Shape-shifting
Latest
NASA testing shape-shifting wings that make planes more efficient
The first airplane ever flown, the Wright Flyer, used "wing-warping," in which pulleys twisted the trailing edge of the airfoil for roll control. Ironically, NASA is now revisiting that tech in a way by flight-testing the FlexFoil, a system that replaces a plane's mechanical flaps with a shape-shifting wing. Since 1911, almost every airplane made has used mechanical flaps for climbing, descents and slow flight. While effective, they're aerodynamically inefficient thanks to the gaps and acute angles, as you may have noticed (in horror) when you're sitting near the wing of a passenger jet.
Turbine reveals shape-shifting DDO Druid class
Turbine has a present for all you would-be shape-shifters out there, and it takes the form of the new Druid class coming with Dungeons and Dragons Online's new Menace of the Underdark expansion. The content drops on June 25th, and the Druid will be available as a premium playable class (and free to VIPs). The Druid is primarily a caster, but he's also proficient with daggers, sickles, staves, and clubs. His signature ability allows him to transform into a winter wolf, a dire bear, a water elemental, or a fire elemental. Each shape has its own set of spells, and the class also features a Druidic oath that boosts resistances to entanglement, poison, and other natural ailments. More info on the expansion is available via Turbine's official website. [Source: Turbine press release]
Fits.me shape-shifter models the huge pectoral muscles men want, smaller ones they have (video)
While online shopping has taken over most facets of modern retail, buying clothes via the interwebs is something more of a hard sell. The Fits.me shape-shifting mannequin is here to make that a little easier -- for men, anyway. Earlier this year the company created a robotic torso comprised of flexible panels that can shift between thousands of different shapes and sizes from small to extra large. A clothing company puts a new shirt on the bot and a camera captures it cycling through a variety of body types like a T-1000 sinking into a pit of molten steel. When you enter your measurements online, the e-tailer looks up the appropriate pics and, hey presto, you can see how you'll really look in that Warwick Tailored semi-cutaway. There's a quick demo video after the break and, if you're looking for a new shirt, you can virtually try on a variety of Hawes & Curtis offerings recently added at the source link. Sorry ladies: latest word is that a mammary-equipped model isn't due for at least another few months.
See Fabian Hemmert and his amazing, shape-shifting cellphone prototype (video)
Cellphones, whether they be smart or dumb, are pretty amazing things -- but they're pretty lifeless things, too. Design researcher Fabian Hemmert thinks that our gadgets could move us a little more if only they could, well, move. As part of his TEDxBerlin talk late last year he shows off some prototype phones, including one that can get thicker on any of its four corners, and another that can shift its center of gravity similarly (shown above). The possibilities are intriguing, like a status bar that could get physically hefty as it gets weighed down with icons, but we're not sucking down all of Hemmert's Kool-Aid. His idea of devices giving off a heartbeat and changing shape like they're breathing in your pocket is just a little creepy, and more practically we have a hard enough time holding onto our handsets as it is -- imagine all the suddenly top-heavy cellphones leaping out of hands and to their doom.
DARPA's programmable matter initiative strives to make the ultimate Swiss Army knife
Remember Intel's shape shifting matter concepts? Well, those realty-bending cats at DARPA are looking to put their own spin on it with a Programmable Matter program of their own. As is their mantra, the long-term goals are pretty wild: researcher Dr. Mitchell R. Zakin is hopeful they can one day build a container that looks like a paint can and will form universal spare parts or tools such as hammers and wrenches based on the soldiers' needs, using a building material they call "mesomatter" that range anywhere from one hundred microns to a centimeter in size. Currently five months into the program's second phase, there's still another fifteen to go before they move on. By then, the group expect to be able to use the technology and assemble four or five different three-dimensional solids. Best be careful, if this falls in the wrong hands, we'll have more "leaked iPhone" images ever previously thought possible. [Via Wired]
Intel's shape-shifting programmable matter shown on video, sadly not for real
If you were as confused as we were by Intel's talks of programmable matter, an intelligent amorphous blob formed of microscopic glass spheres and able to take any shape, you'll want to check out the video from CNN embedded below. It shows the stuff in action -- albeit rendered, conceptual action -- allowing a group of designers take a car that looks a lot like a Cadillac and make it even more slab-sided, changing its color a few times, and then causing it to explode in what can only be a 1/18 scale preview of another installment of The Matrix. We can't wait to have a blob of this stuff on our desk to play with (it'd be the ultimate stress ball), but we're guessing it's going to be a long, long time before that happens.
Intel talks up shape-shifting "programmable matter," bugs us out
We've managed to somewhat wrap our brains around shape-shifting robots and printable circuits, but we're still working on fully understanding the latest Intel spill. As IDF came to a close, Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer, presented a keynote speech in which he explained just how close the outfit was to realizing "programmable matter." Granted, he did confess that end products were still years away, but researchers have been looking at ways to "make an object of any imaginable shape," where users could simply hit a print button and watch the matter "take that shape." He also explained that the idea of programmable matter "revolves around tiny glass spheres with processing power and photovoltaic for generating electricity to run the tiny circuitry." For those now sitting with a blank stare on their face (read: that's pretty much all of you, no?), hit up the read link for even more mind-boggling "explanations."[Via MAKE]
Is Druid insta-shifting overpowered?
Serennia, a gnomish warrior on Tichondrius, believes that the changes to druid shape-shifting [shown in the video clip above] in patch 2.3 make it too easy for druids to get out of snares without being caught in their vulnerable caster form. She puts it very eloquently:In 2.3, druids can shift from any form to any form (ie cat to bear; bear to travel, etc) without having to enter human form. But, it gets worse, they can shift from the same form to the same form also (bear to bear). Why is this significant? It's basically a free snare removal without ever having to expose themself in human form, making it much more difficult for anyone to kill them. It still costs them mana to do it, yes, but it's an easy trade-off for never being locked in caster form with no armor anymore to get away from a melee. So much for those well-timed caster-form kidney shots, right? Druids needed help in 5v5 with a bit better caster form survivability, and they got that with the new Natural Perfection changes and a bit more utility. However, they did NOT need to be even harder to kill with this short-sighted change. Melee might as well not even attempt to catch a good druid anymore, and well, casters never could to begin with. She says that this may or may not be what Blizzard was intending when they decided to go ahead with this change, but for my part, I think it's a buff druids really need, especially feral ones, who are likely to get the most use out of insta-shifting between forms. I've said before that, although restoration druids enjoy a lot of success in PvP, it's very hard for many feral druids, and personally, I think this sort of mobility can help make up for other areas where the druid is not as strong, and can provide more synergy between the druid's different forms and abilities without some of the risks that made this synergy impractical before. What do you think?
Shape-shifting paper could help tiny bots take flight
A new breakthrough in materials science may pave the way for those inevitable swarms of tiny flying robots that will one day darken the skies and strike fear into us all, as researchers in South Korea have succeeded in coaxing specially-prepared cellophane paper to rapidly curve and straighten itself in an insect-like flapping motion. Although scientists have apparently known since the 1950's that wood was piezoelectric, meaning that it bends slightly when exposed to electricity, it took a team from Inha University with help from Texas A&M to discover that the same property also holds true for other cellulose-based material. By coating both sides of a sheet of cellophane with thin layers of gold, the researchers were able to create so-called Electroactive paper (EAPap) so sensitive that the voltage from a microwave beam provides enough power to trigger its unique shape-changing abilities. Oddly enough, no one is quite sure of the physics behind the transformation -- theories center around pressure changes resulting from the movement of ions -- but regardless of how it works, we're sure that more than a few governments will be most interested in deploying this technology to beef up their domestic and international surveillance programs.[Via Roland Piquepaille and ScienceNOW]
