WEBVTT - Tech Gets Bendy 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.200 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:13.800 Forward Thinking, Kay they are, and welcome to Forward Thinking, 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:15.960 the podcast that looks at the future and says, bend it, 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.919 bend it just a little bit. I'm Jonathan Strickland and 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:24.200 I'm Joe McCormick. And you know, we normally record this 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:26.639 show on Tuesday's, but today we had to be a 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:34.599 little flexible and recorded on our Friday Nothing. Nothing, Joe, Okay, 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:39.720 you get nothing. So we're talking today about flexible electronic 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.360 that's right. So yeah, that that bomb you are going 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.000 off was my joke. So part of the reason why 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:49.360 electronics aren't flexible in the first place just goes to 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:52.919 the history of electronics, right, Like, if you look at 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.640 old electronics, I'm talking like the early days, they were 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:59.760 made out of massive components. They were physically wired together. 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:03.160 There weren't integrated circuits. So you have all these giant 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:05.880 pieces together, you couldn't have them on something flexible because 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:08.560 it wouldn't make any sense. And even when we moved 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:11.800 to the era of integrated circuits where we have things 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.640 that can all be fit upon a single chip, we're 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:16.600 still talking about rigid chips and part of that is 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.760 because the connectors we need, the little connections between the 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:23.800 various elements like transistors, they had to be you know, 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.160 safe and solid. You couldn't really bend them because most 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:27.280 of the time they were made off of a fairly 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:29.800 brittle material and if they bent at all, they would 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.040 break and then suddenly whatever your electronic device was isn't 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:35.400 going to work anymore. So even if you were able 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:40.520 to to make the circuit on some sort of bendable substrate, uh, 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:44.800 the connections themselves wouldn't remain intact. And that was the problem. 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.120 So it took a lot of work to try and 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:50.800 develop technologies that would allow you to make a circuit 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:53.960 that could be bent and flexible so that you could 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:57.640 do different things with it. But why would we want 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:00.640 to make electronics flexible? I mean, don't you just need 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.200 to cram them inside a huge beige box and let 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:05.680 them do their thing? Well, it takes me back to 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:08.600 my Apple to E days. Uh, you could do that, 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:10.640 but no, the reason why you want to go with 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:13.640 flexibilities That just opens up a huge number of form 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:17.320 factors and applications that you would not have with your 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:21.639 basic electronics that have all those rigid uh substrates. For example, 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:23.520 let's say you're in marketing and you're going to some 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:26.200 big event and you want to have some representatives walking 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:28.560 around getting attention for your product, and so they're all 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:31.440 wearing these snazzy jackets that have full displays on the 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.280 back showing video in real time, and they can fold 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.400 with the jacket, so it's not this flat, you know, 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.240 rigid surface on their backs, like duct taping an iPad 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:43.840 to the tier back exactly. And that could be just 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:47.160 a very you know, simple. In fact, it's probably the 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:50.240 implementation I would expect to say first. But you could 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:53.919 also have things like a really cool wearable device or 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:58.600 even perhaps applications that go beyond just something that looks cool, 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:00.880 like I don't know, I always wanted to have like 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.240 a smart bracer, not a smart watch. I'm talking about 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:06.919 something that fits on my forearm and it gives me readouts, 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.920 you know, like a like a like a video game character. Oh, 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:12.360 you're talking about a curved screen, and that's one of 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:15.160 those very popular, flashy kind of things. It's been shown 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:18.720 off at CS and stuff like that. Lightly but right, 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:21.040 if you're going to have a curved screen, you kind 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:24.680 of need a vaguely flexible electronic Yeah. Well, even if 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:28.359 the surface that it's on the curve surface, even if 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:31.480 that's a set uh shape and it's not going to 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:33.840 flex out of that shape, you still have to have 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:35.840 the flexible elements to get it in that shape in 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.560 the first place. Right, So there's some applications that go 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:43.000 beyond that. For example, electronic Skin. You guys have heard 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:46.640 about this, Yeah, that's my garage, Okay, well it's it's 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:50.960 also the name of Umbrella of Technologies, So it's interesting 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:54.600 that shares that that that facet with your band. But 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:58.440 electronic Skin is specifically talking about these flexible patches that 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:02.000 have electronic circuitry in a it into them, usually for 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:06.120 some form of medical purpose. Okay, So we've talked about 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:09.120 something sort of like this before on the podcast, right 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:12.120 about the idea that that you could in the future 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.760 perhaps have some kind of little smart tattoo that would 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:17.920 help keep track of your vital signs while you're in 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.240 the hospital. Exactly. That's the very thing we're talking about here. 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:24.280 It's it's something that's as thin as a temporary tattoo, 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:27.359 and you just slap it on your skin and it 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:31.440 can monitor anything from brain waves to your heart rate, 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:35.720 blood flow, body temperature. If you put one on your 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.320 vocal chords, it could even track the words you say. 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:42.880 I saw one potential implementation that wasn't medical saying. Put 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.000 this on your vocal cords and then you play a 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:47.960 video game, and then your vocal commands can easily be 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.400 translated without you even having to have a microphone picking 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:53.200 things up, because it will be able to interpret what 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:55.960 you say just based on the vibrations from your vocal cords, 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:57.920 which is kind of cool. So how does something like 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.400 this work. Well, you have all of those integrated elements, 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:06.840 the sensors, the antenna, the power source, the various other 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.440 pieces all integrated into a circuit. And it's printed on 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:15.240 a very thin uh polymer substrates, So the substrate self 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:18.839 is flexible and can it bend into any shape and 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:21.960 even continue to bend once it, you know, once you 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:23.680 put it on your skin, so it's not stuck in 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:26.840 one position. It can even stretch to the point where 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:28.920 you can stretch it several times larger than what it 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:32.040 originally was and still remain functional. And it's all based 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:36.760 upon these advanced technologies to get this integrated circuitry to 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.720 to maintain functionality even as it's being manipulated in these 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.400 different ways. I thought one of the cool things about 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:45.320 is that you don't even have to put adhesive on 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:48.640 these patches. They'll stick to your skin by themselves. With 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:52.000 our old friend the Van der Vall's force. You remember 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:56.240 when we talked about geck gos Right, Yes, I think 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:59.320 I made that joke in the other podcast. Okay, good. 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:03.640 I'm glad that some things can contin I'm not ashamed, 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:08.720 I'm proud of it. At any rate, these these patches 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:13.080 have some really interesting utility. They haven't been widely rolled 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:16.000 out at all because it's still pretty expensive and you 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:17.520 have to figure out, all right, well, how are we 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:20.800 powering these things. Some of them are using little teeny 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:23.320 tiny solar panel technology, which is kind of crazy to me. 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:25.839 Others are using inductor coils, which means you have to 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:28.640 have a fluctuating magnetic field for it to maintain power. 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:31.640 There's a new one that actually incorporates computer memory into 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:35.000 the patch, which gives it brand new applications. Like a 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.880 doctor can be able to see a pattern and symptoms 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:42.080 if one exists by looking at the information stored in 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:44.640 the memory or be able to tell how a patient 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.280 is responding to certain types of medical treatments, and that 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:51.760 to me is really exciting. Also, there's a possibility of 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:54.720 having drug delivery systems built into this, where you have 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:59.000 a nano sized delivery system that will release medication through 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.760 the skin, so you have orbit through your skin, and 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:03.920 what will happen is the patch will measure your body's 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:06.320 reactions and if your body starts to react in such 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.200 a way that indicates there's a problem coming on. Let's 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:11.160 say that you're about to get a migraine or maybe 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.640 even suffer a heart attack, it could release medication that 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:18.119 could prevent that from happening, or perhaps you know either 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:22.160 that or or just treat symptoms. Um there's one potential 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:25.080 application of using this to treat wounds. So if you 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:27.520 get wounded and you put a patch on, it can 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:30.320 detect whether or not you have any kind of infection 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.400 because usually when that happens, the skin around the wound 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:36.160 starts to heat up, So if it detects that change 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.800 in temperature, then it can then release antibiotics into your 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:42.320 system and help fight off an infection early on before 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:45.160 it becomes a serious problem. So yeah, this is this 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.800 is obviously one of those things that you can easily 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.840 see the benefit and it wouldn't be possible if this 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.800 electronic device wasn't already flexible and couldn't just stay flush 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:57.600 with your skin. And it also is not invasive, right, 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:00.280 You don't end up having to cut into a asient 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:02.640 to do it. This way, you don't have to even 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.880 worry about connecting all these wires to a patient where 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:10.000 they end up being essentially shackled to whatever, you know, 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:14.200 facility exactly exactly. They can have this kind of stuff, 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:16.680 and there there are a lot of challenges that need 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.400 to be overcome. Power systems need to be developed, there 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:21.840 will be more effective. Power systems in general are one 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:23.560 of those things that it's really hard to find a 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:26.120 way of making them flexible. We've seen a lot of 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:29.680 development and battery technology recently, but in general that's hard 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:31.680 to do. Yeah, right now, I think the best we 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:33.760 can really do is hook one of these things up 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.560 with a wire to a battery pack that you can 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.320 wear in a pocket or something. That's that's generally what 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.120 we see. Because even if you get a flexible battery, 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.920 there are some out there, but they tend to be 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:46.880 pretty big too, because you have to you know, you 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:49.600 end up what you end up lacking in density with 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:51.840 that battery pack, you make up for in surface area, 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:54.920 so you end up having a much larger in surface 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.440 area battery than whatever the patches. So there's obviously some 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.040 issues there. There's also the issue of figuring out the 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.680 wireless communication between the patch and whatever else the doctor 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:06.880 is using to to keep a monitor on a patient. 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.480 But I think these are things that we can overcome eventually. 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.920 I'm fairly confident about that. Oh, especially since it's so 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:16.959 attractive for people to be researching it. Yeah. Yeah, I 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:20.240 mean this is something that can make a huge difference 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:23.199 in patients lives. The idea of being able to release 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:27.120 medication precisely when you need it, and maybe even in 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:30.480 very precise amounts, so that you limit any potential side 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.240 effects that medication might create. We've talked about that before 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:35.840 in the past, about how you know, modern medicine, a 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:40.880 lot of it involves taking a very measured amount of medication, 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:43.720 but it's based upon an average, right, It's based upon 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:48.160 the average person of this you know that fits your description, 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:50.960 what their symptoms are, how to manage it. All of 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:53.480 your medication could be based upon that, and it's not 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:57.720 necessarily keyed into your specific situation. And if I've got 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.160 some sort of like I'm treating an illness and I've 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:02.200 been told take a pill every six hours, that's not 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:04.760 really that precise. If I have a patch on that 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:08.160 is able to detect minute changes in my body and 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:11.199 be able to anticipate when I need that medication, then 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:14.880 I could have a very targeted medical approach to treating 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:18.760 that illness. So to me, that's really exciting. So what 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:22.880 materials and processes are going into all of this research? 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:26.400 A big one is on that flexible substrate. You know, 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:30.160 the idea instead of using a silicon chip, which is rigid, 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.160 figuring out sort of a polymer approach. You know, polymers 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.800 are those long chain molecules that have flexibility built into them. 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:41.000 Finding a way of designing one that that the electronics 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:44.559 can sit on top of and maintain stability. That's obviously 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:49.120 an important part. The actual material of the connections themselves, 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:52.920 that's really important because again, if you're using a brittle material, 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:54.920 then as soon as it bends, it breaks and then 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:59.000 it no longer works. So another thing is, oh, lad's 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:03.640 organic light emitting diodes. You guys have heard about this, right, Okay. 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.800 So I remember going to c e S several years 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:10.440 ago when oh LED displays were just getting out of 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.920 the lab and getting in front of people's eyes beyond. 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:16.040 You know, if you weren't a researcher, then you hadn't 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.240 seen one. And I remember the first LAD screen I saw. 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.320 It wasn't an eleven inch screen. Now keep in mind, 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:24.920 this is at c S where I'm looking at eight 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:28.199 five inch television, so this is a little eleven inch screen, 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.320 and it was it was on a little vice that 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.080 allowed it to bend, so it was showing that that 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:36.120 this display could bend. And I think it had a 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.160 sort of an e paper display at the time, so 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.840 it was a static image, but it was an image 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.360 that was showing and it was just kind of giving 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:46.000 you a proof of concept. And when asked like how 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:48.760 much would this particular thing cost if it were incorporated 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.960 into UH an actual existing product, it was an astronomical 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:56.400 price tag. Now since then, we've seen the price come 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:58.880 down as more research and development has been poured into 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:00.720 OH lads. You can go and get something that's an 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.360 old screen that's not going to be you know, ten 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:06.640 thousand dollars now, but it was one of those deals 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:10.000 that it took several years for that to happen. Uh. 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.520 These days, you can actually find some pretty interesting displays, 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.760 like Umu Samsung at ce S had an eight five 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:20.800 inch television that was a a flat screen or a 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:23.640 curved screen television, and you could change it by pushing 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:25.880 a button. And by pushing the button, you see it 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:28.839 curve in front of you. It's only a very subtle curve, 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:31.280 and it was meant so that if you were off 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:34.640 to the side, like I sometimes like to cook, uh 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:39.160 and watch television, but my television is almost flat, Like, yeah, 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:40.920 I can't. I can't really see because it's a flat 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.480 screen with that curve, that could create an angle that 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:45.000 I might be able to see a little more of 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:47.880 what's going on. So that way, I can watch that 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:50.040 episode of The Mighty Bush that I've seen four hundred 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.160 times as opposed to like, I know what's happening. I 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:55.880 don't know why I'm so obsessed with seeing it, but yeah, 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:59.480 that's another deal. Also, you mentioned a moment ago the 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.400 stuff that the actual circuitry is made out of, and 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:04.400 there's a lot of that research going on right now, 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:07.840 some of it with carbon nanotubes, of course, because everything 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:12.640 is carbon nanotubes, right um, Well, I mean and specifically 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:16.160 because these suckers have such excellent conductivity, so you can 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.439 use little filaments of them to to easily make circuitry. 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:23.000 Their physical properties also let them bend without breaking, and 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:27.000 they can be even more energy efficient than the traditional silicon. 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:31.400 So on the downside, unfortunately, they're they're less stable than 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:34.760 traditional circuitry materials because we're still figuring out ways of 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:38.480 doping them to be stable around power fluctuations and an 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.040 electrical noise. This was a huge advance that had to 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:46.400 happen for us to make transistors and computer components in general. Right. Doping, 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.320 for those who don't know, that's where you specifically introduce 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:53.320 impurities into a substance so that you can guide how 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:58.640 it behaves under certain circumstances. How the positive versus negative 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:02.880 flows of energy are going on, specifically semiconductors in particular. Right, So, 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.000 if you were going to dope like a silicon chip, 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.320 you'd have silicon, but you'd be adding little atoms of 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.600 other elements to it, right um, And It's harder to 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.160 do that with carbon nanotubes because by their very nature 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:16.280 they are made of one thing, and they're also really tiny, 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:20.160 very small. Yeah, however, some researchers at Stanford just published 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:24.520 some promising research this March. We might still be a 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:29.000 really long way from commercial applications of carbon nanotubes and 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:33.160 flexible electronics, but it's cool that that's that that's out there, right. Yeah. 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.280 Something to keep in mind always is whenever we talk 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.640 about these technologies, there there's always a chance that we 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:42.360 never see it come to fruition. But the research that's 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:44.880 done can always inform us in other ways and we 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:49.120 make fine workarounds. So that's it's pretty cool. Yeah, there's 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.200 other stuff going on at the nano scale with circuitry. 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:54.880 Some researchers out of the UK have been out of 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:57.960 the University of Cambridge, I believe, have been investigating zinc 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:02.600 oxide based flash memory that can be printed onto flexible electronics. 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:04.680 That's pretty cool too. And now that I've mentioned the 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:08.960 word printing, I do want to say that printing circuitry 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:13.360 has been a huge advance towards making flexible electronics possible. 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.400 In the process, you load like an ink jet style 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:21.320 printer with what's essentially wire ink um, you know, made 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:24.320 from whatever you want to try to make the circuitry from. 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:28.240 And you can print circuits on any material on which 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.240 you can get that ink to stick, fabric or paper 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:35.320 or whatever need. And you see this, I have a 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:37.480 lot of people say, oh, does that like three D printing? 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:41.040 Really this is like two D printing, right, because circuits 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:43.680 are so thin already, Like before we got into the 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:46.680 flexible part. You look at circuits and the circuitry is 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:50.600 so thin, you're talking about maybe a few nanometers thick 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:55.200 of material. Then that's essentially two dimensional, I mean to 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:59.960 to all practical purposes, it's two dimensional. So that's pretty cool. Uh. 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.160 And then you know we've already got some some flexible electronics. 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.200 I mentioned that Samsung television. If you want to go 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:08.920 out and purchase an eight five inch television that can 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:13.200 curve on command. There are all other curved uh electronics, 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:15.440 like you were mentioning, Lauren, things like that. You've seen 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:19.080 the curved smartphones that have come out recently, curve television sets, 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:21.440 that kind of thing. Now, in that case, we're talking 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:24.320 about flexible electronics that were flexible in order for you 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.640 to in order for these companies to build these products, 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.800 but they're not necessarily flexible once they hit the Market's right, 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:33.280 I wouldn't try sitting there and bending it. Yeah, it's 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:37.120 it's in a fixed uh, a fixed state at this point. 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.680 So you get a curved phone, you can't like, well, look, 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:43.200 I can straighten it out, and I need a new phone. 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:45.480 That would be That would be bad. But you can 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.040 find a few other examples, and I've seen a lot 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:52.880 of prototype um products that haven't hit the market yet, 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:55.840 but it does show what this kind of stuff could 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.479 be used in the future, including things like a flexible 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:00.920 e paper. One of the list ones I saw this 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:04.639 was at CES two thousands thirteen was an e paper 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:08.119 display that felt like it was kind of like a 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:11.320 magazine material almost like and you could bend it and 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:13.960 just like it was a piece of paper, and only 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:16.800 that you could lay it down on top of an 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:19.280 existing display or piece of paper and it could copy 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:21.159 whatever it was laying on top of and then you 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:23.680 lifted up and you've got your own copy. It was 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:28.840 really by tech right there, super neat. Yeah, this was 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.600 all It was all like attached by cables to various computers. 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:35.200 So yeah, it was it was a proof of concept, 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.200 but it was really neat seeing that this flexible paper 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:40.359 used for that. So imagine being able to use that 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.840 on surfaces that are not perfectly flat. So if you 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.400 needed to make a copy of something like, I don't know, 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:49.159 a flyer that's on a telephone pole, you could totally 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:51.040 do it. Of course, you could also take a picture 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.480 with your CLLL phone, but don't mind that. So it's 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:56.800 it's kind of a cool application. And on top of that, 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:00.600 we have the medical processes we've already mentioned. Uh, the 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.720 fact that we've gotten into this era of majorization means 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:07.280 that there are a lot more uh possible medical applications 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:10.840 we could see in the future. But beyond that, uh, 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:13.080 you know, just imagine some of the other stuff you 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:16.360 can do with flexible uh displays. I mean anything like 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:20.800 you could cote a a surface, a rounded surface with 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:23.800 a flexible display and then lifted up and code a 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:28.399 different surface with it. Just the party potential alone, people, 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:32.720 you could have a sailboat that streams video. Could you 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.080 could do that? There are plenty of calls for for 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:38.520 sensors that can be applied wherever they're necessary. I saw 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:42.720 some research out of DARPA working with the Palo Alto 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:46.000 Research Center to to develop these sensors that could be stuck. 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:49.720 I mean basically like stickers to soldiers helmets and record 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.960 a week's worth of information about nearby blasts and other 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:57.200 indirect impacts that are sending some soldiers home with brain injury. Yeah, 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:01.240 it's obviously a very important use of the technology. I 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.800 mean that's pretty incredible. Or or hey, what about seeing 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:07.840 what's going on inside of you, not just what what's 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:11.160 happening on skin level. Researchers at a startup called mc 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:15.440 ten are developing this inflatable catheter. But you can cover 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:18.320 this thing in a stretch electronics and therefore use it 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:22.240 during heart surgery for example, um to act as a 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:27.960 as a live streaming pacemaker um or or monitor for 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:31.199 any other complications in any other surgery. And then you 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:35.520 know there's the less life altering or or important you 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:38.080 could argue applications. I don't think it's arguable at all 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:40.879 they are less important. Some people would argue it, but 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:45.639 not me. But like the more kind of fun, silly versions, 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:48.399 you might say, things like wearables. The various types of 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:50.560 wearables like like I guess you can finally get my 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:54.560 smart bracer. Or if you wanted some workout gear that 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:56.920 can really tell you how you're doing on a run. 0:19:57.160 --> 0:19:59.000 Oh sure, like maybe you can give you a much 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.440 more accurate idea of how many calories you're really burning 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:05.560 as opposed to maybe just a watch that's kind of 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:08.960 measuring the motion. Uh. Or you know, you might want 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:13.440 to have a wearable again in the medical field where 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:16.600 it can alert you. For example, for someone who might 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:19.199 be diabetic, you might be able to alert them if 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:23.320 it's detecting minute changes in bodied chemistry so that they 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:26.240 can take steps before they have any sort of attack. 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:28.640 That would be great. Um. So yeah, we can see 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:30.960 a lot of different applications from the fund to the 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.720 very serious for flexible technology we haven't even really covered 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:37.560 like the industrial uses. I mean obviously there are there 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:40.159 are whole companies that want to be able to use 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:42.840 this kind of stuff in order to market products or 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:45.959 even just make something that stands out in a crowd, 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:49.240 like when you have a presence at a big event 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:52.040 like c e S. Anything you can do that differentiates 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:55.240 you from every other company that's there is a bonus. 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:57.840 And so some of the stuff we'll see probably will 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:01.399 never be incorporated into consumer ducts, but they'll still be, 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:05.080 you know, they'll still be great applications of flexible technology. 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.120 I'll never forget when I went one year and they 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:10.600 had one of the displays I think it was Kodak. 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:14.760 Actually it looked like a digital waterfall of all these 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.240 uh you see pictures of their products going down this 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:22.520 vertical computer screen, and then it curved around into a 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:26.560 horizontal like river that' said about waist level, and at 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:28.960 that point you could do things like touch one of 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:32.760 the pictures and get information about that particular product, or 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:35.240