Every year we discover new companies thanks to brilliant people with big ideas. They come from all over the world to bring us interesting innovations to write about and have fun with. However, it’s not often that we give an award to a company that has been around for 401 years. This is not a typo. Our winner this year, Zildjian, was founded in 1623. It has an extensive archive of its historic cymbals, which played an important role in the development of its now award-winning electronic drums. You will also find on the list some TV technologies from the big players, LG and Samsung. Even though it was a horrible year for big blockbusters, it was a good year for television. Have you all seen Megalopolis? Yeah, neither do we.
(Editor’s Note: This is a section of Popular Science’s 37th annual Best of What’s New Awards. Be sure to read the complete list of the 50 biggest innovations of 2024.)
Grand Prize Winner
ALCHEM-E by Zildjian: A truly hybrid acoustic electric drum kit
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Zildjian has been making cymbals since the 1600s, but its first foray into the field electronic drums makes a big wave. THE ALCHEM-E Drum Kits use real 7-ply maple drum shells. With typical drum heads, they play exactly as you would expect from a high-end kit. However, upgrade to mesh heads and the kit becomes a full-fledged electronic kit controlled by a digital controller called E-VAULT. Digital triggers reside beneath the mesh skins, providing exceptionally fast response and sensitivity. The cymbals are even more impressive. These are not rubber tiles; These are genuine Zildjian cymbals with dozens of laser-cut holes that significantly reduce their sonic power. The cymbal trigger attachment makes it fully digital, allowing players to select a wide range of real cymbal sounds meticulously sampled from the company’s extensive archives. They even sound different depending on where you hit the cymbal, so the bell produces a pronounced “ping” while the edge lets players crash like they’re Nirvana-era Dave Grohl. This kit looks like a real drum because it is a real drum.
LG Signature OLED T: A transparent OLED TV
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LG largely dominates the OLED TV market, and has been for years. Throughout this reign, we’ve seen plenty of OLED innovations from the company, including a roll-up television. Then it showed off an OLED TV in a suitcase at this year’s CES. Most impressive, however, is the company’s transparent TV, the Signature OLED T. While the Signature OLED T doesn’t change shape, it transforms. A layer of contrast film sits behind the OLED panel to provide a black background when viewers want a typical TV experience. However, a button press converts this film to full transparency by physically moving away, leaving only the lit pixels hanging on a clear (at least mostly clear) panel. In person it looks amazing. You get a clear view of everything behind the TV and a relatively bright on-screen image. Maybe next year they’ll combine this with the suitcase TV concept to create the coolest, most impractical TV ever.
Samsung S95D OLED TV: A game-changing anti-glare surface for OLED TVs
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OLED TVs offer great color and contrast, but they struggle to achieve the overall brightness levels needed to provide a good picture in a room with lots of ambient light. Even slightly erratic lighting can fade a typical OLED. Samsung has applied a proprietary coating to the surface of its typically glossy TVs to create a matte finish. By making the screen essentially rough with an invisible layer of texture, the surface of the screen diffuses light rather than reflecting it directly back to your eye in a singular direction (called specular reflections). Paired with the Quantum-Dot-powered QD-OLED display, this OLED delivers a superb picture in rooms where other OLEDs would suffer. It’s the best TV we’ve tested so far, thanks in large part to that extra layer of texture.
Razer Snap Tap: A faster way to move around in PC games
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If you’re not a PC gamer, this may not seem like a big deal, so you may need to ask your Valorant-play children about the impact of Snap Tap. With a typical keyboard layout, pressing two opposite direction keys at the same time will cause your on-screen character to stop dead in its tracks. For example, if you move to the left and press the right key without releasing the left key, you will simply stop and, therefore, likely lose the game. Snap Tap saves the last entry and prioritizes it, so if you move left and press the right key, you will move right regardless of whether you pressed two keys or not. Is it tedious? Maybe. But it’s a huge deal for competitive gamers, from living room warriors to world championship competitors. The best part is that its implementation does not require a single specific keyboard. Razer added it as a feature to several cards already in its lineup.
MW75 Neuro by Master & Dynamic: brain-tracking headphones that tell you when to take a break
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When you look through headphone datasheets, you probably don’t expect to see electroencephalography on the list. More commonly known as EEG, this technology records brain activity from electrical impulses caused by the activation of neurons. These premium headphones were developed in a collaboration between luxury audio company Master & Dynamic and Neurable. Each soft earbud uses dry tissue EEG sensors to monitor brain activity, which the accompanying smartphone app analyzes using AI. The app uses this data to suggest when users’ brains are operating at maximum capacity. It recommends the best times to buckle down and work and, more importantly, when to take a break. It is not a medical device, but it provides a unique and easy-to-implement way to improve efficiency. Even if you turn off EEG, these are still large headphones that will block out workplace distractions.
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