(Press-News.org) A Korean research team succeeded in developing a technology generating various vibration using LED light signals. The technology allows various tactile sensations by area and reduction in size by considerably lowering the cost of light source, and these are expected to be applied to many industries including automobile and electronics.
The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, or ETRI for short, announced that it succeeded in developing a technology to implement various vibrations using LED. This technology was widely recognized as published on the cover of the February 10 issue of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces1), a leading scientific journal.
* Glossary description 1) ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, a scientific journal ranking among the top 14%; impact factor at 8.758 / on the supplementary cover.
Haptic technology refers to an interface that can create an experience of touch to the user. As applications of touch-screen devices and remotely controlled tasks have increased via smartphone, home appliance, medical equipment, and virtual game, demand for technology requiring accuracy and safety is also on the rise.
Representative applications using haptic technology include vibrations made on the smartphone and tablet screen. The currently commercialized technology offers vibrations felt on the entire device like a mono speaker. The user feels the consistently same vibration regardless of where he or she touches.
The technology realized by ETRI allows the user to experience varying tactile sensations by area where his/her finger touches. The technology is expected to be optimized for the environment where the user's fingers can feel varying textures of different products while shopping online.
At present, the vibration made on the smartphone or game pad is created by the movement of a pendulum attached to the motor. Drawbacks includes the inability to deliver delicate tactile sensations by part, since the consistently same vibration effect spreads to an entire device.
Another technology was recently developed to create vibrations using shock waves per momentary temperature change using laser; due to the price2) of the laser used for the technology at tens of thousands of USD, however, it is known to be difficult to reduce in size and commercialize.
* Glossary description 2) Nanosecond Pulse Laser: Laser radiates amplified light in pulse in nanosecond (one billionth of a second).
The research team at ETRI succeeded in developing a technology that transformed light signals at low outcome into vibration. This technology can allow productions of display screens making independent vibrations by part using multiple LEDs in small size, whose price range is 1/10,000 of the extremely expensive laser light source.
This technology is based on the principle that absorbs light energy and turns it into thermal energy. When the film coated with special photothermal layer3) is applied with light energy, the film goes through bending and restoration depending on the thermal expandability of the material as it is heated and cooled, creating vibration.
* Glossary description 3) PEDOT-Tos (Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-tosylate): A conductive polymer material efficiently absorbs near infrared light.
The research team utilized this technology to prove the possibility of making precise vibrations with a wide frequency bandwidth4) by creating a 3x3 LED sequence made of nine 1cm2 units. The team believes the size will be easily applied to a much larger area.
* Glossary description 4) "Frequency bandwidth" refers to the range that can control the vibration per second (Hz). Humans are known to react most sensitively to vibrations in the range of 100-200 Hz, gentle to high frequencies and rough to lower frequencies. The wider the range, the more varied the frequency can express vibration. Currently the new technology can express 125-300 Hz.
The latest trend in the automobile industry includes the use of one touch-screen integrated with various control functions including navigation, media, and mutual assistance systems in place of traditional operative devices, such as buttons or dials. Currently, feedback per touch input is simple; through this new technology, however, tactile sensations to turn a dial, press a button, slide and the like can be simultaneously added.
The technology offers durability in particular as it does not include an electric structure in the film for easy application to a thin and flexible display screen. As it can integrate well with the currently active field of flexible devices, it is expected to be applied to various researches.
The research team also expects to utilize the new technology as an alternative to supplement Braille by grafting it with information devices for the visually challenged. It plans to make an effort to commercialize the technology for automobiles, touch-screen devices, electronic displays, smartphones and more.
"The technology is expected to be used widely to support people who are vulnerable with information, such as the visually challenged, by practically applying the original technology designed to deliver information through tactile sensation," said Shin Hyung-cheol, head of the Human Enhancement & Assistive Technology Research Section at ETRI.
The research team is currently engaged in follow-up studies to create vibrations that are strong enough for users to feel the sensation by increasing the efficiency of light-to-vibration energy conversion and to reduce the consumption of electric energy.
This performance was part of the project titled "Research on the Original Technology of Human-centered Autonomous Intelligent Systems" supported by the Korean Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT). The research team at ETRI has published 10 academic theses and applied for 7 patents related to this technology.
INFORMATION:
About Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute(ETRI)
ETRI is a non-profit government-funded research institute. Since its foundation in 1976, ETRI, a global ICT research institute, has been making its immense effort to provide Korea a remarkable growth in the field of ICT industry. ETRI delivers Korea as one of the top ICT nations in the World, by unceasingly developing world's first and best technologies.
This demonstration technology was developed with the assistance of the Ministry of Science and ICT. The technology was published on the cover of the February 10 issue of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
Researchers have answered key questions to help prevent damage and improve the safety of hydraulic systems used for pipelines, water turbines and other applications.
The work, led by engineers at the University of Waterloo, investigates a phenomenon known as cavitation, or the formation and collapse of destructive gas-filled bubbles resulting from rapid pressure changes in liquids.
Cavitation is behind a well-known party trick that involves shattering the bottom of a liquid-filled bottle by striking its open top with the palm of your hand.
"The growth and collapse of cavitation bubbles are fascinating," said Zhao Pan, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering who led the research. ...
RICHMOND, Va. (April 12, 2021) -- E-cigarettes that deliver a cigarette-like amount of nicotine are associated with reduced smoking and reduced exposure to the major tobacco-related pulmonary carcinogen, NNAL, even with concurrent smoking, according to a new study led by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
The study, which will be published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal, provides new and important information for smokers who may be trying to use e-cigarettes as a means to cut down on their smoking habit and lower their exposure to harmful toxicants.
"[We found] e-cigarettes with nicotine delivery like a combustible cigarette were effective in helping reduce ...
Toronto (April 12, 2021) - Researchers from University Health Network have developed and validated an innovative deep learning model to predict a patient's long-term outcome after receiving a liver transplant.
First of its kind in the field of Transplantation, this model is the result from a collaboration between the Ajmera Transplant Centre and Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. The study, published in Lancet Digital Health, shows it can significantly improve long-term survival and quality of life for liver transplant recipients.
"Historically, we have seen good advances in one-year post-transplant outcomes, but survival in the longer term hasn't significantly improved in the past decades," explains Dr. Mamatha Bhat, a hepatologist with the Ajmera Transplant Centre ...
Convenience and access win out over reputation when people over 50 look for a doctor for themselves, a new study finds.
But online ratings and reviews of physicians play an important role, and should receive attention from providers and policymakers, the researchers say.
About 20% of older adults called such ratings very important to them, but 43% said they had checked such reviews in the past for physicians they were considering for themselves.
Still, factors like insurance acceptance, appointment availability, location and hours won out over reputational information, although about 40% said a recommendation from another physician was very important to them. Recommendations from family and friends ...
A team led by University of Minnesota researchers has discovered that deep-sea bacteria dissolve carbon-containing rocks, releasing excess carbon into the ocean and atmosphere. The findings will allow scientists to better estimate the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, a main driver of global warming.
The study is published in END ...
Cows don't seem to have a whole lot going on most of the time. They're raised to spend their days grazing in the field, raised for the purpose of providing milk or meat, or producing more cows. So when students in UC Santa Barbara ecologist Doug McCauley's lab found themselves staring intently at satellite image upon image of bovine herds at Point Reyes National Seashore, it was funny, in a "Far Side" kind of way.
"There were about 10 undergrads involved in the project, spotting cows from space -- not your typical student research and always amusing to see in the ...
Creating a two-dimensional material, just a few atoms thick, is often an arduous process requiring sophisticated equipment. So scientists were surprised to see 2D puddles emerge inside a three-dimensional superconductor - a material that allows electrons to travel with 100% efficiency and zero resistance - with no prompting.
Within those puddles, superconducting electrons acted as if they were confined inside an incredibly thin, sheet-like plane, a situation that requires them to somehow cross over to another dimension, where different rules of quantum physics apply.
"This is a tantalizing example of emergent behavior, which is often difficult or impossible to replicate by trying to engineer it from scratch," said Hari Manoharan, a professor at Stanford University and investigator ...
When Iranian authorities started seizing Barbie dolls from Tehran toy shops in 2012, Mattel Inc. execs faced concerns not only about the dolls' attire -- miniskirts and swimsuits considered immodest in an Islamic country -- but also questions from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about Mattel's ties to Iran.
U.S. businesses are restricted from business in Iran, which U.S. authorities have designated a state sponsor of terrorism (SST). The number of SEC inquiries about potential terrorist ties has grown substantially in recent years, and according to new research from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, the increase could reduce the quality of the agency's financial reporting oversight.
"Comments on terrorism are getting to a critical level of importance ...
Really big systems, like ocean currents and weather, work on really big scales. And so too does your plastic waste, according to new research from Janice Brahney from the Department of Watershed Sciences. The plastic straw you discarded in 1980 hasn't disappeared; it has fragmented into pieces too small to see, and is cycling through the atmosphere, infiltrating soil, ocean waters and air. Microplastics are so pervasive that they now affect how plants grow, waft through the air we breathe, and permeate distant ecosystems. They can be found in places as varied as the human bloodstream to ...
To maximise absorption of nutrients from the diet, the intestinal mucous membrane has a large surface area. However, this also makes it vulnerable to attack from aggressive gut microbes. A new study by Uppsala University researchers now shows that the surface layer of the mucosa, known as the epithelium, can rapidly contract when it recognises a bacterial attack. The results are published in the journal PNAS.
Every year, hundreds of millions of people worldwide suffer from bacterial gut infections of one kind or another, which are often hard to treat. Antibiotics can kill the normal flora of the intestine, ...
