Exciting functional coatings

It's amazing how much research has been done on functional coatings recently. In addition to intense and ongoing work regarding self-healing and self-cleaning solutions, numerous projects are touching fields as diverse as self-organising, anti-reflective or anti-icing coatings. This week two striking examples have raised my interest:

Forensic examinations: a newly developed conformal coating process can reveal hard-to-develop fingerprings on nonporous surfaces withut altering the chemistry of the print. The conformal coating applications suggested by the scientists use the physical properties of the fingerprint, not the chemistry of the substance left behing.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100511102121.htm

Anti-counterfeiting: researchers recently engineered a new process that is particularly forgery-proof. They add various fluorescing dyes to the entire material. With the aid of the fluorescence, they can precisely ascertain specific characteristics, and thereby recognise of they are dealing with the original, and if the quality standards have been met.

http://www.fraunhofer.de/en/press/research-news/2010/06/brilliant-counterfeit-protection.jsp

I find these approaches very exciting. They could be of real use for the relevant industries, I expect. Always interesting: how long will it take until these solutions will finally be implemented, and are further applications feasible?