4 ms·

A tile with ultrasonic array of transducers are provided as in the assembly to provide instantaneous friction control for any objects contacting or supported on

A tile with ultrasonic array of transducers are provided as in the assembly to provide instantaneous friction control for any objects contacting or supported on the contact/upper surface. [1] So that's what these tiny tiles are, something ultrasonic, not tiny wheels. EDIT: Found some more explanation in a reddit comment. [2] Ultrasound vibration makes it slippery, then it has an X-Y pistons underneath. So it makes itself slippery when it wants to reset position, then makes itself sticky again when it wants to move you back into position. Now repeat this process to fast for you to tell anything is happening. [1]: https://image-ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-public/print/downloadPdf/10228758 https://image-ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-public/print/downloa... [2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/comments/19eef29/comment/kjfll16/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/comments/19eef29/comment/k...

eastbound 3y ago
Sorry but if I input energy into the system by walking, and the holotiles input energy by producing ultrasound… how is this energy dissipated?
- fizx 3y ago
  heat
- dymk 3y ago
  Heat, and not very much
pxmpxm 3y ago
They must be vibrating the surface of those picks with ultrasound to modulate the friction. Pretty clever.
mrtksn 3y ago
Interestingly, on the video it appears as rotating wheels that change inclination: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68YMEmaF0rs&t=203s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68YMEmaF0rs&t=203s From the close-up shots, you can clearly see them rotating and changing inclination. By changing inclination they can control the contact surface of the rotating wheels and as a result control the direction of your movement. Very clever and simple but might be dangerous(you wouldn't want to have your pinky stuck between load bearing rotating wheels) and prone to tear and wear due to the high dynamic friction. However, if there's actually a way to make it sticky or slippery with ultrasound then you can get away with a partial rotation back and forth while turning it sticky in one direction to push the objects in that direction and turn it slippery to reset its own position and get ready for another push. This probably will make it quite safe.
- smusamashah 3y ago
  That's what I am still confused on how these discs look like wheels to people because lots of comments are saying that. All I see is discs changing angles and can't see them rotating like rotating wheels.
  - mrtksn 3y ago
    At 3:33 there's a close up and you can see dirt stuck on the edge of some wheels and it clearly goes around. Maybe, the part that goes from slippery to sticky with ultrasound is beneath the rubber disks and when there's no load they just rotate freely?
    - thrdbndndn 3y ago
      It looks to me that they're spinning than rotating; in other words, rotate around an axis that is perpendicular to the ground, instead of parallel to the ground. And because of this, the person above is stepping on the "spinning surface" (the "base" surface of a cylinder) of these tiny disks, instead of the curved surface like a normal wheel or some industrial conveyor wheels (as someone linked below, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRS0Uj2WdpA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRS0Uj2WdpA ). So in a sense, they're not "rotating like rotating wheels" despite being wheels/disks. BTW, it looks like they also can adjust its axis angle slightly (less than 30 degree), which I imagine is also crucial to how it works.
      - mrtksn 3y ago
        That's what I mean. Rotating around their axis, which is spinning. Like the world rotates or spins. And by wheels I also mean disk, probably disks is more precise just as the spinning but really don't see why anyone would be confused when there's a video. But anyway, thanks for improving my English.
        thrdbndndn 3y ago
        (Text here is removed due to bad wording.) To mrtksn: yeah I think your original post is pretty clear. But there are indeed other comments in this thread that are confusing the two.
gimmeThaBeet 3y ago
That's pretty gnarly. So the discs are basically doing little inchworming steps back and forth but never has to break contact by modulating the friction? Very much a bit of cleverness turned magic. The one thing that I notice is item 726/Fig 7./PDF pg 10, it has "with the soles and attached/embedded ultrasonic transducers". Is that maybe a different or older envisioning of this system? His shoes seemed totally normal. Just trying to wrap my head around how much the friction can be changed by vibration, like a solid-ish state fluidized bed. Don't know it both contact surfaces need to be vibrating.
- Animats 3y ago
  That's a cute system. Moving stuff around with controlled vibration is known. There's a cute trick where you drive a flat horizontal plate in three axes (X, Y, and rotate about Z). Sawtooth waveforms will move things around; the slow part of the sawtooth produces motion, and the fast part yanks the plate back to the starting point, breaking from static friction to weaker sliding friction. It's even possible, by using combinations of translation and rotation, to move multiple objects in different directions. The original research was funded by United Parcel Service. They wanted to take a table full of boxes, separate them, align them, and send them to a conveyor. Didn't work well enough, although someone did a chessboard demo where multiple pieces were moved around separately. This is a similar idea, but at a finer scale. > "with the soles and attached/embedded ultrasonic transducers" That suggests doing this in the shoe, instead of in the floor. Different system. Disney might license that to Nike. I can't see it for theme park customers. This system can make people fall down. Performers, though...
  - gimmeThaBeet 3y ago
    Oh, okay, I see, in that alternative system, the tiles still move, but your shoe with transducers is used to adjust the friction.
- blamestross 3y ago
  The normal model of friction already has static vs moving friction. They just vibrate to switch between them.
ehsankia 3y ago
How does that work for moving the box then?
pyottdes 3y ago
Conceptually, the demo is showing a kind of omnidirectional conveyer. It’s a fun implementation of tech that has been used in shipping and fulfillment for a while. https://youtu.be/HV2zh6ZDgUs https://youtu.be/HV2zh6ZDgUs https://youtu.be/XAokGOEjAFs https://youtu.be/XAokGOEjAFs Companies tend to shotgun out a bunch of patent soup unrelated to actual working prototypes during R&D. The media latches on to the most interesting sounding thing they can find relating to a demo so you end up with “ai controlled space lasers” describing something that’s actually much more mundane.
- rattray 3y ago
  That definitely doesn't look like something that could handle a human walking, and seems to be using a very different technique.

eastbound 3y ago

Sorry but if I input energy into the system by walking, and the holotiles input energy by producing ultrasound… how is this energy dissipated?

fizx 3y ago
heat
dymk 3y ago
Heat, and not very much

pxmpxm 3y ago

They must be vibrating the surface of those picks with ultrasound to modulate the friction. Pretty clever.

mrtksn 3y ago

Interestingly, on the video it appears as rotating wheels that change inclination: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68YMEmaF0rs&t=203s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68YMEmaF0rs&t=203s From the close-up shots, you can clearly see them rotating and changing inclination. By changing inclination they can control the contact surface of the rotating wheels and as a result control the direction of your movement. Very clever and simple but might be dangerous(you wouldn't want to have your pinky stuck between load bearing rotating wheels) and prone to tear and wear due to the high dynamic friction. However, if there's actually a way to make it sticky or slippery with ultrasound then you can get away with a partial rotation back and forth while turning it sticky in one direction to push the objects in that direction and turn it slippery to reset its own position and get ready for another push. This probably will make it quite safe.

smusamashah 3y ago
That's what I am still confused on how these discs look like wheels to people because lots of comments are saying that. All I see is discs changing angles and can't see them rotating like rotating wheels.
- mrtksn 3y ago
  At 3:33 there's a close up and you can see dirt stuck on the edge of some wheels and it clearly goes around. Maybe, the part that goes from slippery to sticky with ultrasound is beneath the rubber disks and when there's no load they just rotate freely?
  - thrdbndndn 3y ago
    It looks to me that they're spinning than rotating; in other words, rotate around an axis that is perpendicular to the ground, instead of parallel to the ground. And because of this, the person above is stepping on the "spinning surface" (the "base" surface of a cylinder) of these tiny disks, instead of the curved surface like a normal wheel or some industrial conveyor wheels (as someone linked below, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRS0Uj2WdpA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRS0Uj2WdpA ). So in a sense, they're not "rotating like rotating wheels" despite being wheels/disks. BTW, it looks like they also can adjust its axis angle slightly (less than 30 degree), which I imagine is also crucial to how it works.
    - mrtksn 3y ago
      That's what I mean. Rotating around their axis, which is spinning. Like the world rotates or spins. And by wheels I also mean disk, probably disks is more precise just as the spinning but really don't see why anyone would be confused when there's a video. But anyway, thanks for improving my English.
      - thrdbndndn 3y ago
        (Text here is removed due to bad wording.) To mrtksn: yeah I think your original post is pretty clear. But there are indeed other comments in this thread that are confusing the two.

gimmeThaBeet 3y ago

That's pretty gnarly. So the discs are basically doing little inchworming steps back and forth but never has to break contact by modulating the friction? Very much a bit of cleverness turned magic. The one thing that I notice is item 726/Fig 7./PDF pg 10, it has "with the soles and attached/embedded ultrasonic transducers". Is that maybe a different or older envisioning of this system? His shoes seemed totally normal. Just trying to wrap my head around how much the friction can be changed by vibration, like a solid-ish state fluidized bed. Don't know it both contact surfaces need to be vibrating.

Animats 3y ago
That's a cute system. Moving stuff around with controlled vibration is known. There's a cute trick where you drive a flat horizontal plate in three axes (X, Y, and rotate about Z). Sawtooth waveforms will move things around; the slow part of the sawtooth produces motion, and the fast part yanks the plate back to the starting point, breaking from static friction to weaker sliding friction. It's even possible, by using combinations of translation and rotation, to move multiple objects in different directions. The original research was funded by United Parcel Service. They wanted to take a table full of boxes, separate them, align them, and send them to a conveyor. Didn't work well enough, although someone did a chessboard demo where multiple pieces were moved around separately. This is a similar idea, but at a finer scale. > "with the soles and attached/embedded ultrasonic transducers" That suggests doing this in the shoe, instead of in the floor. Different system. Disney might license that to Nike. I can't see it for theme park customers. This system can make people fall down. Performers, though...
- gimmeThaBeet 3y ago
  Oh, okay, I see, in that alternative system, the tiles still move, but your shoe with transducers is used to adjust the friction.
blamestross 3y ago
The normal model of friction already has static vs moving friction. They just vibrate to switch between them.

ehsankia 3y ago

How does that work for moving the box then?

pyottdes 3y ago

Conceptually, the demo is showing a kind of omnidirectional conveyer. It’s a fun implementation of tech that has been used in shipping and fulfillment for a while. https://youtu.be/HV2zh6ZDgUs https://youtu.be/HV2zh6ZDgUs https://youtu.be/XAokGOEjAFs https://youtu.be/XAokGOEjAFs Companies tend to shotgun out a bunch of patent soup unrelated to actual working prototypes during R&D. The media latches on to the most interesting sounding thing they can find relating to a demo so you end up with “ai controlled space lasers” describing something that’s actually much more mundane.

rattray 3y ago
That definitely doesn't look like something that could handle a human walking, and seems to be using a very different technique.