[HoE] Re: Sensors

[Gwydion758@aol.com]

Patrick Phalen wrote:

> >An active touch sensor could be a device using a jet of air and picking up
> >changes in the pressure to detect an obstacle.
>
> That would probably only work inside...
>

No, imagine a closed cylinder with a number of holes.  Imagine air being 
forced out of each hole at a constant pressure.  Now put a sensor on each 
hole to pick up the rate of air flow.  When an obstruction comes into close 
proximity to one or more holes the airflow from those holes will be 
restricted.  The drop in airflow will register as "feeling" something.

On a side note, did anyone else catch the announcement by Hewlitt Packard 
that they've developed the technology to make chemical transistors the size 
of a molecule?  I think this is going to have an effect similar to IBM's 
announcement in the early eighties that made hard drives commercially 
feasible for desk top systems.  There are already people out there making 
microscopic working models of gears -- combine this with a processor made of 
these chemical transistors and you're talking nanotech devices.

Jeff B.