The annual Year in Ideas New York Times Magazine issue is one of my favorites. Of the 58 ideas, only two are biomedical related:
Automated Anesthesia (McSleepy)
The Biomechanical Energy Harvester
There are also a couple of other medical ideas, but all are worth looking through.
The only software/high-tech gadget idea is an iPhone application: Bubble Wrap That Never Ends ("Infinite Pop Pop").
IMO the strangest of the lot is Carbon Penance which takes personal responsibility for climate change to a new level:
When it detects, via a special power monitor, that electric current levels have exceeded a certain threshold, the wireless device slowly drives six stainless-steel thorns into the flesh of your leg. “It’s therapy for environmental guilt,”...
No thanks!