Hasta La Gadget!

Outside of pen input, pressure sensors don’t get much love these days. However, Georgia Tech has just built an extremely accurate sensor that could give pressure-based devices their due. When a user pushes down on the new invention, its grid of zinc-oxide nanowires emits light that’s captured by fiber optics underneath at a very sensitive 6,300DPI. The combination of high resolution with light-speed responsiveness could lead to touch surfaces that capture far more detail than we’re used to. While computing interfaces are clearly prime candidates for the technology, Georgia Tech also sees potential uses in pressure-based fingerprint readers and even devices that simulate touch with skin-like behavior. We’ve reached out to the school for more information regarding its long-term plans, but it already anticipates improving the sensors with more efficient manufacturing techniques. Take a closer look at the sensor after the break.

Update: We’ve since had a chance to follow up, and we’re told that commercialization is likely five to seven years ahead.

Filed under: Science, Alt

Comments

Source: Georgia Tech

Of the contact lens display prototypes that we’ve seen so far, few if any are focused on comfort — a slight problem when they’re meant to sit on our eyeballs. A collaboration between Samsung and multiple universities may solve this with display tech that’s meant to be cozy from the start. By putting silver nanowires between graphene layers, researchers have created transparent conductors that can drive LEDs while remaining flexible enough to sit on a contact lens. Current test lenses only have one pixel, but they’re so soft that rabbits can wear them for five hours without strain. Scientists also see the seemingly inevitable, Glass-like wearable display as just one development path — they’re working on biosensors and active vision correction. While there’s still a long way to go before we reach a cyberpunk future of near-invisible displays, we may finally have some of the groundwork in place.

Filed under: Displays, Wearables, Science, Samsung

Comments

Via: MIT Technology Review

Source: ACS Publications

In many ways, graphene is one of technology’s sickest jokes. The tantalizing promise of cheap to produce, efficient to run materials, that could turn the next page in gadget history has always remained frustratingly out of reach. Now, a new process for creating semiconductors grown on graphene could see the super material commercialized in the next five years. Developed at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the patented process “bombs” graphene with gallium, which forms droplets, and naturally arranges itself to match graphene’s famous hexagonal pattern. Then, arsenic is added to the mix, which enters the droplets and crystallizes at the bottom, creating a stalk. After a few minutes of this process the droplets are raised by the desired height. The new process also does away with the need for a (relatively) thick substrate to grow the nanowire on, making it cheaper, more flexible and transparent. The inventors state that this could be used in flexible and efficient solar cells and light emitting diodes. We say forward the revolution.

Continue reading New process for nanotube semiconductors could be graphene’s ticket to primetime (video)

Filed under: Science, Alt

New process for nanotube semiconductors could be graphene’s ticket to primetime (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Sep 2012 12:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink GizMag  |  NTNU  | Email this | Comments

As often as we’ve seen flexible electronics, there haven’t been many examples that could stretch — a definite problem for wearables as well as any gadget that could afford to take a pull or squeeze. North Carolina State University’s Yong Zhu and Feng Xu may have covered this gap through a form of silver nanowire conductor that keeps the energy flowing, even if the wire is stretched as much as 50 percent beyond its original length. By coating the nanowires with a polymer that traps the silver when solid, the researchers create an elastic material that can crumple and let the nanowire take the strain without interruption. Although the stretchy conductor’s nature as a research project could put any practical use years into the future, Zhu notes that it can take loads of abuse, making it a perfect fit for rugged mobile devices. It should also allow for robots with a gentler touch and a more natural look… although we’ll admit we’re skittish about the creepy androids likely to follow.

Filed under: Robots, Wearables, Science

NCSU creates stretchable conductors from silver nanowires, lets gadgets go the extra inch originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 17:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink NCSU  |  Advanced Materials (Wiley)  | Email this | Comments