Claytronics

Until today, I had no idea that Intel was working on "claytronics", the name for materials that can be controlled remotely. The idea? Eventually, clothese or objects could be manipulated, so that their form and function could be shifted dynamically. Imagine a PDA that could transform itself into a marble or bracelet when not in use.

Essentially, catoms are tiny silicon spheres or tubes, small enough that they could be manipulated by electrostatic or electromagnetic forces. The demonstration by Jason Campbell of Intel Research Pittsburgh showed an array of a few spheres just a few millimeters wide - smaller than a penny - where orientation could be slightly, slowly manipulated.

The reality: This is far, far away. As Envisioneering analyst Peter Glaskowsky remarked, "On a scale of 1 to 100, where 100 is making catoms a reality, they're at 0.1". Still, Intel has already shown that catoms can be manufactured with the same photolithography techniques they use to make chips.

Source: extremetech.comAdded: 3 September 2008