Top TechTop Tech #97: Graphene sensor, 3D VR room, Cool clothes
Important innovations in science and technology, every day
By Paul Worthington
Wednesday’s Top Tech:
• Graphene gets real: sensor, speaker
• Yurt: 3D virtual-reality room
• Cool clothes
Graphene gets real: sensor, speaker
Graphene gets a lot of coverage here and elsewhere, even though the potential wonder material hasn’t exactly yielded any life-altering developments yet.
Two new developments may change that score:
• A suspended graphene membrane electrically contacted with gold wires functions as a lightweight ultrasonic loudspeaker and microphone.
UC Berkeley physicists say their work may let us “mimic bats or dolphins’ ability to use sound to communicate and gauge the distance and speed of objects around them,” Kurzweil AI reports.
“More practically, the wireless ultrasound devices complement standard radio transmission using electromagnetic waves in areas where radio is impractical, such as underwater, but with far greater fidelity than current ultrasound or sonar devices.”
• Next: European scientists harnessed graphene’s unique optical and electronic properties to detect molecules such as proteins and drugs. It’s one of the first actual practical applications for graphene, Kurzweil AI reports: “Shining infrared light on a graphene surface makes surface electrons oscillate in different ways that identify the specific molecule attached to the surface.”
Yurt: 3D virtual-reality room
A 3D “Ultimate Reality Theatre” features a domed ceiling, curved walls, and a thick clear acrylic floor lined with screens, the Boston Glove reports. “Through these surfaces come approximately 100 million pixels of bright, high-resolution 3-D computer graphics, beamed by 69 stereo projectors powered by a cluster of computers.”
The $2.5 million Yurt virtual-reality room developed at
Brown University “is one of the most advanced of its kind in New England,” with
funding from the National Science Foundation.
Here
is the full article.
Here
is a video demonstration.
Cool clothes
Smart clothes’ for personalized cooling and heating could cut energy use of buildings and homes by at least 15 percent, Kurzweill AI reports.
The garment-based printable electrodes developed at UC San Diego help “keep your body at a comfortable temperature — regardless of how hot or cold it actually is” rather than heating or cooling your whole house.
The researchers compare to a warm car seat that reduces the need to heat the whole car interior as much.
The smart fabric would regulate your skin temperature to 93° F, adapting to temperature changes in the room.
