NaturalNano bring silence to your ears

Building owners could soon have control of the airwaves thanks to a new type of paint which is able to block radio signals such as those used by mobile phones.

Using the wizardry of nanotechnology it is now possible to lock out unwanted mobile phone signals on demand.

NaturalNano has found a way to use nanotechnology to blend particles of copper into paint that can be brushed onto walls and effectively deflect radio signals.

The copper is inserted into nanotubes, which are ultra-tiny tubes that occur naturally in halloysite clay mined in Utah. The nanotubes are about 20,000 times thinner than a piece of paper, too small to be seen with even a conventional microscope. At this size, which is near the molecular scale, materials have different physical properties than they normally do.

By filling these tubes with nano-particles of copper, the company can create a medium to suspend the signal-blocking metal throughout a can of paint without significantly changing the way the paint adheres to a surface.

NaturalNano will combine this signal-blocking paint scheme with a radio-filtering device that collects phone signals from outside a shielded space, allowing certain transmissions to proceed while blocking others.

The radio filter would allow all emergency radio communications to pass through the shield, said Robert Crowley of AMBIT Corp., which designed the radio filtering device for NaturalNano. With all other signals, like cell phones, the filter would act like a spigot to block or allow them to pass through–say, only during intermission.

The paint should provide relief for many sectors. “You could use this in a concert hall, allowing cell phones to work before the concert and during breaks, but shutting them down during the performance,” said Michael Riedlinger, president of NaturalNano of Rochester, N.Y.

Last year The Mobile Manners Survey, commissioned by T-Mobile and undertaken by YouGov, revealed that us Brits are inconsiderate when it comes to using mobile phones in public. So the high tech paint will be welcome in UK cinemas, schools, libraries and churches!

“Our No. 1 request comes from churches,” he said. “Pastors want a way to stop cell phones ringing in church and people taking calls during worship services.”

So next time you go in to a building, and your phone signal drops, you might just be getting blocked by some clever paint on the walls!

How legal this is, I’m unsure. Like electronic jamming devices which are available on the Internet, blocking radio transmissions might be something the government will have something to say about.

Source: Chicago Tribune [via digg.com]

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