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That is the conclusion drawn after knowing these two inventions.
The first one is a ban I watched while walking along the streets of Amsterdam during a travel in october 2012. I call it the generator ban because it is equipped with a electric generator inside, a socket in the right rear light to plug in electric tools and a chimney in the roof for smoke extraction.
A ban, a generator, a socket and a chimney. Very common stuff able to reach the desired concept of innovation when combined ingeniously:
No noise or smoke neither inside the vehicle or the building and thus, no bothering pedestrian and neighbourhood. Overwhelming for its simplicity, awesome for its application.
The second example is as simple as the first one, or even more. It is about advertisement walls (of the companies sponsoring the initiative, IBM and Ogilvy) enhanced with something as simple as a curve, reaching the category of functional street furniture: public bench, ramps improving accessibility, sheltered bus stop.
Here you have the result, sponsored street furniture:
Simple examples showing that without big budgets, rare ideas, researches looking for an unknown -and likely useless- utility or any other bubble-purposes it is possible to reach a cutting edge and useful innovation.