It's magic.

One of the most fascinating new technologies I saw last week was called electroadhesion.

I have to admit - when I saw this at SRI International last week, I didn't quite understand how it worked. I understood the application they were trying to use it for. Minimizing product damage from supply chains. Also minimizing damage of materials in the manufacturing process.

The fascinating thing is - it will temporarily adhere to pretty much any surface through electro static. Square, round, wood, concrete.

Ultimately I assume they want to marry this product to robots. Maybe to create sticky fingers. I'm making that part up - because I can see a lot of applications for it, but I don't know what their real plans are for it. Right now it just looks like magic.

This first video shows it adhering to a round object. The second video explains more how it works. If you have ADD like I do - skip to around the 7 minute mark.