 

The picture above shows us the impressive set of battery's to power the car. 

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is now evolving like never before, with companies of all shapes and sizes adapting to this new technology. This trend will only continue to grow and develop even further in the coming years. Cloud computing is transforming how consumers, companies, and governments store, process information and utilise computing. It allows consumers and businesses to use applications without installation, and access their personal files at any computer providing they have Internet access. 

Cloud technology is also used for online data storage with sites such as DropBox, Microsoft, Skydrive, Google docs and iCloud offering this service which continues to grow in popularity daily with private users, but it is still not very widely known about or understood by everyday Internet users. The corporate sector is not completely convinced about the safety of having their intellectual property online. The possibilities and advantages for users of being able to access content from anywhere are endless. 

St Vincent's Hospital developing body parts using 3D printing

On a work visit in Melbourne over the weekend I heard a news bulletin on the radio where researchers at St Vincent's Hospital and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) are working on developing human organs by building body cells layer by layer using a 3D printer. 

The team has used the 3D printer to make body cells, including muscle cells, nervous systems cells and cartilage. Professor Mark Cook, director of neurosciences at St Vincent's Hospital, said 3D body part printing was like 'bubble jet printers'. "Instead of putting in ink for printing, you can put in these new materials which will grow tissues successfully," he said. 

The process could eventually do away with the need for organ transplants. "It's possible to print devices and structures that can be implanted in human bodies, and these devices can have cells grown on them so that bodily functions can be replicated on these very tiny devices," he said. "In the future, these sorts of devices will be able to recreate parts of people's joints and bones, conceivably, in the future, even organs."

ACES director Professor Gordon Wallace said he believed it would be possible to manufacture living tissues like human skin, cartilage, arteries and heart valves which could be used in transplants and other operations within five years. By 2025, scientists could fabricate complete functional organs, tailored for an individual patient.

Using a patient's own cells to create this tissue avoids issues of immune rejection, Prof Wallace said. "It would have a great impact on people who are waiting for (organ) donors."

Smart Appliances

Smart appliances are being hailed as the new technology to make our lives cheaper, and a lot easier (and very lazy!) We will soon be walking into our homes to smart appliances, embracing ‘smart fridges, washing machines, heating/air con units, cook tops, ovens, dryers, dishwashers, ranges and other technologies. Smart appliances have been designed to allow consumers tighter control and to effectively shed or reduce domestic usage of energy, reducing bills and helping to achieve energy reduction targets.

There are two aspects of communication with your smart appliance technology. Firstly you can use your Smartphone or Tablet and interact and control your smart appliances remotely. The other key idea is to communicate via smart grids, responding to utility signals that provide consumers with reminders to use periods of lower priced energy.  You will be able to reduce power consumption during those peak hours and operate during those hours when lowest power demand exists. Smart grids and smart appliances can deliver significant benefits to society.

In the US there is infrastructures in various stages geared up for smart appliances. Some countries are more advanced in this field, while others are in development stages.

What is Technology Push or Market Pull?

'Technology push' is when the technology has been developed but the need must be created. Developing a new market.  Sometimes this is by a creative individual who has the knowledge and imagination to realise its significance and the practical skills to transform the idea or discovery into an invention.    
'Market pull' is when a business has a need for a product and technology develops to fill that need, defining a market. The stimulus for innovation comes from the needs of society or a particular section of the market.
 Both 'push' and 'pull' scenarios contribute toward the innovative use of technology

Sometimes a designer will design a new or improved product just because they believe that the very existence of the product will create market pull. Designs like this may either succeed or fail, depending on consumer demand, how innovative the product is, and the state of the market at the time.

An example of 'Technology push' include the first Sony walkman which was created because the chairman of Sony got tired of travelling with the companies existing portable stereo because of its weight. Sony embarked on an aggressive marketing plan by targeting teenagers hoping that the walkman would become associated with youth and leisure activities. Their marketing plan was successful.

Solar Power

The Sun powers our planet. Every day it bathes us in 10,000 times more energy that we consume. Just an hour's worth of sun power could electrify our world for a year.

As power is becoming more expensive for the average household and the new hydro power systems needed to keep up with New Zealand’s demands. I think more and more people will be turning to alternative means of powering and heating their homes. I predict that a lot of buildings will be required to have solar panels.

One key thing with finding alternative sources of power is to look at the technologies we use. For instance we already have solar powered gadgets such as garden lights, torches and calculators. However we need to be looking at our every day gadgets and how to make them solar powered.

In 2011, Southland was given the green light to launch the Southland Solar Pilot project. The goal is to install monitored solar hot water systems on 20 homes and 5 businesses across the region to show how solar can help reduce electricity costs and help offset climate change. The business is working to help create a cleaner world and a sustainable future and has a goal - Transform New Zealand’s electricity base to be 100 percent renewable by 2020. http://www.solarcity.co.nz/node/295

Solar powered house are pricey to set up, however the ramifications far outweigh this. New Zealand had its first recorded solar powered house in 1994. Inverters, heavy-duty deep cycle golf cart batteries, LPG gad, and water flow are minimum requirements for establishment. 

Holographic TV

Even in the last decade the humble TV has come a long way. TV sets keep changing. We now have better images, flatter screens and new features. TVs are still rapidly evolving and it is only fair to think that we will be getting holographic TV’s.

"Japanese tech-heads revealed proposals to FIFA this week to host the 2022 World Cup, offering with it holographic broadcast to the globe.  The Japanese have proposed to capture all 360 degrees of World Cup matches using up to 200 HD cameras, the footage from which then be used to project life like full 3D images onto genuine football fields over the world". http://www.techhive.com/article/196844/Japan_Proposes_Global_Holographic_World_Cup_Broadcast.html

The matches would be shown on giant screens or, if technological advances in coming years allow, projected like a real match onto the pitch itself, giving viewers the illusion of watching the real thing. While the idea seems something out of a science fiction film, the hope is to have the technology in place by 2016. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gNVZsxBSbgXx268O16flQfqXOs_w

This is quite mouth watering really, I could watch a game at Waikato Stadium as if it was happening right in front of my eyes, where actually the game is taking place in Japan. We will have holographic players moving around the field.

Future of Trains

After reading Andrews blog about ‘travelling like a speeding bullet’ and having spent a good three years travelling around the world I was quite excited what could be yet to come. Currently quick long distance travel is undertaken by air. However with oil prices increasing, air travel is expensive and with more congestion at airports, trains could be our future.

We have seen steam, oil and electric trains, but how will it be powered in the future?  

New technologies such as magnetic levitation or maglev trains increase train speed even more. These trains don’t have wheels but rather travel on superconducting magnetic rails. The train is pretty much floating over a guide way using the basic principles of magnets.

http://www.quantumlevitation.com/updates/ted.html

Evacuated Tube Transport is a futuristic high-speed airless vacuum travel system that will have us travelling in a tube around the world in just 6 hours.

http://travel.msn.co.nz/asia/242427/tube-travel.slideshow

Imagine combining the two technologies. In the future we may see magnetic levitating trains travelling in vacuum tunnels at speeds that are mind blowing? 

Space Tourism

Space tourism could be the next big thing. The prospect of safe and affordable travel into space is one that excites many people. People have always desired to visit exotic locations, and what could be more exotic than a whole other planet or looking back down onto the Earth.

Space Tourism is the term that's come to be used to mean ordinary members of the public buying tickets to travel to space and back. Many people find this idea futuristic. But over the past few years a growing volume of professional work has been done on the subject, and it's now clear that setting up commercial space tourism services is a realistic target for business today.

One main problem about Space Tourism is that it is too expensive to get there. Mainly due to launch vehicles being expendable. Currently, the only vehicles that can take you into space are the space shuttle and the Russian Soyuz, both of which are terribly inefficient. Each spacecraft requires millions of pounds of propellant to take off into space, which makes them expensive to launch. One pound of payload costs about $10,000 to put into Earth orbit.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/space-tourism3.htm

A number of companies are now working diligently on their aircraft so that they can send space tourists into low earth orbit within the next year or two. Richard Branson has confirmed that his company will commence with space tourism. You can see a clip of Richard Branson talking about his new launch with Virgin Galactic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6HjHNdWQBg&feature=player_embedded

Therefore once it does become a commercial service the next question is how to afford a ticket. The price for a seat with Virgin Galatic are seen below:

Pioneer Astronaut – The Earliest Available Seat

Deposit - US$200k full payment up front 


Our most popular reservation and nearly sold out 


Join the community of over 500 future astronauts 


Secure one of the last remaining seats among the first 500 to fly 


Expect to be among the first 1000 humans to have travelled to space 


Priority access to Galactic events, milestones and trips 


Pioneer welcome and confirmation package 


Guarantee the price of $200k for your spaceflight

Voyager Astronaut – Join the Waiting List for a Later Seat

Deposit - $20k 
Join the community of over 500 future astronauts 


Secure a spot on the waiting list after the first 500 to fly 


Take part in the Galactic milestones, events and trips 


Voyager welcome and confirmation package 


Guarantee the price of $200k for your spaceflight

Spaceship Charter

$1 million
An exclusive spaceflight for you and up to 5 friends


Pioneer status for all 6 seats


6 seats for the price of 5

Where will people stay once in space? The Hilton Hotels has shown interest in the space tourism industry and the possibility of building or co-funding a space hotel. However, the company did say that it believes such a space hotel is 15 to 20 years away.

Therefore within the next 20 years, space planes could be taking off for another planet or the Moon, at the same frequency as airplanes flying on Earth.

Battery Powered Vehicles

Continuing on from one of my previous blogs about Driverless cars, there was an interesting article about the electric C5. This is a battery electric vehicle invented by Sir Clive Sinclair launched in 1985.  Not only are companies trying to invent cars that can drive themselves but also cars that can operate on alternative methods to gas.

Petrol is getting more expensive and you can’t help think that the world is going to run out. How will we travel from A to B when it does?

Back in 1985 when Sinclair launched the C5, I think he was well ahead of his time.  I think the reason the C5 was not successful was battery technology was not as good as it is today and also because the price of fuel was significantly lower nearly 30 years ago. Also today, motors are smaller, cheaper, and more powerful than those used by Sinclair.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5

These days battery and electric motor technology is catching up, and with the higher fuel prices, we may see a major trend towards electric vehicles. These can be seen already with the development of Hybrid cars. The public today are probably more accepting of battery powered vehicles.

Batteries for electric and hybrid cars will drop over the next 10 years to a more affordable level.

Some other alternative that are currently being developed:

-     Compressed air

-     Hydrogen fuel cells

-     Ethanol

-     Vegetable oil

-     Water

-     Wood pellets

Inventions such as the Segway are more successful because it is appealing to everybody, it looks practical, fun to use, is compact, and is making use of more powerful compact batteries and electric motors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=edmeLXXwTwU

Nanotechnology - Never Wet

Never Wet - not only keeps items DRY, but CLEAN too.

http://www.neverwet.com/

Ross Nanotechnology have developed a 100% waterproof spray called Never Wet. You can virtually spray it on anything, such as shoes seen in the image opposite, that you wish to keep clean and dry.

It repels all liquids, heavy oils, ice, dirt, even bacteria, pretty much anything. For example when liquids are spilt onto a surface coated with Never Wet, the liquid literally rolls completely off the surface without leaving a trace.

Ross Nanotechnology uploaded a demonstration video of an iPhone coated in Never Wet, which was submerged inside a bowl of water for 30 minutes remaining completely functional afterwards.

Whats for the future, will this product be for consumer use? or will it be a product that only companies, and the manufacturing industry will be allowed to use. Rubbermaid has already announced their new plunger that has a Never Wet coating.

http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?CatName=CleaningUtility&SubcatId=Plungers&Prod_ID=RP092048&Redirect=5

Also see link below for other demonsatratons,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9YrWmaphdw