Objects can now change colors like a chameleon
PhotoChromeleon, a reversible process for changing the color of objects developed at MIT, involves a mix of photochromic dyes that can be sprayed or painted onto the surface of any object.
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory team creates new reprogrammable ink that lets objects change colors using light.
The color-changing capabilities of chameleons have long bewildered willing observers. The philosopher Aristotle himself was long mystified by these adaptive creatures. But while humans can’t yet camouflage much beyond a green outfit to match grass, inanimate objects are another story.
A team from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has brought us closer to this chameleon reality, by way of a new system that uses reprogrammable ink to let objects change colors when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) and visible light sources.
Dubbed “PhotoChromeleon,” the system uses a mix of photochromic dyes that can be sprayed or painted onto the surface of any object to change its color — a fully reversible process that can be repeated infinitely.
PhotoChromeleon can be used to customize anything from a phone case to a car, or shoes that need an update. The color remains, even when used in natural environments.
“This special type of dye could enable a whole myriad of customization options that could improve manufacturing efficiency and reduce overall waste,” says CSAIL postdoc Yuhua Jin, the lead author on a new paper about the project. “Users could personalize their belongings and appearance on a daily basis, without the need to buy the same object multiple times in different colors and styles.”
PhotoChromeleon builds off of the team’s previous system, “ColorMod,” which uses a 3-D printer to fabricate items that can change their color. Frustrated by some of the limitations of this project, such as small color scheme and low-resolution results, the team decided to investigate potential updates.
With ColorMod, each pixel on an object needed to be printed, so the resolution of each tiny little square was somewhat grainy. As far as colors, each pixel of the object could only have two states: transparent and its own color. So, a blue dye could only go from blue to transparent when activated, and a yellow dye could only show yellow.
But with PotoChromeleon’s ink, you can create anything from a zebra pattern to a sweeping landscape to multicolored fire flames, with a larger host of colors.
The team created the ink by mixing cyan, magenta, and yellow (CMY) photochromic dyes into a single sprayable solution, eliminating the need to painstakingly 3-D print individual pixels. By understanding how each dye interacts with different wavelengths, the team was able to control each color channel through activating and deactivating with the corresponding light sources.
Specifically, they used three different lights with different wavelengths to eliminate each primary color separately. For example, if you use a blue light, it would mostly be absorbed by the yellow dye and be deactivated, and magenta and cyan would remain, resulting in blue. If you use a green light, magenta would mostly absorb it and be deactivated, and then both yellow and cyan would remain, resulting in green.
After coating an object using the solution, the user simply places the object inside a box with a projector and UV light. The UV light saturates the colors from transparent to full saturation, and the projector desaturates the colors as needed. Once the light has activated the colors, the new pattern appears. But if you aren’t satisfied with the design, all you have to do is use the UV light to erase it, and you can start over.
They also developed a user interface to automatically process designs and patterns that go onto desired items. The user can load up their blueprint, and the program generates the mapping onto the object before the light works its magic.
麻省理工研发可重新编程油墨 使用光线改变颜色
麻省理工学院研究人员发明了一种新的可编程油墨,它提供了一些类似于变色龙的有趣特性,使我们更接近可以改变无生命物体的颜色。这种油墨被称为PhotoChromeleon,使用的是光致变色染料,可以喷涂在任何物体的表面上以改变其颜色。据说这个过程是完全可逆的。麻省理工学院表示,PhotoChromeleon材料可以用来定制从手机壳到汽车或鞋子的任何东西。
该团队表示,用户可以在日常生活中对自己的物品和外表进行个性化设置。墨水可以创造任何用户可以想到的东西,从斑马图案到风景或五彩火焰。研究小组通过将青色、洋红和黄色的光致变色染料混合到一个可喷洒的溶液中来制造这种油墨。 研究小组说,通过了解每种染料如何与不同波长相互作用,研究小组可以通过激活和禁用相应的光源来控制每一个颜色通道。研究小组说,如果你使用蓝光,它主要是被黄色染料吸收而失去活性,同时青色和洋红燃料会保持蓝色,绿光大部分被洋红吸收,留下黄色和青色,形成绿色。 这些图案可以通过使用一个带有投影仪和紫外线的盒子来激活,紫外线可以使颜色从透明到可见饱和。在测试中,这个过程需要15到40分钟,所有创建的模式都有很高的分辨率,可以在需要时删除。 相关链接:http://news.mit.edu/2019/changing-colors-photochromeleon-mit-csail-0910 分享到:
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mang2004 2019-09-12 04:28