Important Innovations Collection

 Solar Tricycle Donations from the European Union                                                                      Source:  Mobility for Africa A Small Gift to Help Build Women Businesses It may seem like a small gesture of kindness but the solar electric tricycles that the European Union is providing to a number of women in rural Zimbabwe are literally changing their lives for the better and helping them grow their tiny farm businesses.  The bikes have given them new solar-electric mobility.  Until they received their off-road, 3 wheeled trikes, most of them had to walk their eggs and vegetables in baskets on their heads, for long miles to sell or barter them in the center of town. In the Domboshava area where the program has launched, transportation is woefull...

Alibaba's Humanitarian Smart Phone Film Source:  Alibaba Enables Visually Impaired to Stay in Touch, Shop, Pay Bills This is great, humanitarian innovation.  China's technology giant Alibaba has invented a tactile, thin film interface for smartphones to work for visually impaired users.  It's called Smart Touch and adds a tactile button to smart phones.  The Smart Touch film attaches to the smart phone display. Three Small Buttons The film has three buttons including braille, confirm call and go back.  These are short cuts for the visually impaired to better use the phone.  Alibaba designed it to be affordable and manufacturable at less than 4 cents to produce. Retail Distribution in Early 2020 With No Profit Alibaba doesn't intend to make a profit on this new technology.  It's going to launch the smart film in retail stores in 2020.  It is working and testing it right now and wants to make its smart phone device agnostic, meaning ...