Wearable tech is a step nearer

News this week of a space age fabric that conducts and stores electricity.

University of Wollongong scientist and inventor, Gordon Wallace, with the space age fabric

By combining strands of carbon nanotubes with strands of plastic polymer, Australian scientists have created a yarn that is both incredibly stronger and conducts electricity.

Imagine sportwear made of this stuff that actively monitors all of your vital functions.  What about sewing in any amount of wearable technology - a music player, a GPS, a phone, whatever you need to be connected.

I think somebody is going to get very rich on the back of this one.

Covert contact

Here's a shining example of multiple cutting edge technologies converging to create what could be the next
generation of high tech eye wear.

Forget Google Glass - how about all seeing contact lenses?

We all know that an inherent weakness of the current generation screens on our smartphones and tablets is that they are fragile, inflexible and prone to damage.

The fragility comes primarily from needing to use inflexible glass and plastic to protect the conductive indium tin oxide layer.

South Korean scientists have substituted a flexible, transparent layer of atom-thick graphene to replace the indium and have embedded nanowires to carry the electric pulses within a soft contact lens.

An LED screen within a contact lens

This design provides the potential to take photographs, video and to receive interactive feeds onto an inorganic LED screen embedded within the lens.

If people are worried about the privacy invasion possible from the much more obvious Google Glass then they should be positively terrified of the opportunities for covert surveillance and privacy abuse if this technology is introduced.

The tracking aspects of this technology work both ways.  The software constantly tracks the wearer - this sounds a lot like that wonderful but ominous show, Person of Interest.  You are being watched !

You are being watched

On the positive side, such a device could be incredibly useful, replacing the need for a user to carry a separate screen in their hand.

Such advances would not be possible if it wasn't for the highly innovative approach that scientists and manufacturers are taking to marrying up the advantages of so many cutting edge technologies.

Reflection 

Although just a few years ago this device would have been confined to the realm of  science fiction, it's now a reality.  This is a shining example of how fast development is moving in different but connected fields.  We are seeing so many strands converging to make possible a whole new technology.  Consider what has gone into this device:

• Nanotechnology has given us the abillity to create electronic circuits so tiny they can easily fit into a small part of contact lens
• Radical new materials such as graphene are being harnessed to provide amazing capabilities - graphene is the strongest material we have on our planet, it's incredibly flexible, it's totally transparent, it weighs next to nothing yet it can be equipped with an intricate network of electrodes to provide the conductive layer of this device
• Advances in screen displays have given us a tiny inorganic LED screen that fits within the lens
• Wireless communications and the availability of a world wide internet infrastructure means that such technology can be deployed across the globe
• The power of this technology is that we can connect this tiny camera/transmitter/receiver to computers and enormous power - there really is no limit to what we could do with the technology.

Most of all though, beyond the technological abilities demonstrated here, there is the human desire to innovate, to create such capability and to use it.  That is truly inspiring.

More on tracking technology

Blink of an eye (NZ Herald)

Transparent flexible electrodes demonstrated by Korean researchers (Asia Research News)

More bans for Google Glass functionality (Guardian UK) 

Anode sponge

There are so many exciting research projects underway to find that most elusive of holy grails - the perfect battery.

It's clear that many battery start-ups are focused on improving a specific part of the battery.  Some are looking to see if they can find a battery material superior to lithium - if you believe Pellion, that material may be magnesium.  Others are focused on materials to construct the electrodes from - look at the great work that Amprius are doing with silicon nanowires versus Prieto's version using copper.

Another high-profile start-up with its own unique perspective is Xerion Advanced Battery Corp, founded by
University of Illinois science whiz, Dr Paul Braun.

Braun Research Group (Source: otm.illinois edu)

Braun's research group has developed a technology they call StructurePore, which as the name suggests, creates a porous material that behaves like a high-tech sponge.  Like many of these innovations in the battery world, Xerion have come up with a simple but effective method for fabricating their material.  To make their electrode they begin with a template container, which they fill with tiny glass or polymer balls.  Next they pour in liquid metal which sets around the balls.  When the template and balls are removed the remaining electrode is revealed with millions of tiny pores.  The electrode is then filled with conductive metals.  The result is an electrode that allows the ions to move much more quickly than in a conventional one and delivers huge improvements  in charge and discharge rates.

Although the electrode design is all new this technology works well with all the other components of lithium ion and nickel metal hydride (NiMH) designs, so could well be incorporated into existing processes rather than demand a totally new design.

What's particularly exciting about this technology is the speed with which a battery can be recharged.  Xerion believes that a battery for a cellphone, laptop or camera using their design could be re-charged in ONE MINUTE or less.  A heavier duty version for automotive use in hybrid vehicles could be completely recharged in the time it currently takes to stop and refill the petrol tank.

Let's hope that it's not long before dead cellphones and laptop batteries are a thing of the past.

StructurePore cathode technology

Braun Research Group at University of Illinois

Nanowire from recycled silicon

The technology world produces a lot of silicon - after all most of our computer powered gadgets are awash with the stuff.

However, once the product reaches end-of-life, the silicon is very difficult to recycle.  Most likely it will end up contributing to the shameful waste mountains polluting our world.

There is, though, a very novel use for this computer junk and one that could usher in the next generation of nanotechnology-driven products.   Battery technology is making great inroads into game-changing advances in the electrode design for the next generation of lithium ion batteries.  By replacing the solid graphite (carbon) anode with a 3 dimensional array of silicon nanowires, various teams of researchers are increasing the energy density (power to volume capability) by up to 10 times that of the very best current generation lithium ion batteries.  Silicon is a much better conductor than carbon and it absorbs up to 10 times more lithium ions. It can handle 10 times the electrical current of carbon, allowing for more amps to made available to the power-hungry devices of today.

Nanowires of silicon, anchored and spaced to allow expansion 

Unfortunately the nanowires that make up these next generation electrodes are a very fragile commodity and silicon does have some inherent problems that scientists have needed to overcome.  When used as an electrode, silicon expands about 4 times more than the equivalent carbon based one would and that has led to issues with cracking.  Unless the wires are anchored they quickly disintegrate and become useless.   However, by using colloidal nanosphere lithography manufacturing processes, they can now fabricate perfect "forests" of 50 - 70 micron thick nanowires that are spaced sufficiently to allow for expansion and are coated with a thin layer of copper to improve ion absorption and to protect the fragile structure. This process of using masks to shape materials is not new but its application to the burgeoning nanowire sector brings us a reliable and relatively cheap manufacturing process with huge potential.  It's all very well coming up with great ideas but commercial success is dependent on being able to actually turn that idea into a tangible product.

Check out the battery tech provided by promising start-ups like Amprius, who are using silicon nanowires in their almost-ready-for-market battery that will power some cellphones as early as 2014.  Take a look at the great work that Prieto Battery are doing with the use of copper coated anode sponges - another very clever and demonstrable manufacturing process.

http://cleantechnica.com/2012/09/10/discarded-silicon-gets-new-life-in-lithium-ion-batteries/

How nanowires work (HowStuffWorks)

Nanowired anode

The Amprius cell is a reality, not vapourware

Here's a battery start-up that has real product in the market.

Amprius, yet another start-up from Stanford University isn't actually making batteries but it is producing vital components for them.  Amprius has developed a very special electrode made from silicon nanowires.  Rather than try raising the huge capital needed to build a manufacturing capability, Amprius has partnered with asian based battery producers.

Source: Amprius Technologies      

As with many of these next generation technologies, actual information about them is scant.  We do know that the nanowire anode can improve energy density by up to 10 times over the current capability of top of the line lithium ion.  This makes them highly desirable in the electrical vehicle sector.  The maximum recharge cycles could also be greatly higher than current technology with a jump from around 500 cycles to 6,000.  This technology will be based on using carbon nanotubes.  The nanotube structure could allow the device to eventually be printed using a special cellulose paper.  It has the potential to give us 'paper batteries'.

Amprius seems to be doing everything right at the moment, having recently raised $25 million from various sources.

Amprius Technologies home

The component market place

Silicon nanotubes in lithium ion batteries

Rapid charger

Rapid charging and longer lasting lithium battery technology

Amy Prieto with her 3D 'sponge' battery

American universities are very good at launching start up commercial ventures for the many exciting technology developments coming out of their labs.

Colorado State chemistry professor, Amy Prieto is the brains behind Prieto Battery.  Amy's technology is a lithium ion battery with an anode (positive electrode) comprising copper nanowires.

The Prieto battery is not like the conventional battery made up of anode and cathode, separated by a liquid electrolyte.  Instead the electrolyte is a solid polymer.  By creating an anode from millions of nanowires this electrode has a much greater surface area than a conventional one, meaning it can store many more lithium ions.

The electrodes are intertwined (or interdigitated) in a 3 dimensional array that greatly increases the power density.  There is almost instant recharge capability at just 5 minutes and the batteries should last 5 times longer than traditional lithium ion.   For a cleaner, greener advantage the solid polymer electrolyte means that the toxic elements found in conventional batteries are largely eliminated.

Prieto is not alone in the use of nanowire and nanotube technology for the electrodes but their technology, and their ability to raise the millions needed for research, means that they are getting much closer to producing the highly anticipated prototype.

Interdigitated (intertwined) electrodes in Prieto Li-Ion battery

Links to Prieto battery technology

Prieto battery home

How the Prieto lithium battery works

The Prieto battery technology (youTube)

Battery sponges (Discovery)

The search for a better battery

Smart skin

Smart skin will give robots tactile sensitivity

Sensitive robots

Working out of the Georgia Institute of Technology, a joint US-Chinese team has created a material that may bring considerable benefits to the field of robotics - an artificial skin that has sensitivity akin to that of human skin.

The secret lies in a network of transistors capable of generating independent 'piezotronic' signals.  Each of these tiny transistors have a bundle of some 1,500 nanowires and can detect a change of pressure accurate to around 10 kilopascals - that's similar to what human skin can detect.

Potential applications are many and varied. They will provide robots with an adaptive sense of touch, allowing intricate movements to be applied based on 'tactile sensing'.  As a security measure this technology could be used for multidimensional signature recording where not only the pattern of the signature is detected but also the specific pressure applied to the writing of each letter. DARPA, the US Defence Agency, is interested enough in this to be one of the major sponsors.

This is one of those technologies that on its own seems limited but when partnered with other fields,such as robotics, the possibilities are very exciting indeed.

Links to the 'smart skin' story

Tactile Imaging (GeorgiaTech)

Smart skin hope for touch sensor (BBC)

Smart skin has the same sensitivity as human skin (Wired)

Smart skin allows robots to feel (Escapist)

Piezo-electronic taxel arrays (RedOrbit)

Fancy reading the full article about this technology, published in Science magazine under the catchy title of 'Taxel-Addressable Matrix of Vertical-Nanowire Piezotronic Transistors for Active/Adaptive Tactile Imaging'? (Full  abstract requires subscription for access.)

Too small to call

Nanomedicine

Source: Scientific American (2009)

If you had a wall in your home that was scraped and dented and full of pin holes what would you do?  You could spend an eternity repairing it hole by hole, dent by dent, filling each imperfection until it was like new again.  On the other hand you could rip down the wall and replace it with a brand new piece of gib. Voila, sorted.

Apply that same analogy to a human body, afflicted with cancerous cells that bind to healthy tissue and choke it like a noxious weed.  What are you going to do now?  Sure, you can cut out the bits you can see, you can swamp the blood stream with a cocktail of chemical poisons that kill the cancer but destroy the immune system in the process.  Or you can blast the affected areas with radiation, causing sometimes dreadful nausea, fatigue and damage to surrounding areas.

None of this is in the least bit satisfactory but it’s the best we can do to save someone’s life – at least it was the best until the brave new dawn of nanotechnology and medicine, or nanomedicine.  Early days yet but research is showing that nanoparticles can deliver minute quantity of drugs, heat or light to each and every cell that needs it, leaving all surrounding cells alone.  No brute force required.

Carbon nanotubes

Nanotechnology is the new frontier where science meets medicine at the molecular level.  Nanomedicine, like all branches of nanotechnology has set the world of innovation alight.  So far we can only glimpse the myriad possibilities where this may go but already we are experiencing significant investment in research and development and an avalanche of applications to protect intellectual property.  There will be huge sums to be made out licensing the techniques to others who can combine the processes into something that will deliver an actual usable product.

Take a crash course in what nanomedicine can offer mankind and prepare to be amazed.

How small is nano sized?

Struggling to get a handle on nano dimensions? Take a look at the graphic below.  A pin head is about 1 million nanometres across.  A red blood cell is 2,500 on the same scale and that's small.  So consider the dimensions of a carbon nanotube - just 2 nanometres.  If you were hoping to see this marvel in action you're going to need something a bit more powerful than that old school microscope.

Source: HowStuffWorks

Some introductory information about nanomedicine

Boston University presentation - Introduction to nanomedicine

Nanomedicine Journal

Nanomedicine - Small particles, big concerns

Aerographite

This Aerographite sounds like a wonderful new material with a  very promising future.  Let's consider some of it's properties.

• It's incredibly light - the lightest material  yet at just 0.2 mg per cc.
• It is highly resilient - crushing it by up to 95 per cent does not damage it at all.  In fact the action of pulling it back into shape may actually strengthen it.
• It's conductive and could be used as a battery.
• It's also super-hydrophobic, meaning that it will repel all moisture. 

Aerographite

Wow, a material that could be turned into a battery, is incredibly light, absolutely waterproof and can be subjected to high crushing pressure but remain undamaged?  Now, that has got to be worth investigating further.  Aerographite seems to address three of the major issues with current battery technology.  Batteries are easily damaged by knocks, they don't work well with water and they are usually very heavy.

Although the article doesn't give many clues about power capacities it does state that Aerographite may be useful for powering electric vehicles in the future.  That sounds like it must have good power delivery and duration since vehicles demand both.  Given that the batteries in conventional electrical vehicles are the heaviest components, this material could radically change the power to weight ratio required for propulsion.  Theoretically, a vehicle that used Aerographite batteries would be substantially lighter and could afford to sacrifice a percentage of its power yet still achieve the same or better performance.

There are countless other devices that are impacted by the weight of their batteries.  Assuming that the material is suitable for use in consumer gadgets like smartphones and video cameras.  Could such a technology perform the same function as an existing nickel metal hydride.   Replacing a set of heavy AA, C or D size batteries with a material that's lighter than air - now that has massive potential.

I'll be watching this one very carefully indeed.

Aerographite at Wikipedia

Extremetech article about Aerographite

More on Aerographite (Geekosystem)

Next10 and nanotechnology

The Next 10 Years: Nanotechnology

What is this technology?

Nanotechnology is an umbrella term that seeks to describe the science of manipulating elements at a molecular or atomic level.

The ability to alter the fundamental properties of a material presents opportunities of mind-blogging levels.

What will happen?

What would you like to happen is more likely the questions.  The answer will lie with the synergy of science and innovation through design.

We are already seeing the benefits of nanotechnology in new materials that improve dramatically on existing hard and soft textiles.

Medical nanobot

Your portable device no longer needs to be made from a rigid, shatter-prone material.   Instead it will be able to twist, roll, fold or bounce.  Fragile objects like laptops, smartphones, glass screens will re re-engineered to be virtually indestructible.

The ability to manipulate molecular structures to change the fundamental properties of the material will have massive benefits in medical science.  The current barriers for neuroscience and gene therapy will crumble.  Diseased organs, congenital defects and genetic malformations will be fixable using nano processes.

How will this impact society?

The ability to cure or prevent the bulk of the diseases that currently prove fatal will ensure that future citizens can enjoy longer, pain free lives.  More premature babies will be saved and it will be practical to repair bodies that are severely damaged by accident or abuse.

Nanotechnology - atomic manipulation

More people will live for much longer, placing considerably more financial and logistical pressure on infrastructure.  People will be capable of working for long and will certainly be generally healthy enough to enjoy more recreational activities for longer than they do currently.

Depending on whether or not we see a global upsurge in larger families (better childhood survival rates) we may find that the average age of the population continues to increase.

New materials made possible by nanotechnology will touch every aspect of society from the most advanced technology devices to the humble building blocks that we use to constructs our homes and put clothes on our backs.

How will this impact industry?

Access to use these new wonder materials, to fight disease, to deliver drugs and to repair organs through nano processes will not be open to just anyone.  There is currently unprecedented activity in the intellectual property space to protect all manner of technology so the development of new surgical processes will inevitably require the licensing of IP that belongs to other companies, individuals, universities.

There will no doubt be accusations of patent infringements with in and out of court settlements to follow.  In some areas advances in producing the next generation process or product will be swamped by legal obstacles.

Nanotechnology is allowing huge leaps in the design of batteries - an essential element in any device that requires power.  Nanowires much thinner than a human hair are creating electrodes capable of many times more power delivery than the current generation.

Nanotechnology is a field where the crossover into all other future trends in being felt most keenly - it is the ultimate crossover trend.  The radical new wonder materials and the advances in drug delivery to infected cells could not progress without the game-changing advances of nanotechnology.

What supports this prediction?

Hydrophillic, hydrophobic materials

Superconductive technology

Top 10 nanotech products (Forbes.com)

Hepatitis killing nanobots

Nano capacitors

Next10 and radical materials

The Next 10 Years: Radical materials

What is this technology?

Again, this not a single technology but a field of development that re-engineers the materials we use for construction to make them stronger, more durable, unbreakable, flexible, waterproof, anything proof.

Much of this change is occurring thanks to advances in nanotechnology, which allows materials to deconstructed and reconstructed at a molecular or atomic level.

What will happen?

Bendy and shatterproof

Brand new materials suitable for the construction, electronics, medical and textile industries will allow for products that cannot be fabricated using current techniques.

Fortunes will be made as scientists partner with big business to patent and trademark new materials.


Products will no longer fail due to material fatigue.

Portability will increase as traditional heavy materials are replaced with lighter ones.

How will this impact society?

Hydrophilic textile

The consumer will have access to an unprecedented array of new and radically improved products,

Society will see a dramatic decrease in injury and fatality incidents as materials become lighter, stronger and resistant to wear.

New textile materials will launch lines of clothes that allow people to survive in extreme heat and cold conditions and a convergence of battery technology and textile development will bring clothes that have flexible batteries woven into the fabric that will act as a power generator.

Assuming that patented materials do not lead to a monopolistic price-gouging mentality these new engineered materials should be cheap to fabricate, resulting in high customer consumption.

The current demand for natural fibres will dwindle and farming of animals for wool production, the cultivation of cotton will be decimated.

What supports this prediction?

Moisture repelling textiles, flexible gadgets

Lighter than air - Aerographite

Feeling fabrics from Footfalls and Heartbeats

Quantum Dots revolutionise displays

Lend me your ear

Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock in Star Trek

Given the chance, which body part would you you grow and why?

This interesting challenge came from an article on the Fairfax website Scientists grow an ear using 3D printing.

What would I use this wonderful technology for?  Well, that would depend on what was ailing me most at the time.

Certainly if I had this opportunity at the moment I'd have a new pair of knees because I've totally worn out my own ones.

Clearly this technology using 3D printing could be a boon for replacing extremities like ears, fingers, toes, noses.  It could help plastic surgeons to precisely replicate the shape and size of the original damaged or severed part and restore a level of dignity to afflicted people.

Nano

Hydrophobic material repels all moisture

Nanotechnology has so many possibilities that it's hard to know where to begin.

Nano is everywhere and we are only just getting started.

There are some wonderful clips on the Future Trends channel of YouTube.  Some applications of this ability to manipulate materials at the tiniest level are going to change the way we live - no doubt about it.  I'm blown away my materials that are super repellent to moisture, meaning that nothing dirty or wet can stick to them.  No more perspiration on your clothes, mud on your shoes, grime on your windows.

NeverWet

New words for me to work into everyday speech - super hydrophobic, hydrophilic.

On a fun note I loved this Nokia concept for bendable phones with flexible displays and mood sensors.  Nokia make the most wonderful adverts.  Let's hope we see a return to prominence for this great company.

Nokia Twist - the flexible surfboard phone

Flexible OLED

Roll up, Roll Up !

Could this be a technology to revolutionise displays from our smartphones to our TVs?

Sony flexible OLED

The potential applications for this tech seem endless.

All the big names are either getting ready to produce this amazing technology or making sure that they can source them through their supply chains.

I am really excited about this.  Displays are about to move to a whole new level.  This one, I'm sure, is a game changer.

Flexible OLED announcement by Samsung CES 2013

Quantum Dot (QD) 

Now this is an exciting development in the area of rollable/bendable displays.  Scientists from Manchester University have formed the spin-off company, Nanoco, to manage a technology involving tiny, tiny quantum dots that can be printed on flexible plastic sheets.

This is not just an experimental technology either, since they are working closely with certain unnamed asian electronics companies.

This sounds like one to watch.