Best Inventions of 2022

Every year, TIME magazine puts out its list of best inventions. This year’s roundup includes 200 innovations that are changing how we live, work, learn, and play. TIME for Kids highlighted 10 of them here. Which invention do you think is the best of the bunch? And why?

Digital Braille

When visually impaired children learn braille at school, their teachers can let them know how they’re doing. But many students don’t have braille readers at home to help them. Now they can use Polly. It’s a Wi-Fi-enabled device developed by the American Printing House for the Blind and Thinkerbell Labs. It provides braille learners with audio feedback. Learners can write (and correct mistakes) using Polly’s electronic braille slate and stylus. —By Novid Parsi

Bionic Future

The Esper Hand is a robotic prosthetic. It’s AI-powered and cloud-based, and gets smarter over time. The lightweight device has up to 24 sensors. They detect and process muscle activity and brain impulses. Dima Gazda is Esper Bionics’ CEO and cofounder. He’s also a medical doctor and an engineer. “The most important technology developed in the next 30 years will be electronics inside the human body,” he says. —By Leslie Dickstein

Eye-Catching Sound

Creating a piece of technology that’s also a work of art isn’t easy. But Teno, by Lumio, pulls it off. It’s a portable, USB-charged light and Bluetooth speaker. It looks like a stone bowl with a golden crack running through it. Pull it apart, and light and sound pour out. Teno has no buttons. Just tap it to adjust light and sound intensity. When the battery gets low, there’s no beeping. You’ll hear raindrops instead. —By Caitlin Petreycik

Super Sunnies

For its Happy Boost line of sunglasses, Spy Optic used AI to review millions of color combinations. It was searching for a lens formula that could enhance colors, and maybe even lift your mood. The company says the glasses boost color by 30% over the naked eye. For outdoorsy types, that could mean better visibility when biking. The more casual user will see a rosebush exploding with vivid red flowers. It’s like having an Instagram filter for real life. —By Eliza Brooke

Scanning the Skies

BLK2FLY is a self-guided flying laser scanner. It captures detailed images of hard-to-reach or dangerous places. It’s not a drone. You don’t have to pilot it. It uses radar sensors, cameras, and GPS to create what Leica Geosystems calls “3D digital twins.” This lets the scanner navigate around obstacles, like trees and wires. “It takes less than 10 minutes to create a model of a New York City high-rise,” Burkhard Boeckem says. He’s the chief technology officer of Hexagon. That’s the group that owns Leica Geosystems. —By Ashley Mateo

Bear Hugs

Hugimals provide comfort “anytime you need a calming hug.” That’s what Marina Khidekel says. She founded the company. These stuffed animals are weighted. They have a glass-bead filling. It gives kids the feeling of being hugged. The company partnered with the Toy Foundation. Together, they made Hugimals available to patients in five children’s hospitals. A 9-year-old tester reported feeling safer while snuggling with one. Teachers have used Hugimals too. They say the animals “help kids manage big emotions and stay focused,” Khidekel says. —By Jennifer Duggan

Recycled Paint

About 10% of paint bought in the United States each year is wasted. That adds up to an astonishing 64 million gallons. Some of it is thrown out improperly. It pollutes the environment. Up Paint is on a mission to recycle paint. It’s working with a nonprofit group called PaintCare. They collect, process, and tint leftover paint so it can be resold. “Our main goal is to make a good everyday latex paint,” says Dustin Martin. He’s the founder of Up Paint. So far, the company offers 18 colors. It’s launching more in spring 2023. —C.P.

Far-Reaching Delivery

In rural Rwanda, getting produce to market can be just as difficult as growing it. Transportation can be unreliable and slow in this African country. That’s true even on its paved roads. Farm products are often moved by bicycle. ox delivers allows farmers to reserve cargo space on trucks. The company uses cell phones to do it. The goal is to make it easier to transport products. OX Delivers has rolled out a fleet of trucks. Now farmers can reach faraway markets for about the same price they would pay for bicycle cargo. And the fleet is going electric. The first EV went into service this year. More will roll out through 2024. —By Aryn Baker

Old School, Made New

Analogue Pocket looks like a Game Boy. That’s the Nintendo handheld gaming console that was popular in the 1990s. But Analogue Pocket’s resolution is higher. And it’s packed with modern features. It’s compatible with nearly 3,000 Game Boy original, Color, and Advance cartridges. It also has cartridge adaptors for Sega Game Gear, Atari Lynx, and other old-school systems. There’s even a dock to connect it to a TV and up to four controllers. What if you get tired of games? The device has a synthesizer for playing music. —By Jared Lindzon

A Cool Cap

Michael Chapman and Toks Ahmed-Salawudeen started swimming as adults. They soon realized that swim caps weren’t made for Black swimmers like themselves. They wanted a style that could hold thicker, curlier hair. So they created the Soul Cap. It can cover dreadlocks and braids. Its designers hope to make the sport more inclusive. Swimming’s international federation, FINA, banned the caps before the Tokyo Olympics. It said they didn’t fit “the natural form of the head.” But in September, FINA changed its policy. That same month, the cap earned a partnership with Adidas. —By Alice Park