Related ContentInnovation: Robotic "skin"
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Available: 2011
Takao Someya is the man who would make machines feel. A pioneer in the field of artificial skin, he has spent years working with others at the University of Tokyo to create stretchable pressure- and temperature-sensitive networks. Also called "e-skin," they're flexible enough to be wrapped around a pencil, making them an ideal material for robot fingers.
"Robots working at home definitely require touch sensitivity," says Someya. "For example, to move a disabled person, they must gently lift him or her up with a sophisticated touch." In 2004, the Tokyo team unveiled "skin" capable of feeling pressure. Last August, it added temperature sensitivity. Built from organic transistors using chains of carbon atoms, Someya's networks can sense temperatures between 80 and 180 degrees Fahrenheit and pressure as little as one ounce per square centimeter. One possible application: robotic carpeting. "A pressure-sensitive carpet could distinguish between the footprints of a stranger and those of your family," Someya notes.
Innovation: Slower light
Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
Available: 2009
While today's fiber-optic cables can transmit data at 186,000 miles per second, the actual flow is limited to a fraction of that speed by electrical routers that convert light into a much slower electrical signal. It's like waiting for stoplights on the autobahn.
Luc Thévenaz, a researcher at the école Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, wondered: Why not slow the flow of light particles in a fiber-optic cable by blasting light from the opposite direction? His discovery, "stimulated Brillouin scattering," could allow us to process information many times faster by slowing light to a quarter of its natural speed. Slower light could be precisely timed, avoiding the need for electrical timing switches that drain energy by converting light. The result: an efficient network of all-optical routers.
Innovation: Scented plastic
Location: Linden, New Jersey
Available: Now
"Shopping cart handles? Bottle caps? Promotional key chains? The opportunities are endless!" That's Adam Bell, CEO of Rotuba Extruders, considering the future of Auracell, his company's dynamic plastic that can take on any shape and smell. "Fragrances are making a major impact right now by adding a sensory dimension to purchasing."
In November, News America Marketing, a division of News Corp., began installing fruit-punch-scented coupon dispensers in grocery stores to promote Children's Motrin. And in January, Home Depot started selling Auracell-based scent clips for air purifiers. Bell says Rotuba has more than 100 such projects currently in the works, from cologne-infused golf tees to toys and mobile phones.
Innovation: Nanotube sheets
Location: Dallas, Texas
Available: First applications in 2008
The promise of nanomaterials has long exceeded our ability to actually make the stuff--which is why technology developed by scientists at the University of Texas, Dallas, could represent a major commercial breakthrough. Ray Baughman and his colleagues have figured out how to make sheets of carbon nanotubes--a material tougher than steel that can conduct electricity, emit light, radiate heat, and catch radio waves.
To make the sheets, the Texas team grew miniature fields of nanotubes--"like bamboo trees." By pulling on one side of the field, the scientists were able to remove the entire field in one uniform sheet. Because the sheets collapse and stretch as they're pulled, just one centimeter length of the original field yields up to three meters of sheet. "This material is a gift from nature," Baughman exclaims. His enthusiasm is proving contagious: In the months since the team published its findings, executives from automotive, electronics, chemicals, and other industries have come calling. "Commercializing this technology," Baughman says, "is getting a lot of people excited."
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