--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Best Inventions of the Year 2012 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0de3a7187f094ab6/6998bb401500fb25aeaa503f/lede.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) # Best Inventions of the Year 2012 by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Nov 1, 2012 11:00 AM CUT  Dan Forbes for TIME by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Nov 1, 2012 11:00 AM CUT ## Indoor Clouds ## Self-inflating tires ## Bounce Imaging ## Body Armor for Women ## Sony RX100 Digital Camera ## Wingsuit Racing ## Google Glass ## The MakerBot Replicator 2 ## Baxter ## The Switchblade Drone ## The Tesla Model S ## A Drifting Fish Farm ## NASA's Z-1 Space Suit ## Element 113 ## The Deepsea Challenger Submarine ## Bahar Towers ## The Curiosity Rover ## The Civilization Starter Kit ## The Motion-Activated Screwdriver ## LiquiGlide ## OraQuick Home HIV Test ## Eliodomestico Solar Water Distiller ## Enable Talk Gloves ## Techpet ## Nike Flyknit Racer ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7233391/best-inventions-of-the-year-2012/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7233391/best-inventions-of-the-year-2012/"},"headline":"Best Inventions of the Year 2012","datePublished":"2012-11-01T11:00:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T10:48:37.567Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/archive/7233391/best-inventions-of-the-year-2012/","keywords":["Tech","MIT","Batteries","battery"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0de3a7187f094ab6/6998bb401500fb25aeaa503f/lede.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0de3a7187f094ab6/6998bb401500fb25aeaa503f/lede.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Makerbot Replicator 2","caption":"","creditText":"Dan Forbes for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7233391/best-inventions-of-the-year-2012/","name":"Best Inventions of the Year 2012"}}]}] ```