d3o: Futuristic Armor

I remembered this story last year about new uniforms for skiers being used in the Olympics incorporating d3o panels into the uniforms to make them lighter and more comfortable. Thought it might be worth revisiting.

The below is an example of some of the uniforms used by skiers. Usually they have to wear some sort of protection along the legs and arms in case they hit the poles as they go past.

Then came d3o. What is d3o? Well, straight from the manufacturer, the d3o lab, “d3o technology is a specially engineered material with intelligent molecules that flow with you as you move but on shock lock together to absorb impact energy.”

Here it is explained a little deeper:

Not only do they use this in skiing equipment, but also gloves (like soccer goalie gloves or motorcycle glove) and they’ve done some testing in shoes. Sounds pretty cool.

Looking at their existing and upcoming products you have to wonder about the possibilities. Their athletic testing team includes a wide range of sports, including soccer, mountain biking, snowboarding, and strangely enough, something called mountain boarding. The possible uses for such a material are limitless though…especially once you get into the more widely funded American markets such as baseball, football, and hockey.

Barry Bonds wouldn’t look so much like Robocop just strapping on some d3o armor instead of his bionic arm he uses now.

More importantly, football and hockey players would be that much faster with the lightweight and tough material worked into their armor.

Also, there could be a lot more useful uses than just sports such as construction safety equipment (work gloves, hard hats) and perhaps more importantly police and armed forces armor (I wonder how this stuff would do against a bullet). It certainly couldn’t hurt to try.

Of course, what with stuff like this already available, and the invisibility cloak and spider-man material, I think we’re only one rich guy (Bruce Wayne) away from our first actual superhero. ^_^

What do you think would be the best application of this material?