Backlight is a demonstration of electroless metal plating by Tony Wurman of New York–based Wunderwurks. In contrast to conventional electrolytic processes, electroless plating uses a nongalvanic chemical plating method involving multiple reactions in an aqueous solution without external electrical power. Electroless plating can provide decorative and protective finishes for many materials, including metal, wood, glass, plastic, stone, fiberglass, ceramics, and even fabrics.
Wurman's gold-plated light sculpture of a human spine cast in urethane resin demonstrates that the electroless process is highly cost effective compared to conventional electroplating and vacuum metallizing and is not limited to the item’s size, design, or surface characteristics. Moreover, the electroless-plated object's finished surface will accept conventional paints to enable striping, accenting with graphics, or airbrushing. [Contact:
Coat of Chrome, Wind Gap, PA;
Wunderwurks, New York, NY.]
Labels: 05, metal, process, ultraperforming
3D Display Cube is a true spatial display unit that utilizes one thousand individually controllable LEDs to create three-dimensional forms and animations. The display cube, with its creative use of LED technology, can be used for retail or public display, signage applications, home display, or advertising.
James Clar conceived of 3D Display Cube as a reaction to the limitations of current display technologies. Televisions and computer monitors, for example, can only deliver two-dimensional information because their display surface is flat. In contrast, 3D Display Cube uses a spatial array of LED pixels, which in aggregate create true spatial images and animations.
3D Display Cube's technology is backed by one issued utility patent and two pending utility patents. Upon purchase, the buyer may select up to five one-minute animations to be preloaded onto the device for immediate use upon delivery. A serial cable is also included, allowing users to design and upload their own animations and content to the cube. [Contact:
James Clar & Associates, Bartlett, TN.]
Labels: 26, display, interfacial, light, product
Advantic is a syntactic foam made by mixing or combining hollow glass microspheres with an epoxy resin. This high-strength composite solves many of the problems associated with other common tooling materials. Cornerstone Research Group (CRG) Industries’s proprietary mixing process minimizes the number of microspheres that break during mixing, a common problem in manufacturing syntactic materials. This process enables Advantic to maintain low density with high uniformity and minimum void content.
Because Advantic is lightweight, it reduces wear and tear on machining equipment. It also has low thermal conductivity and specific heat, so it requires little warm-up time and virtually eliminates plug sticking during thermoforming. Advantic is dimensionally stable and will keep its shape over a wide range of temperatures. The material can also be machined using standard carbide-tipped tools in sheet-fed, rotary, or in-line machines for a variety of applications.
Advantic is available in small or large lots of customized material with custom properties. CRG Industries can customize properties such as compressive strength, flexure strength, material density, operational temperature, chemical resistance, electrical properties, thermoconductivity, water absorption, and surface finish. [Contact:
CRG Industries, Dayton, OH.]
Labels: 06, foam, glass, material, ultraperforming
Dow Corning's Active Protection System is a "smart" textile that remains soft and flexible until it is struck by high-impact force, in which case the material instantly stiffens to help protect against injury. When the collision has passed, the material immediately becomes flexible again.
The active ingredient in the fabric is a dilatant silicone coating, which is a shear thickening fluid (STF). The viscosity of this coating increases with the rate of shear, therefore defining it as a smart material as it responds to changes within its environment.
The Active Protection System is breathable and flexible for outstanding comfort and freedom of movement, and it can be stitched directly into garments, eliminating the need to insert and remove components. It is less bulky than hard armor, allowing for many creative and fashionable design possibilities. The washable fabric can be layered to provide customized levels of protection for specific areas, and it integrates easily into existing manufacturing processes.
Independent testing shows that the Active Protection System exceeds certain European Standards' impact protection requirements for sports apparel by as much as 40 percent. The fabric’s superior effectiveness is due to its ability to both absorb and distribute impact force, providing protection that is activated earlier and lasts more than twice as long as rigid protective systems. [Contact:
Dow Corning, Midland, MI.]
Labels: 12, fabric, material, transformational
Backlight Images are three-dimensional solid-surface topographies created from digital images. Developed and manufactured by the R. D. Wing Company, the Backlight Image process transforms user-provided images into reliefs within the surface of 1/4-inch-thick, translucent DuPont Corian. The images are first converted to grayscale mode with 256 shades, and each shade effectively becomes a different height of contour.
Unlike other digitally fabricated products that utilize the relief surface as the viewing surface, Backlight Images are sculpted from the reverse side. Only when light is transmitted from behind does the image emerge through the material.
Backlight Images may be created from photographs, logos, or other graphic content. Once images are produced, they can be thermoformed to create sculptural objects and curved surfaces. Backlight Images may also be colored using theatrical studio film and can match Kodak PMS or Pantone designated colors. [Contact:
Backlight Images, Kirkland, WA.]
Labels: 06, digital, interfacial, process, solid surface
CarbonCast is a precast-concrete technology that uses a carbon-fiber grid for secondary reinforcing or shear transfer, depending on the application. Because carbon-fiber reinforcing resists corrosion, CarbonCast precast products require less concrete cover, resulting in added durability, lighter weight, and improved sustainability over traditional precast concrete. In addition, the reduction of concrete enables the integration of insulation, which can increase R-values of wall panels.
CarbonCast architectural cladding panels can weigh up to 66 percent less than conventional precast panels. This weight reduction permits engineers to reduce substructure or specify smaller cranes for lifting the panels into place. When used in the flanges of CarbonCast pretopped double tees, the carbon-fiber grid can reduce weight by 12 percent and eliminate the need for sealers and sacrificial barrier coatings. When used as a shear connector in CarbonCast high performance insulated wall panels, the carbon-fiber grid improves thermal performance, given its relatively low thermal conductivity. [Contact:
Altus Precast, Lancaster, PA]
Labels: 03, carbon fiber, concrete, reinforcing, ultraperforming
While touch-sensitive screens commonly work for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops.
Developed by Jefferson Han at New York University, Multi-Touch Interaction offers a wide variety of application scenarios and interaction modalities that utilize multi-touch input information. These go far beyond the "poking" actions you get with a typical touch screen, or the gross gesturing found in video-based interactive interfaces.
Multi-Touch Interaction is force-sensitive, and provides unprecedented resolution and scalability, allowing the creation of sophisticated multi-point widgets for applications large enough to accommodate both hands and multiple users. [via New York University; suggested by David Duffus and Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Copenhagen.]
Labels: 10, interaction, interfacial, screen, video
Backlight is a demonstration of electroless metal plating by Tony Wurman of New York–based Wunderwurks. In contrast to conventional electrolytic processes, electroless plating uses a nongalvanic chemical plating method involving multiple reactions in an aqueous solution without external electrical power. Electroless plating can provide decorative and protective finishes for many materials, including metal, wood, glass, plastic, stone, fiberglass, ceramics, and even fabrics.
