Breakthroughs and trends in the world of technology.
Designer Geek
Print to Fit
Haute couture has always pushed the boundaries of style, catering to the deep-pocketed with cutting-edge garb that is superbly crafted from exotic, often expensive materials. So it was only a matter of time before high fashion and advanced technology fused. Dutch designer Iris van Herpen’s latest collection, shown here, uses 3-D printing to create clothing that resembles skeletons, frost crystals, and smoke – essentially redefining what “clothed” means. Two New York museums will highlight similarly tech-inspired fashion. “Coded_Couture,” which opens at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery in February, includes the Twitter dress – an evening gown embellished with 2,000 triangular hematite Swarovski Elements that light up and with which viewers can interact using a special hashtag. Another dress changes color based on social media feedback. One even analyzes stress in the wearer’s voice and lights up when it thinks she’s lying. “Customizing things through data seems so dry and scientific, but it results in garments that are lush and amazing and wonderful,” co-curator Ginger Gregg Duggan tells Fast Company magazine. Meanwhile, in May, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute opens “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” which will attempt to show that handcrafted and machine-made garments can be equally fine. The feathery number featured on the exhibit’s website, for example, is actually silicon on a cotton base, with molded bird heads injecting a note of whimsy. – Thomas K. Grose and Mary Lord
©High Museum Of Art Iris Van Herpen
Acoustic Engineering
Surround Sound
Sonic tractor beams that move objects have long been a staple of sci-fi – particularly old Star Trek episodes. Now researchers at the Universities of Sussex and Bristol have actually proved the concept is feasible. The team, which includes a Ph.D. student from Spain’s Public University of Navarre, used a flatbed array of 64 miniature loudspeakers to emit high-amplitude sound waves – ultrasound – that create an acoustic hologram able to lift, hold, move, and rotate a small bead 0.16 inches wide. Enveloping the bead with a force field of high-pitched, high-intensity sound allowed the researchers to manipulate the bead in midair by precisely controlling the speakers’ output. This ability to seemingly defy gravity is a step beyond the limited movement attained by previous studies that surrounded an object with speakers. Possible future applications could include the assembly and handling of delicate objects or the delivery of drugs or medical devices through living tissue. – TG
©Asier Marzo, Bruce Drinkwater and Sriram Subramanian
Relativity Physics
Watch the Clock
In August of last year, two satellites to be used for the Galileo global navigation system were blasted into space aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket by the European Space Agency. But a glitch caused them to be placed in an elliptical instead of a circular orbit, which rendered them unfit for their assignment. ESA’s boffins have managed to tweak their orbits, so they can now be used for navigation. But their orbit is still elliptical, and that’s given physicists a new, novel chance to reconfirm one of the predictions of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity — that clocks slow down when they’re near a massive object. Like Earth. Each satellite has an atomic clock onboard, and the theory holds that they should slow down as they move closer to Earth, then speed back to normal as they move farther away. Einstein’s theory got its only real-world test in 1976 when an atomic clock on Gravity Probe A was launched 10,000 kilometers into space and confirmed the prediction. This test will be more precise and take confirmation of the theory to a higher degree. Results should be known a year from now. Set your watches. – TG
©ESA–J. Huart
Artificial Intelligence
Steering Committee
Every major carmaker is putting huge sums toward making safe, self-driving cars a reality. Earlier this year, Toyota announced it would spend $50 million on artificial intelligence research at Stanford University and MIT. But now the Japanese automaker has placed an even bigger bet on autonomous vehicles and collision-avoidance systems, investing $1 billion over the next five years to open an AI and robotics research facility near Stanford, with a satellite branch next to MIT. The Toyota Research Institute will collaborate with academics from both schools. The institute’s CEO Gill Pratt, an engineer and former DARPA program manager, tells IEEE Spectrum that it will also support academic programs at both colleges to “nurture the pipeline of new talent.” Toyota says it wants to make life better for its customers and society, so the institute will work not only on automotive projects, such as bringing down the high costs of remote-sensing technology used in autonomous cars, but also to bring AI and robots into homes. The company is particularly interested in developing robots that could assist the elderly or infirm. – TG
©Thinkstock
Additive Manufacturing
Printed Plane
Major aerospace companies, including Boeing and Airbus, increasingly are using 3-D-printed parts in their aircraft. Airbus’s latest plane, the A350 XWB, has around 1,000 3-D parts. Boeing says more than 20,000 parts made using additive manufacturing will go into planes currently under construction. But so far, most of the 3-D printed parts used by manufacturers are not critical components. So Stratasys, a leading 3-D printer company, recently teamed up with Aurora Flight Sciences to build a jet-powered drone assembled almost entirely from 3-D parts. Around 80 percent of the UAV’s components of the UAV were made using additive manufacturing. The finished product, which was recently unveiled at the Dubai Airshow, has a nine-foot wingspan, and weighs a mere 33 pounds. But it can attain speeds of 150 mph. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest, fastest, most complex 3-D-printed UAV ever produced,” say Scott Sevcik, a senior manager at Stratasys. One reason manufacturers have shied away from making critical parts with 3-D printing is to first ensure that they meet tough safety regulations that require components to be able to handle extreme levels of speed, temperature, and vibration. The jet-powered drone built by Stratasys and Aurora is meant to show the industry that 3-D-printed aircraft can meet those demands. – TG
©Stratasys
Data Retrieval
Sing Along
There are around 2.7 zettabytes (that’s 2.7 followed by 21 zeros) of data in the world and most of it is stored magnetically on hard drive disks. They’re a bit like CDs. As they spin rapidly, they’re scanned by sensors that read the data. Retrieving data from hard drives is one reason computers sometimes run slowly — the process isn’t terribly efficient. Flash drives are solid state, and the data is stored electrically, so they’re faster. But they can burn out quickly, they’re costly, and compared to other parts on computers, they’re still too slow. So there’s a lot of effort underway to devise magnetic solid-state drives. One promising technology is called racetrack memory. It uses magnetic bits of information that run up and down on nano-sized wires, somewhat akin to cars on a racetrack. So far, efforts to move the data bits use either electric currents or magnetic fields, which reduces power efficiency and creates heat. But Tom Hayward, a materials engineer at Britain’s University of Sheffield, and John Cunningham, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Leeds, may have a solution: using sound waves to “sing” to large numbers of nanowires simultaneously to move the bits. They’ve found they can change data flow by changing the pitch. They’re now working on a prototype to fully test the concept. If it works and offers the promise of speedier PCs, we may soon be singing the praises of Hayward and Cunningham. – TG
©Thinkstock
Biomimicry
Different Strokes
Sea lions may be ungainly on land, but they’re strong, agile swimmers. And unlike most other aquatic creatures, including whales and dolphins, they use their front flippers instead of their tails in a version of the breaststroke, creating a jet stream that propels them through the water without generating a wake. Megan Leftwich, a George Washington University assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, became fascinated with sea lions a few years ago when watching them in their tank at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. She then worked with the zoo to film the mammals in action. The resulting 100 hours of footage has yielded 30 minutes of useful data that Leftwich and her team used to build a robotic fore flipper that mimics the real thing but can be controlled externally. Leftwich, whose background is in fluid dynamics, hopes to use the mechanical flipper to better understand how the water reacts to the movements. Her research could lead to highly maneuverable, stealthy submarines able to navigate around underwater minefields without disturbing the bombs or travel long distances on a single battery charge. – TG
©Leftwich Lab, George Washington University
Telecommunication
X-Ray Vision
AUSTRALIA – Finding survivors beneath the rubble after earthquakes and other natural disasters is no easy chore. And time is of the essence. A device that can “see” through walls now under development at Australia’s Sydney University could help speed those efforts. Researcher Xiaopeng Wang’s prototype uses electromagnetic waves that can penetrate barriers and send back information about objects on the other side. The current version can figure out the shape and width of a human, says Wang, 25, a doctoral student in electrical engineering. His prototype is a bit bulky and needs two hands to hold, so he’s now working on a smaller version that could fit in one hand. Wang told the local media that as a child in China he was a huge fan of Superman and envied the Man of Steel’s x-ray vision because of its lifesaving potential. But as it turns out, the fictional Superman has nothing on Wang — a real-life engineering hero. – Chris Pritchard and TG
©Thinkstock
Engine Technology
High Notes
The Ferrari’s banshee-like whine stands out among the throaty growls of most deluxe sports cars. The Italian automaker went public in October with a share price of $52, which values the company at $4 billion – high for a relatively small manufacturer. In honor of that feat, the Economist last month ran a lengthy paean that explained how engineers have managed to create “the bright tenor sound” that sings “Ferrari.” A key component of the car’s V-8 power plant is a flat-plane crankshaft that can “spin up faster and rev to much higher speeds” than the conventional cross-plane cranks most cars use. But, the magazine warns, Ferrari’s newer models will use a smaller, turbocharged V-8 motor that sounds, well, a bit more like other muscle cars on the road. Among Ferrari aficionados, the whining’s already starting. – TG
©Ferrari
Biomaterials Engineering
Clothes Call
An artsy video on the MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group website includes footage of two dancers working themselves into a sweat. As their bodies heat up, small cooling panels on their spandex suits automatically open. Even cooler is what powers the breathable outfit’s mechanical panels: Bacillus subtilis natto, a bacterium used for centuries in Japan to create a pungent, fermented-soybean dish. Noting that the bacterium can increase its size by up to 50 percent the more humid its environment becomes, Lining Yao, a Ph.D. student in design, and her Second Skin team created a biofilm that can be printed onto spandex. (The work is supported by athletic company New Balance.) Depending on the pattern, the film can make the flaps either curl up or bend sharply. Locating the clothing’s flaps around the body’s heat zones allows perspiration to evaporate, cooling the wearer. – TG
©2012 Tangible Media Group / MIT Media Lab
Virus Detection
Ebola Control
The current gold standard for detecting the Ebola virus is called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and within a few hours it can detect from oral swabs if viral RNA is present. But a new procedure called RPA, or recombinase polymerase amplification, can detect the virus within 30 minutes, according to researchers at Germany’s Gottingen University and the German Primate Center. Moreover, the team of researchers has packaged the test into a portable “suitcase” lab that’s solar powered, so it can be used in remote areas. In a recent field study in Guinea, in which 928 swab samples were tested, 808 were negative and 120 were positive, and the accuracy was 100 percent, which matches the efficacy of PCR tests. But the team says the RPA method is not only faster; it’s technically simpler. Ebola outbreaks are easier to control when on-site diagnoses can be done as quickly as possible. The kit could also be used to detect other dangerous infectious diseases, including the Dengue virus. – TG
©Karin Tilch
Brain Research
Mice in Motion
Engineers continue to be on the forefront of breakthroughs in neuroscience. At the Champalimaud Center for the Unknown in Lisbon, Portugal, a team of engineers, computer scientists, and biologists has developed a video tracking system called LocoMouse that can measure and analyze the locomotion of mice, including detecting the position of paws, snout, tail, and body. Mice are used to research impairments to the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls movement, balance, and coordination. The LocoMouse team discovered that forward movement in mice with and without cerebellar degeneration was indistinguishable. The motor impairments came instead from the brain’s inability to anticipate, compensate for, and coordinate movements being made by the whole body. Meanwhile, a City College of New York team led by Lingyan Shi, a biomedical engineer, has proved that using light at wavelength 1,600-1,880 nm (nanometer) can produce images of brain and breast tissue at much deeper levels than currently possible. Her technique – dubbed the Golden Window in near-infrared imaging – produces higher-resolution images by reducing the scattering that causes blurring. – TG
©Megan Carey
Solid Waste
Self-Cleaning Dump
A “dry tomb” sounds rather dreary. And it is. Dry tombs are landfills that have dried out, which slows the process of waste degradation. Dry-tomb landfills take decades before they stabilize and can be put to new uses. But Krishna Reddy, a professor of civil and materials engineering at the University of Illinois, Chicago, has won a three-year, $280,000 National Science Foundation grant to design landfills that not only avoid becoming dry tombs but also productively treat themselves. The plan is to come up with a method to capture moisture as it leaches out and recycle it back into the landfill, along with bacteria that can speed up the breaking down of organic waste and create usable, energy-rich gas in the process. Once the organic materials have decomposed, landfills could be mined for inorganic wastes, mainly valuable metals, including iron, copper, and aluminum. Sites then could be repurposed much sooner than they are now. If Reddy’s research works, dry tombs could soon end up in the dustbin of history. – TG
©Thinkstock