We’ve all experienced those excruciating slow-motion moments, helplessly watching as our laptops, smartphones and other electronic gadgets crash to the floor. This scenario is usually accompanied by a string of unprintable expletives and followed up with a several panicked minutes as we attempt to coax our precious devices back to life, vowing to be more careful next time. Now, what if we could eliminate all of that?
We came across an innovation in impact-absorbing material mysteriously called d3o, which in its raw form, resembles little more than orange goo. In its resting state, the material is extremely soft and pliable, but upon impact, it instantly becomes rigid, giving it the unique ability to create a “force field” around whatever it protects – a characteristic that has numerous product applications in the real world.
The substance is already being incorporated into protective clothing worn by soldiers, downhill skiers and motorcycle racers, and now it’s starting to find its way into the consumer electronics market, taking the form of “skins” for iPods, smartphones and the like. The PC Pro staff recently got to see the raw material in action, reporting:
[H]e placed it in on the table and proceeded to hit it with his fist with the sort of impact that would have been enough break his knuckles with nothing in the way; but he didn’t even wince. We tried it too, and it didn’t hurt a bit. He hit it with a mallet and it hardly changed shape. Then he rolled it into a sphere and bounced it on the desk like a rubber ball.
While we’d still like our own live demonstration to see if it truly lives up to the hype (and pending price), we don’t see any reason why d30 can’t be the biggest thing since keyboard cleaning slime.
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August 31st, 2009 at 6:01 pm