Comfort

Our soft tissues swell and shrink throughout the day, so a wearable that fits in the morning may not do so in the afternoon. A new adaptive lining for the sockets of prosthetic limbs was designed with this important fact very much in mind.

Trying to find a comfortable position in which to sleep when on a plane can be an exercise in futility. You could try folding your arms and resting on a tray table, but a lack of space may keep you awake. The inflatable Woollip travel pillow breathes new life into these age-old problems.

There are already beverage cans that contain chemically-activated chilling modules. Now, three students are applying the same principle to hypodermic needles. Instead of keeping the medication cool, however, the idea is that a needle cap could chill the patient's skin, making the injection painless.

If you work in a factory, then you'll know how tiring it can be to stand for several hours at a time. That's why noonee has created the Chairless Chair. Worn as an exoskeleton, it lets you walk as needed, but can be locked into a supporting structure when you go into a sitting position.

"It became readily apparent that many of the problems my patients were experiencing had been created by the lack of a suitable chair," says Simon Freedman. So he built one. The result, after a claimed 15 years in development, is the FreedMan Chair.