Video: A Steerable Remote 'Telexistence' Robot that Transmits Sight, Sound, and Touch to the Operator

Keio University researchers are taking telepresence to the next logical level with a new “telexistence” robot called TELESAR V, a robotic platform that doesn’t just transport the user's eyes to another location, but also his or her ears and hands as well. The idea is to break through the limitations of time and space to allow a user to actually feel like he or she is present elsewhere via a remotely operated robot that returns three sensory stimuli back to the user.

Using a head-mounted 3-D visual display, an audio system that streams sound to the user, and tactile gloves that allow the user to feel the shapes and temperatures of objects--currently the robots force vector and temp sensors can accurately relay textures as fine as the unevenness on the surface of a Lego block--the user can manipulate the robot remotely and feel what the robot feels. The designers are looking for a true avatar sensation, one that makes the user really feel that he or she is inhabiting the place of the robot.

This certainly isn’t the first time we’ve seen or heard of this kind of concept, but it is one of the first all around implementations of so much telepresence technology in a single package that--by all appearances--seems to work really well. And there’s no need to take our word for it; see TELESAR V in action below.

[DigInfo]

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Copper film could lower touch screen, LED and solar cell costs

ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2011) — Copper nanowires may be coming to a little screen near you. These new nanostructures have the potential to drive down the costs of displaying information on cell phones, e-readers and iPads, and they could also help engineers build foldable electronics and improved solar cells, according to new research.

Duke chemist Ben Wiley and his graduate student have developed a technique to organize copper atoms in water to form long, thin, non-clumped nanowires. The nanowires are then transformed into transparent, conductive films and coated onto glass or plastic.

The new research shows that the copper nanowire films have the same properties as those currently used in electronic devices and solar cells, but are less expensive to manufacture. The results were published online Sept. 23 in Advanced Materials.

The films that currently connect pixels in electronic screens are made of indium tin oxide, or ITO. It is highly transparent, which transmits the information well. But the ITO film must be deposited from a vapor in a process that is a thousand times slower than newspaper printing, and, once the ITO is in the device, it cracks easily. Indium is also an expensive rare earth element, costing as much as $800 per kilogram.

These problems have driven worldwide efforts to find less expensive materials that can be coated or printed like ink at much faster speeds to make low-cost, transparent conducting films, Wiley said.

One alternative to an ITO film is to use inks containing silver nanowires. The first cell phone with a screen made from silver nanowires will be on the market this year. But silver, like indium, is still relatively expensive at $1400 per kilogram.

Copper, on the other hand, is a thousand times more abundant than indium or silver, and about 100 times less expensive, costing only $9 per kilogram.

In 2010, Wiley and his graduate student Aaron Rathmell showed that it was possible to form a layer of copper nanowires on glass to make a transparent conducting film.

But at that time, the performance of the film was not good enough for practical applications because the wires clumped together. The new way of growing the copper nanowires and coating them on glass surfaces eliminates the clumping problem, Wiley said.

He and Rathmell also created the new copper nanowires to maintain their conductivity and form when bent back and forth 1,000 times. In contrast, ITO films' conduction and structure break after a few bends.

Wiley said the low-cost, high-performance, and flexibility of copper nanowires make them a natural choice for use in the next generation of displays and solar cells. He co-founded a company called NanoForge Corp in 2010 to manufacture copper nanowires for commercial applications.

In early 2011, NanoForge received a $45,000 North Carolina IDEA grant for refinement and scale-up of the manufacturing process of copper nanowires, and it is now filling orders.

With continuing development, copper nanowires could be in screens and solar cells in the next few years, which could lead to lighter and more reliable displays and also to making solar energy more competitive with fossil fuels, Wiley said.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Duke University.

Journal Reference:

Rathmell, A. R. and Wiley, B. J. he Synthesis and Coating of Long, Thin Copper Nanowires to Make Flexible, Transparent Conducting Films on Plastic Substrates. Advanced Materials, 2011 DOI: 10.1002/adma.201102284

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Copper film could lower touch screen, LED and solar cell costs

ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2011) — Copper nanowires may be coming to a little screen near you. These new nanostructures have the potential to drive down the costs of displaying information on cell phones, e-readers and iPads, and they could also help engineers build foldable electronics and improved solar cells, according to new research.

Duke chemist Ben Wiley and his graduate student have developed a technique to organize copper atoms in water to form long, thin, non-clumped nanowires. The nanowires are then transformed into transparent, conductive films and coated onto glass or plastic.

The new research shows that the copper nanowire films have the same properties as those currently used in electronic devices and solar cells, but are less expensive to manufacture. The results were published online Sept. 23 in Advanced Materials.

The films that currently connect pixels in electronic screens are made of indium tin oxide, or ITO. It is highly transparent, which transmits the information well. But the ITO film must be deposited from a vapor in a process that is a thousand times slower than newspaper printing, and, once the ITO is in the device, it cracks easily. Indium is also an expensive rare earth element, costing as much as $800 per kilogram.

These problems have driven worldwide efforts to find less expensive materials that can be coated or printed like ink at much faster speeds to make low-cost, transparent conducting films, Wiley said.

One alternative to an ITO film is to use inks containing silver nanowires. The first cell phone with a screen made from silver nanowires will be on the market this year. But silver, like indium, is still relatively expensive at $1400 per kilogram.

Copper, on the other hand, is a thousand times more abundant than indium or silver, and about 100 times less expensive, costing only $9 per kilogram.

In 2010, Wiley and his graduate student Aaron Rathmell showed that it was possible to form a layer of copper nanowires on glass to make a transparent conducting film.

But at that time, the performance of the film was not good enough for practical applications because the wires clumped together. The new way of growing the copper nanowires and coating them on glass surfaces eliminates the clumping problem, Wiley said.

He and Rathmell also created the new copper nanowires to maintain their conductivity and form when bent back and forth 1,000 times. In contrast, ITO films' conduction and structure break after a few bends.

Wiley said the low-cost, high-performance, and flexibility of copper nanowires make them a natural choice for use in the next generation of displays and solar cells. He co-founded a company called NanoForge Corp in 2010 to manufacture copper nanowires for commercial applications.

In early 2011, NanoForge received a $45,000 North Carolina IDEA grant for refinement and scale-up of the manufacturing process of copper nanowires, and it is now filling orders.

With continuing development, copper nanowires could be in screens and solar cells in the next few years, which could lead to lighter and more reliable displays and also to making solar energy more competitive with fossil fuels, Wiley said.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Duke University.

Journal Reference:

Rathmell, A. R. and Wiley, B. J. he Synthesis and Coating of Long, Thin Copper Nanowires to Make Flexible, Transparent Conducting Films on Plastic Substrates. Advanced Materials, 2011 DOI: 10.1002/adma.201102284

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Material turns hard or soft at the touch of a button

ScienceDaily (June 6, 2011) — A world premiere: a material which changes its strength, virtually at the touch of a button. This transformation can be achieved in a matter of seconds through changes in the electron structure of a material; thus hard and brittle matter, for example, can become soft and malleable. What makes this development revolutionary, is that the transformation can be controlled by electric signals.

This world-first has its origins in Hamburg. Jörg Weißmüller, a materials scientist at both the Technical University of Hamburg and the Helmholtz Center Geesthacht, has carried out research on this groundbreaking development, working in cooperation with colleagues from the Institute for Metal Research in Shenyang, China.

The 51-year-old researcher from the Saarland referred to his fundamental research, which opens the door to a multitude of diverse applications, as "a breakthrough in the material sciences." The new metallic high-performance material is described by Prof. Dr. Jörg Weißmüller and the Chinese research scientist Hai-Jun Jin in the latest issue of the scientific journal Science. Their research findings could, for example, make future intelligent materials with the ability of self healing, smoothing out flaws autonomously.

The firmness of a boiled egg can be adjusted at will through the cooking time. Some decisions are, however, irrevocable -- a hard-boiled egg can never be reconverted into a soft-boiled one. There would be less annoyance at the breakfast table if we could simply switch back and forth between the different degrees of firmness of the egg.

Similar issues arise in the making of structural materials such as metals and alloys. The materials properties are set once and for all during production. This forces engineers to make compromises in the selection of the mechanical properties of a material. Greater strength is inevitably accompanied by increased brittleness and a reduction of the damage tolerance.

Professor Weißmüller, head of the Institute of Materials Physics and Technology at the Technical University of Hamburg and also of the department for Hybrid Material Systems at the Helmholtz Center Geesthacht, stated: "This is a point where significant progress is being made. For the first time we have succeeded in producing a material which, while in service, can switch back and forth between a state of strong and brittle behavior and one of soft and malleable. We are still at the fundamental research stage but our discovery may bring significant progress in the development of so-called smart materials."

A Marriage of Metal and Water

In order to produce this innovative material, material scientists employ a comparatively simple process: corrosion. The metals, typically precious metals such as gold or platinum, are placed in an acidic solution. As a consequence of the onset of the corrosion process, minute ducts and holes are formed in the metal. The emerging nanostructured material is pervaded by a network of pore channels.

The pores are impregnated with a conductive liquid, for example a simple saline solution or a diluted acid, and a true hybrid material of metal and liquid is thus created. It is the unusual "marriage," as Weißmüller calls this union of metal and water which, when triggered by an electric signal, enables the properties of the material to change at the touch of a button.

As ions are dissolved in the liquid, the surfaces of the metal can be electrically charged. In other words, the mechanical properties of the metallic partner are changed by the application of an electric potential in the liquid partner. The effect can be traced back to a strengthening or weakening of the atomic bonding in the surface of the metal when extra electrons are added to or withdrawn from the surface atoms. The strength of the material can be as much as doubled when required. Alternatively, the material can be switched to a state which is weaker, but more damage tolerant, energy-absorbing and malleable.

Specific applications are still a matter for the future. However, researchers are already thinking ahead. In principle, the material can create electric signals spontaneously and selectively, so as to strengthen the matter in regions of local stress concentration. Damage, for instance in the form of cracks, could thereby be prevented or even healed. This has brought scientists a great step closer to their objective of 'intelligent' high performance materials.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.

Journal Reference:

H.-J. Jin, J. Weissmuller. A Material with Electrically Tunable Strength and Flow Stress. Science, 2011; 332 (6034): 1179 DOI: 10.1126/science.1202190

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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