Permanent magnets are universally used across millions of household and industrial machines around the world, but are restricted by their design and function in particular their rather cumbersome and sometimes dangerous decoupling behaviors.
Instead of having single North and South poles, Larry Fullerton has invented the ability to reconfigure the charges of magnets by creating multiple magnetic poles, within one shape.
The video here introduces us to the traditional use and applications of magnets and leads into the prototype in action, and hinting at possible uses and applications.
"correlated magnetic structures have magnetic fields with much higher near-field density and much lower far-field density than conventional magnets. As such, very strong correlated magnetic structures can be created that produce stronger peak attractive force when attached to metal or to another correlated magnetic structure yet have attractive forces that rapidly diminish as they are separated from the metal or other correlated magnetic structure." Source
This invention will profoundly change our technological future with the applications and uses of magnetics, since, designers will be able to increase magnet performance, or decrease the size and weight required to achieve a particular design objective.
