The Defense Advanced Research Products Agency (DARPA) announced a new initiative called
VAPR. VAPR, or Vanishing Programmable Resources, is designed to fund the development of electronic systems capable of physically disappearing in a controlled, triggerable manner.
Reza Montazami, assistant professor of mechanical engineering Iowa State University, led the team to propose the technology called "transient materials" or "transient electronics". The possibilities are endless from creating medical devices to military communications.
His team already built a degradable polymer composite material capable of hosting small electronic components. They also created a degradable antenna able to transmit data.
The team hopes to develop more sophisticated
devices such as credit cards capable of vanishing as soon as it gets stolen or mobile phones after it reaches the end of its useful life.
