Top TechTop Tech #119: Transmute Waste Co2, Control Exoskeletons, Flex Display
Important innovations in science and technology, every day
By Paul Worthington
Wednesday’s Top Tech:
• Solar power transmutes waste CO2 into usable fiber
• Brain interface controls exoskeleton
• Flexible display in a wristband
Solar power transmutes waste Co2 into usable fiber
Waste Co2 in the atmosphere is weighty issue (literally, with who knows how many tons pumped out annually) and few solutions at hand. A new technique may not only scrub the air, but turn the carbon into a useable material.
Carbon fibers are increasingly being used as a structural material by industries like aerospace and automotive, which value its strength and light weight, Technology Review reports — but it’s pricey.
George Washington University demonstrated a Carbon Capture Process that not only makes fibers, but is powered by Solar Thermal Electrochemical Photo, which uses “both the visible part of sunlight and the thermal energy of the sunlight.”
Traditional solar cells/panels convert only up to 40 percent of the sun’s thermal heat to solar energy, the university says. STEP uses an electrolysis cell consisting of molten lithium carbonate; the cell is heated to a temperature above its melting point of lithium carbonate. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is then “bubbled through the cell” and converts into solid carbon.
All told, it’s a “means of storing and sequestering carbon dioxide in a useful manner, a stable manner, and in a compact manner.”
What’s the potential benefit? The researchers “calculate that given an area less than 10 percent of the size of the Sahara Desert, the method could remove enough carbon dioxide to make global atmospheric levels return to preindustrial levels within 10 years, even if we keep emitting the greenhouse gas at a high rate during that period.”
Here is more info from the university.
Brain interface controls exoskeleton
A new computer interface decodes in signals from the user’s brain with which it controls a lower-limb exoskeleton.
Scientists at Korea University and TU Berlin combined an electroencephalogram cap with LEDs to move forward, turn left and right, sit, and stand, Kurzeil AI reports. The system substantially counters the electrical noise created by the exoskeleton, the researchers claim, to be able to read the EEG signal.
Flexible display in a wristband
Calling it “the world’s first flexible display product,” Polyeraannounced its Wove Band
The band can either be flat or wrap around a wrist, the company says, combining its “Digital Fabric Technology” with E Ink’s flexible ink “film.”
“Most attempts at making flexible displays have relied on traditional electronics materials,” the company says, resulting in fixed curved screens and brittleness. Polyera’s Fabric Technology “uses proprietary electronic materials to enable displays that are flexible, robust, and can be manufactured in traditional display fabrication plants with minimal capital investment.”
