Advanced Invention

Swifter suits, shoes that lean and gaming the pistol are just the beginning of the tech innovations giving track the runaround this summer

Every four years, we watch. We marvel at badminton, wonder about the modern decathlon and proudly pause for synchronized swimming. With more than 300 gold medals awarded across 37 disciplines, the next two weeks of our lives should be impressively unproductive. To aid in your immersion, we continue with our new series: “know your Olympic sport.” It’s part reminder that people actually get medals for this stuff (see: trampoline gymnastics) and part introduction to the science behind the sports.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese researchers say they have developed a rubber that is able to conduct electricity well, paving the way for robots with stretchable “e-skin” that can feel heat and pressure like humans.

The material is the first in the world to solve the problems faced by metals — which are conductive but do not stretch — and rubber, which hardly transmits electricity, according to the team at the University of Tokyo.

The new technology is flexible like ordinary rubber but boasts conductivity some 570 times as high as commercially available rubbers filled with carbon particles, said the team led by Takao Someya at the university’s School of Engineering.

The idea of a dedicated room just for washers and dryers may be an alien idea for our future brethren. Designed by Harsha Vardhan from New Delhi, India, the Alternative Clothes Cleaner is a conceptual washing machine that doubles as a large seat.

It has two modes, active and passive, though both will allow you to sit atop the unit. No detergent or water necessary here, either — the inner chamber acts as a pressure washer and cleans the clothes with ionized air instead. That means no drying, too. It’s the kind of crazy technological mishmash you’d expect to see in The Jetsons, and we love it. Bring on espresso makers that will also tell you the news, or hair-dressing wall units that’ll play with the dog while you’re pampered. Check out the gallery below for more views of the versatile Alternative Clothes Cleaner.