MIT exploring cell-phones that can build themselves in a tumbler

MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab, aiming at re-inventing self-assembly, construction, and programmable material technologies keeps coming up with tiny little experiments every now and then. And after some furniture capable of self-assembly, the lab is now trying its hands on self-assembling cellphones.

According to Fast Company, MIT’s latest project, though still in its nascent stage is exploring how with a few components, a source of energy, and the right interactions, a cell phone could "build itself," without the need for human or even high-tech automation.

The original inspiration for the project came from MIT professor David Mellis's DIY cell phone, which began as a series of open-source instructions for a basic cell-phone design, according to Skylar Tibbits, a research scientist in MIT's department of architecture who co-runs the lab.

Presently, Tibbits only has a rough prototype for the self-assembled cell phone. It's composed of six parts that assemble into two different phones. The parts are put into a tumbler and tossed around until the parts click together into the phones. Depending on the speed of the tumbler, it can take a minute.

Check out this video.

The video might look deceptively simple but the process is quite complex. The tumbler being used by the MIT team has to move fast enough to juggle the parts around, but not fast enough to actually break them. Also, the parts need to connect at the right points and stay together securely. For now, MIT is relying on magnets of varying polarity to bring the right parts together.

Tibbits and his team have been working on the concept since 2013, and have been experimenting with it and refining the process for roughly a year. Right now the process is low-budget and simplified, but what's most impressive is that it's completely feasible to imagine scaling it up for mass production.