Smart houses, smart cars, smartphones, here and now we are presented with the idea of smart curtains. Hmmm, how exactly does that work? Smart curtains do not need you to actually get up from your favorite lounging chair to close or open it, as it has the capabilities of preventing too much light from coming in whenever it is exposed to light. This was made possible thanks to the efforts by the folks over at the University of California Berkeley, who have managed to come up with a new kind of material that allows the nanotubes embedded within to activate whenever they are exposed to light.
Beginning with a thin light-activated material of plastic polycarbonate alongside a layer of carbon nanotubes on its surface, the presence of light would enable the nanotubes to absorb it, where it is then transformed into heat and transferred that to the material. This in turn would allow the material to expand, resulting in it alongside the nanotube layers to bend, hence “closing” the holes that make this a “curtain” which is smart enough to provide you shade as and when required. Even better is the fact that these do not need any kind of batteries to run, as they are self-sufficient. [Press Release]
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