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Chemical "Infofuses" Communicate Without Electricity

Al writes "Researchers at Harvard and Tufts University have developed a way to send coded messages without using electricity. David Walt, professor of chemistry at Tufts, and Harvard's George Whitesides have developed 'infofuses' that can transmit information simply by burning. The fuses — metallic salts depositing on a nitrocellulose strand — emit pulses of infrared and visible light of different colors whose sequence encodes information. They were developed in response to a call from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for technologies to allow soldiers stranded without a power source to communicate. In the first demonstration of the idea, they used the infofuses to transmit the message look mom no electricity." Currently the researchers are "trying to figure out a way to dynamically encode a message on the fly in the field without specialized equipment."

4 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. In other news... by kpainter · · Score: 4, Funny

    DARPA researchers discover messages can be transmitted using nothing more than a simple mirror.

  2. Re:cause... by rbrausse · · Score: 3, Funny

    depends. a mushroom cloud keeps foes away.

  3. Re:Doesn't seem terribly practical. by camperdave · · Score: 4, Funny

    One thing that might be interesting, the ability to produce a powerful radio signal by some chemical means.

    It's called a battery. You hook it up to your walkie-talkie, and away you go.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  4. No need to bother allowing dynamic encoding by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Funny

    You only need to have one preset message:

    "Enemy advancing on current position."

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley