Electro Active Polymer can be used to construct analogues of muscles. The first thing that comes to my mind is an array of cilia powered by this stuff.

It will be manufactured in big rolls of tape, that you cut to length, peel away the backing, and stick. A few connections will have to be made to the power and control source. Maybe like velcro hook tape. It will rotate with offset phase so that a proportion of them will be always in contact with the ground, while the others are retracted and in motion backward.

It could even be done in sheets so that you can cover cushions and mattresses with it.

A settee could have such cushions and be programmed to spit out anything that gets stuck out of sight. The mattress could be programmed to gently transport the occupant over the edge after the 'snooze' button had been hit a couple of times.

In another's words, "I smell a whole mess of new ideas a-comin'."
-- neelandan, Jun 07 2002

Conference on EAps - schedule http://www.spie.org...s99/confs/3669.html
"Their key attraction is their ability to induce very large displacements and to emulate biological muscles. " [hello_c, Jun 09 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Conference proceedings https://www.spie.or...eedings/Volume/3669
Abstracts only. The full book is out of print. The above-linked schedule is no longer available. [notexactly, Jan 22 2019]

Can it make the bed too?
-- FarmerJohn, Jun 07 2002


Finally, a rug that sweeps floors.
-- reensure, Jun 07 2002


Could it be both soft enough to be comfortable (for a bed/couch) and rigid enough to shift you?
-- pottedstu, Jun 07 2002


I want a couch that's designed *not* to spit me out. My problem is I'll be slouching on the couch and I'll slowly, involuntarily slide farther down until I'm sort of lying on the couch with my feet on the floor. This isn't a problem if I'm sitting upright, but who wants to do that? The ciliated couch could actively maintain me in my preferred slouching pose.
-- wiml, Jun 08 2002


I vote for (even though I really don't want my couch to have muscles) but anticipate a call for a ban on EAP ideas as voodoo.
-- phoenix, Jun 08 2002


No, don't ban it yet... this stuff rocks.

I want a cilia suit that will allow me to crawl along the ground without moving any limbs. Think of the poltergeist pranks you could pull.
-- RayfordSteele, Jun 09 2002


RayfordSteele's cilia suit would be a good investment for frequent customers of carrymehome.com --- no need to incur the high priced services of basketball players; your suit will ooze your slumbering form home and into bed.
-- wiml, Jun 09 2002


Excellent ideas in the oven at a conference on smart structures & materials (see link; start with three paras of text at the bottom).
-- hello_c, Jun 09 2002


Oh good, something else to go along with bluetooth and nanites...
-- StarChaser, Jun 10 2002


Lookout snorers...
-- RayfordSteele, Jun 10 2002


re: A self-sweeping floor covering seems to be a commercially viable proposition. Just watch the stores!

'stu: It could be made to be soft when unenergised.

wiml: Add sensors and it might be possible for it to sense your posture and shift your bottom in the appropriate direction.

Rfs: Thanks for the support. Your crawl will be slow; think of it as a millipede with many lines of legs.

SC: Glad you like it.

UB: Sound effects. Piezo paint, perhaps?
-- neelandan, Jun 11 2002


"I want a cilia suit"

But not to crawl around the ground like poor Mr. Steele. I'd like a jacket made of this, please. A velvet caterpillar jacket that continuously sweeps pet hair and other sundry lint down my arms and away.
-- pluterday, Jan 11 2003


//…teach major limb prosthetics, one in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, one in Hanibal Missouri…//

Hmmm… Interesting choice of towns for prosthetics education.
-- Shz, Jan 12 2003


I've seldom seen a cilia idea. [+]
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 22 2019



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