Gone may be the days of sniffing the milk carton to see if your milk has spoiled, thanks to a collaboration between engineers at UC Berkeley and Taiwan’s National Chiao Tung University.

This 3D-printed smart cap that the group has developed is meant to find a better way to detect whether a liquid has gone sour, thanks to the wireless electrical sensors that are attached to the milk carton’s smart cap.

Polymers combined with wax were used to create the cap. When the wax was removed, it left behind a hollow tube that allowed for the group to inject silver.

From there, the engineers added electronics, which included a capacitor and inductor to create a circuit that would monitor if and when the milk would spoil.

The group flipped over a milk carton so that milk could be captured in the capacitor. From there, they left the carton unopened for 36 hours in a room that was set at around 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

To determine whether or not the milk was spoiled, the engineers tracked the changes in the electrical signals that were associated with the increase of bacteria in the milk.

They continued to monitor the changes wirelessly by way of a radio-frequency probe.

Through their discovery, the group of engineers clearly demonstrated how 3D printing can work for basic electrical components.

Furthermore, this experiment and the invention of the smart cap intimates that 3D-printed smart caps could one day be used for food packaging purposes.

In fact, the group of engineers are currently working on inventing an implantable device with embedded transducers that can monitor blood pressure, muscle strain and drug concentrations through the smart cap technology.

For now, however, this news might only be a whiff of the smart cap’s innovation. We guess only time will smell, oops, we mean tell!

Copyright Inventionland, 2015

Sources:

https://news.berkeley.edu/2015/07/20/3d-printed-electronic-smart-cap/

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/70343/20150720/3d-printed-smart-cap-sense-spoiled-milk.htm

Media: https://news.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/3dsmartcap-milk450.jpg

The post Smart Cap Redefines Spoiler Alert appeared first on Inventionland.

The first full month of 2015 is quickly coming to a close and we’ve already seen some great innovation in the 3D department!

Thanks to 3D glasses that use red/blue filters and polarized or LED shutter, the 3D effect is pretty simple to create.

Above is a picture from Gizmag.com that shows how this 3D technology will work.

However, creating 3D pictures without viewers having to wear 3D glasses could be a lot more difficult.

That was the case until a group of Austrian scientists, working at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) along with TriLit Technologies, banded together to invent a prototype for a new kind of display that sends beams of light directly to viewers’ eyes by way of a laser and mirror system.

“Trixel” is what the group calls every 3D pixel that’s used. The Trixel is used in the prototype system, which is made up of lasers and a movable mirror that helps send light beams to different locations.

This process, as the scientists claim, is what produces the angular resolution that’s so fine that the left eye is presented a different picture than the right eye. This is what creates the 3D effect without 3D glasses.

The current large-scale 3D-projection systems only have two different pictures that are projected, one for each eye; whereas, this new system would project hundreds of pictures at once.

The group believes that, in time, footage will be created specifically for their displays.

Compared to traditional movie screens, this new prototype displays such a vivid picture that it can easily be seen outdoors, too. This clear display lends itself to the possibility of being used for 3D electronic billboards that could show different ads at the same time.

But as with any invention, the group is currently working on their second prototype that will display color pictures at a higher resolution.

This entire process has taken the group three years to complete and the system’s technology has been patented.

The researchers are hoping for a commercial launch in 2016!

As of right now, this is one giant step in saying goodbye to 3D glasses for good.

Copyright Inventionland, 2015

Sources:

https://www.gizmag.com/prototype-billboard-display-laser-3d/35655/

Media:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Kraftwerk_-_3D_glasses,_D%C3%BCsseldorf_2013.jpg

https://images.gizmag.com/hero/3d-trixel.jpg

The post 3D Glasses Might be a Thing of the Past Thanks to this Prototype appeared first on Inventionland.