Ten technologies for tomorrow

Programmable matter
The creation of a substance that could be morphed into any shape and that could carry out useful tasks has taken a step closer to becoming reality, thanks to Carnegie Mellon University’s Synthetic Reality project.

ubstance has been dubbed Claytronics and consists of ‘catoms’ – short for Claytronics atoms. These can move in three dimensions and hold any given shape. They also have a lot in common with the nano-machine in that they have a CPU, onboard memory, sensors, network awareness and the ability to bond together to form complex shapes. The key is the ability to program these individual catoms to arrange themselves into a useful tool.

It would be possible to create an artificial fire fighter, for instance, to go into a burning building to look for survivors. And of course the military are taking a keen interest in the possibility of creating on demand any number of specialised soldiers.

With the massive amount of computing power required, it’s not surprising that Intel is also involved with the project. It envisages that within five years it will have a working collective of catoms that can assemble themselves into recognisable shapes.

With applications as wide as medicine and 3D physical rendering, Claytronics could be the wonder substance of the future. And when might you be able to buy – or create – Claytronics products? Check the high street in about 2026.

Links
www.intel.com/research/dpr.htm
www.cs.cmu.edu/~claytronics
www.programmablematter.com

Virtual worlds
Today multiplayer games such as World of Warcraft continue to attract millions of users. In the future fully immersive games and virtual worlds seem an inevitable development of the desktop-shackled 3D environments we have today.

The goal is to upload your consciousness into the virtual world in which your avatar exists. Work to make this a reality has already begun with the Blue Brain Project that started in 2005.

IBM and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology will work together over the next two years, using IBM’s Eserver Blue Gene supercomputer, to create a detailed model of the brain’s neocortex.

By expanding the project to model other areas, scientists hope to eventually build an accurate, computer-based model of the entire brain. Researchers from IBM will use their experience in simulating complex biological systems to help turn this data into a working three-dimensional model, recreating the brain’s high-speed electro-chemical interactions. Running on four racks of Blue Gene, the model will be capable of simulating brain processes in 3D.

Links
http://secondlife.com
www.worldofwarcraft.com

Virtual Reality History:
http://tinyurl.com/qxqnk

Nanotechnology
In March this year IBM announced it had built the first complete electronic integrated circuit around a single ‘carbon nanotube’ molecule; a new material that could provide enhanced performance over today’s silicon semiconductors.

The achievement is significant because the circuit was built using standard semiconductor processes and used a single molecule as the base for all components in the circuit, rather than linking together individually constructed components.

“Carbon nanotube transistors have the potential to outperform state-of-the-art silicon devices,” said Dr TC Chen, vice-president, Science & Technology, IBM Research.

It’s likely that a computer using these molecular switches will be a hybrid machine. The central processing and memory would be handled by these new subs tances, with the other areas of your computer, such as video, being controlled by more traditional technologies.

Links
www.zyvex.com

IBM:
http://tinyurl.com/jxoer
www.foresight.org

Future war
For better or worse, the military has more R&D projects than any other organisation. Some of the most interesting of them centre on how the humble infantry soldier might be transformed by technology.

One of the most important areas will be wearable computers: having the ability to use onboard computer systems linked to advanced head-mounted displays has obvious advantages for the soldier in the field, especially when coupled with advanced satellite communication systems.

The Future Force Warrior is the central foundation of a Future Force Strategy that the US Army is developing. Part of the Future Combat Systems program, the idea is to design a lightweight system that includes weaponry, head-to-toe protection against chemical or biological threats via an encasing body suit, networked communications and a worn power source that will use the protective suit’s ‘electrotextiles’ to carry power to all the devices that the soldier will carry.

Links
www.natick.army.mil/soldier/wsit
www.darpa.mil