- [Narrator] From refrigerators to radios, and cars to coffee machines, the human race has come up with some pretty ingenious
everyday inventions. But as impressive as these things are, they're not exactly lifesavers. Well, apart from the coffee
machine, I need coffee. With that being said,
there are some gadgets that could come in handy
if you find yourself in an unexpected life or death situation. From earthquake-proof beds,
to shark-repelling bracelets, and even slime robots, yes, slime robots. Here are some incredible inventions that could save your life. (gentle music) - Whoa.
(chimes tinkle) You snooze, you win? Imagine this, you're all snuggled up, cozy and warm in bed, gently
drifting off to sleep, when all of a sudden
the walls start shaking, the windows shatter, the ceiling above you
cracks and gives way. It's an earthquake. Between 1998 and 2017,
earthquakes took the lives of more than 750,000
people around the world, the majority of which perished
due to falling debris. So yeah, they're a very
real and very nasty threat, particularly at night. Being asleep in bed isn't the
position you want to be in while your house collapses on top of you. After all, your pillows aren't
gonna do much to save you from being crushed by a falling ceiling. But as strange as it sounds, Chinese inventor Wang Wenxi, created a concept that makes your bed the safest place to be
during an earthquake. At first glance, it
looks like any old bed, yet this sleeping station is
built with tremor sensors, which, when triggered, caused
the bed's base to open, swallowing the sleeper up, and cocooning them inside
a rigid metal frame A protective slated lid
then rolls over the frame, turning what was a bed into
an earthquake resistant box. While it may look suspiciously
like getting locked in your own private coffin, the bed's chamber contains
flashlights, medical kits, loud whistles, and supplies of water and food that can last up to 20 days. That seems kind of excessive. Why so much? Well, rubble is not an
easy thing to clear. Depending on where you are in the world, it can take weeks to get to people buried under an entire building's
worth of heavy rubble. Wang's patent also suggested
multiple ways this could work, including a version
for a wider double bed, involving the mattress
folding in on the sleepers before a metal top slides over them. It was this design that
moved to the prototype phase back in 2012, showcasing how
it could quickly and easily protect a sleeping couple. Instead of the flat roof
shown in the concept, the triangular roof is angled
to prevent debris gathering on top of the box while still
allowing holes for airflow. While these beds aren't
currently available to buy, just knowing they exist means I'm going to sleep soundly tonight. (slide whooshes) Riding the wave. Between 1998 and 2017 tsunamis caused over 250,000 fatalities around the world. While statistically, they're
not as deadly as earthquakes, these walls of water
are capable of traveling at jet plane speeds of 500 miles per hour, flooding up to 10 miles inland, with enough power to tear
through anything in their path once they hit the shore. Well, almost anything. You see, engineers Julian
Sharpe and Scott Hill came up with the Tsunami Survival Capsule, a spherical, watertight, buoyant ball made from aircraft-grade aluminum, designed to withstand
sharp object penetration and heat exposure, providing protection for up to 10 people. If disaster strikes, all
you have to do is get in, strap in, sit back, relax,
wait for the tsunami to pass. Oh, and close the door, obviously. Similar versions such as the Rescue Pod have been tested thoroughly, and I mean thoroughly. Like, putting-someone-in-and-throwing-them
over-a-cliff kind of thoroughly. These pods are installed on
rooftops of at-risk areas, so if the building collapses, they won't be trapped under
it and can float to safety. The interior of the capsule
is fitted with seats and storage for five days
worth of supplies per person. And anyone feeling adventurous
can even purchase features like dry powder toilet facilities, internal lighting, and even a
surround-sound music system. Yeah, because anyone that's
trying to survive a tsunami will be in the mood to pump up the volume. Unsurprisingly, these crazy
capsules don't come cheap. A two-person Tsunami Survival
Capsule starts at $13,500. Sounds pricey, but that's nothing compared to the four-person capsule, which will set you back
an eye watering 17,500. Well, if you can afford it, it sounds like a great place to be while all hell breaks loose around you. (slide whooshes) Bag of tricks. A lot of us use backpacks every day and they're all the same really, but this backpack is different because it could save your life. Now, the SkySaver may look
like any other backpack, but inside the zips is a
controlled descent device. A portable emergency evacuation kit used for scaling-down high-rise buildings during emergencies, like
fires or earthquakes. Usually if you were trapped in such terrifying circumstances, you'd have to choose
between jumping out a window and somehow landing more than 100 feet without becoming a human pancake, or staying put and praying
that the fire dies out before the flames engulf you. Honestly, I'm not a fan of
either of those options. And that's where the
SkySaver saves the day. All you need to do is attach
its fire-resistant cable to a secure anchor point,
buckle up the harness, and exit via the nearest
window to safely descend. The controlled descent
device takes it from there, automatically lowering you down at about 6.5 feet per second. With a maximum carrying
weight of 300 pounds, they're strong enough to
support an average adult and a young child down in one trip. Or if you don't have kids, Fido can come down with you or your PS5. Hey, whatever matters
to you most, I guess. Obviously though, turning into Spider-Man does come at a cut-price. At their lowest price point, the single self-rescue kit, complete with an 80-foot-long
cable costs $1,485. But anyone looking to
really splash the cash, can buy the $2,370 family kit, which comes with a baby harness
and a 260-foot-long cable. Well, if that's what it
costs to not be scooped off the pavement with a
spatula, then take my money. (slide whooshes) Brilliant bracelet. Fortunately, not all life-saving gizmos are priced as painfully as the SkySaver. Take the GTFO wrist strap, which comes in at just seven bucks. Now, this cheap bracelet may look like a questionable
teenage fashion choice, but there's much more to this
thing than meets the eye. The strap is made of an elastic material, but its bead is made of tungsten carbide, a dense compound that's so strong that it's used in
armor-piercing ammunition. You may be wondering what the point of these wacky wrist straps is. Well, the bullish bracelet comes in handy if you're ever stuck in a car. Whether the vehicle's
crashed, filling with water, or even if you're being kidnapped, the GTFO can help you escape. How? Well, all the user has to
do is remove the wrist strap before aiming for the
window and firing the bead from their thumb and
forefinger like a slingshot. The tungsten carbide bead has the capacity to smash tempered car glass, shattering it, and allowing
the trapped occupant to escape the vehicle. Looks a whole lot cooler than just a teeny tiny
bracelet now, doesn't it? (slide whooshes) Robo raft. Picture this, you're at the beach enjoying a nice relaxing stroll, when all of a sudden, the water swells up, and drags you out into the open ocean. You try to swim back to land, but a rip current pulls you
further and further out to sea. You can see people on the
beach calling for help, but there's no lifeguards. You're exhausted, you're cold. You don't know how much
longer you can keep your head above the waves. Sadly, thousands of people find themselves in this situation every year, with over 100 in the US alone
not making it out alive. But just as you're about to give up hope, something suddenly flies up above you. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it's a life drone. Designed by Hyunjun Choi, this conceptual life-saving device relies on two connected boards, containing four propellers
to fly over the waves towards the location of
the person in danger. A flotation device attached
to its base then inflates, before its propellers fold up, and it drops down into the water, transforming into a life raft. Once the person has clammed onto the raft, the drones propellers turn
the raft into a motorboat, transporting the individual to the shore. It's an incredible concept
that would prevent lifeguards or anyone else from
risking their own lives to rescue those stuck
in dangerous positions. However, it's unclear
exactly how the drone would locate the individual at sea, or if it'd be autonomous. Even so, I hope this becomes
more than just a concept in the near future. I'm sick of wearing my
water wings at the beach. (slide whooshes) Shark scarer. Back in 2014, Nathan
Garrison created something to deal with one very
particular ocean threat, sharks. Yep. In all there were around
2,900 shark attacks between 1958 and 2023,
with over 20% being fatal. So, you may be wondering what
Garrison's shark solution was. Some sort of 007 style mini harpoon? A Batman-style shark spray repellent? Just a real big gun? Well, not quite. He actually came up
with this $110 bracelet. And while this rubber strap
looks like an expensive fad, these bands hold a surprising secret. Sharkbanz utilize
powerful magnets to create an effective magnetic
field around the bracelet. It may not seem like much of a deterrent, but sharks have an electro
reception sensory system in their snouts and jaws, which they use to navigate the waters. So when they approach the
Sharkbanz magnetic field, their electroreception
can become overstimulated, inhibiting their ability
to hunt and navigate. Marine biologists have
compared the sensation to when our eyes are exposed
to bright light in a dark room, and we all know how uncomfortable that is. To prove how effective it is, Sharkbanz creators lined a
mannequin sock with bait, along with a single Sharkbanz, and then floated it out
into shark infested waters. While these sharks were hungry, for over 30 minutes, none
of them dared take a bite at the foot or even
took bait near the foot. They then tested the foot again, this time without the banz, and in less than two minutes, these sharks were happy to chow down on the mannequin's ankle. But as ingenious as they seem, Sharkbanz hasn't always put
off these ocean critters. Back in 2016, a 14-year-old
surfer was bitten on the arm by a shark despite wearing
a Sharkbanz bracelet. Okay, it didn't help that this kid effectively jumped off his surfboard and into a shark he hadn't
spotted beneath him. Still, these devices are
precautionary measures. And while they're not guaranteed
to stop every shark attack, I'd argue that not jumping on
a shark is also a great way to prevent becoming lunch. (slide whooshes) Plane sailing. Okay, I admit it. After all the videos I've
made from worst things to happen on airplanes, to this plane lost its
roof at 24,000 feet, I'm officially afraid of flying. I think it's a totally rational fear considering over 80,000
people have passed away in aviation accidents since 1970. Fortunately though, Ukrainian
engineer Vladimir Tatarenko has come up with something
that could ensure that that number doesn't climb any higher. During flight, this plane
looks like any old aircraft. However, in emergency situations, the plane's cabin can fully detach. Now, it may look like it's
destined for a crash landing, but Tatarenko's cabin would be fitted with industrial sized
parachutes on its roof, which instantly release
as soon as it detaches. It's not explicitly stated what the chute strings are made of. But considering the fuselage
of a standard passenger plane weighs around 350,000 pounds, and that's when it's
not full of passengers, they need to be comprised
of an ultra-resistant carbon nanofiber or superstrength Kevlar. And for that extra bit of safety, the base of the cabin would be fitted with long rubber tubes that inflate, cushioning the impact on land or keeping the cabin afloat on water. Although it may seem
like a faultless plan, Tatarenko's airplane system
hasn't had the go ahead yet. The design would reduce a
plane's seating capacity and increase fuel usage, leading to plane prices rising. On top of that, the odds of
being in an aircraft disaster are actually incredibly low. In 2022, there was just
one fatal airplane accident for every 6.5 million flights. And considering the pricier tickets that come with Tatarenko's invention, it's currently not at the top
of any airline's wishlist. Well, if Be Amazed Airlines
ever takes to the skies, you know exactly which plane
design they'll be using. (slide whooshing) Turtle power. Whizzing around sharp bends
at over 200 miles per hour, with nothing but a
helmet and a leather suit between you and the road, yeah, it's fair to say motorbike riders have kahunas of steel. With no external frame to protect riders in the event of a crash, it's no wonder that the fatality rate for motorbike accidents is
a staggering 50 times higher than that of car accidents. But French entrepreneur, Gerard Thevenot is looking to improve
those troubling statistics with the Helite airbag. Unlike cars, most motorbike manufacturers don't build in airbags as standard. There's just not enough space. And with riders more likely to fly off, they're not as effective
as they would be in a car. Not that that's a problem
for this ingenious invention, because this airbag
isn't on the motorbike, it's on the rider. Yep, the Helite Turtle 2 Air
Vest is a deployable airbag that riders can wear. In case of a fall, a
tether attached to the vest will trigger a replaceable
carbon dioxide canister, which will inflate the
airbag vest in 0.094 seconds, faster than you can blink. When blown up, the airbag
offers optimal protection to the back, kidneys, chest, and hips, while also stabilizing the head and neck. If that wasn't enough,
the back of the vest is made from SAS-TEC armor, a protective material that creates a turtle-like protective
shell for the rider. Any daredevils looking to get their hands on this piece of turtley
awesome kit won't get it cheap, with the vest selling for around $700. Still, I'd rather fork
out on this airbag vest than become an asphalt mince. Thank you very much. (slide whooshes) Awesome airbag. When a massive snow on a
mountain slope is destabilized, it can slide downhill
causing an avalanche. And trust me, you don't want to get stuck in the middle of one of these. Large avalanches can contain as much as a million tons of snow, traveling faster than 200 miles per hour. So no matter how fast you can ski, you can't escape these death traps. And as such, they take the
lives of more than 150 people every year. But there is a way to avoid this fate, and it involves an airbag. Wait, an airbag? But we're not talking about
road collisions or crashes here, so how can an airbag save
you from being annihilated by an avalanche? And while it won't stop you
from getting swept away, it may prevent you from being buried deep underneath the snow. All you have to do is pull the handle attached to the shoulder strap, and a pressurized cartridge
inflates an airbag above the user's backpack in seconds. Great, but how exactly
is this meant to help? Well, there's a principle
known as granular convection. This is where shaking or rotating motions cause particles to roll over each other with smaller ones falling
through the spaces between the larger particles, forcing the larger
particles to the surface. So when the smaller snow
particles are shaken, they're more likely to
settle into the spaces between the large item, aka a human and their voluminous airbag. So anyone who suddenly finds themselves in the midst of an avalanche,
like this unlucky guy did, can pull that cord, and know they'll end up closer to the top rather than being buried at the bottom. And don't just take my word for it. Studies have shown that the survival rate of avalanche victims is 11% higher with those that deploy airbags. Man, that's no joke. These things are really lifesavers. (slide whooshes) Got your Safeback. Okay, let's say you did go
skiing without your airbag and you did trigger an avalanche, and now you're stuck somewhere under a freezing slope of snow, worried you might freeze to death. Well, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is you probably
won't freeze to death. Woo-hoo. The bad news is that's probably because you'll suffocate
long before you freeze. Is it too late to take back that woo-hoo? A recent study found that
suffocation was responsible for 3/4 of avalanche fatalities, while hypothermia accounted for just 1%. Being buried within tightly packed snow causes the victim's own
breath to gradually replace the breathable oxygen with
more and more carbon dioxide. After 35 minutes stuck in the snow, chances of survival are just 37%. To make matters even worse, packed snow gradually
becomes dense, like concrete, meaning movement is almost impossible. So chances of someone
reaching into their backpack and grabbing something like an oxygen mask are practically zero. Enter the Safepack, an air supply system worn on the user's back,
enabling them to breathe in an avalanche burial
without a mouthpiece. All it takes to activate the device is a simple pull of the handle
on the item's shoulder strap. From here, the Safeback
retrieves clean air from behind the user's back, before pumping it through two
nozzles by their shoulders. The nozzles will pump oxygen
around the person's mouth and dilute the carbon dioxide
levels at the same time. Win-win. This ingenious idea is
crucial for anyone buried in an avalanche, with survival time underneath
the snow jumping to 90 minutes for Safeback users. As a result, rescuers
have more vital minutes to drag victims out of the snow stack. Make that avalanches zero,
ingenious inventions two. (slides swooshing) Spongy salvation. Whether you're looking to scrub your body, or clean the kitchen, a sponge is typically
the item you'd turn to. But what if I told you that these things could
do much more than scrub? What if I told you they
could save your life? Yeah, sounds like I've got a screw loose. But RevMedx have created a syringe device packed with 92 circular sponges
designed to save soldiers and civilians from the
nastiest wounds possible, those inflicted by gunshots. It can take as little as three minutes for someone to lose enough blood for it to have fatal consequences. But how do some tiny sponges save a life? Well, the XStat works by
injecting small sponges into a wound cavity with a
simple syringe applicator. In the wound, each sponge
is capable of absorbing three milliliters of blood. Collectively, they can swell
and fill the wound cavity within 20 seconds, stopping bleeding without
manual compression. XStat's super sponges are
effective at preventing blood loss for up to four hours, giving wounded victims
enough time to reach a medical facility where their injuries can be properly treated. Safe to say that anyone
whose life has been saved by these super sponges is
ecstatic that this device exists. (slide whooshes) Guard gloves. As someone who's always
cold, I love gloves. But beyond heating up your hands, did you know that these things
can actually save your hands from being blown to pieces? Well, one type of glove in particular. Randy Schmitz has
designed a pair of gloves that are virtually indestructible. His creation, which
goes by the awesome name of Schmitz Mittz, was
made for first responders and those working on
tough-on-your-hands industries, like on oil and gas rigs. The outer layer of the gloves
is made from Armortex Kevlar, a durable abrasion-resistant fabric. Carbon fiber bumpers cover
the fingers and thumb making your digits virtually smash-proof. And to top it off, the
protective inner liners are made up of slash and
chemical resistant layers. If your jaw somehow
isn't on the floor yet, these gloves are also heat resistant. So much so that the palms
can withstand temperatures up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit and face 20 seconds of
direct contact with flames. Now, you'd be forgiven
for thinking these gloves would cost an arm and a leg, but you can get a pair for under 90 bucks. Pretty reasonable for
turning into Superman. Well, Superhand, anyway. (slide whooshes) Slimy savior. Okay, I need you to imagine
that you feel awful, so you've gone to the doctor. They do all the tests and then announce that they know what's wrong
and can fix you up no problem. All you have to do is swallow this. What in the, it looks like
a turd, a moving turd. Well, would you do it? If you said yes, well done, because it's not actually
a sentient piece of poop. Mad as it seems, researchers at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong have created a soft robot, although they're not technically robots. The glob is actually
controlled by magnets. It's made up of magnetic particles suspended in a slime material
made of polyvinyl alcohol and borax. After inserting this gooey
glob into a person's body, it's controlled and moved by
a magnet outside of a patient. Thanks to its viscous structure, the slime can squeeze through tight spaces in the body to recover
life-threatening objects that have been accidentally
swallowed, like batteries. But benevolent as these
gooey guardians seem, there's one slight problem. Despite their ability to retrieve potentially lethal objects, the slimes magnetic particles are toxic. So yeah, probably not
something you want slithering through your insides. Scientists are currently working on a fail-proof protective
layer that prevents the slime from emitting toxic
particles inside the body. So your doctor might actually suggest you swallow a soft robot
in the near future. For the time being though, try your best not to
swallow any batteries. (slide whooshes) Snake fake. Around one in three of us has
an intense fear of snakes, and it's not hard to see why. Every year around 2.7
million people are bitten by venomous vipers, with around 100,000 of these victims not making it through the ordeal. Even in less severe cases, snake envenomation can lead
to bruising around the bite, excessive salivation,
and a rapid heart rate. But imagine you were bitten
while walking in the wilderness miles away from any help. Well, safe to say, your odds of survival
aren't looking great. And that's where the Sawyer
Extractor supposedly comes in. By placing the suction
device over the bite and pushing the pump down, it creates a vacuum chamber, sucking any recently injected venom out. And it's just $15? That sounds too good to
be true, because it is. Scientific studies have
shown that these devices are incapable of removing enough venom to prevent the majority of it from pumping around the bloodstream. You may have seen in movies or TV shows that people suck at the
wound to draw the venom out, but injected venom spreads
through the victim's system so quickly that there's
no hope of sucking out a sufficient amount to
make any difference. Using a tourniquet to try
and cut off circulation also isn't a great move, because venom that stays concentrated in any part of the body
will rapidly destroy the cells there. Allowing the toxin to spread and dilute actually reduces tissue damage. And with all that said, the only effective treatment
is a dose of anti-venom. So getting to the nearest
medical facility is a must. And don't fall for anyone
trying to tell you otherwise. They're probably just trying
to sell you snake oil. (slide whooshes) Blaze bomb. Oh my God. Look around, everything's on fire. What are you waiting for? Quick, go and grab the
nearest fire extinguisher. Right, now, how does it work? Wait, what kind of fire is it? Do you press the handle or do you pull the nozzle first, then? This is a life or burn-to-death situation, and you don't have any idea
how a fire extinguisher works, do you? Well, you and almost everyone else. Astoundingly, 90% of people
don't know how to use a basic fire extinguisher, me included. Talk about playing with fire. Fortunately though, there
exists a product to save us from our amateur fire extinguisher skills. Introducing the fire extinguishing ball. This Poke-ball-looking
device created by Elide Fire is the world's first self-activating handheld fire extinguisher, capable of putting out
all classes of fire. Phew. So no need to worry about any handles, or nozzles, or fire sources. Just make sure you throw
the ball on the fire. Simple. But how can a ball put out a fire? Well, just three seconds after
making contact with a flame, a trigger inside the ball
detonates a fuse on its surface, an instant blast occurs, removing oxygen from the fire area, which is one thing all fires need to burn, while dispersing a dry chemical powder to quickly extinguish
any remaining flames. And with a puff of
smoke, the fire is gone. Houdini would be proud. Currently, two different sized fire extinguisher balls exist. The four-inch diameter model,
which will set you back $95, has an effective fire
dampening range of 12 feet. Even more impressively,
the six-inch wide ball can put out fires over an area of 24 feet, although this bad boy comes
in at a slightly pricier $120. Still, that's a lot cheaper than buying a whole new house, right? Fair to say that these fire
extinguishing balls are lit. (gentle upbeat music) Which of these incredible
life-saving inventions did you find the most ingenious? And will you be buying any for yourself? Let me know down in the comments below, and thanks for watching. (gentle upbeat music)
