Cool engineering that were once reserved for science fabrication are invading our reality at an accelerate pace . In some cases , our earthly concern - tie scientists have proven that apparently impossible technologies can be developed , but they still have some obstacles to get the better of first . In other cases , those technologies are already here .
10. Squishy Robots
Photo credit : MIT
If you ’ve watched the movieTerminator 2 then you ’ve seen the T-1000 robot pinch through sozzled areas by changing into a liquidity . It could repair itself that way , too . Now , scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have made their own version of the shape - shift T-1000 a reality .
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ) want deformable ( or “ squishy ” ) robots that acted like an octopus . That mean they could extort through taut space and enlarge afterward to move around a larger space . In a surgical background , a squishy automaton would be able-bodied to move to a sure point in a human trunk without get damage to parentage vas or organs . Then it could perform the necessary surgical task . In a search - and - rescue operation , a squishy robot could wedge through rubble to determine survivors .
To attain these goals , scientists needed a material that could shift between a hard state ( when the robot would deal peter or do other job ) and a soft state ( when the robot would squeeze under or between objective ) . As Anette Hosoi , an MIT prof , said in a word button , “ You ca n’t just create a pipe bowl of Jell - O , because if the Jell - O has to manipulate an object , it would but deform without implement substantial pressure to the thing it was adjudicate to move . ”
Ultimately , the scientist chose alow - cost , polyurethan foamwhich could squeeze to an extremely small size and expand to its normal configuration later . Then they coat it with wax that ’s cheaply available in guile stores . By applying average heat to wire lead along coated foam struts , the wax could morph from a hard shell to a soft airfoil . The electric current could be turned on and off as needed . When warmth was applied to the wax , the golem would also bushel itself automatically .
9. Mind Control of Inanimate Objects
exposure cite : A. Heddergott / TU Munchen
In “ Spock ’s brainpower , ” an sequence from the originalStar Trek serial , a beautiful Eymorg extract the brain from Mr. Spock ’s torso and used it to assure thing like air circulation in the hole-and-corner complex where her people inhabit . Successfully bump off someone ’s brain to run a building may seem far - fetched , but check an pulseless object with your thoughts has become reality .
The goal of a project call “ Brainflight , ” which is fund by the European Union , is to control an airplane using only the signalsfrom a human brain . The researchers desire to make fly easier , gimcrack from a training standpoint , and accessible to more citizenry . They believe this will increase safe by reducing the loading on current pilots .
The initial test results have beenamazingly exact . While wearing a cap with electroencephalography ( EEG ) electrodes attached , a pilot ’s mental capacity waves are converted into command for the aircraft . The pilot never touches the equipment or controls . Instead , they appear to move by themselves . But it ’s not mind interpretation , just sign processing determined by an algorithm developed by the researcher . The positioning of the plane will repeatedly correct until it lands smoothly — all through mind control .
Seven people with various levels of experience participated in flight simulator trial . One player had no real cockpit experience , but everyone was accurate enough in their thought commands to pass the flying portion of a pilot ’s license test . Many of the participants were even capable to down smoothly under conditions of poor visibility .
8. Weather Modification
OnStar Trek : The Next Generation and other sci - fi shows , the role sometimes mentioned “ scientific ” proficiency that would barricade tornadoes or change the weather in other style . But they were just creations from a author ’s imagination . Even in our public , some people make up confederacy theories aboutweather adjustment . Well , they ’re about to get something existent to spill about .
researcher from the University of Central Florida and the University of Arizona are raise a means to shoot a high - energy laser balance beam into the cloud to producerain or lightning on demand . Other researchers have been able-bodied to cause an electrical event in the cloud , although they could n’t trigger a bolt of lightning .
The Florida and Arizona researchers faced at least a couple of problems . First , they had to make certain that this type of high - vigour optical maser beam did n’t fizzle out before it hit the target . They also needed to calculate the balance beam from a good length to avoid being struck by lightning . To work these problems , they decided to utilise a secondary optical maser beam to surround and maintain the high - intensity primary balance beam . With the secondary laser acting as an energy man-made lake , the primary laser beam could travel much farther than before . It ’s like using a optical maser extension cord to reach the cloud .
With their method acting , they ’ve extended the scope of the optical maser from 25 centimeters ( 10 in ) to at least two cadence ( 7 ft ) . But they consider it ’s possible to go 50 meter ( 165 ft ) or more . This would allow us to control rain and lightning over a vast area .
7. Tractor Beams
Tractor beam that use vigor to pull objects toward you or your ship are commonly used in science fable , especially inStar Wars and Star Trek . But for a recollective fourth dimension , it seemed adverse to the laws of physics in the real world . Recently , though , scientists at Australian National University evolve a tractor ray on water . According to the leader of the squad , Dr. Horst Punzmann , they “ image out a means of create wave that canforce a floating objectto move against the direction of the undulation . ” In other speech , this waving - father tractor beam draws the item to it .
Using a wafture tank , the scientists figured out how to move a Ping River pong clump in the direction they require by manipulate the frequency and sizing of the waves generated . They discovered that these three - dimensional wave cause current on the H2O ’s surface in different patterns . One of those patterns is a tractor irradiation that should be useful in containing crude oil spills or maneuvering objects adrift in the piss .
Physicists at the University of Dundee have also develop anacoustic tractor beamthat ’s able to move an object of 1 centimeter ( 0.4 in ) in size . Until now , only microscopic objects have been moved with this type of shaft . The scientists were able to use ultrasound vim to maintain force behind the object and move it toward the echography equipment . They trust that this engineering will importantly encourage the utilization of sonography in health care .
6. Tricorders
AnotherStar Trek machine is the tricorder , a hand-held scanner that was often used by Dr. McCoy to scan patients when relieve oneself a aesculapian diagnosis . Other eccentric used tricorders to scan for life forms or to analyze planet surface . In our world , the engineering now exists to ensure types of tricorders a distinct possibility in the good future .
At the University of Southampton , scientists are developing a handheld aesculapian electronic scanner that uses electronic components as chemical substance sensors . That would allow forsame - day diagnosisof protein samples from a patient role ’s bedside . These scanners thin the cost and time needed to get a patient role their discourse by reject the indigence to send sample to a lab .
Other scientists at the University of Missouri are developing another type of tricorder that apply a radiation source as modest asa stick of gum . Their tricorder would be a hand-held 10 - light beam image scanner that could be used for aesculapian X - ray , for fighting terrorist act , or even for interplanetary exploration .
The scanner itself would be the size of a cell sound . In addition to reduce aesculapian disbursement , this tricorder could bring much needed go - beam diagnostic avail to affected role in wretched , remote area . It could also be used for dental X - rays that cut down the patient ’s photograph to irradiation .
To fight terrorism , this tricorder could search cargo for weapons and other illegal items at point of accounting entry into a state . Plus , these scanner could be design with sensing element to help in exploring planets , either our own or others if used on interplanetary probe .
5. Biometric Payments With Vein Scanning
It ’s commonplace in scientific discipline fabrication to use retina scan or other biometric method to access top - secret information , like with Project Genesis on Star Trek II : The Wrath of Khan . Now Fredrik Leifland , an technology student at Sweden ’s Lund University , has taken that construct and applied it to biometric payments that access secure depository financial institution accounting . As of April 2014 , there were 15 restaurants and stores in Sweden that used Leifland ’s nervure - scanning engineering to take payment from a customer ’s money box story . At that prison term , about 1,600 customers were actively using the system as an option to paying with hard currency or credit cards .
This vein - scanning payment method is suppose to be leisurely , straightaway , and secure . As Leifland say in a Lund University clause , “ Every individual ’s vein pattern iscompletely singular , so there really is no way of committing fraud with this system of rules . You always need your hand scanned for a payment to go through . ”
4. Robonauts With Space Legs
picture credit : NASA
Human - same automaton have been a mainstay in science fiction plastic film , TV , books , and comic books . They persist the gamut from Astro Boy to C-3PO and beyond . In the real earth , we have Robonaut , a golem designed by General Motors and NASA which wetold you about before .
But the human - same Robonaut 2 ( R2 ) is now lead the next stone’s throw . The R2 golem aboard the International Space Station ( ISS ) originally had just a head and trunk with two arms and hand . That meant astronauts had to take employment to the golem .
But that ’s vary — now , R2 has climbing leg to take over more duties from the astronauts . This is the first robonaut in blank space that ’s mobile . R2 will go by working inside the space station with the eventual finish of being capable to workoutside the station . NASA wants to send increasingly sophisticated robonauts wherever humans go in space . Whether astronauts intend to go to a moonlight or a planet , robonauts will be useful . They may go beforehand of humans to get things quick , go with humans to help with the tasks of everyday living and exploration , or stay without humans to keep up things in space .
3. Deflector Shields
University of Leicester student write an interesting paper on the feasibility of creatingStar Wars – character deflector buckler to protect a spaceship from foe optical maser fervency in today ’s world . According to these student , you ’d need to employ a strong magnetic field to contain adense , super - hot plasm fieldaround your ship . To deflect higher frequence of optical maser radiation , you ’d need denser plasma in your shield .
This might seem implausible , but we already use a like technique with radio communications and radar . You see , the ionosphere that smother our planet is a plasma theatre . It ponder radio transmissions and radiolocation back to Earth just as a shield around a starship would fend off laser flak .
Although the necessitate magnet strength for a deflector is possible today , there are at least a couple of problem that need to be overcome to shield a spaceship . First , the size of it of the necessary superpower source would be so big that there would n’t be much room left in your starship . Our skill has n’t yet developed a power source that ’s workable in size of it . The 2nd problem is that pilots would be effectively blind by the shield . Any shield that avert light actinotherapy also prevents light from make to the pilot . So unless the Force is guiding you , you ’d need another weak source that ’s beyond the relative frequency of lightsome radioactivity . An ultraviolet camera would be one possibility .
Even though we ’re not ready to engross the Imperial Fleet yet , there are other app for this type of technology that we could use here on Earth . For example , alternatively of deflecting the radiation , the Leicester students suggest trapping it for use with a fusion reactor .
2. Cloaking Devices
In fable , cloaking devices look in many physical body , from the Romulan cloaking gadget inStar Trekthat could blot out a spaceship , to Harry Potter ’s invisibility cloak , to the perfectly camouflage Predator that mix in with its hobo camp surround .
We ’re not able to hide a spaceship yet , but real cloaking engineering are being developed in today ’s world for light , sound , feeling , and heating plant . Many of these engineering are expected to employ artificial metamaterials , which refract light in such a way that an objective is rendered unseeable . Since we last talkedabout metamaterials , scientists have developed a way to use unfocused laser light like needles to serve get metamaterialsat the nanoscale . Metamaterials are also being acquire to cloaksoundandtouch .
There are still a luck of hurdles to overcome before metamaterials become part of our everyday realism . One problem is cost . Another is scalability . But scientists are making forward motion in that area by ferment on a technique callednanotransfer printingthat will make larger swaths of metamaterial .
There ’s one type of cloak that is a reality today . According to engineers at the National University of Singapore , a piranha - similar machine is possible right now to some extent . These engineers have created a machine that can at the same time provide the illusion of camo and try someone “ invisible ” byblocking their thermic theme song . That means that the mortal ca n’t be tail by their consistency ’s heating system signature tune .
This method of cloaking soldier is cost - effective because it uses natural , self - warming materials instead of more complicated metamaterials . The thermal cloak is ready to go for military applications and can be easy scaled , if necessary . investigator are also make for on a camouflage gadget that will see colour and match it so that an object can blend in with its surroundingslike an devilfish does .
1. Rosie the Robot Maid
Photo credit : Wyss Institute
Even cartoons can inspire technology . Rosie the Robot was a maid that the outer space - age Jetsons engage to do their housekeeping . In the early sixties , when the cartoon aired , that seemed like a futurist fantasy . But today we ’re a big footstep closer to the reality of anyone being able-bodied to buy or rend an cheap automaton to sweep up or even detect a gas leak . You ’d plainly get hold of a robotic helper adroitness , secern them what you ask , and in about an hour they ’d provide a canonical golem to complete your job .
That ’s the visual sense of scientists who ’ve formulate robots that can gather themselves and take the air or creep off to do their jobswithout human intercession . These engineers build a self - assembling robot that can put itself together in four minutes using small more than paper and a children ’s plaything calledShrinky Dinks , which are sheets of flexible plastic that shrink when heated into small , arduous plates . This method acting is patterned after the style amino battery-acid self - assemble into proteins with dissimilar functions . These robots could be used on Earth and in space , although they ’re not quite quick for select time . The scientists need to try out with material that are stronger and need less heat energy to operate .
This articlehas been reposted with permission fromListverse . To say in its entirety , head here . For more from Listverse , you’re able to steer hereorLike them on Facebook here .
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