Hungarian inventions

When you think about Hungary what are the first things that come to your mind? Paprika, Balaton and beautiful women, right? But did you know that some Hungarians had such incredible breakthroughs that they even had a role in changing our history? No, I am not talking about the ballpoint pen, the colour television or the electric motor, however, these are now part of our everyday life.

In this post we would like to go deeper into the not so well known inventions that are somehow connected to Hungarians.

1. Word and Excel

Microsoft Word and Excel are surely known by most people in the world. The first version of these office suite applications was invented by Charles Simonyi, a Hungarian born computer programmer.

2. Prezi

Prezi is a cloud based presentation and storytelling software invented in 2009 by co-founders Adam Somlai-Fischer, Peter Halacsy and Peter Arvai.

3. Leonar3Do

Leonar3Do is invented by Daniel Rátai, is a combined hardware and software platform that can create a 3D virtual reality environment.

4. LiTraCon

In 2014 Hungarian Áron Losonczi patented LiTraCon, a light transmitting concrete, that is a mix of concrete and optical glass fibres. It is a building material that is basically as strong as concrete but allows light to pass through.

5. Gömböc

The gomboc is a funny little creation by Gábor Domokos and Péter Várkonyi. It’s a mono-monostatic object that can self-right from any position.

+1 Biometric technology palm scanner

Recently Hungarians also invented a biometric technology palm scanner that identifies a person based on five million palm vein data points.