Le tends, what a stress! You have to wash them, iron them, hang them, remove them, clean them, open them, close them... but isn't there a simpler and more intelligent method for darkening windows in 2016? This is what Harvard researchers must have thought, as they are designing a "smart" window to do without curtains altogether. The producers of solar awnings will be unhappy, but housewives and those who generally take care of home maintenance will be much happier.
The new generation window, in fact, is capable of opaque with a simple click to safeguard privacy, but without giving up the sun; it works by exploiting the physical properties of the materials it is made of, thanks to a low-cost technology that can also be applied to large surfaces.
”It's about more technology simple e less expensive compared to that of smart windows currently on the market, because it is based on a physical phenomenon and not on chemical reactions", said the coordinator of the research group, David Clarke. The window of the future is made up of a thin layer of glass or plastic sandwiched between two layers of soft transparent polymeric material (elastomer), enriched with microscopic invisible silver threads and connected to a switch.
The glass material reflects the light making the window opaque. The change of state takes place in less than a second and can be adjusted, based on the privacy or the light you want to have.
