Programmable Magnets that are printed. No, really. Printed!

[txlibdem]

Martin Hellman writes "A few weeks ago Popular Mechanics awarded one of its Breakthrough Awards for the invention of 'programmable magnets.' Instead of having a single North or South pole, these clever devices have an array of North and South poles. If a matching device with exactly the same array is aligned with the first one, they will experience strong repulsion, just like two single North poles do when brought near one another. If the matching device has the complementary array (North and South interchanged), with correct alignment the two devices will attract. But a slight misalignment will cancel most of the force. Other configurations are possible as well, allowing frictionless magnetic gears and exploding toys. The inventor, Larry Fullerton, used techniques similar to those from CDMA modulation.

Source: Programmable Magnets

http://jetlib.com/news/tag/larry-fullerton/
http://www.1888pressrelease.com/popular-mechanics-honors-larry-fullerton-of-correlated-magne-pr-245157.html

For a little bit better explanation, please see the youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4m81JjZCJo&feature=channel_page

[tridim]

1. Exploding toys sounds interesting. Just in time for xmas!

Seriously though, wow. Reading more now.

[Up Quark]

2. Maybe there will be exploding toy Pintos!

:D

[txlibdem]

3. Exploding toys! How cool would that be?!?

Somewhere inside, I'll always be a 10 year old boy I think because this kind of stuff just seems so cool.

The exploding part... that would have to be done by "reprogramming" the magnetic regions on the fly, right?

[Ian David]

6. Do Not Taunt Happy Fun Ball.

http://www.happyfunball.net/

[TheMadMonk]

9. More likely a sideways slip that forces the peices into repulsion configuration.

If you've had a play with neo spheres or zen magnets, you can get a rough idea of how this stuff works.

And also scratch your head while you figure out why it's so easy to make larger figures built out of pentagonal sub-units, but almost impossible to bring square sub-units together without having the whole mess collapse in on itself.

[txlibdem]

13. Sounds neat

I might be too old to have heard of them...? Neither rings a bell.

[TheMadMonk]

14. Google them. They're both modern and a lot of fun. /nt

[TheMadMonk]

10. Remember these?

Smash Up Derby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyoUcofBo9I

[Ian David]

4. Fuckin Magnets how do THEY work?

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Fuckin_Magnets

[Ian David]

5. My kid is gonna fuckin' OWN the Soapbox Derby this year! n/t

[txlibdem]

7. Frictionless wheel bearings

:-)

[txlibdem]

8. The thing that gets me... THEY'RE PRINTED!

I keep thinking "400 mph Monorail from New York to San Diego." They've got to be cheaper than rare earth (neodymium) magnets.

This is a game changer, folks!

[TheMadMonk]

11. Bet that the active material doesn't include neodymium?

I can't see any "normal" magnet having anything like the power necessary to make something like this work.

[txlibdem]

12. I'd say it's not

Neodymium and the other rare earth magnets are already magnetic, don't need to be printed. I'm checking the mfgr site to see if they spill the beans on what material they start with...