It’s that time of year again- when “Top lists” and “Best Picks” start popping up. We actually like sifting through those things, but we’ll forgive you for having “List” overload. One list we do recommend is the NY Times annual “Year In Ideas” list. The Times Magazines looks back on the past year for the most compelling ideas. For a recap of 2008, check our post from this time last year.

The Times presents the list “from A to Z, the most clever, important, silly and just plain weird innovations we carried back from all corners of the thinking world.”

On the list this year, and starting from the top, is the advertisement that watches you, designed by the Hamburg-based firm Jung von Matt (which bills itself as being in the business of “attention warfare”). The ad, for Amnesty International, uses face-tracking software with a working range of about 16 feet to modify the ad and react to passersby. A Potsdam company called Vis-à-pix created the technology and says the technology has been improved. “New posters can even identify the sex of onlookers. Consider a poster created for the service counters of the rental-car company Sixt: when a man gets close, he is tempted with an image of a limousine; if the customer is a woman, she sees, instead, a spunky Cabriolet.”

Another idea that made the list, the Hourglass Surfboard, a new take the classic longboard whose shape has changed little since surfing was invented by the ancient Hawaiians. But Swedish designer Thomas Meyerhoffer has introduced a new design, with a corseted waist and a narrow tail, with a bottom that is more deeply contoured than a typical board. All that curvaceousness is meant to lend the maneuverability of the shortboard, typically ridden by skilled surfers, to the more stable longboard. For more on the board and NY Times “Year In Ideas,” click here.

[Source: NYT]