Besides giving Hockey Canada a wake-up call, the Turino Olympics was also the public debut for a promising technology. The substance, d3o, is similar to silly puddy at rest, but instantly hardens on impact, thus creating flexible body armour. This material was incorporated into the ski suits of Canadian and American racers. It is created by the British based d3o labs.
There was a lot of hype about this product during the last Olympics, but news has died down. The wikipedia entry is lacking and is still considered a stub. I am guessing that this is because the product is still under heavy development and d3o labs does not want to release details until all of their patents are secured.
The best application of d3o that I can think of is a flexible laptop sleeve that hardens on impact (patent pending). It would be awesome!
d30 labs, where is my d3o laptop sleeve?????
Here is a video demonstrating the awesomeness of d30:
That would make for some awesome soccer shin guards, don’t know if I’d want it to protect my head though. I really want to figure out how this stuff works, some crazy chemical engineering went into that.
Yea, that stuff is pretty crazy.
I didn’t mention shin pads, but they do exist. They’ll set you back 50 pounds:
http://www.prodirectsoccer.com/prodinfo.asp?DEPT=8&DEPTTYPE=Shinpads&BRAND=25&SS=1
Now that would’ve been much more entertaining if he had missed the bit that had the d30 bit on his right knee ;P
I found the video fascinating. If the video was real and not tricked up, I can see many opportunities to help protect those whose recreations or occupation puts then at risk. I once saw John McEnroe play a match, and I’m certain the umpire would have been grateful for some.
d3o is very real and is definitely not a hoax. It is just some very impressive chemical engineering.
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