Top TechTop Tech #22: clothes can light up, electrodes alter your mood, and a chair sits down for you
Promising products and interesting innovations
Today’s Top Tech:
• Thread can light up your wardrobe
• Mood-altering chemicals headsets
• Stand up or sit down: Chair is an exoskeleton
Thread can light up your wardrobe
“The stylish glowing jumpsuits of the Tron-like future havejust come a step closer,” reports PopularScience, “with the creation of a weavable fabric that lights up.”
It’s the work of researchers in China and at UCLA: 1-millimeterthin fibers made from polymer light-emitting electrochemical cells. The flexible semiconductors emit light, and are highly elastic. It’s made from an ultrathin steel wire dipped in zinc oxide nanoparticles and an electroluminescent polymer that emits yellow or blue light, the report adds.
Mood-altering chemicals headsets
A start-up fittingly called Thence is developing head-mounted electrodes that improve your mood.
“Access to the human mind opens new possibilities to feel your best and do more,” the company says. “Thync products use neurosignaling to induce shifts in energy and calm states within minutes.
Neurosignaling is the coupling of an energy waveform to a neural structure (receptor, nerve, or brain tissue) to modulate its activity. Thync says its electrical pulses are targeted to specific neural pathways using advanced bio-materials engineered to “help your brain relax” or “give you an energy boost.”
There’s more information here.
Technology Review also examines Thync here.
Stand up or sit down: Chair is an exoskeleton
A new chair is also an exoskeleton that lets you sit without
straining your muscles.
[I didn’t know I could strain my muscles by sitting…]
The makers of the Chairless Chair “wearable mechatronic system” say their device “enables a completely new experience of resting your legs while moving around. Our innovation is based on robotic principles for Bio-Inspired Legged Locomotion and Actuation, and on the principles of Passive Dynamics research.”
I’m happy with my recliner, but if you want a machine to sit for, Noonee’s site is here. Wired also looks into the device here.
