http://weburbanist.com/2009/06/16/10-fanta...actually-exist/

narry a comment? very well

I would have thought the light pourous concrete would have gotten at least a honorable mention

I liked the super non-Newtonian liquid. I think it would be something like this that would be put inside a rigger's cocoon.

I've seen the concrete before, as well as the invisibility cloak, graphene,* the transparent aluminum, and the aerogel.

*They only won a Nobel prize for isolating it using scotch tape and a pencil.

You can find a lot of examples of less fantastic but equally futuristic stuff at Inventables. Cool stuff is out there, you just have to look.

Hydrophobic sand is decades old. You can make your own with hairspray. It is, however, oodles of fun allowing you to make underwater sandcastles.

Gearless angle drive: meh. Betcha it uses a spring on the inside. And at a fixed 90 degree angle, not so useful.
Temperature sensitive flexible sheets are at least as old as hydrophobic sand. Hell, those some of those snap-on bracelets were made of the stuff back when they were cool.
Stretch Fabric is also not new.

Some of the other stuff I haven't heard of before, but either doesn't surprise me or isn't really "futuristic."

A usb chargeable battery is cool, but not really surprising.
Stretch sensors, bend sensors, machined springs, "flat wires" (oooh, who thought that one up? Seriously, not that unique)...

I mean, hell, I wondered about the feasibility of machined springs when I was young!

Also, way too much of the temperature sensitive materials. They've got glass, plastic, flexible sheets, and at least two fabrics.

Now, 3D spacial sound. That's cool.
(And no, it's not stereo surround sound, it works in the same way as 3D movies do with light, but instead uses sound waves)

There's some pretty cool stuff in there. Thanks for the link

No, I see how it works. There are three bent solid steel bars. They fit into holes in the two body segments, and all three can spin freely. The center bar however has a fixed depth position whereas the two outer bars can slide in and out of the holes. As the assembly turns, the outer bars slide in on the inside of the bend and out on the outside of the bend.

It's actually pretty clever. No springs needed.

I found a similar product elsewhere that does a 45 degree angle, but it's out of stock. Actually, poking around the internets, it appear a number of places carry similar products.



-k

Ah, that's how it works, that's actually pretty clever.