Minimum wage in the United States is recognized as a sign of financial instability, but it is rarely understood exactly how incredibly draining minimum wage labor actually is.

Blake Fall-Conroy, an artist who strives to create “socially-conscious” pieces, has conceptualized an ingenious way to demonstrate the frustrating, monotonous, and often demeaning plight of minimum-wage worker.

Fall-Conroy invented the “minimum wage machine,” a device with a hand-crank that the user turns continuously, and dispenses a penny every 4.5 seconds. An hour will earn you $8 in pennies, which until eight months ago was the minimum wage in the state of New York.

The artist hopes that the machine will help people understand the amount of work that goes into making just $8/hour, and perhaps inspire sympathy for those who work minimum-wage jobs or provoke change in legislation that will raise the minimum wage (the minimum wage in New York is now $8.75).

What Sparks Our Fire: Art that serves a purpose and sparks social awareness.

Sometimes the best inventions are those that don’t actually invent anything new, but instead improve upon existing problems. A wheelchair may not be as sexy or portable as a smartphone, but its reinvention could have a major impact for people with disabilities that find normal wheelchairs cumbersome or inhibiting.

Meet Scalevo, the wheelchair designed by a team of nine university students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology that can walk up and down stairs. The electric wheelchair operates normally when navigating flat ground with “Segway-like” technology, balancing on two wheels. However, with the push of a button, the chair will align itself with a set of stairs and use two rubber tracks on the bottom to propel itself, while adjusting the angle of the chair in order to stay balanced.

The fully-working prototype was developed over the course of a year, with plans to make a commercial version available. The team also states on its website that its design will compete in the Cybathlon Championship, a racing competition for individuals with disabilities, assisted by robotic technologies.

Watch the video demonstrating its amazing capabilities here.

What Sparks Our Fire: Students solving old problems using cutting-edge technology and brilliant design

Recent products incorporating smart technology (including bluetooth controlled light bulbs and Amazon direct-order push buttons) have inched us closer to living in “smart houses” and truly embracing the Internet of Things. These products have revolutionized how we interact with the things we use every day in our homes. And now, Bluesmart is set to create the same revolution in the travel space.

Bluesmart is the “world’s first smart, connected carry-on,” and even though the product won’t be shipped until October, it is already changing the travel luggage landscape. The luggage itself includes features like GPS location tracking, bluetooth-enabled locking, USB charging for devices, and even a built-in scale. Bluesmart’s Indiegogo page raised over $2 million in pre-sales in just 2 months. With write-ups in the New York Times, CNET, and TechCrunch, Bluesmart’s carry-on is poised to change and improve the travel experience.

Learn more about Bluesmart’s carry-on here.

What Sparks Our Fire: Innovative design that brings smart technology to the products we interact with every day

The Dash is this year’s winner of the CES 2015 Innovation Award, and for good reason! The bluetooth component eliminates the need to carry your phone with you. The microphone picks up mechanical vibration generated by your voice from the ear bone. 

Did we mention these earbuds also serve as activity trackers? It tracks pace, steps, heart rate, oxygen saturation, energy spent, etc. all the while real time acoustic feedback is provided.  On the train, in your car, at the gym or running to your next meeting, these wireless buds keep  you tangle-free, connected and on target to meet your fitness goals.

What Sparks our Fire: a device that synchs music, phone calls, and fitness tracking… wirelessly.

Would you use these earbuds?

We spend around one-third of our life sleeping. Sleep plays a crucial role in good health and well-being. Getting enough quality sleep helps protect our mental health, physical health, and quality of life. The damage from sleep deficiency can harm you over time. For example, ongoing bad sleep can raise your risk for some chronic health problems. It also can affect how well you think, react, learn, and get along with others.  But, as our lives become faster and our stress levels increase, it is becoming increasingly difficult to sleep peacefully at night. There’s a new product which could change all that. It’s called the Beddit, and you sleep on it.

Beddit is an innovative ultra-thin film sensor that measures how you sleep. The device uses ‘ballistocardiography’, with a sensor that is sensitive enough to measure the mechanical forces that come from your heart beat, your pattern of breathing, and the way you move in bed. Simply place Beddit  under the sheet and it will connect wirelessly to your smartphone. In the morning, the accompanying app will draw a full report on your personal sleep habits and will and suggest how to improve the quality of your sleep.

Learn more about Beddit here.

What Sparks Our Fire: An innovative monitor that can help us reach good health and general well-being.

Would you try Beddit?

Cleaning a window can be a difficult task, especially if you have floor to ceiling windows. But, imagine you had a robot that could do it for you. Winbot works indoors and out, so no need to hire window cleaners ever again. This little guy is designed to clean glass windows and mirrors until they are streak-free and spotless, all on its own. Winboat is very easy to use: all you need to do is place the robot on the window that needs to be cleaned, it will then calculate the size of the surface and map out the optimal cleaning path. When all is done and set, just press Start. Below is the gadget in motion:

What Sparks Our Fire: A smart robot can think for itself and save us from the hassle of window cleaning.

Are you ready to trade in your old cleaning tools?

With a $58 USD price tag, the gadget is easy to carry around and comes in multiple colors. All you have to do is stick one end of the device against anything you think will make a nice sound and the other end into your phone or tablet to enjoy the unique tunes that emit.

What Sparks Our fire: A handy little piece of technology that can set the mood.

What are your favorite music accessories? Could this become part of your list?

Over the past few years there have been countless messaging apps that enable users to reach out to friends over new mediums in fun and useful ways. Facebook Messenger and Snapchat are the most successful, but they aren’t even relatively fun compared to this new app.

Traces is an app where you send messages that can only be retrieved by your friends when they get to a specific location. So, when you are sending a message you pick a place where the receiver has to go within a time limit that you set in order to open it. It’s like a scavenger hunt, but with messages. Traces lets you share messages, videos, and even songs. The only downside is that the app is currently only available in the UK where it is in beta – but they are planning on bringing it to the US soon, so for now we just have to hang in there.

What Sparks our Fire: A fun new way to message our friends

Where would you place a Trace?

It’s important for us to be able to interact with our phones while driving in a safe and non-disruptive manner. Apple’s CarPlay is their attempt to fully integrate the iPhone into cars to make a seamless transition. But, what about an option for those of us who aren’t in the market for a new car right now?

Navdy is here with their device, “Google Glass for your car, but without the glasses”. Navdy is mounted on your windshield and connects to your phone to provide notifications in a safe manner. The device also comes with it’s own software, providing navigation and voice and motion control capabilities. This device might not let your car drive itself, but it sure does make staying connected while driving both easier and safer. Navdy is available for preorder now at $299.

What Sparks our Fire: Innovation everywhere.

Will Navdy bring your car into the future?

There are countless apps out there that offer great location-based services. Yelp and the recently redesigned Foursquare are two of the best out there when you are looking for something to do nearby. But one of the giants has entered the market and is poised to take them down.

Google announced a new feature for its Google Maps app for iOS and Android that allows you to explore your area. The feature offers you suggestions on what to do based on your location, the weather, and time of day. For example, by just tapping the explore button while at my desk in the morning, it suggests the best nearby coffee shops, but when I check it before I leave work it recommends restaurants, bars, and movie theaters instead. When it’s raining out, you can be sure it won’t recommend that you go to the nearest outdoor swimming pool. If you aren’t looking for something right now, you can easily just enter the time of day that you are looking to go and explore.

What Sparks our Fire: An easy way to explore your city.

What do you think of Google tackling the nearby recommendation category with this update?