[Shanghai Expo] 'Artificial Spider Silk' Displayed in Germany's Pavilion

May 17, 2010 18:27 Tetsuo Nozawa, Nikkei Electronics

The theme of the Germany's pavilion at the Expo 2010 Shanghai China is a coined word, "Balancity," which means the harmony of environment, city and technology.

The exhibits in the pavilion are German companies' products, environmentally-friendly technologies and materials, etc, differentiating the Germany's pavilion from other pavilions that show only video presentation.

The exhibits include (1) "transparent" concrete, which is made by mixing pieces of optical fibers and can transmit light (See related article), (2) the "Synthetic Spider Silk" developed by AMSilk GmbH, (3) the "Pappelflaun," Pappillon GmbH's heat-insulating and moisture-retaining vegetable fiber that is void inside and (4) Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH's organic EL lighting equipment, "Orbeos."

Among them, the Synthetic Spider Silk was artificially made by using the materials that constitute real spider silk.

"I has flexibility and the strength of iron," AMSilk said. "Moreover, it is human-friendly, antibacterial and biodegradable."

So far, many researchers have been making efforts to develop artificial spider silk. But researchers at Technische Universitaet Muenchen (the Munich Institute of Technology) succeeded in the volume production of it for the first time. AMSilk is a venture firm established by those researchers in 2008.

Furthermore, there are some exhibits related to digital home electronics. For example, the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Herz Institute demonstrated the "gesture interface," a technology to use a palm or an arm as a remote control by using infrared light and a camera.

Also, a game using augmented reality (AR) technologies is demonstrated in the pavilion.

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