Similar systems are being explored to reduce vibration in washing machines, air conditioning compressors, rockets and satellites, and one has even been installed in Japan's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo as an earthquake shock absorber.
Besides fast acting clutches, brakes, shock absorbers and hydraulic valves, other, more esoteric, applications such as bulletproof vests have been proposed for these fluids.
The properties of smart fluids have been known for around sixty years, but were subject to only sporadic investigations up until the 1990s, when they were suddenly the subject of renewed interest, notably culminating with the use of an MR fluid on the suspension of the 2002 model of the Cadillac Seville STS automobile and more recently, on the suspension of the second-generation Audi TT.
Other applications include brakes and seismic dampers, which are used in buildings in seismically-active zones to damp the oscillations occurring in an earthquake.
Since then it appears that interest has waned a little, possibly due to the existence of various limitations of smart fluids which have yet to be overcome.