3.03.2006
New Flexible Ski ‘Armor’ Hardens On Impact
"This came out a while back but this is the first time we’ve seen it in the wild. The US and Canadian ski teams are sporting a new garb that they now supposedly refuse to ski without: a lightweight material in their body suits that hardens in less than a thousandth of a second, then instantly flexes again. The mesh, called d3o, comes in perforated sheets shaped into pads for different parts of the body.Its UK developer doesn’t want to give away d3o’s exact chemical ingredients, but they do say that the material’s properties make it just as effective as conventional (and bulky) armor skiers use to protect themselves from slalom poles. It’s also being released in products like goal keeper mitts and polo kneepads. The kicker? In the future, the same material could be used for a host of other various applications, such as sound proofing… or the purposefully-vague “flexible ballistic protection." [Via gizmodo.com]
Pimpin' Thoughts:
I remember reading something like this in a science fiction story years ago. It might have been a Timothy Zahn story. At the time I thought it was a clever idea, but didn't think it would ever work.
Cool to see that another science fiction idea has happened.
Cool to see that another science fiction idea has happened.
The only one I can remember from science fiction is the impact suit from Larry Niven's "Ringworld" series, which behaved much as the "armor" described here.
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This is very cool, but anyone has any ideas about the price tags on these suits? I really doubt that they are affordable..
Kiltak
[Geeks Are Sexy] Tech. News
Kiltak
[Geeks Are Sexy] Tech. News
Several authors have used the stuff, but most notably Neal Stephenson, in "Snow Crash". He called the stuff Sintered Armorgel.
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