Who doesn’t savor that feeling of anticipation, counting down the clock for your favorite movie, music, or video game to be released? For us, our eyes are on the prize: product development. Waiting for our favorite new inventions to hit the market can feel unbearable, but 2018 is here, and we’re ready! Here are some inventions wrapped with interesting or promising discussion since announcement. Let me know if I missed anything, so I add any new product developments to future lists. In the meantime, here are some highly anticipated inventions I can’t wait to put my hands on:

4. Sleep.Ai

This product settles the classic couple’s dispute: snoring. Does your spouse say you snore, or maybe you’re not getting the sleep you need? Sleep.Ai helps diagnose the problem. Literally.

This wearable product comes in the form of a soft arm strap that connects to an app on your phone. Simply record your sleeping through the app, and its’ expert-built-algorithms analyze both the factors and remedies to reduce snoring. If you snore too loudly or uncomfortably, the wearable arm strap will gently vibrate, like a “soft poke”. It will not disrupt your sleep, eventually training your snoring habits over time. Do your teeth grind? They have an app for that, too!

This product is on my list because it uses invention assistance to help diagnose snoring, teeth grinding, and possible sleep apnea. National Sleep Foundation states snoring affects approximately 90 million American adults – 37 million on a regular basis. This is not only a very common struggle, but poor sleep and sleep apnea can accumulate into bigger problems in the long run.

“The partner of someone afflicted with sleep apnea loses approximately one hour of sleep per evening and may wake up as many as 21 times per hour, a side-effect of apnea known as “Spousal Arousal Syndrome”

Even the partners of struggling snorers are suffering. It’s about time they received some outsider assistance. I look forward to watching Sleep.Ai’s effectiveness in helping not only the user, but relationships as well.

3. HoverBike

I know, it’s disappointing, we were all looking forward to jet-packs in the future. We may be lacking in that regard, but hopefully the Malloy Aeronautics revolutionary HoverBike can remedy this dilemma. This diverse tool can lift it all. It’s most current build allows transporting up to 300 lbs of food, aid, equipment, or most importantly, people! Welcome to the future.

The design is backed by research conducted at the US Army research labs.  This vehicle can lift 130kg (300lb) just like a helicopter, can fly to the same speed and height as a typical light helicopter, but unlike a helicopter it can operate safely close to the ground and around people, and can be done so, with little or no training.

This English based team has already signed a contract with the US Army granting them full collaboration with their research laboratory. With the help from SURVICE Engineering and only 2 mysterious Angel investors, they’ve basically created a user-friendly helicopter bike. 2018 doesn’t get any cooler than that.

HoverBike’s easy to learn, easy to use features make this invention market friendly. That combined with it’s sheer strength and power based off a helicopter makes the HoverBike stand out from any similar prototype of the past. Its’ patent is currently pending, but they anticipate this product to enter the market by the end of the year. We may not have jet-packs, but we’ll have the HoverBike.

2. Canute Braile e-reader

Bristol Braille took due diligence working closely with the blind community and for the blind community when creating this special e-reader. Nooks and kindles are integrated into our society at an affordable price, and Bristle Braille took the initiative to accomplished this feat for the blind community.

This pristine new braille e-reader holds thousands of e-book files easily accessible by its interactive user interface. Canute introduces the first “multi-line” technology, in comparison to the single-lined machine standard. Multi lines are incredibly important because they give greater interpretation of context to subjects such as science, mathematics, music notation, and even poetry.

“The foundation of Center for Braille Innovation was to be the broker around the world and find what new technologies we can leverage to really support braille, e-braille as well’

says Brian MacDonald, president of the National Braille Press, a contributing organization to the Braillists community. He continues,

“I have to give credit to two guys…two doctoral students at MIT from India. They went to a school for the blind there and saw that these kids were struggling to just measure inch marks…just struggling”

The Bristol Braille community works with the Braillists, in addition to other organizations, in the research and creation of the Canute. If it sounds like a lot of organizations and groups came together to work on this, it’s because they did.

Bristol Braille Canute is expected for release by Spring of 2018 and is available for pre-order now.

1. Pilot Translating Earpiece

After closely watching every step of this product’s development, this invention makes top of the list, no question about it. I believe Pilot to be the most exciting, and potentially, the most influential of all. What’s greater than breaking barriers, in real time? Everything from their design, product development, online marketing, and user-friendly interface makes this the most anticipated product of the year for me.

Pilot’s earpiece provides universal audio translation from one earbud to another, in real time. Essentially, you can speak to your friend in your native language, and they will hear theirs. CEO of Waverly Labs, Andrew Ochoa, initially came up with this world changing idea when he simply met a French girl. He felt frustrated by his inability to communicate with her, all efforts to use translating apps to no avail. He recalls the experience to be horrible, and I can understand why. Having phones up, in our face, takes away the human connection of speaking with someone. The goal of the Pilot Translating Earpiece was to take us back into the real world, phones down, connecting with another human being.

It’s easy to see how the function of the invention is invaluable, but what separates Pilot from other tech doesn’t stop there. With electric product development, every minute detail makes a difference. I find all of Pilot’s aesthetics to be visually satisfying in every category to hit. Their logo is smooth and original, the headphones come in three polished colors, and even their websites graphics are super. The headphone’s sleek design is almost reminiscent to Apple’s AirPods with it’s clean and slender design. Even the small holding case screams of the stylistic modern tech design, and it works.

Pilot translating earpiece is scheduled for Spring of 2018.

If you’re now looking forward to the release of any of these exciting products please like, share, and subscribe with your friends. I have so much more I look forward sharing with you on future releases, tips, and general inquires about the inventing community.

Krissy Pizzo is a writer and social media expert for Source Direct based in Palm Harbor, Fl. If you have any additional invention tips or comments, feel free to email her at kpizzo@thesourcedirect.net.