Displays controlled by liquid droplets and flexible fins are more efficient and versatile than LED screens
New research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has made it possible to create flexible displays that change color and convey information, or even transmit veiled messages using infrared light. Engineers, inspired by chameleons’ and octopuses’ morphing skins, have created robotic flapping fins that can be controlled via capillaries to create multi-pixel displays with switchable optical light and infrared radiation. These displays are 1,000 times energy-efficient than light-emitting technologies.
Sameh Tawfick, professor of mechanical science and engineering at the University of Michigan, has led a new study that shows how fluid-filled pixels can be controlled to change their volume and temperature in order to switch from hot or cold and straight or bent fins. The volume of fluids in the pixels can be changed to change the direction in which the flaps will flip, similar to an old-fashioned flip clock. Changing the temperature also allows the pixels communicate using infrared. The findings of the study are published in Science Advances.
Tawfick’s interest in the interaction of elastic and capillary forces–or elasto-capillarity–started as a graduate student, spanned the basic science of hair wetting and led to his research in soft robotic displays at Illinois.
Source:
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-displays-flexible-fins-liquid-droplets.html
