A research group led by Takao Someya at the University of Tokyo has developed a material that has high electrical conductivity, but can stretch and contract like rubber. The group has used this material to make integrated circuits containing organic transistors.
Recently, carbon nanotubes dispersed in polymers have been used in efforts to create conductive materials that can stretch and contract. However, carbon nanotubes clump together, and this problem has prevented researchers from obtaining the desired characteristics. Someyas group solved the clumping problem by dispersing the nanotubes in an ionic liquid before mixing it with a polymer. The resulting material, with its uniformly dispersed nanotubes, shows hardly any change in electrical conductivity even when stretched by up to 70%.
Someyas group has used this elastic material to make a large integrated circuit, and is studying how to incorporate sensors for temperature, pressure, ultrasound, and light. Such a large, flexible sensor could be attached to the surface of a robot, to give the robot a sense of touch similar to that of human skin. The group is also working to create a flexible Braille display, by building in actuators instead of sensors.
This is all building-up of contemporary technology, which is fine in and of itself BUT I want to know what YOU think this means for architectural implications for YOUR thesis. I’m not asking for the final answer, but at least speculate on something that this may lead to. Would it allow for the development of envelope circuitry in detecting damage? Would it be the beginning of a data-skin that would wrap around a building to calibrate and monitor various BIM conditions? This is where you have to take your research and start conjecturing where the value lies in it.
Cool !!! ^^