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Eleksen Introduces Electro Fabric
DigitalDame2 writes "Eleksen, a small UK-based firm is introducing electronic fabric, essentially carbon-embedded nylon sandwiched between layers of nylon mesh that, when a milliamps charge is passed through it, can recognize touch, pressure and even the direction and path of a stroke. This thin, flexible, and washable fabric connects to a small 8-bit processor, which then can be connected to a standard electronic device like an iPod. Eleksen company executives said the washable fabric can also withstand extreme pressure; they've rolled a car over it without any ill effects."
But will the fabric short out a Tazer, thus enabling people to avoid being disabled by one?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
I wonder if this could lead to light weight gloves that could lead to "Minority Report" type control over objects in a GUI and perhaps a keyboard without a keyboard.
Uh huh. What's the pressure in a typical car tires? Usually around 30psi, right? And as it turns out, the air pressure in the tire is about the same as the pressure between the tire surface and the ground it touches. The tire spreads out until it has enough square inches in contact with the ground that the 30psi x the number of i^2 equals the weight of the car. It MUST be that way, because it's impossible for the air in the tire to exert more pressure on the contact region than it does on the rest of the tire, and the rigidity of the sidewalls is not enough to contribute significant support.
So the fabric withstood 30psi. And not supporting that pressure in free air like the tire has to do, but simply squeezed against a supporting surface. "Extreme pressure" my ass.
The user interface of iPods are very well-designed. It would be a waste and a hassle to bypass the sleek iPod interface and control the iPod through the jacket. Wouldn't it be easier to just take out the iPod and meddle with it?
What if you're skiing/snowboarding, for example, and wearing gloves that make your fingers 2" in diameter (and why can't someone make a pair of gloves that keeps your fingers warm but doesn't make you look like you're wearing those dorky "Hulk Hands" toys?)? In that situation, just unzipping your pocket to remove the iPod can be a challenge...
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
There are people with spinal cord and brain injuries that could really benefit from this. People with trauma recovery with no sensation that don't realize an appendage is bumping into something. It's not quite like having skin with nerve endings, rather it's an early alert that senses something that you either can't, or can't *yet*.
In another way, it's also a way to help people recover from muscular atrophy, sensing leg movements, or arm movements. It can tell you when something's too tight, or incorrectly applied. Think physical therapy, or improving your golf swing, football kick, or reducing RSI.
Although I don't understand its resolution capability, it could also be used for carpet-fabric that could tell people when someone's at the door, or that someone has been in a room, or that the person weighs 100kg, etc.
Use your imagination beyond sex. I find this fairly fascinating.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Sex is like air: you only think about it when you aren't getting any. And it sounds like you are suffocating.
That's a great description of tire pressure and such -- assuming its accurate, and I have no real reason to think otherwise -- but it hardly completes the picture.
I would also point out, that 30psi can be quite a lot when there are lots of inches squared to deal with. The surface of the tire, lets say 25 square inches in contact with the road -- a 5x5 patch (which I don't know is accurate, but seems reasonable) would produce 750 pounds of pressure on the garment. That makes sense given that four times 750 is 3000 pounds -- heavy for a car, but keep in mind the tire doesn't contact the road unformly anyway. In any case, the patch of tire is uniform enough that the parts of the material absorbing the pressure could not spread out or flatten because the neighboring areas would also be under pressure.
To understand that side of the psi equation, take your laptop to the kitchen table. Get a scale. Put your thumb on the scale and feel what 25 pounds of pressure feels like, then push that hard on the closed laptop screen. Didn't break? Excellent. Now, put it beneath the wheel of your SUV and drive over it. Let me know how that works out.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
The "run over by a car" thing is actually a really, really lame demonstration. The pressure per sq. inch really isn't that great. Nonetheless, it's always the example that's brought up.
For clothes though, it probably is a perfectly acceptable test. Reason being, if something you're wearing is being run over by a car, you probably have concerns on your mind more "pressing" than what song your iPod is playing.