Today, Technology Has Been Able To Respond To Most Of Our Needs, Both Essential And Unnecessary.
No one can deny the impact of science and technology in their daily life. Leading companies are working on designs and testing ideas that we could only dream of doing before.
Researchers are constantly trying to develop new technologies that significantly improve people’s quality of life.
Therefore, we will introduce the top 5 technologies expected to bring significant changes shortly.
1. A humanoid robot that can turn into liquid and change shape
Researchers in robotics have succeeded in building a shape-shifting robot that can change shape from liquid to metal and vice versa and move in complex and challenging environments. Inspired by sea cucumbers, these small robots can be soft or hard and overcome the limitations of today’s robots. Shortly, it is possible to use these robots in fields such as assembling electronic equipment that requires high precision or even medicine.
Researchers have designed different models of these robots. For example, one example of these robots in the laboratory environment has been able to travel through paths with obstacles and deliver medicinal substances precisely to the target point, which is a part of the human body. In another example, the robots managed to escape from the cage by changing their appearance.
Just similar to what we saw in the Terminator movie. Tiny robots that can traverse very small or complex spaces using conventional tools have many potential applications, from complex repairs to delivering drugs to specific parts of the human body. “The ability to switch between liquid and solid states in robots increases their performance,” says engineer Cheng Feng Pan from the University of Hong Kong.
The team of researchers led by Pan and his colleague King Yuan Wang took inspiration from nature to design such an efficient robot.
Creatures like sea cucumbers can change the stiffness of their tissues to increase load capacity and limit physical damage. Octopuses can change the stiffness of their arms for camouflage, manipulation, or locomotion.
Thus, researchers needed a non-toxic material that could easily change the soft and hard state at ambient temperature. They turned to gallium, a soft metal with a melting point of 29.76 degrees Celsius (85.57 degrees Fahrenheit) at standard pressure, just a few degrees below the average human body temperature. The temperature of your hand can quickly melt gallium.
Since the temperature of the human body is higher than the melting point of pure gallium, a robot designed for biomedical purposes must be able to have a gallium-based alloy matrix that increases the melting point while maintaining functionality. Of course, more research should be done on using these robots in biomedicine.
The researchers integrated a gallium matrix with magnetic particles and created an “active magnetic solid-liquid phase transition device.” Carmel Majidi, an Iranian mechanical engineer from Carnegie Mellon University and one of the senior authors of the research team’s article, says:
“Magnetic particles have two roles here.
One is that the magnetic particles make the material react to an alternating magnetic field, so you can inductively heat the material and cause a phase change. Another is that magnetic particles allow robots to move in response to the magnetic field.
After testing the reversibility of the solid-to-liquid transition in the robots, the researchers tested their tiny robots in various applications. The robots could jump over small ditches, climb obstacles, and even cooperate to perform cooperative tasks in moving objects. The researchers even made a miniature Lego-like humanoid version that would run through the bars to escape from a small prison cell and melt on the other side of the bars, just like in the Terminator movie.
Next, the research team designed a human stomach model and had the robot swallow and retrieve a small object inside the stomach, which could be a valuable method for extracting swallowed batteries, for example, and then reverse the operation and regain a thing.
They entered the stomach in the same way. Interestingly, robots can move around electronic circuits and melt onto them to act like a conductive material or solder and act as a connector. This team hopes that with this method, they can give a purposeful form to releasing drugs into the human body.
2. A paste material with electrical conductivity
Laboratory scientists have succeeded in identifying a type of conductive paste that will allow the creation of a new generation of electronic devices. This innovation is similar to a play dough with conductive properties and can be shaped into desired shapes. In this way, the new material combines the two characteristics of flexibility and conductivity to enable use in various applications.
Materials such as aluminum, copper, or other metals that conduct electricity have common characteristics in some cases. They comprise rows of atoms or molecules with a unified configuration that allows electrons to move freely.
Jiaze Xie, a researcher at the University of Chicago when testing materials based on molecular strings made of carbon and sulfur interlaced with nickel atoms, achieved unexpected results while conducting experiments. To his surprise, he observed that this material is a very efficient conductor of electricity and can maintain its performance in unfavorable conditions.
Zee, who is now working at Princeton University, said about these results, which were published in the journal Nature:
“We heated this material, cooled it, exposed it to air and moisture, poured acid and base on it, and nothing. There was no problem with it.”
The conductive ability of this material is in contrast to its disordered molecular structure. After experiments and simulations, the researchers came to the general conclusion that this is due to the existence of a lasagna-like configuration, in which the materials are placed next to each other like sheets of lasagna, allowing electrons to move both horizontally and vertically, even when that the layers are not aligned. “In principle, this material cannot be a metal, although there is no solid explanation,” said John Anderson, the study’s lead author.
Scientists believe this conductive material is unprecedented in its flexibility and electrical conductivity, which Anderson likens to “conductive play dough” that can be placed to conduct electricity.
Through chemical reactions, scientists have made conductors from organic materials easier to manufacture and more flexible; however, their conductivity decreases at high temperatures or humidity.
Despite the resistance of this material to the mentioned factors, scientists believe that they have created the basis of a new classification of conductive materials. “Essentially, this enables the design of a whole new class of materials that are electrically conductive, easy to shape, and very durable under normal conditions,” says Anderson.
Unlike conventional metals or conductive materials that must be melted into shapes to fit various electronic devices, this material can be made at room temperature. The team hopes to find more uses for the material by testing different forms and functions. “We think we can make it 2D or 3D or porous, or even define other functions by adding different nodes or links,” says Xi.
3. Detection of heavy metals in body sweat with a cheap sensor
Heavy metals such as lead and cadmium are present in our daily lives in batteries, cosmetics, food, and other items. The accumulation of these metals in the body is toxic and potentially causes problems in human health. However, their detection in body fluids requires expensive equipment and a controlled laboratory environment.
Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil have developed a portable sensor made of simple materials that detects heavy metals in body sweat with simple sampling. A group of researchers from the Institutes of Physics (IFSC) and Chemistry (IQSC) of Sao Carlos and researchers from the University of Munich, Germany, and Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, were present in this research.
The results of this research have been published in an article in “Chemosensors” magazine. Paulo Augusto Raimondo Pereira, a researcher and one of the authors of this paper, says: “By measuring the amount of metals in the human body, we have obtained important information about people’s health. High levels of cadmium can lead to fatal problems in the respiratory tract, liver, and kidneys.
Lead poisoning damages the central nervous system and causes irritability, cognitive impairment, fatigue, infertility, high blood pressure in adults, and developmental delay in children.
Humans eliminate heavy metals mainly through sweat and urine.
Analyzing these biological fluids is an essential part of toxicological tests and treatment. “The world needs flexible sensors that can be easily, quickly, and inexpensively mass-produced, as our device has for on-site detection, continuous monitoring, and decentralized analysis of hazardous compounds,” says Pereira.
Unlike other gold-standard tests (Gold-Standard Test) for detecting heavy metals in biological fluids, this sensor is made of materials that can be easily prepared. This device is made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), on top of which is a conductive flexible copper tape with a sensor printed on it and a protective nail varnish.
Robson R. “Copper is removed by soaking in a solution of ferric chloride for 20 minutes and then washing in distilled water,” Da says. All this guarantees speed, scalability, low consumption, and low cost.
This device is connected to a potentiostat, a portable instrument that determines the concentration of each metal by measuring the potential difference and current between the electrodes. The results of the measurements are displayed on a computer or smartphone using suitable application software.
The system is simple enough to be used by untrained laypersons and professionals in places like hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices.
The performance of this sensor in detecting lead and cadmium was evaluated in experiments using enriched artificial sweat under ideal experimental conditions, and successful results were reported.
Marcelo L. “Until the final filing of this device, we have not found any reports of using flexible copper sensors to detect toxic metals in sweat, but earlier searches are possible,” said Marcelo L. Calegaro, co-author of the paper. Show a similar case that would potentially preclude a patent application. We are working on fixes and additional apps to overcome this problem. A practical idea in this field is to use the above device to detect pesticides in water and food.
4. Monitoring facial expressions with a wearable sensor
Chinese scientists have designed a particular wearable sensor capable of monitoring facial expressions. This ultra-thin, antimicrobial, and breathable wearable sensor can monitor human body movements and even subtle facial expressions.
This sensor results from research by teams of researchers from Tsinghua University and Xi’an Polytechnic University, whose findings were published in the journal Nano Research.
This sensor is a three-layer nanogenerator with a sandwich structure that can extract renewable and abundant mechanical energy with high performance. It is covered by two nanofiber membranes on both sides, one of which is a 110 nm silver layer that acts as an electrode layer. The nanofiber in the middle layer of this sensor converts mechanical energy into electricity.
According to the study, this sandwich structure is only 91 micrometers thick and has significant antibacterial properties. Researchers believe that the sensor mentioned above can react to human movement due to its high sensitivity, and it is possible to use it in wearable technologies and health monitoring.
5. Seeing objects and people behind the wall using Wi-Fi routers
Researchers have been working on ways to see people behind walls without using cameras or expensive hardware like LiDAR for years. In 2013, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a way to use cell phone signals to see through walls. Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University and Waterloo University are working on a new advanced system to see humans in the next room.
In 2018, another group of researchers from the same institute used Wi-Fi to identify people in another room and map their movements as mannequins.
Now, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Waterloo are improving the system’s ability to see beyond walls using Wi-Fi. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new method to detect three-dimensional shapes and movements of the human body in a room using only Wi-Fi routers.
This group used DensePose, which maps all the pixels of the human body surface in a photo. Further, the information was provided to artificial intelligence to give an understandable image of the objects.
It is a method of capturing the coordinates associated with each joint, such as arm, head, torso, etc., which are critical points and can describe a person’s posture.
In the above method, researchers designed a deep neural network that maps the phase and amplitude of Wi-Fi signals sent and received by routers to map human body coordinates.
It is a method of capturing the coordinates associated with each joint, such as arm, head, torso, etc., which are critical points and can describe a person’s posture. In the above method, researchers designed a deep neural network that maps the phase and amplitude of Wi-Fi signals sent and received by routers to map human body coordinates.
It is a method of capturing the coordinates associated with each joint, such as arm, head, torso, etc., which are critical points and can describe a person’s posture. In the above method, researchers designed a deep neural network that maps the phase and amplitude of Wi-Fi signals sent and received by routers to map human body coordinates.
The technology sends a low-power Wi-Fi signal through the wall reverberating around the room. This signal detects all objects in the room and ignores stationary objects. When the call is reflected, it uses the reflection of moving objects to produce a radar-like image.
This signal can pass through standard ordinary walls, wooden fences, and even concrete walls, although the range and accuracy depend on the type of wall.
Technology and the Issue of privacy rights
Carnegie Mellon researchers believe Wi-Fi signals could be an alternative to conventional RGB cameras when sensing people in a room. “Using Wi-Fi can overcome obstacles such as poor light and occlusion that conventional camera lenses face,” they say.
According to their argument, this technology improves people’s privacy because it does not rely on cameras, and the necessary equipment can be purchased reasonably. Nowadays, most families have Wi-Fi at home, which may be used to monitor the health of older people or detect suspicious behavior at home.
In this connection, researchers from the University of Waterloo have built a drone called Wi-Peep, which can observe objects behind walls using Wi-Fi networks. This device can fly near a building and use the residents’ Wi-Fi network to identify and locate Wi-Fi-enabled devices located in the building.
Wi-Peep sends multiple messages to a device while in flight and then measures the response time of each, allowing it to pinpoint the device’s location within a meter.
What makes the Wi-Peep particularly noteworthy is its accessibility and portability. Researchers have built this particular drone for $20. This means that anyone with expertise can quickly create a similar device.
The potential applications of this technology are many.
For example, firefighters looking for people in a burning building or search and rescue operations can use the above technology.
However, the privacy implications are also significant, and it is essential to consider the potential consequences if the technology is used for different purposes.