Posts filed under 'New Materials'
IFM's Electric Plaid is a unique textile display technology and design material. It is used by IFM to create hand woven, sensuous individual artworks, interior design and architectural surfaces. Electric Plaid combines woven electronic circuits, color-change inks and drive electronics, to add TIME AND MOTION to textile patterns and design. Patterns change color slowly over time, to give you information or change the decor of the room. Electric Plaid is a reflective (it doesn't light up!) color-change medium. Electric Plaid can be combined with IFM's textile sensors, StitchSwitch, to create fully interactive textiles and artworks.
product spec
August 3rd, 2006
Imagine it is the year 2100. The population of the Earth, doubling every 30 years or so, has reached nearly 50 billion souls. The price of a comfortable single-family house on one acre in New Jersey, doubling every 10 years or so, has reached 250 million dollars. While your back was turned, however, nanotechnology was invented and Utility Fog has become possible. Utility Fog is a kind of universal substance, programmable matter, that can simulate everything from air to solid rock. A kind of 3D TV screen, but instead of making any desired picture visible, it makes any desired shape tangible.
So we go off somewhere, rope off a square mile, dig down a few hundred feet for foundations, and erect a block of Utility Fog a mile high. It doesn't have to be a cube, of course, it can be any shape you like, and indeed can change shape from minute to minute. As for the objects inside, nanotechnology will take care of that: it can build anything from the simplest structures to the most complicated.
In a cubic mile of Fog there are over 125 billion cubic feet. That's 10 by 10 by 10 foot rooms for 125 million people. Not that you would be stuck in a 10 by 10 foot room. First off, it's not a fixed location, it's 1,000 cubic feet of ‘personal space’ wherever you go. Secondly, it's like a Star Trek ‘holodeck’, it can seem to be any place, filled with any people and objects you choose – a vast country estate, the deck of a wooden sailing ship in the mid-Atlantic (complete with driving rain and pitching decks), or everybody’s favourite, the London of Sherlock Holmes.
And that's just your bedroom… Read More (by John Storrs Hall, author of the book Nanofuture: What's Next For Nanotechnology.)
July 28th, 2006
Chronos Chromos Concrete is a system that is able to dynamically display patterns, numbers and text in concrete surfaces. Application could include anything from products for the home to large scale architectural installations.
Chris Glaister, Afshin Mehin, and Tomas Rosen of the Royal College of Art Innovation Unit have developed embedded devices which allow graphics, words and numbers to be displayed through concrete.
Video
First, thermochromic ink is mixed with concrete. Second, nickel chromium wires, which heat up when electric current is passed through them, are set beneath the concrete surface. The area above the wire changes colour when a certain temperature is reached. The arrangement of these wires beneath the concrete allows the display of graphics and information.
via transmaterial
April 15th, 2006
I'm always looking for flexible materials for my kinetic interactive installations. Heres a LED substitute for neon lights with the added property of being able to change shape. Mule Lighting has developed a product that looks like traditional neon but is much more versatile.
PDF The uniform and super-bright light output is achieved through a proprietary optical maximization technique which is completely sealed and impervious to shock and vibration.LED-FLEX is suitable for wet locations and can withstand extreme temperatures. via transmaterial
April 6th, 2006
Here's some pretty slick glass/light technology called LightPoints, one of many architectural materials developed by Schott. Not specifically designed to be interactive but with some cleverly placed sensors and DMX control system for LED switching there's potential for some very nice interactive architecture indeed.
Website
A pane of transparent glass conducting electricity is equipped with LEDs. Using the PVB (Polyvinyl Butyral Foil) laminate method, a cover glass is then added. The LEDs available in white, blue and green emit light in both directions.
The red and yellow LEDs radiate only in one direction. The power (low voltage DC) is supplied through conductive circuits on top of the glass that are almost completely invisible.
February 24th, 2006
As you may have seen there’s a tutorials page attached to the blog which I’ve had online as long as the blog has been running. I’ve been meaning to build up a tutorials section of links to other websites and books about physical computing, hacking appropriated technology etc but just haven’t got around to doing so. Its mainly aimed at students interested in interactive installations and devices of any kind for the time being. I get quite a few emails from architecture, design and art students asking about learning how to use basic electronics and programming etc so I’ve added a few essential links in the last couple of days but would really like to make it a more comprehensive resource. Have you got any suggestions? I will of course credit those who pass on their suggestions so please leave your name and website if you’ve got one.
Thanks so much and hopefully I may see some of you at transmediale in Berlin which is where I’m off on a holiday for a week starting tomorrow. Hurrah!
image from the excellent ‘low-tech sensors and actuators project’ by Usman Haque and Adam Somlai-Fischer
February 2nd, 2006
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