Thursday, 16 March 2017

FLEXIBLE SENSORS TO MAKE THE GADGETS FOLDABLE




In future tablets or big mobiles can be folded and put in your pocket.  Thanks to researches that have successfully developed sensors out of inexpensive material . The University of British Columbia made sensor  by highly conductive gel sandwiched between layers of silicone that can detect different types of touch like swiping , tapping etc. even when it is stretched, folded of bent.  This is a breakthrough  in the quest of manufacturing folding  screens in the future
iPhone’s 3D Touch can detect pressure Samsung’s AirView can detect a hovering finger and etc, etc. The UBC teams contribution is a device that can combine all these functions in one compact package, the researcher of the University ;  Mirza Saquib Sarwar explained.
 “There are also sensors that are foldable, transparent and stretchable. Our contribution is a device that combines all those functions in one compact package,” said Sarwar. The prototype measures 5 cm x 5 cm but could be easily scaled up as it uses inexpensive, widely available materials, including the gel and silicone.
“It’s entirely possible to make a room-sized version of this sensor for just dollars per square metre, and then put sensors on the wall, on the floor, or over the surface of the body – almost anything that requires a transparent, stretchable touch screen,” said Sarwar.
“And because it is cheap to manufacture, it could be embedded cost-effectively in disposable wearables like health monitors,” he said. The sensor could also be integrated in robotic “skins” to make human-robot interactions safer, said John Madden, Sarwar’s supervisor and a professor in UBC’s faculty of applied science.
“Currently, machines are kept separate from humans in the workplace because of the possibility that they could injure humans. “If a robot could detect our presence and be ‘soft’ enough that they don’t damage us during an interaction, we can safely exchange tools with them, they can pick up objects without damaging them, and they can safely probe their environment,” said Madden. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.


Ref: Indian Express; Tech news 

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