Smart rope tells you how loaded and frayed it is
My pal Quinn Norton has an excellent piece in today's Wired News about Squidlabs, a company that makes cool stuff like a smart sensor-laden rope that can tell you when it's going to break:Link (via Ambiguous)That philosophy paid off earlier this year, when the group announced its first product, a smart rope that displays information about its state in real time. The rope, which can be cut and generally used like normal rope, has a display out the end that tells how much load it's carrying and even how frayed it is. It's expected to be on the shelves of Home Depot in about six months.
Other current projects include a laser location system for emergency first responders, a tablet PC and camera that overlays data on the real world for utility workers, a molding machine that creates prescription lenses in minutes for a few dollars -- and those are projects they can talk about. More half-made prototypes point to projects sealed under nondisclosure agreements.
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Cory Doctorow
Upcoming appearances
* Feb 9, 2012, DeKalb, IL: Day of Doctorow, NIU
* Feb 10-12, 2012, Chicago, IL: Capricon 32
* Feb 13, 2012, Arlington, TX: UT Arlington College of Engineering Distinguished Speaker Series
* Feb 16, 2012, Victoria, BC: 13th Annual Privacy and Security Conference
Recent books:
* Context (essays)
* With a Little Help (short stories)
* For the Win (YA novel)
* Makers (adult novel)
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