Scientists working on method to turn off your walls
By Ryan Block 
posted February 20th 2006 3:44AM
posted February 20th 2006 3:44AM
We can't tell you how many times a day
we wish we could flip a switch and turn a wall on or off, and it sounds like at least some scientists at the Imperial
College in London and the University of Neuchatel are on their way to creating just that. Or at least that's what
they'd have us believe; they won't really discuss their discoveries too openly, but they claim to have created crystals
invisible to the human eye, which could theoretically imbue building materials and make things (like walls) invisible.
We're a little skeptical, so we encourage said boffins to um, show us. That is, if they can find where they placed
their fantastic invisible material.[Thanks, Nick]
This isn't going to work some how, if they can't even see their 'invention'. It sounds like a massive fraud.
Sounds like science fiction to me. Besides wouldn't it be pretty easy to walk into these invisible walls? Loving the mime image on the story! Classic.
Why is it so hard to imagine ‘invisible’ building materials?
Ever heard of something called ‘glass’?
- Michael
be a good prank..or could make some unexpected porn..i mean i guess
I've heard of this before, if it's the same thing. I don't know the technical terms, but the technology involves a sort of glass wall with crystals in it. When the wall is switched off, the crystals are all arranged in a random order, which results in frosted glass. When it is switched on, an electric current is passed through the crystals which causes them all to be arranged in a specific order, resulting in transparent glass.
To anyone who is wondering, yes, I did see this on the Discovery Channel :P
so, does that mean they don't go away, like to make a room bigger or smaller?
The article says "invisible," and I think you'd be hearing much more about this technology in other news outlets if it actually allowed physical walls to be switched off to the point were a person could pass through them.
-- QUOTE --
"I've heard of this before, if it's the same thing. I don't know the technical terms, but the technology involves a sort of glass wall with crystals in it. When the wall is switched off, the crystals are all arranged in a random order..."
-- END QUOTE --
This was seen in the Big Brother House believe it or not here in England. Indeed it works. They used it on the bathroom so when the lightswitch was flicked on (or the door was shut I can't remember which) the glash become opaque. It's all to do with electrical currents as explained above.
I saw something similar at a science fair in Lyon, France. A thin pane of glass-like crystal could be rendered opaque when electically stimulated.
So either this is just further research down that road, which would probably lead to interesting applications soon enough.
Or it's a completely different approach, which would be understandable as I believe the main problem that was pointed out to me with the previous system was the production cost (and overall fragility).
I guess you mean electrochromic windows, and as far as I know it's nothing new.
Silly idea in that they make make the wall "invisible" but there is no way they are going to make all the pipes, electrical wiring and insulation invisibile so if you do flick the switch and see next door, be prepared to see all the above and a couple of dead cochroaches laying about.
The electrochromic windows work by applying a small electric charge to a special sheet of glass, thus bringing all of the electrons to an excited state where they will generall face the same direction (or something to that point).
That requires a special sheet of glass. This article makes it sound like they're gonna turn just a regular sheet of drywall or plaster wall invisible. Thus I declare shenanigans.
However, wasn't there a Star Trek movie where they had to go back in time and kidnap a whale or something. They had to "invent" a clear aluminium some several hundred years beforehand to do so.
I dunno, I watched a lot of tv as a child, prolly rotted my brain as much as half these articles do.
Near the beginning of "Sum of all Fears" (yes, it sucked) there is a conference of some sort, and it takes place in a "glass" room whose walls go "frosted" when the door is shut. I always wondered if that was just an effect or if that stuff really exists. Pretty cool, but fairly useless.
The Maybach has an elecrochromatic sunroof which can become opaque, translucent or transparent with the flick of a button...
So unless this article is talking about something else, its really nothing new...
We've had invisible walls for some time. It's called glass. Now being able to turn them on and off, that would be neat and is probably do-able. We already have photograys (turn dark in sunlight, clear otherwise) and the elecrochromatic glass that were mentioned by some posters.
Now, of course, the opposite is a wall that isn't really there but is simply an illusion. A hologram you couldn't see past. Kinda like a curtain except it looks like a wall. That might be possible too.
As far as having a physical wall that you can't walk through disappear, I don't think that is currently possible. But, the article said invisible, not disappear, so I doubt they were talking about that.
I vote for a hologram or a glass-like substance that can change properties at will and is more rigid than glass (thick plexi-plastic?). Perhaps they say wall instead of glass because it is thicker and more durable and wall-like, not thin and fragile like glass.
I've seen this before on tv. There's some restaurant somewhere where the bathroom walls are made of this stuff. It really freaked people out and they would turn off the lights so they couldn't be seen. Turns out, the walls became "solid" when they lock the door.
Jesus people, this magical stuff you're talking about is called LCD. It's been around for decades. When you apply electrical current, it becomes opaque (or the other way around, depending on how it's manufactured). Yes, they've made windows out of the stuff. Have you ever seen those clocks in sharper image that are clear except for the time?
Yeah, glass becoming opaque is nothing new, as stated above its a matter of orienting crystals in a special sheet through the use of electricity/polarity.
However, here's an idea. Nanotubules can work on similar processes; add current and they all align. Remove the current and they fall to a random state. Not sure you could use something like that on a macro-scale (read: larger than molecules) but its a possibility. I kinda played with the idea of an automobile clutch that would work on similar principles. Depress clutch pedal, plate loses structure to change gears, release clutch, skid plate becomes solid again to re-engage transmission. Now that is truely fantasy, but something to think about nonetheless.
Sounds like someone just watched the movie "Doom."
Why do you guys keep acting so smug, especially #15.
It clearly says they are working with building materials to make this work for walls inside a house.
I'm no contractor, but common sense says that you don't build walls out of glass due to insulation and even plumbing reasons. So yeah, it's not going to be LCDs or glass walls, they are working on actual wall materials or something close to it.
Reminds me of one of the Splinter Cell games.
I wonder if the material is reflective.
They use this type of glass in the sunroof of the new maybach from daimler. I believe it even had some sort of dimmer switch like system that allowed the glass to be partially opaque. I guess for 300k you get the latest and greatest...
#17: You don't build walls out of glass in most small-scale commercial and residential structures because glass is non load-bearing, a poor insulator both thermally and acoustically, and expensive. You can get structural glass, as well as double- and triple-paned insulated windows and soundproof products, but the price becomes astronomical to have custom fabricated "walls". Not to mention mounting it correctly to withstand live loads from wind.
Electrochromatic glass is very expensive, more difficult to install, and does not have a very attractive lifespan for most consumers (the type that goes from opaque to transparent, anyway). Some panels only have a MTBF of a few thousand hours. I have seen it installed and used in bathrooms and in some conference rooms, but beyond that it is simply impractical.
Perhaps these crystals can be applied to paint or a walls to either
(a) Turn a colored wall into a white, or other colored wall at the flick of a switch.
or
(b) Display some message,drawing, or advertising on the wall at the flick of a switch.
I don't think I would be to interested in seeing studs, wiring or pipes either, when flicked off. Oh, by the way LCD's are crystals, but liquid. ie: liquid crystal diodes. When they are all aligned (on), they block light, as a diode would block voltage when power is applied.
Oh and have you ever pushed on the LCD window where the numbers appear on your calculator? The numbers change colors or refract light when touched, changing either its thickness or alignment. Cool, touch sensitive color changing walls!
Now if they could just flip it around the other way and turn them on and make the paint illuminate or glow to give off more light, that would indeed be great.
"transparent aluminum" Mr. Scott, Star Trek IV
sounds like something evil parents could use on their
kids running around in their homes. oops did lil
timmy just run into the wall again?
I read something about this work in the newspaper, it had more info than this article. The effect has something to do with quantum physics. Cool stuff but no idea how its supposed to work!
I remember seeing this type of glass in an episode of CSI. It was used for the bathrooms in this club, where a murder took place (doors close, glass goes opaque). Of course, Grissom was the only one of the CSI's who was familiar with it.