Better Displays With New Nanowire Film

Roland Piquepaille writes "A Harvard University team has successfully applied a film of nanowires on glass and plastic. This might lead to better and flexible displays or wearable computers, says the American Chemical Society, in "Nanowire film brings cheaper, faster electronics a step closer." "By using a 'bottom-up' approach pioneered by our group, which involves assembly of pre-formed nanoscale building blocks into functional devices, we can apply a film of nanowires to glass or plastics long after growth, and do so at room temperature," says Charles M. Lieber, professor of chemistry at Harvard. The researchers think that the first applications will be improved smart cards or LCD displays. But they also have a vision for the next decade. "One could imagine, for instance, contact lenses with displays and miniature computers on them, so that you can experience a virtual tour of a new city as you walk around." This overview contains more details and references. It also includes a picture of a high-density crossbar nanostructure, whose geometry can serve as the basis for many applications, like bio-sensor arrays or high-density data storage."

Comments

On contacts?

[3.5 stripes]

Can you actually focus on something which is that close to your eye?

Just one word

[heironymouscoward]

Hype.

Anything with 'nano' or 'cyber' in the name is hype. Yeah, we will see smaller cheaper electronics, but that's hardly news.

Useful

[dwalsh]

"One could imagine, for instance, contact lenses with displays and miniature computers on them, so that you can experience a virtual tour of a new city as you walk around."

So while you are walking around in the city, you get to see what it looks like. Hmm... Pity you can't do that now.

Re:Useful

[squiggleslash]

Thinking about it, this could be used for good, and for evil:

Good: The contacts overlay useful captions where there currently isn't one, giving you street signs, direction signs, making it obvious from a distance where to get food, where the ATMs are, etc. Enter details of where you want to go, and the bus that'll take you there can be highlighted when it comes towards you.

Bad: It's sold as that, but funded by advertising. Everywhere you look there's an ad for X10.

walk around

[termos]

One could imagine, for instance, contact lenses with displays and miniature computers on them, so that you can experience a virtual tour of a new city as you walk around.

Considering we are geeks, going to a new city doesn't involve walking around, more like visiting conventions and getting the latest cool funny-phrase-sysadmin-tshirts.
Take away the walking part mister, and you have yourself a deal.

Fault Tolerance?

[supersmike]

Anyone notice what appears to be a broken nanowire towards the bottom left of the picture? I wonder what kind of fault-tolerance these sturctures have for that sort of thing.

Contacts

[maxdamage]

How long do you think it will take untill somone decides it would be funny to hijack someones vission and hack their contacts? It could be someone trying to be funny, just make the person think their seeing things... Or it could be someone trying to blind them... Just imagine waking up, putting on your contacts and being tourtured by avertisments, IN YOUR EYES. Thats a future that I am terrified of!

Glasses for Zaphod Beebelbrox

[madsen]

The mention of the contatct lenses made me think of Zaphod Beebelbrox and his glasses (or was it someone else) that helped him to never be scared. The glasses went black when danger was imminent.

That could be really cool when driving.

Great idea

[Ancil]

One could imagine, for instance, contact lenses with displays and miniature computers on them, so that you can experience a virtual tour of a new city as you walk around.

One could imagine the decidedly non-virtual experience of getting creamed by a passing truck. Gives whole new meaning to Blue Screen of Death.

eye zooming

[dew-genen-ny]

What I'd like to see is contacts that implement both a display and an ccd or the equivilant, so that we can zoom in on objects that are in the distance....would be so wicked.....imagine being able to use them like a microscope as well....would be good.

meanwhile, in Japan

[Grummet]

hi everybody.
umm, gosh, don't know if i missed this news elsewhere in western media but last week on ABC (Asahi Broadcast Corp.) Japan there was a review of recent nanotechnology advances here in Japan and they reported that:
1) A Yamagata University research team has managed to make flexible millimeter thick screens (roll up your TV and stick it in a tube, into your backback, pocket, whatever and away you go..!) ALREADY so I don't understand what the big deal is with these nanowires. Plus the Yamagata people figured out how to use a kind of "nano-dye" for multiple applications like:
a) flexible thin solar cells (your tent is a battery charger!) or
b) a blue "lens" to increase the data storage on those recently reknown expensive blue laser cd's that store gigs of date. (20 times more (?))

Sorry for the lack of net based info but it looked pretty amazing - heck, I saw it on TV so come on,
it must be bran' spankin' new!

- Jeff -

Optoelectronics in general

[cerulean]

Techniques to make thinner wires will probably be useful for improving the efficiency a whole range of optoelectronic devices:

For LEDs, some light that might escape the device is reflected or absorbed by the tiny wires carrying the current into the junction. Thinner wires would mean an improvement (though perhaps small at this point) in the amount of light you get out of the device.

With light going in the other direction, photovoltaics (solar panels) and various detectors are all about getting as much light into a junction as possible, so thinner wires would help make better devices here too.

What it would be a better use for ...

[Brutal_One]

Anytime stories like this pop-up, everyone always discusses how neat it would be to overlay information about a city and the like.

Forget contacts the zoom, forget contacts that shoot freakin' laser beams. How about contacts that make my vision 20/20? My corrected vision is 20/35 and my contacts can only be worn for 7-8 hours a day then I have to wear coke bottle glasses because there isn't anything better.

My brother-in-law has Retinitis-Pigmentosa which is a degenerative disease of the retina. He was diagnosed 7 years ago and is down to 10% of his vision which is stricly peripheral. Imagine a spoon in front of your eye and you can only see off to the sides.

A better use of this technology would be contacts that can adjust his line of sight to the best position on his eye.

Or to assist the vision of the elderly who often times can be helped with glasses or contacts.

Instead of coming up with "new" "cool" ways to use this, why don't we use the technology to help the people that need it? The people that surround us everyday?

www.contactwasher.com

[angedinoir]

for instance, contact lenses with displays

"Yes, is this tech support? I think I have a virus in my contact. Everywhere I go, everyone's face is being replaced by banner ads.... Yes, I see it. Yea, it says gator. What I'm screwed?......"