Best Inventions of 2006

It's been an interesting year in technology. Nintendo invented a video game you control with a magic wand. A new kind of car traveled 3,145 miles on a single gallon of gas. A robot learned to ride a bike and somebody came up with a nanofabric umbrella that doesn't stay wet

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Body Double

best inventions 2006 Xi'an Superman Sculpture Research Council

Xinhua / Landov

Some robots do cool tricks; others just look cool. At the annual China Robot Expo in Beijing in October, Zou Ren Ti, founder of the Xi'an Superman Sculpture Research Council, unveiled the third edition of a robot his team is developing that is supposed to look exactly like himself. While the mechanical Zou Ren Ti (named after the inventor, of course) can move its face and speak, its most impressive feature is its skin, which is made of silica gel and looks so lifelike that some expo attendees couldn't tell the real Zou from his double. Can you? (Hint: The bot looks a little happier than the man.)

Inventor: Xi'an Superman Sculpture Research Council
Availability: Not for sale

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