- [Narrator] Think the fax is dead?
Wait until you can fax your whole body.
Note back in our self reconfiguring modular
robots episode we talked about robots that can
reshape and reform themselves so that they
can do any particular task perfectly.
Well, what if we take that same idea but think small.
I mean really small.
I'm talking about programmable matter.
Actual three dimensional tactile material
that can take on any predetermined shape
and then change shapes on demand.
Imagine that we have a programmable material work station.
That might include a little trough with some
beige puddy in it, and this puddy looks totally
normal until you send it some information like
a virtual model of a three dimensional object.
And then it springs into action, forming
that object right in front of your eyes.
Now it sounds like it's the stuff of science fiction.
And that crazy kind of technology
has to be 100 years away, right?
Maybe, but maybe not.
One approach to programmable matter is Claytronics,
which is an idea that came out
of Carnegie Melon University and Intel.
The base unit of Claytronics is
the Catom, the computerized atom.
Now, these catoms can work together to form
three dimensional objects on demand.
And building that kind of machine is pretty tricky.
They have to be able to receive energy,
they have to be able to communicate with one another
and they have to be able to move around,
preferably without having any moving parts of their own.
So several years ago, Carnegie Melon researchers
built catom cylindrical prototypes
that were 44 millimeters in diameter.
Now these things were able to move around
on a two dimensional plane pushing and pulling
against each other using electro magnets.
In the future, we want to see even smaller catoms.
Maybe just a millimeter in size, or the size of
a grain of sand, or maybe even smaller than that.
Now, in a future where this is a reality,
where we have programmable material,
why should we be excited about it?
Well think about it, email has pretty much
rendered the fax obsolete but what if
you could fax three dimensional objects?
Let me say that I have a trough full of Claytronic catoms
in front of me, and I take an object
and dip it into that trough, the catoms
flow over it creating a virtual model
of the object I've put into it.
And then I send that to you, and you have your
own trough of Claytronic catoms that assemble
themselves into that same three dimensional object.
Boom!
I've just sent you a copy of a real physical thing.
Or in the far future it could be part of telepresence.
Forget phone calls, forget video calls,
I would be able to create a full three dimensional
Claytronic version of myself that could appear
in front of you and give you a hand shake or even a hug.
The entertainment applications
for this alone are astounding.
Imagine playing a video game and the characters
literally leap off the screen and become
three dimensional creatures in your home.
And if this stuff becomes plentiful and cheap
enough, we could have objects disassembling
and reassembling themselves everywhere.
Let's say I've got a bunch of friends coming
over for dinner and I want to make sure I've
got enough seats for them, well I could use
Claytronics to build the furniture right then and there.
Then, when my guests leave, I can have it disassemble
back into those individual catoms
and go into a vat for storage.
One thing we have to take into consideration is this
amazing future may never appear during our lifetimes.
But, I'm still really excited by the prospect
people working on this technology.
And we don't even know where it could go.
I mean, when people first started making computers,
they had no way of knowing that the future
would turn out to be as amazing as our present is.
That brings me to this week's question for you guys.
If you had a big ole' vat of Claytronic catoms
in front of you, what's the first thing you'd build with it?
I want to know in the comments below.
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