Technology Offerings

Nanocrystalline Cellulose (NCC) is a green and renewable material that has recently gained huge interests. Due to its interesting properties it has a wide possible application range and can be used as reinforcement material in the construction industry as well as in drug delivery systems and as material for implants. However, at the moment its complicated and expensive manufacturing process represents a significant obstacle to a widespread application of NCC. The present invention is characterized by a neutralization step terminating the acidic hydrolysis of the cellulose fibers during the production procedure. This uncomplicated, but very effective further step enables an ?easy-made-separation? of the NCC by centrifugation. Therefore, this innovative technology will pave the way for a wide range of applications of this fascinating new material.

Arrangement and Method for Detecting an Object which is Attached to a Body, in Particular for Carrying out a Security Check.

Ship hulls and other underwater hulls are treated with paints and varnishes which contain toxic additives to prevent barnacle, algae and mussel growth. Growths on ships can therefore increase fuel consumption by up to 50%. Since the launch of the global ban on tributyltin (TBT) there is a great need for alternative, non-toxic coatings to prevent biofouling.
Researchers from the Biomimetics-Innovation-Centre at Bremen University of Applied Sciences have developed a non-toxic alternative coating which uses sharkskin as a model.
The microstructure of sharkskin helps to reduce water resistance when afloat as well as it is an efficient means against the colonisation of organisms. Studies show that a silicon-based coating imitating the surface structure of the sharkskin causes a reduction in fouling growing on test plates by 70%.
Initial product development – a painting product with randomised structure for the recreational craft sector – has already been realised. A sprayable version of the product is currently being developed to tailor it to the spray process used in this sector.

The new technology relates to a compliant manipulator designed with a significantly improved agility. The individual segments of the manipulators are covered with permanent magnetic guideway discs. The arrangement of the segments is designed in such a way that these repel each other and with a change in length of the manipulator an equal distance of the segments is the result. The motion of the manipulator is e.g. initiated by cables or rods. The change of segment length can be enabled by sliding concentric tubes formed from a superelastic nickel-titanium alloy.

The driving manner has an enormous influence on the fuel consumption of cars. Possible savings by changing the manner range from 10% to 60%. The described invention can help to unlock this potential. It comprises an assistance system, which captures the characteristics of the way ahead of the driver, e.g. using a navigation system, and then calculates driving recommendations in the form of “tasks”. The tasks are suposed to motivate the driver to adapt his driving, resulting in a changed manner in the long run. It is possible to implement a broad and extensive gamification-concept based on the invention.

This novel software technique automates the comparison of HTML pages across many browsers and a diverse range of formats. In a first step, screen shots from different browser and format combinations are automatically superimposed and compared. Relevant differences are highlighted in color to alert the web designer where additional work is required. To scale up for a large number of pages, the process can generate key numerical metrics that characterize the visual match.