Focus on America

Innovation Transfers Benefit Public and Private Sectors

Fashion design that might one day be adapted to protect the Army?

That is possible because of innovative work by a Cornell University student whose design has caught the eye of U.S. Army scientists. Designer Olivia Ong put together two ensembles using silver nanoparticles in 2007 to eliminate health threats from microbes. The garments also incorporate palladium nanoparticles designed to reduce the effects of air pollutants.

Ong’s nanotextiles were created by dipping positively charged cotton fabric in a solution of negatively charged metal ions, according to an account on Popsci.com, with electrostatic forces binding the fabric and metal ions together.  It is an expensive undertaking, but one that the U.S. Army’s Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, in Massachusetts, is exploring further.

Natick’s scientists are working with chlorine coatings and metal nanoparticles in an effort to create lightweight material that could protect soldiers against chemical and biological weapons.

Peter Olejarz, who is the Fiber Processing and Technology Team leader, says besides working on fibers with anti-microbial properties, they are looking at radar wave absorption and electrical conductivity.

“This day and age,” he said, “most textile manufacturers are getting out of research and development because they can’t afford it,” leaving it mostly up to the federal government.

The government is funding, for example, the Florida-based Nanotherapeutics, maker of NanoGENT, a nasal spray that uses nanotechnology.  Using a dry powder, the dispenser will deliver an antibiotic to combat pneumonic plague and tularemia, agents that could be used as biological weapons.

GPS APPLICATIONS

More often, innovation begins in the public sector and then makes its way into private use.  The military developed the Global Positioning System, which sends signals from satellites to ground receivers.  It first used GPS to target missiles and refuel aircraft.

Now many cars roll off the assembly line offering GPS systems, hikers carry hand-held systems, boaters rely on them for navigation and even some high-tech bulldozers use them to grade soil.  Next up: GPS on wristbands.

Lockheed Martin GPS program manager David Podlesney says new applications are growing at a rapid rate.  The systems are accurate to a centimeter.

HIGH-DEFINITION TV

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is responsible for cultivating many technologies now enjoyed by consumers.  For example, it funded development of Texas Instruments’ digital micromirror devices, composed of hundreds of thousands of tiny multiple pivoting mirrors fabricated on a silicon chip, which eventually ended up in Air Force jet cockpit displays.

In civilian application, this optical display technology has made high-definition television possible and affordable while generating billions of dollars in commercial revenues.

NOT LOST IN TRANSLATION

Another intriguing product that came about through DARPA’s nurturing is a mobile universal phrase translator.  In its latest incarnation, the Phraselator 2 by Voxtec will translate phrases spoken in English. The user also may select an English phrase from the device’s display for a voice translation.

The U.S. military and coalition forces were first to use the lightweight, handheld, battery-operated device in Afghanistan and Iraq for medical treatment, refugee reunification and weapons searches, but it is now favored by U.S. law enforcement and fire department officials to build rapport with non-English-speakers and to aid in investigations.

More than 40 language versions are available, including Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, Cantonese and Mandarin. Thornton Media in California, a Cherokee-owned business, has adapted software to use with the Phraselator to promote Native American languages in Canada and the United States.  Some 55 tribes are using it as a teaching tool, for language preservation and to promote interaction between tribal elders and new generations.  A Dakota tribe in Minnesota, for example, bought five for tribal use.

In another commercial application, the Maryland-based Voxtec says its Phraselator was used during a foiled pirate attack on a commercial cruise ship off the coast of Africa in 2005.

TELEPHONY

DARPA also funded noise-shielding technology through the mobile audio products company Aliph, which partnered with Cingular to produce the “Jawbone” wireless Bluetooth headset for cell phones.  The military needed to communicate clearly in noisy environments, and now consumers are blogging about how well they can hear conversations in open convertibles and noisy trucks.  It is standard operating equipment for employees of Best Buy’s 24-hour on-call personal service computer support network, the Geek Squad.

In 2007, Popular Science magazine selected Bluetooth for a “Best of What’s New” award in innovation for making a positive impact on life.  Besides providing audio clarity, the headset earned display space in the Museum of Modern Art on both East and West coasts for its sleek design.

And speaking of telephones, the military needed cell phones that could work anywhere in the world.  That requirement gave birth to the Iridium-satellite-supported mobile phone system, but the company went bankrupt.  Private investors resuscitated the venture and began to market it broadly.  Now Iridium voice and data equipment is aboard aircraft and vehicles around the globe serving disaster relief workers. It is also used by leading media outlets and the oil and gas, mining and forestry industries.