Hasta La Gadget!

Researchers from Asia and Europe have developed the world’s lightest and thinnest organic circuits, which in the future could be used in a range of healthcare applications.

Lighter than a feather, these ultrathin film-like organic transistor integrated circuits are being developed by a research group led by Professor Takao Someya and Associate Professor Tsuyoshi Sekitani of the University of Tokyo, who run an Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) program sponsored by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), in collaboration with Siegfried Bauer’s group at the Johannes Kepler University (JKU) Linz, Austria.

The circuits are extremely lightweight, flexible, durable and thin, and conform to any surface. They are just 2 microns thick, just 1/5 that of kitchen wrap, and weighing only 3g/m^2, are 30 times lighter than office paper. They also feature a bend radius of 5 microns, meaning they can be scrunched up into a ball, without breaking. Due to these properties the researchers have dubbed them “imperceptible electronics”, which can be placed on any surface and even worn without restricting the users movement.

The integrated circuits are manufactured on rolls of one micron thick plastic film, making them easily scalable and cheap to produce. And if the circuit is placed on a rubber surface it becomes stretchable, able to withstand up to 233% tensile strain, while retaining full functionality.

“This is a very convenient way of making electronics stretchable because you can fabricate high performance devices in a flat state and then just transfer them over to a stretchable substrate and create something that is very compliant and stretchable just by a simple pick and place process.”

This prototype device is a touch sensor featuring a 12×12 array of sensors on a 4.8 cm x 4.8 cm circuit. It is made up of two layers, an integrated circuit layer and a tactile sensor layer.

With the development of these plastic electronics, the possibility for flexible, thin, large area electronics has been realized. In the future, the group would like to expand the capabilities of these circuits.

“The new flexible touch sensor is the world’s thinnest, lightest and people cannot feel the existence of this device. I believe this development will open up a wide range of new applications, from health monitoring systems, wearable medical instruments, and even robotic skins in the future.”

The results of this research were published in the July 25, 2013 issue of the journal Nature.

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Via: University of Tokyo

This is a robot system for keyhole surgery, consisting of a master unit operated by the surgeon, and a slave unit that moves on the patient side.

“A feature of the slave robot is, it’s powered entirely by air. Nearly all conventional robots are electrically powered, but by driving this robot pneumatically, we’ve made it possible to gently absorb the force when the robot touches something. The force on the tip of the robot is estimated from the air pressure data, and that information is sent to the surgeon’s master robot. So, it can be fed back to the surgeon’s hand. Alternatively, a large force can be produced by a very lightweight, compact unit. An advantage of this system is, the robot overall can be made extremely compact.”

“Here, the user is operating the master robot. This demonstration enables you to experience, for example, how you can feel the reaction force when you pull the rubber band.”

“Of course, you can eliminate shaking of the hand, change the motion ratio, and change the force feedback factor. So, depending on the medical staff and the situation, the parameters can be varied, to make the system easier to use on the spot.”

“Currently, we aim to build this system for one-third to one-tenth the cost of the da Vinci surgical system. So, we think we can make it better in terms of cost as well.”

“Right now, we’re working with surgeons, who are actually using this system and giving us feedback on how to improve it. We’re receiving support from MEXT, and we aim to achieve a practical version within 4 to 5 years.”

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Via:
Tokyo Institute of Technology
INTERPHEX JAPAN

This industrial mixing system, developed by OMC, uses a multi-axis robot from Nachi.

In contrast with conventional mixing systems which rotate the container along two axes, using this multi-axis multi-directional robot enhances the stirring effect, mixing and dispersing materials in a shorter amount of time.

The mixing capacity is dependent on which robot is used, with a maximum capacity of around 700kg.

In the future, OMC plans to expand the use of this system into areas such as food production and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

This content is provided by DigInfo.tv, AkihabaraNews Official Partner.

Via:
OMC
INTERPHEX JAPAN

Kawasaki Heavy Industries has developed the world’s first all stainless steel robot with seven degrees of freedom.

It will be used in the drug discovery and pharmaceutical fields to automate experiments which use dangerous chemicals.

Due to its stainless steel body, it can be sterilized using Hydrogen Peroxide gas, for work in sterile environments.

Kawasaki plan to launch this robot in January next year.

This content is provided by DigInfo.tv, AkihabaraNews Official Partner.

Via:
Kawasaki Heavy Industries
INTERPHEX JAPAN

To celebrate the release of the Hatsune Miku collaborated Xperia smartphone “Xperia feat. HATSUNE MIKU SO-04E” from NTT docomo, for a limited time, Metro Hat (one of the buildings at Roppongi Hills in Tokyo), has been transformed into the Hatsune Miku outdoor concert venue.

“HATSUNE MIKU AR STAGE” takes place only from July 16 to July 21, from 19:30 to 23:00 every day for 5 days.

We were invited to a press event on launch day but there were already a lot of fans of hers who came to be part of her concert. Many of them just looked like regular salarymen, but they took off their business shirts to reveal their Hatsune Miku fan T-shirts! I was able to see that she has attracted so many fans!

According to NTT docomo staff, “HATSUNE MIKU AR STAGE” is the biggest outdoor AR event in Japan. Hold an Android device over the exterior wall of Metro Hat, and then the wall opens, Hatsune Miku appears from the inside and starts dancing and singing to the special song “Packaged”. The first 1,500 people joining the event are able to download the song.

Before watching the event, make sure you have the dedicated AR application installed on your Android device and run it. If you don’t have an Android device, you can borrow one at the venue.