Nanotech BSU: 11.06

11.26.2006

HP Memory spot:

The tiny Memory Spot chip – less than half the size of a grain of rice -- makes it possible to attach digital information to any surface, object or document. So a seaside postcard could be accompanied by photos of your family at the beach. A wedding photo could contain excerpts of the wedding video or an audio recording of the ceremony.
Other possible applications for the experimental chip include hospital wristbands containing patient medical information or authentication tags for prescription drugs, costly electronic components and other frequently counterfeited items.
The chip is a read-write CMOS memory device, 2-4 mm square, with a built-in antenna and capacity of up to several megabits. With a 10 megabits-per-second (10Mbps) data transfer rate, it is 10 ten times faster than Bluetooth and comparable to Wi-Fi speeds.

Sanitize:

Two chemical qualities make TiO2 an all-purpose cleaner. First, the chemical is light-sensitive. When it is struck by photons, it reacts with air and water vapor to accelerate the breakdown of organic materials. It’s a bit like an artificial photosynthesis, but whereas plants use sunlight to break down carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen, TiO2 uses light to turn scourges like grease and bacteria into carbon dioxide, hydrogen and other by-products that escape into the air. Second, TiO2 is hydro-philic, or water-loving. Instead of repelling water—as tiles and glass do when they encourage water to bead—materials coated with TiO2 attract water, causing it to “sheet” across the surface, taking by-products and oversize particles with it. The result: Guck rarely gets a chance to build up, and it washes away easily when it does. What’s needed to take the sun out of the equation? Cortie says TiO2’s atomic structure must be changed so that it’s compatible with the energy spectrum of visible light—no easy task. Plus, that alteration must be made without disrupting its chemical inertness; otherwise, it might not stay put on whatever it’s meant to coat.

RFID:

Hitachi's newest tag is skinny enough to fit inside a dollar bill. Just .15 millimeter square and 7.5 microns thick, it's half the size of the next smallest chip.

OLEDs:

The 'Optimus' keyboard has tiny OLED screens embedded in each key, allowing it to display context information on the fly. In Photoshop? You've got Photoshop icons, complete with alt functions.

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German scientists have figured out how to make organic LEDs that are transparent.With transparency, a display could be illuminated from the back or front. That means the OLEDs could be embedded into laminated glass—that means a car windshield, or even the windows in an office building, could offer a clear view out but also be turned into display panels when needed.

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This is a little 3 Button Keyboard that uses programmable OLED screens as buttons. So you can put icons of your favorite apps on their faces, and launch them by punching down. The USB keyboard's little screens can even show dynamic images like live webcam feeds, CPU usage, and the time. And, since there are only three buttons, you'll want to make good use of the 6 presets that you can hotkey through. The screens are 20 by 20mm each, and have a resolution of 96 by 96 pixels. Only a 3fps refresh on those keys, so no video. Sorry. Keys are 30 by 30mm, each.

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FOLED, which stands for Flexible Organic Light Emitting Diodes, can be placed on other flexible material like plastic or metallic foil. It offers an improvement over regular LCDs that need to be built on glass substrate. Video at the link below...

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/flexible-oled-video-demo-reminds-us-of-the-80s-only-more-flexible-195645.php

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Samsung has figured out a way to make HDTVs even thinner by combining OLED and active-matrix LCDs. The innovation eliminates the backlight, the thickest part of a flat panel, thus shaving it down to an iPod nano-esque 12mm thick. The 1600x1200 demo unit's 17-inch screen is shaped in the old-fashioned 4x3 aspect ratio and eeks out a lame 1000:1 contrast ratio. This AMOLED (active-matrix organic light emitting diode) technology is promising, already being used in cellphones and PMPs by Samsung, and it's high time it were scaled up for the big screens.

E Ink and LG Phillips:

Less than 300 microns thick, the paper-white display is as thin and flexible as construction paper. With a 10.1" diagonal, the prototype achieves SVGA (600x800) resolution at 100 pixels per inch and has a 10:1 contrast ratio with 4 levels of grayscale. E Ink® Imaging Film is a novel display material that looks like printed ink on paper and has been designed for use in paper-like electronic displays. Like paper, the material can be flexed and rolled. As an additional benefit, the E Ink Imaging Film uses 100 times less energy than a liquid crystal display because it can hold an image without power and without a backlight. They are 80% thinner and lighter than glass displays, and they do not break like glass displays.

http://www.eink.com/press/releases/pr87.html

11.13.2006

Plumbing just ainâ€™t what it used to be
By Terry Swisher, Chief Plumbing Inspector

Just when you think youâ€™ve seen it all, some-
one comes up with a new idea and poof,
everything you thought you knew is â€œold hat.â€
Now nanotechnology is being applied to
plumbing products.
I better explain what nanotechnology is. This
is a subject most construction folks donâ€™t talk
about during coffee breaks. But soon, they will.
In 1981 a scientist named K. E. Drexl pub-
lished a paper, â€œMolecular engineering: An
approach to the development of general capa-
bilities for molecular manipulation.â€ He
explained his ideas about working with materi-
als on a molecular level. Instantly, the scientific
world recognized the potential for this technol-
ogy to control matter on an atomic level. The
idea is to construct materials and objects so
perfectly put together on an atomic scale that
they do not exist in nature. Nature, bless its
heart, makes mistakes called impurities, flaws,
or imperfections, but not nanotechnology. The
implications and applications of this technology
are staggering.

What does this have to do with plumbing?
Plumbing is generally designed to be sanitary
and to protect public health, and applications
of nanotechnology make it much more so. Re-
member, the following are actual products and
not science fiction:
A German company now known as Nanogate
Technologies GmbH, developed a product with
Duravit AG called WonderglissÂ®. Duravit is a
German plumbing-fixture manufacturer and is
well known for its ceramics. WonderglissÂ® is a
micro-smooth coating fired over the traditional
ceramic glazing. This surface is so smooth that
dirt, germs, and fungus cannot stick to it. In
fact, the surface is so smooth that water beads
up and runs off without lime and soaps being
able to hold onto it. It stays incredibly clean for
a long time. When you do have to clean the
surface, you just wipe it with a paper towel. If
you have ever scrubbed lime and soap depos-
its from ceramic tile, you know what this
means. Duravit also manufactures plumbing
fixtures with this surface. Other companies are
applying the same concepts to metal surfaces
for plumbing components and other uses.

Another nanotechnology product is MicrobanÂ®,
manufactured by Microban International. The
technology started when W. L. Morrison was on
the telephone talking with a doctor about de-
signing something to protect plastic medical
products from bacteria and other bad â€œnasties.â€
Morrison held the acrylic telephone in his hand
and thought about contamination of pay phones
and how to clean them up. His idea led to the
first antimicrobial polymeric, a plastic that is
germ-resistant and even resistant to molds,
yeast, and mildew.
Today this technology is used in more than
450 products, including those for the kitchen
and bath and textiles, toys, cleaning supplies,
paints, caulking, medical products and, of
course, plumbing fixtures. Itâ€™s used by several
manufacturers of plastic spas, tubs, and
showers available in Oregon.
MicrobanÂ® is nanotechnology because the
antibacterial agent is incorporated during
manufacturing into the molecular structure of
plastics and synthetic fibers to resist bacteria,
fungus, molds, and yeast. It does not rub,
wash, or wear out of the product. The ingredi-
ent is registered with the EPA for many uses
and has been incorporated into several de-
vices registered with the FDA.
It is easy to imagine this technology producing
piping so smooth that it would have little or no
friction loss, which would lead to smaller piping
able to carry many more gallons of water at
the same working pressure as todayâ€™s piping.
Or drain pipe so smooth and slippery that it
cannot plug up. Or pipes that never wear out.
Someday, entire plumbing systems may fol-
low natureâ€™s design of a living system. Imag-
ine a water piping system that could change
its dimensions based on the flow demand and
available pressure like our own circulatory
systems. Septic tanks could generate elec-
tricity as they digest waste. Plumbers in the
future will no doubt look back and wonder
how we got by with such primitive materials
and tools. Truly, plumbing ainâ€™t what it used to
be â€” and it never will be again.

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:rH1zWdQIq4gJ:www.cbs.state.or.us/bcd/pub/codelink/2004/01_02.pdf+microban+nanotechnology&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a