In February, Toyota invited consumers to share their ideas on how to apply one of five specific Toyota technologies to a cutting-edge invention used outside of the auto industry. The technologies were; Total Human Model for Safety [T.H.U.M.B.S.], Solar Power Ventilation System, Hybrid Synergy Drive [HSD], Advanced Parking Assist, and Touch Tracer Display. Approximately four months later, they had a total of 4,000 entries.

To evaluate the thousands of submissions, Toyota brought in an independent panel comprised of the likes of WIRED magazine's Keith Grossman; Stanford University's Grace Hawthorne; fuseproject's Josh…