Bits Blog: Researchers Develop Flexible Metal for 3-D Printers

A group of researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a liquid metal material that could be used in 3-D printers and lead to flexible gadgets.

The technology is outlined in a paper published in the journal Advanced Materials, which describes the flexible metal as “stretchable” and explains that many tiny dots of this material could be placed together to create larger, bendable sheets of metal.

screenshot via North Carolina State University Small drops of metal could be connected together to create flexible electronics.

The metal, an alloy of gallium and indium, is liquid at room temperature. But when it is exposed to air the alloy can create a thin skin around its outer layer. Think of the way air bubbles look when floating on top of water.

Although flexible metal might sound futuristic enough, the paper also says that this metal can be “self-healing,” similar to animals that can regenerate limbs when they are sliced off.

“These stretchable wires can be completely severed with scissors and rapidly self-heal both mechanically and electrically,” the paper notes.

A video demonstrating how the technology works uses a syringe to produce tiny dots of the metal that connect with each other and collectively join together.

“The fact that they are liquid means you could surround them with another material like rubber to make metallic structures that you can stretch and deform,” Michael Dickey, an assistant professor of engineering at North Carolina State University, told New Scientist in an interview.

Mr. Dickey said that if the syringe was switched with a 3-D printing head, that would produce a 3-D printer that could print metal. There is at least one caveat though. The material’s cost, he said, is roughly 100 times that of 3-D printing plastic.

Metal Gear Creator’s Fox Engine to Be Shown Next Month

Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima will show off the Fox Engine next month. In an interview on the PlayStation Blog, Kojima commented that “although the Fox Engine is not finished we are ready to show what it can do… on August 30th in Japan to be more specific.”

Kojima commented that the engine is “nearly finished, but the only way to be sure it works is to create a game at the same time and improve the engine with our tools as we go along.” The original plan was for that game to be Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, “but a lot happened along the way and instead it is being made with the engine they have at Platinum Games.”

The Fox Engine debuted at E3 2011. We last heard that it was running on PlayStation 3 and Vita during TGS, and Kojima commented that an actual game using the engine “may take a while.” Kojima Productions later posted job listings for “engineers to help develop next-gen game engine technology for use with the FOX Engine.”

For now, only the engine is confirmed to be making an appearance rather than an actual new game, though with rumors about Metal Gear Solid 5 swirling, anything is possible. Check back to IGN next month for full details on the Fox Engine presentation.

Is Metal Gear Solid 5 Coming?

Update: Konami's UK Twitter account has called the photos fake, writing "Seriously, just in case the ?#pinch? ?#salt? hashtags weren't enough - the chap who claims to have set up the fake rumours has been in touch."

Despite the Tweet, Konami still declined to confirm or deny that the photos are fake when we reached out for comment.

Some blurry shots of what looks to be a Metal Gear Solid 5 presentation have surfaced, prompting speculation that the game is about to be announced.

The shots first appeared in a Reddit thread, and more have turned up on NeoGAF. The text above the title reads "Open Ground Reconnaissance Endeavour" - and Kojima's next Fox Engine project goes by the codename "Project OGRE", so that would match up at least.

This image shows the text "The moment we were cast out of heaven, we became monsters", where another reads "A Paradise is born of the bloodstained earth". Below that, you can make out the words: "-Would she have wanted this? -That doesn't matter now."

We've contacted both Konami and Kojima Productions for comment - the official line from the publisher is that it doesn't comment on rumour or speculation.

Konami UK has tweeted about it, though: "Fake or real, we love a bit of speculation! #ogre #mgs5".

Metal Gear Solid 4 To Get Trophy Support

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will finally be receive trophy support this August, according to Andriasang.

Trophy support is being added to a 'PlayStation 3 The Best' budget version of the MGS4 which is being released in Japan. But if you already own a copy of the game, you'll be able to download a patch around this time.

Hideo Kojima has also said he will make an announcement at a special 25th anniversary event, to be held in Tokyo on August 30th. What that 'announcement' might be remains unclear, but it's said to be related to the 'vision' he has previously shared about a game that connects people.