A new kind of metasurface uses the sun to clear foggy screens

technologyreview.com

35 points·rbanffy··10 comments

> raising the surface temperature of the glass by up to 10 °C.

That's interesting. I wonder how that will affect the car on a hot day?

Will it cause more heat (as the material is designed to encourage the conversion of light into heat)?

Or will it reduce the heat (as most of the easily convertible wavelengths get converted on the surface of the car, not on the dashboard)?

Or (as I suspect) will it have next to no effect either way?

My guess is that it converts part of the incoming light into heat and radiates that in both directions. The fraction of light that is absorbed inside the car and then radiates, but don't radiate through the window, is smaller than it would be if nothing was absorbed by the windshield, so I guess it'll be cooler inside the car.

But nobody should trust my math in those matters (because I didn't do any)

I don't really see the application for windshields. It doesn't work in all conditions, so you have to have a backup solution anyway. It increases the temperature, so you'll likely have to run the AC harder in warm weather. And defogging by turning on a light would require a pretty strong light to heat the windshield.

"To continue reading, enter your email address" - No, thankyou.

Just turn javascript off.

Bloody Vikings! for a temp email.

Where's the sun when it's foggy?

I’m trying to recall a time when it was both sunny and my windshield was foggy.

Happens to me often on cold dewy mornings. Plenty of moisture from the overnight air, and it takes a while for the defogger to heat up, during which time it sometimes feels as if it’s actively refogging my windshield.

Is it recyclable.

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