Rubbery Ruler
Research Fellow, Dr Alberto Cimmino with colleagues Profs Geoff Opat and Tony Klein, have invented the 'Rubbery Ruler', a flexible elastic sensor that accurately measures extension, contraction or other movements particularly in hostile environments, tight spaces or over long periods of time. It was the subject of the R&D 100 award in 1995.
The Rubbery Ruler is a type of transducer with slim sensors, an elastomer body and double helix conductive core. It converts dimensional changes into electrical current variations to provide data output. Physically it can extend to more than twice its design length. It is lightweight, flexible, durable and is inexpensive to manufacture, ranging in length from centimetres to tens of metres. Other applications include:
ESA astronaut wearing a suit instrumented with the Rubbery Ruler to investigate effect of zero gravity on human movement.
- use in medical research for monitoring human movement
- measure tree growth in forests, growth of agricultural produce under varying climate conditions
- security devices to indicated window and door positions
- input transducer to virtual reality games
For further contact details on licensing this technology, please refer to Melbourne Ventures, Mr Richard Day, +61 3 8344 3066
The Rubbery Ruler has been used to measure the growth rate of fruit under different levels of irrigation in orchards.