When was the past time you repainted your motor vehicle? Redesigned your espresso mug collection? Gave your sneakers a vibrant facelift?
You most likely answered: never ever, never ever, and never ever. You may take into account these arduous duties not well worth the work. But a new coloration-shifting “programmable subject” method could modify that with a zap of mild.
MIT researchers have made a way to quickly update imagery on item surfaces. The method, dubbed “ChromoUpdate” pairs an ultraviolet (UV) mild projector with merchandise coated in mild-activated dye. The projected mild alters the reflective qualities of the dye, producing vibrant new images in just a few minutes. The advance could speed up products improvement, enabling products designers to churn as a result of prototypes without obtaining bogged down with painting or printing.
ChromoUpdate “can take advantage of quickly programming cycles — points that would not have been feasible just