DailyDirt: Looking Through Better Windows

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Glass is a material that has been known to people since before 2000 BC (and as far back as 3500 BC). It's everywhere now. We even carry around smartphones with glass touchscreens. But until we come up with "transparent aluminum" to replace glass (that's not just transparent to extreme UV light), we're still working with silica and certain polymers to make cool transparent materials. Here are just a few examples demonstrating the future of windows.

• Imagine a window that stops sound but lets in a breeze -- you need to make that window out of material with a negative bulk modulus. It's been done with panes of acrylic drilled with holes that creates a resonance chamber that attenuates a range of sound frequencies. [url]
• Solar panels are usually installed on rooftops, but Organic Photovoltaic (OPV) cells could turn windows into energy-generating fixtures. Unfortunately, only opaque solar cells can maximize the amount of light energy converted into electricity.... [url]
• Smarter windows can be touchscreens or contain embedded wireless antennas. Yay! Can't wait until windows can display a translucent blue screen of death. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: energy, glass, organic photovoltaic cell, plastic, solar cell, soundproof, transparent aluminum, window