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Flo-stone
Nanotech based material used for flooring and originally designed to simulate the look and feel of marble or ceramic. Later versions were easily modified to simulate virtually any desired flooring material. Modern versions incorporate self-cleaning, self-repair, and anti-skid features that make infection, unintentional sliding, or slipping virtually impossible.

At the macroscopic scale, flo-stone closely resembles the look and feel of solid surface flooring. However, at the microscopic level it is made up of billions of nano-constructed cilia able to rapidly move and contract in multiple directions. When a user commands the flo-stone either verbally or via neural interface, the cilia repeatedly flex, contract, extend, and re-flex to move the user forward a small amount. The aggregate effect of this movement is that the user begins to slide in a desired direction across an apparently solid floor.

Standard flo-stone movement rates are equivalent to the escalator and moving sidewalk velocities of the Information and Early Interplanetary Ages. Often used in public areas, flo-stone can easily move large numbers of users to multiple individual destinations without the need of walking or other locomotion.
 
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Appears in Topics
Drytech/HylotechEnvirotechEverydaytech
High Tech / HitechInfrastructureNanotech
Surface Transport
 
Development Notes
Text by Todd Drashner
Initially published on 23 October 2004.

 
 
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