Scientists Unveil 'clay' Robots (nanites) NEW Technology Services Products

[theem 0]

Scientists Unveil 'clay' Robots (nanites)
INY robots that can turn into any shape - from a replica human to a banana to a mobile phone - are being developed by scientists in the United States.

The new science of claytronics, which will use nanotechnology to create tiny robots called catoms, should enable three-dimensional copies of people to be "faxed" around the world for virtual meetings.

A doctor could also consult with a patient over the phone, even taking their pulse by holding the wrist of the claytronic replica, reports New Scientist.

And the nano "clay" could be carried around, shape-shifting into virtually anything when required. Your claytronic mobile phone could turn into a hammer for a spot of DIY and then a pair of shoes to go jogging. The creator, Dr Todd Mowry, director of Intel's research labs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said: "You could have a little lump of this stuff you carry around and it could be a million different things. It's like the world's ultimate Swiss army knife." His partner, Dr Seth Goldstein, of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said: "It's absolutely going to work."

Intel's robotics expert, Jason Campbell, added: "The more you look at it, the more likely it seems we will be able to manufacture these things.

"I think there's a good chance we'll get to see it. Now whether that's five or 20 years, I don't know."

However, progress been slow. So far, the group has been able to get four catoms - or claytronic atoms - to act together, but at more than 4cm in diameter, they are considerably larger than the nano-sized robots required to make the clay.

But the problem of power supply has been solved. It has to be external, as the nanorobots would be too small to carry their own power pack.

Dr Goldstein is now working on designs for catoms about the size of a marbles and expects to be able to achieve some interesting behaviour when hundreds of these are combined.

"That'll be a huge step forward," he said

http://www.scotsman.com/future-scotland/tech/scientists-unveil-clay-robots-that-will-shape-our-world-1-715417

Notice from saint-michael:

copied from here http://www.scotsman.com/future-scotland/tech/scientists-unveil-clay-robots-that-will-shape-our-world-1-715417. You need to Follow the rules when copying sources from others sites final warning.

Dna Switch To Interface Living Organisms With Computers
Researchers at the University of Portsmouth, UK, have developed an electronic switch based on DNA - a world-first bio-nanotechnology breakthrough that provides the foundation for the interface between living organisms and the computer world.

http://phys.org/news/2006-10-team-dna-interface.html

Notice from saint-michael:

http://phys.org/news/2006-10-team-dna-interface.html same thing.

[FLaKes 0]

Wow, I cant imagine all scientifical advances we are going to have in like 10 or 20 years. Its going to be unbelievable, what I kind of hate though, is those types of articles, they never show any images. Its all just text, and, I have to see something at least a picture of what one looks like or something. Just to make it more interesting and maybe believable.

[salamangkero 0]

All this talk about nanites got me thinking. Sure, I mean, it's already possible to create nanotechnology devices that work by themselves but withe each other?I'd like to take this "Swiss Army Knife" with a grain of salt. If it were, as described, claytronics, what's to assure that the form it takes is suitably adapted to function in pretty much the same manner a sthe object it mimics?How does a claytronic hammer compare to the run-of-the mill hammers we have? Can it withstand enough stress to effectively push a nail through wood? How about those running shoes? Are they soft enough not to hurt your feet yet firm enough to protect your soles from sharp rocky extrusions?If this claytronic mass were, indeed, composed of nanites, it could be compared to animated sand, where the particles are small enough to fill the greatest possible space yet large enough to contain the driving mechanism. So saying, I surmised it won't hold water or any other non-viscous liquid. Another fluid, air, could easily pass through it as well. So saying, I doubt they could be actually used for telepresence, that is, "faxing" yourself to another part of the world. Sure, they could copy every detail of your anatomy but they cannot speak, the air would pass right through its "lungs" and "diaphragm", producing no more than a husky, raspy, gasping and creaking sound.Then again, I could very well be wrong. If I ever see the day this becomes a practical reality, I might as well die on the spot

[shadowx 0]

If they mean the same piece of this mythical clay is able to be a hammer or shoes theyre talking..well crap really. Hammers have to be hard, and take stress as already said but they also have to be heavy...shoes along with their properties as already said need to also be light. Matter cant change weight. No matter how special it is, it just cant. Therefore you will have heavy shoes or a light hammer, both useless. And how does anyone expect them to turn into a mobile? The only possible way would be to enable each one to create a stable connection to a possibly limitless amount of other nano-bots to mimic the circuitry a mobile phone needs. That would be interesting to make, an entire networking platform of robots, NANO-robots, which is able to select the perfect other robot to connect to in order to make an electrical circuit. It wont work. It takes humans days, maybe longer, to work out the circuitry needed in such a device as a mobile phone and we have logical thinking and good communication that isn't limited by what we are "programmed" to do so a robot wouldnt be able to do it. why does a doctor need to hole the wrist of a replica of a person? For the replica to have a pulse it first needs to know the pulse it should have and this would include the real human sending the data to the robot...now if we could send the info to the robot why not send it to the doctor and cut the middle man? ... My thoughts exactly. Robots cant just replicate us, they need to know the data to replicate such as gender height etc...and it would be easier to just collect this information ourselves and send it on ourselves to the doctor via email or telephoneAnd why the hell would anyone want to eat a load of robots pretending to be a banana? This stuff is no more than a gadget, it has no practical use. As a gadget id love a lump of the stuff as a tool its worthless!

[ChargerFanMatt 0]

What do you guys think the pairing of nanotechnology with artificial intelligence? In a book by Micheal Crichton (Prey), the company develops intelligent floating nanites for the military to use as surveillance. Well, this being a thriller, the nanites obviously go berserk and start attacking/dissolving people and replicating. Anyway, I was just thinking that scientists should be careful when dealing with things that manipulate/destroy things on the molecular level.