Just an interesting one, probably tiny inputs per litre but you can just imagine the scale of mkt:
2. Rare Earth Smart Coating Materials Helped Blind People Travel
The crosswalk at the entrance to Ohio Blind School looked like a sidewalk that could be found at any crossroads, but the white streaks at the edges were made with "smart paint" - if a student with impaired sight used a cane with a new smart probe to cross the crosswalk, and the cane vibrated when it touched the line. The paint used rare earth nanocrystals that emit unique light. A sensor mounted on the tip of the cane could be activated and read by this light.
According to Josh Collins, CTO of Intelligent Materials, if you launched pulsed or LED pulsed light into these materials, you got feedback at a specific frequency, and the company was adding oxides to the road marking coating. As the company explored how to use coatings for self-driving cars, it could help cars identify intersections or driveways, or provide markers that make GPS more accurate.
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