When you hear ‘plastic’ the first thing that probably comes to your mind is ‘electrical insulator’. This is perhaps because most plastics have exceptional electrical insulator properties, albeit this doesn’t necessarily mean that all plastics share the same properties. It was proven some three decades ago that certain classes of plastics may conduct electricity and could be used to create some of the most amazing electronic devices ever seen, such as flexible laptops, electronic billboards or ultra-thin displays.
Imagine an electronic device made of plastic material only. The creation of such a piece of equipment would most certainly revolutionize the electronics industry. Let’s take the humble transistor for example, the building block of every electronic device today. Although it is usually made out of silicon, a lot of semiconductor materials can be used to manufacture transistors, neither of which very flexible. However, flexibility is not the only issue with transistors. By using plastics to build transistors the manufacturing costs could also drop considerably. Read the rest of this entry »
Last week I alerted you to the fact that a machine has been created that can replicate itself by manufacturing the parts needed to build a copy. My concern was that the killer robots that we all know will eventually take over the Earth and either enslave or destroy mankind could use this technology.
It could happen and we really should be afraid. From San Francisco comes news of the latest round of RoboGames (a bit like our own Robot Wars but a lot more violent!). As you’ll see from the video on the site these machines are really vicious, which is okay as most of them are radio controlled and only do what they are told but the really scary thing is that there are now autonomous robots that fight on their own heaven help us if they ever lean how to reproduce. Heed my warning people, before it’s too late!
Here’s another item from the ‘it was bound to happen sooner or later ‘files. Researchers at the University of Bath have just demonstrated a prototype of a machine that can replicate itself. Sci-Fi fans will be all too aware of the dangers and what this means to future generations; the Rise of the Machine surely can’t be far behind,…
For the moment at least, there doesn’t seem to be too much to fear from the RepRap (Replicating Rapid–Prototyper). Basically it is a three dimensional printer that creates objects by building up layers of molten plastic. Read the rest of this entry »
So be it then! We should at least look at the bright side of the whole deal. No more stepping out of the car, no more getting dirty or smelling of petrol after a quick refuel. The automatic refueling unit was developed by an inventor from Netherlands who is also a gas station owner, and is the first of its kind in the world working in a gas-pumping station. Ouch! That will really drive some unemployed people mad.
Nico van Staveren said in an interview that he got the idea while visiting a
farm and saw the robotic arm used for milking the cows, and started thinking that he could build a similar device that would fill the tank of a car on its own. If it were to go into mass production, a model could cost up to 110,000 U.S. dollars. However, it does not work on all types of cars, just on the models that do not require a specific key to open the gas cap in order to gain access to the fuel tank. Read the rest of this entry »
Sure there are a lot of things out there calling themselves Transformers but don’t do any transforming. Well this guy actually does do some transforming. Read the rest of this entry »
When you hear ‘plastic’ the first thing that probably comes to your mind is ‘electrical insulator’. This is perhaps because most plastics have exceptional electrical insulator properties, albeit this doesn’t necessarily mean that all plastics share the same properties. It was proven some three decades ago that certain classes of plastics may conduct electricity and could be used to create some of the most amazing electronic devices ever seen, such as flexible laptops, electronic billboards or ultra-thin displays.
