Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a new self-cleaning glass that can resist fog, won't produce any glare and cleans itself. The technology could lead to smartphones and tablets with smudge-free touchscreens.

The glare-free glass has surface nanotextures that "virtually eliminates reflections, producing glass that is almost unrecognizable because of its absence of glare-and whose surface causes water droplets to bounce right off, like tiny rubber balls," according to MIT News. The surface of the glass has nanoscale cones that eliminates reflections and repels water droplets like rubber balls bouncing off the ground. The water droplets bouncing off the surface also clean the glass by picking up foreign particulates.

The research team comprised of Kyoo-Chul Park, Hyungryul Choi, Chih-Hao Chang, Robert Cohen, Gareth McKinley, and George Barbastathis, created the glass with a technique used to create silicon microprocessors in the semiconductor industry. Although the nanocones are 1,000 times to 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair the researchers calculations show that they are strong enough to resist raindrops in a strong downpour to wind-driven pollen and even poking from human fingers.

"For the first time, as far as I am aware, this paper learns a lesson in manufacturing efficiency from nature by making an optimized anti-reflective and anti-fogging device," said Andrew Parker, a senior visiting research fellow at Oxford University's Green Templeton College in the U.K. Parker is not involved in the research.

The technology could be used for a variety of applications. The glass could replace the touchscreens used in smartphones, tablets and PC displays. The self-cleaning nature of the glass could also be used in solar panels, which can lose efficiency over time due to accumulated dust and dirt. Solar panels protected by the new glass could avoid these dust problems and perform more optimally. The researchers are also looking to use the glass in microscopes and cameras as well as televisions and even windows.

The research was funded by the Army Research Office and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research as well as Singapore's National Research Foundation and the Xerox Foundation. The works is published in the April 8 edition of the journal ACS Nano