I can’t wait for this technology to mature. I’ve always envisioned a system like this for video walls.
One that would be made up of tiny pixels that would march up a wall and announce their position to each other wirelessly and then display images from a computer source. You would be able to configure them to any dimension you wished.

Justin Rattner Intel’s CTO is speaking about Claytronics at the Singularity Summit this weekend. This article discusses his prediction that the singularity will occur by 2048 and some other cool tech.



Cargegie Mellon University is working on Claytronics technology. There is a wealth of information on this site: Claytronics

From the CMU site:

At the current stage of design, claytronics hardware operates from macroscale designs with devices that are much larger than the tiny modular robots that set the goals of this engineering research. Such devices are designed to test concepts for sub-millimeter scale modules and to elucidate crucial effects of the physical and electrical forces that affect nanoscale robots.

  • Planar catoms test the concept of motion without moving parts and the design of force effectors that create cooperative motion within ensembles of modular robots.
  • Electrostatic latches model a new system of binding and releasing the connection between modular robots, a connection that creates motion and transfers power and data while employing a small factor of a powerful force.
  • Stochastic Catoms integrate random motion with global objectives communicated in simple computer language to form predetermined patterns, using a natural force to actuate a simple device, one that cooperates with other small helium catoms to fulfill a set of unique instructions.
  • Giant Helium Catoms provide a larger-than-life, lighter-than-air platform to explore the relation of forces when electrostatics has a greater effect than gravity on a robotic device, an effect simulated with a modular robot designed for self-construction of macro-scale structures.
  • Cubes employ electrostatic latches to demonstrate the functionality of a device that could be used in a system of lattice-style self-assembly at both the macro and nano-scale.



picture of the talk on Programmable Matter at the Singularity Summit.