IDEAS

TOUCH TECHNOLOGY

How do touch-sensitive lamps work?

Switches that are sensitive to human touch -- as opposed to switches that must be flipped or pushed to make and break a mechanical connection -- have been around for many years. They certainly have advantages, and the most important is the fact that dirt and moisture cannot get into the switch to gum it up or damage it. Over the years, many different properties of the human body have been used to flip touch-sensitive switches:

• Temperature - The human body is generally warmer than the surrounding air. Many elevators therefore use buttons that are sensitive to the warmth of the human finger. These buttons, of course, don't work if you have cold hands. The motion-sensitive lamps you see on people's patios also sense the heat of the human body.
• Resistance - The human body, being made mostly of water, conducts electricity fairly well. By placing two contacts very close together, your finger can close the circuit when you touch it.
• Radio reception - You may have noticed that, when you touch an antenna, the reception gets better on a TV or radio. That's because the human body makes a pretty good antenna. There are even small LCD TVs that have a conductive neck strap so that the user acts as the antenna! Some touch-sensitive switch designs simply look for a change in radio-wave reception that occurs when the switch is touched.

Touch-sensitive lamps almost always use a fourth property of the human body -- its capacitance. The word "capacitance" has as its root the word "capacity" -- capacitance is the capacity an object has to hold electrons. The lamp, when standing by itself on a table, has a certain capacitance. This means that if a circuit tried to charge the lamp with electrons, it would take a certain number to "fill it." When you touch the lamp, your body adds to its capacity. It takes more electrons to fill you and the lamp, and the circuit detects that difference. It is even possible to buy little plug-in boxes that can turn any lamp into a touch-sensitive lamp. They work on the same principle.
Many touch-sensitive lamps have three brightness settings even though they do not use three-way bulbs. The circuit is changing the brightness of the lamp by changing the "duty cycle" of the power reaching the bulb. A bulb with a normal light switch gets "full power." Imagine, however, that you were you were to rapidly turn the power to the bulb on and off (say 100 times per second) -- then the bulb would only burn half as brightly because its duty cycle is 50 percent (half on, half off). "Rapidly switching the bulb on and off" is the basic idea used to change the brightness of the lamp -- the circuit uses zero percent (off), 33 percent, 66 percent and 100 percent duty cycles to control the lamp's brightness.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/science-questions/touch-sensitive-lamp.htm

BASALTE

http://www.basalte.be/en/switches

GLOBE LIGHTS

 

http://www.alliedvisiontec.com/us/products/application-markets/application-case-studies/application-case-study/article/magical-crystal-ball-puffersphere-multimedia-display-1.html

PLASMA GLOBE BALL

http://www.coolstuffexpress.com/store/pg/37-How-Plasma-Globes-Work.html

SPHERE PROJECT

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/benko/projects/sphere/

MAGIC PLANET

http://www.globalimagination.com/

BIOLUMINESCENCE

Bioluminescence is light produced by a chemical reaction within a living organism. It is a type of chemiluminescence that takes place inside a living organism. Most bioluminescent organisms are found in the ocean, these include fish, bacteria and jellies. Some bioluminescent organisms, including fireflies and fungi, are found on land.

The chemical reaction that results in bioluminescence requires unique chemicals: luciferin and either luciferase or photoprotein. Luciferin is the compund that actually produces light. In a chemical reaction, luciferin is called the substrate. The bioluminescent colour is a result of the arrangement of luciferin molecules. Luciferase is an enzyme, the interaction of the luciferase with oxidized luciferin creates a byproduct, called oxyluciferin. More importantly, the chemical reaction creates light. Photoproteins combine with luciferins and oxygen, but need another agent, often an ion of the element calcium, to produce light.

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/bioluminescence/?ar_a=1

Snail-Inspired Green Building

http://www.livingprinciples.org/snail-inspired-green-building-wins-biomimicry-student-design-competition/

Improving 3-D Printing by Copying Nature

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130707-3d-printing-biomimicry-green-design-science/ 

What is Biomimicry?

 


    Biomimicry is the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modelled on biological entities and processes.[1]

The company Biomimicry 3.8 see it as an innovation method that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature's time-tested patterns and strategies. [2] Biomimicry thinking helps create products and processes that:

• are sustainable
• perform well
• save energy
• cut material costs
• redefine and eliminate "waste"
• heighten existing product categories
• define new product categories
• drive revenue
• build your brand

Why Biomimicry Now?

We humans are at a turning point in our evolution. Though we began as a small population in a very large world, we have expanded in number and territory until we are now bursting at the seams. There are too many of us, and our habits are unsustainable. Having reached the limits of nature's tolerance, we are finally shopping for answers to the question: "How can we live on this home planet without destroying it?"
Just as we are beginning to recognise all there is to learn from the natural world, our models are starting to blink out - not just a few scattered organisms, but entire ecosystems. A survey by the National Biological Service found that one-half of all native ecosystems in the United States are degraded to the point of endangerment. That makes biomimicry more than just a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It's also a race to the rescue.

- Excerpt taken from an interview with Janine Benyus

 http://biomimicry.net/about/biomimicry/conversation-with-janine/ -  FULL INTERVIEW

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REFERENCES:

[1] Dictionary
[2]http://biomimicry.net/about/biomimicry/