Play the Creator, with Claytronics

BANGALORE, INDIA: Welcome to the world of Claytronics! What’s that, you tend to ask. Researchers at Intel and Carnegie Mellon University have introduced before the inhabitants of the connected world a phenomenon called Programmable Matter.

Nicknamed Caytronics, it is a way of creating physical shapes out of a mass of millions of 200-micrometer-diameter spheres, which translates as about twice the width of a human hair.

For those who are still not able to digest what this really means, here’s something to imagine about. Think of capabilities that could let you stretch your mobile phone key pad into a more usable size as and when needed, and then shrink it down again so that it fits your pocket again. Yes that’s all what it means. Well, almost.

According to Dvice.com, every independently-moving sphere includes a tiny chipset, and each sphere. This is referred to as ‘catom’ and is bound to its neighbours and a controlling processor using electrostatic charges.

It has been said that physical objects can be created from these spheres using software, moulded by hand like clay, then made solid by adjusting the electrostatic charge. Interesting, isn’t it?

Claytronics will be used by developers as it would be possible to shrink down the catoms soon. It would be even possible, at a later stage, to apply Claytronics in such a way that one feels like the almighty himself.