WEBVTT - The Future of Programmable Matter 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.200 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:15.200 Forward Thinking, and Welcome to Forward Thinking, the podcast that 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:18.040 looks at the Future says, tomorrow we can drive around 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.280 this town. I'm Jonathan Strickland, I'm Lauren ba and I'm 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:25.040 Joe McCormick. And today we're gonna be talking about a 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:27.840 very special subject that's sort of a follow up to 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.040 something we talked about earlier this month. Yeah, on December third, 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:34.800 we published a podcast called self or podcast episode that 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:37.520 terminology always wakes me out, anyway, it was called self 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:42.000 We configuring modular Robots go and they went, and they did, go, 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:47.040 they did, They went everywhere kind of thing they do, right. Yeah. 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.000 The concept of that is the the a robot that's 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.080 made up of smaller components, each of which is its 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:56.720 own robot, right, And so it's sort of an aggregate 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.400 like a transformer, except actually better than a trans former 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.000 because the transformer can only turn into two shapes, maybe 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:06.640 three for some of them. Sure, sure, but it's basically 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.200 either a car or robot or a gun or a 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:14.319 robot or etcetera. Right, And so a self reconfiguring modular robot, 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:17.440 on the other hand, would be able to reshape itself 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:21.039 into any number of different shapes because it's made of 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:26.920 identical individual components that can adjust their position and functionality 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:29.679 with relationship to all the other ones. Right, And we 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:32.039 talked about a couple of different types. We talked about 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:35.920 M I, T, S M blocks. We talked about Harvard's kilobots. Now, 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:39.880 the kilobots are not U modular robots in the same sense, 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:44.640 but they demonstrate the the swarm behavior that would be necessary, 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:47.960 the idea that each individual robot would be able to 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:52.360 move into the correct position to form whatever shape is needed. Uh, 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:54.800 they're more of a tool to test out that kind 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:58.040 of technology, that sort of artificial intelligence that will be 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:04.880 a necessary component it for a true self reconfiguring modular robot. Right, 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.640 because anything that large isn't ultimately going to be as 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.640 useful as as something with parts that are much smaller 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.079 that the smaller the parts, the more useful this kind 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:16.200 of stuff is going to be. Yeah, And of course, 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:19.440 as we've mentioned plenty of times on the show, miniaturization 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:23.520 is hard, especially when you need to power all these elements. 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:27.760 But let's be optimists for a bit and imagine it's 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:32.720 going to be weird not for me, And imagine how 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:39.960 small you could make these modular robotic elements. That was, 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:44.320 you do not have a very powerful imagination time bandits reference. 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:48.600 Um no, I want to I want to talk about 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.560 how this applies to a subject known as programmable matter. 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.959 All right, so let's actually talk what is programmable matter. Well, 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:01.040 programmable matter is matter. It's so it has substance as weight. 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:03.400 You can hold it in your hands, but it can 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:07.800 alter its own physical characteristics in a non random way 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:13.560 based on user input or pre programmed behavior. So yeah, 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:19.080 where did this idea come from? Well, let's turn back 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:23.280 the time. Watch the hands of the clock spin backwards. Uh, 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:25.959 now it was it was the idea itself. The term 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:30.639 was proposed by Tomaso to Foley and Norman Margolis to 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:34.920 M I T. Computer scientists. Now, their concept of programmable 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:38.880 matter was really more about tiny computers that could perform 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:43.200 parallel processing and communicate with one another, that could simulate 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.760 the physics of real matter. But we're talking about a simulation. 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:50.320 They weren't replicating. These These small computers in this proposal 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:54.080 weren't meant to take on physical shapes, but rather be 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.119 able to communicate in a way that would allow them 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.920 to process huge amounts of information very rap Okay, But 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.640 of course subsequently people really expanded on this idea, right, 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:08.800 We ended up hearing about another approach where they said, 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:11.160 what if we took the same concept, but instead of 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.760 just talking about computers, we apply it to robotics. So 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.160 each computer is itself a tiny robot that has some 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:23.560 ability to move around, to communicate, to bind with fellow robots, 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.960 and that they would be able to have a tiny 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:32.440 processor inside them to to take on commands and then 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:37.000 enact those commands. And then you could, in theory, have 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:41.320 this massive robots that could create actual physical structures, larger 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:45.760 macro structures. So kind of similar to the modular robots 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.159 we talked about before, but on an even smaller scale. Okay, 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:52.799 but what people are really thinking about today is something 0:04:53.560 --> 0:05:00.599 kind of amazing picture. You've got a little blob of 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:05.240 gray junk. It's just it looks like putty or goop 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.920 or jam or something. It's just this kind of amorphous 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:15.359 material jam. But you give it data and so the 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:20.200 it is actually made of tons of tiny spherical elements 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:25.520 that are all joined together and all individually have computing capability. 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:29.200 Somewhere deep inside each of those tiny little particles is 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.480 a circuit and it takes the data you put in 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.520 and says, okay, I need to be over here now 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:38.640 in relation to this other particle, and they all do 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:41.919 that at the same time to form a shape. And 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:45.320 the shape is whatever you tell it, and then if 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:47.599 you are tired of that shape, you can tell it 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:54.240 to make a totally different shape and it will pretty creepy. Huh. Yeah, yeah, 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:56.960 I mean it's creepy and great. Like this is sort 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.200 of if you want to get really crazy with it. 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.160 It's sort of the T one thousand idea. Yeah, it's 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.640 it's T one thousand meets silly putty, right. Uh. To 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:10.440 be more realistic, it's sort of like not a fully 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:14.880 functioning autonomous robot running around in the in the southern 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:18.880 California area, but it's something that can change its own 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:22.080 shape at will based on what you want. Yeah. So 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.400 you could think of it kind of as as a 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:31.240 bunch of uh, you know, modules that can form various structures, 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.800 but the modules themselves are so small that your your 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:39.080 list of possible structures you can make is in the 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:43.080 ideal implementation practically unlimited. Yeah. Imagine there as small as 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:47.200 grains of sand, as if sand could make anything out 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:50.279 of itself. It's almost as though this is some kind 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:56.640 of automatically sculpting clay. Yeah, that's a good name for it, 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:58.839 but you didn't come up with it first, now, I 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.440 did not, not at all. Actually, a one cool name 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:04.880 for a particular implementation of this idea of programma will 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:08.520 matter is Claytronics. And you might have heard this term before. 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:12.800 It's a popular and cool idea and futurism circles. But 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:17.280 what's behind the actual Claytronics idea. Well, I mean it 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.240 came out of Carnegie, Melon and Intel, along with a 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:23.320 few other partnerships. There is an actual project. There's a 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:27.560 great website where they kind of talk about what Claytronics 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:29.800 is all about and how they hope to achieve it, 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:33.920 which is is pretty neat um. The project's purpose is 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:39.080 too and I quote it combines modular robotics, systems, nanotechnology, 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:42.280 and computer science to create the dynamic three dimensional display 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:46.200 of electronic information. So think of this as an alternative 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.200 to a computer monitor, right you are? You can actually 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:53.880 use this to visualize data in a physical form, So 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.120 you could you could in theory. Use this to do 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:01.480 something as simple as compare the market share of two 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:07.360 different operating systems and have two physical UH representations pop up, 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:10.360 and maybe there's a large sphere in a small sphere 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:15.120 to demonstrate what the two different UH companies are operating 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:18.000 systems you're looking at how they compare against one another. 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:20.440 Or you can do something much more complex, like what 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:23.120 we're talking about, the idea of being able to make 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.920 any particular physical shape and then reshape it just by 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:30.680 you know, running a program. Right. And so this technology 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:34.840 is obviously based on the power of the individual particle, 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:38.280 right that's moving about to create these shapes. And in 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:42.679 the field of claytronics, this is the claytronic atom, the 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:46.880 catom it right, and the catom, like a lot of 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.920 the units we're talking about, is modular in that you 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:53.319 can have that connect with other atoms to make these 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:56.120 larger shapes, these macro size shapes, right. They don't have 0:08:56.160 --> 0:09:00.000 to be specialized. They're all the same thing. Yeah, Yeah, 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.320 And that's not always the case with programmable matter. There 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:06.560 are other implementations. You know, this was one approach. There's 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.640 another one Cornell's Creative Machines Lab is working on a 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:14.160 lot of different ways of looking at programmable matter. So 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.520 I gotta keep in mind that we're talking about, uh, 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:21.199 something that's in its infancy here, so we're still experimenting 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.120 with different approaches to how to get to this kind 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:28.160 of uh future where we have programmable matter. So one 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:31.680 of the things that Cornell's Creative Machines Lab is looking 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:36.240 at is uh using these tiny building blocks that they 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:40.640 call Vauxell's. These are physical objects that they know Vauxell's 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.440 sort of like pixels. A pixel is an individual unit 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:45.719 of display on your display. Why am I thinking it 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.560 sounds like an alien from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:53.000 Theogans yea with their terrible poetry. Uh, yeah, Vauxell's in 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.520 this case, Yeah, it makes sense because of a single 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:59.600 Vauxel would be a single unit that, together with other 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:01.960 vox can make up this physical shape. Just as a 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:04.560 single pixel is kind of useless. You have to have 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.480 lots of pixels so that you can actually represent whatever 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:11.199 visual uh image you want to to have on your 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:14.520 screen like that terminology. Yeah, that's kind of neat. It 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:17.000 makes it It makes it easier to explain to people, right, 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:19.280 Like think of it as just as an individual unit. 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:21.840 It's kind of like an again, just like Claytronics goes 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:23.920 with the catom, where you think of the atom as 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:28.040 the individual unit. This is very similar. Uh. Now, these 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:30.720 building blocks could come in different varieties, so you could 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:34.600 have vaux holes that are soft or hard. They could 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:37.199 come in different colors. Some might be conductive, some might 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:42.000 be insulators, some could have robotic elements like sensors or actuators. 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:45.000 So you would get an assembler of some type that 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:48.520 would print out those building blocks whichever ones you needed 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:51.880 for whatever it was you were playing on building, and 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:55.320 then you would be able to put it together to 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:57.360 make the thing you need it to make. So I 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:00.719 think of it more like tinker toys or legos. You 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.160 would get the different blocks you need, and you look 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:06.079 at the instructions and then you can build the actual thing. 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.920 So it's a little different from claytronics, where you would 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:11.640 theoretically be able to change that shape over and over. 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.560 I'm not exactly certain that the vauxells would have that 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.439 same capability and may not, but it's again kind of 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.920 a stepping stone toward that programmable matter where you would 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:24.040 be able to change things on the fly. One of 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:26.040 the other things I liked about the voxhel approach is 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:29.360 how they describe building a three D object, that it's 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:33.160 a digital method as opposed to an analog method. So 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:36.320 analog you would consider that to be a continuous shape, 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:40.600 so you know, as curves, as edges, um, and but 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:44.600 it's all continuous. Digital is there's either matter there or 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:48.360 there's not. It's a one or zero. So it's sort 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:51.040 of the difference between you know, a real image and 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.200 a pixelated image on the screen. Yeah. Yeah, so you 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:57.000 would if you were trying to create something, you would say, 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:00.320 all right, where where to do the individual vox need 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:02.840 to be? And where do they absolutely not need to be? 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.679 Where do they need to be absent? And uh, you know. 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.600 I've also likened it to the idea of We've talked 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:11.480 about this with sculpting, where you cut everything that isn't 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.120 the thing you want out, like, cut everything that doesn't 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:16.760 look like David needs to be cut out of that 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:19.280 block of granted, until you're left with David or marble. 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:22.520 I guess I should say, at any rate, what what 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:26.640 do I know? I'm no artist, um, but anyway, it's 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:28.960 kind of neat because it's it's that one in zero approach. 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:31.560 But there are other projects at Cornell that also relate 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.839 to programmable matter. And my favorite one out of all 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:38.040 of them, and keep in mind their lots, is called 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:44.400 jamming granular materials. Yeah, it's not fish, it's not it's 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:46.640 not widespread panic, it's nothing like that. It's not that 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:50.280 kind of jamming. Uh. This this is actually looking at 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:53.160 the way, it sounds like a medical condition, Like you 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:55.320 end up in the emergency room because you've got a 0:12:55.360 --> 0:13:01.080 case of jamming granular materials. I'm sorry, miss, he's got 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:06.440 jamming granular materials. Materials. Well. They The idea about this 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.480 is is grain, very fine grains of of matter can 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:13.360 behave like a fluid if they are loosely packed into 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:17.120 a container. So imagine that you've got a jar that 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:21.960 is maybe half filled with very fine dry sand, and 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.960 you move the jar around and the sand flows almost 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.760 like a fluid. It's similar more like a fluid than 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:31.040 a solid. Right. But then let's say that you have 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:34.200 twice as much sand packed in there, so it's actually 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:39.800 really tightly uh packed inside that jar. Then it is rigid. 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:42.960 Even if that jar were made out of a flexible 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:46.640 material like plastic, you would have this rigid structure inside 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:50.240 of it because you had jammed the the grand granules 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:54.040 so tightly together. They're the same sort of idea has 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:59.840 been proposed for types of these individual units for programmable 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:04.360 or where you have some mechanism connected that can either 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:09.960 compact or then relax and allowed this sort of granular 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:14.400 material to either become rigid or soft, to change different shapes. 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:16.760 So you would have the units and they would all 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:19.960 be connected to each other in specific ways previously like 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:23.280 they wouldn't disconnect and reconnect necessarily. They might all be 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:27.320 connected permanently in one in one type of type of structure, 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.680 but based upon these little links between them made out 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:35.240 of this granular stuff there, they take on specific shapes 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.080 because they're either rigid or they're soft, and it doesn't matter. 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.400 The other approach reason they go with this approach is 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:42.840 that doesn't matter what the temperature is. They don't need 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.440 to change the temperature to change that rigidity. It's just 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.560 whether it's compact or whether it's loose. So I thought 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:52.280 that was pretty neat the the image they had imagine 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:55.680 kind of a pyramid where each it's it's a it's 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:58.440 a just the outline of pyramid, the structure of a 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:02.800 pyramid without the actual phy egal sides. And each line 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:07.800 is a little soft plastic container of sand. So when 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:09.800 it's all rigid, it stands up like a pyramid, and 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:11.960 when it's soft, it's just it's just a little pile. 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:17.120 So uh, it's it's again just showing that there are 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.760 multiple approaches to this idea, and there are a lot 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:25.320 of other universities and companies and research centers looking into this, 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:30.040 including companies like Autodesk Research or Whitesides Group Research, m 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:32.840 I T of course looking into at Harvard. We mentioned 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:37.760 also there are tons of different approaches and no one 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:42.520 yet has the you know, the way to do this, 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:46.280 but definitely not. But by coming in it from so 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:48.880 many different angles, it's awesome, right because it means that 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.440 we have we're not putting all of our eggs in 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.480 one basket, and it may mean that we ultimately find 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.880 different ways to do the same sort of output, which 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:01.800 gives us a lot more flexibility. You're gonna have like 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:05.320 the Blu Ray HD DVD wars all over again, but 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:08.480 about how you turn putty into a hammer. I'll go, 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:10.960 I'll go to c e S one year and and 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.120 the week before CS one will have pulled out of 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.920 the show because it's clear that it's the loser. The 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:19.800 first time I went to they will still be Putty 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:23.360 Hammers HD DVD pulled out of c S. The first 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:26.200 year I ever went, there was this one enormous blank 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.120 spot on the c show floor where they were supposed 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.960 to be. People were all taking naps. I guess, yeah, yeah, 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:34.960 I think right, Well, I think we should look at 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:39.280 what are the possible uses for something like claytronics or 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.680 other similar forms of programmable matter. Yeah. Yeah, We've talked 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:44.920 about this a little bit, but let's let's go deeper 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.320 into it. Okay, Well, I wanted to gather a few 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:51.520 different things here. One of them would be the tangible 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:54.600 three D representations generated by data, and we sort of 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:57.160 talked about these earlier. So one thing is you could 0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:02.040 simply use three D object to represent numbers and data. 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:05.160 But the other one would be that you could sort 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:07.520 of have what I would think of like a Google 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:12.280 Docs of three D objects. So imagine you've got a 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:16.840 saved document that is controlled by a digital file on 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:20.920 your computer, but it's represented by a three D object, 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:23.639 a real tangible three D object you can hold in 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:26.880 your hand and you can make edits to it with 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.800 your hands. Yeah, it's sort of like instead of having to, uh, 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:32.240 you know, if you if you get a three D 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:36.080 printer and you print out a prototype, if you want 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.280 to make changes to that prototype, you have to print 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:40.320 another one from the ground up. You've got to go 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:43.240 back in and redesign it digitally, redesign the digital thing. 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:44.879 And and then well, I mean, and you'd still be 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.440 redesigning the digital thing, but you'd be doing it physically 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:52.120 with your You could just push is I wanted an 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.199 indentt here? So instead of going and redesigning it on 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:57.800 the computer, you just press it in and then those 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.639 changes would be reflected because we're telling thing about at 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.840 two way Street here. With a three D printer, there's 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:06.639 a one way flow of information. It goes from the 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.800 computer to the printer, which then creates the three dimensional object. 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:14.239 With this implementation, it's more like an interactive display. You 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:17.320 create the thing, but then you can actually manipulate the 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:19.560 thing you have on the display. In this case, the 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:22.040 display is a three dimensional object and that gets reflected 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:26.400 in the file that you originally created. So that's it's 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:30.080 it's kind of uh. It cuts out another step in prototyping, 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.919 which could mean that the prototyping process, which has already 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:37.920 been sped up phenomenally because of three D printing, becomes 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.320 even faster. Right, And so this would make a big difference, 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.359 I think, to people who are like engineers, but also 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:47.520 to people who are just designers, people making art and 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:53.239 or or even designing products like smartphones and things like that. 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:56.879 I mean industry. Yeah, Johnny Ives, get a hold of 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:01.080 this thing, forget it? Game over. Another are interesting use 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:03.960 for something like this would be a kind of utility 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:07.320 putty that that phrase appeared in my brain, I want 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:11.520 I wonder if I've read that somewhere before. I feel 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:13.600 like that maybe a term that has been used by 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:18.479 someone before. But anyway, just now it's yours, right, patent 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:22.320 um No, Well, wherever this idea comes from, the utility 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:24.960 putty would be if you imagine a kind of a 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:29.560 small puddle of this beige or gray, it really doesn't 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:32.479 matter what color it is. Let's call it pink. Uh, 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:36.520 this small puddle of pink putty sitting on your kitchen counter. 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:39.760 All right, I'm with you so far. You're making dinner now, 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.600 and so you need a ladle and a bowl and 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:47.719 cutting board and a knife. So you call them up 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.879 on your kitchen utensils app on your computer, on your phone, 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.200 and the puddle of putty as symbols itself into these 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.639 shapes and becomes rigid. You use them like you would 0:19:57.640 --> 0:19:59.600 to prepare dinner. Then when you're done with them, they 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:02.280 dissolve all back into the putty. Now, this could be 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:05.800 a massive space saver in the home. Imagine if you 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:10.640 like only had to call furniture into existence on demand 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.280 when you needed it, and when you didn't need that 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:17.280 piece of furniture, you could dissolve it. Yeah, or think 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:21.119 about how useful something like this might be for portability purposes. 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:24.520 So you're going on a camping trip, and if you 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:26.680 ever been on a camping trip, you take the tent 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:31.160 along with you. It is a large, unpleasant, unwieldy object. 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:36.600 It's difficult to assemble or yeah, a whole bunches of 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:39.040 different parts. Let's say instead you go out camping and 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:43.879 instead you just bring along a bucket of utility coup. 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:46.560 I got a bucket a tent right here. Yeah, you 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:48.879 so you just pour the bucket out on the ground, 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:52.520 queue up the sort of shelter design on your phone, 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:55.040 and it assembles itself. You know, Joe, I have to 0:20:55.119 --> 0:21:01.480 say that tent design is beyond the pail. Oh oh, 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:04.560 now we may be able to offer some pretty relevant 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:07.680 criticisms of an idea like this in the next section, 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:10.720 because you you immediately start thinking like, wait a minute, 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:13.760 where does the power for it to form that shape 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:16.600 come from? In the woods? And stuff like that. But uh, 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:19.800 just a couple other ideas. How about the three D facts. 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:22.760 This is something that Claytronics people I think talked about. 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:26.160 It goes like this, So you want to send a 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:30.800 copy of a three dimensional object to somebody far away, Well, 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:33.880 you could just submerge it into a tub of these 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:36.560 particles like atoms or whatever they are. You've got a 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:39.000 bucket of them, and you dip it underneath them. And 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:42.560 then of course, once it's submerged, the particles can sense 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:45.280 all of the contours of the object and then it 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:49.040 can recreate that shape at the other side of the line. 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:52.200 And here's the most sci fi of all, but it's 0:21:52.200 --> 0:21:54.640 something I have seen talked about. The idea of sort 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:59.200 of the ultimate telepresence instead of just sending your voice, 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:03.359 instead of just sending your face, you send a real 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:08.399 physical replication of your body and movements across the telephone wire. 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:12.520 I think a giant pink blobby. Jonathan Strickland is the 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:16.879 stuff of my nightmares. Come here, I love you, Teach 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:22.240 me to love. Yeah, even without that particular image in 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:25.520 my head, that one struck me as being creepy. I'd 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:28.600 like to apologize to everyone has not had that image 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:32.200 in their heads. Jonathan hugging his loved ones from far 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:36.000 away and a goopy, goopy mess and melting on them 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:39.480 halfway through because the power goes out, Jonathan, And this 0:22:39.560 --> 0:22:44.800 is creepy to me. Alright, alright, well, okay, So other 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:46.439 than the fact that we're all creeped up by this, 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:49.199 what are some of the challenges that this sort of 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:52.560 stuff faces. We Joe mentioned a second ago up up power. 0:22:52.840 --> 0:22:56.159 That's that's a huge one. Um. Obviously, this face is 0:22:56.200 --> 0:23:00.520 a lot of challenges, right, or otherwise we'd have it right. Well, man, interesting, 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:04.720 this is very difficult to create, right Manajorizing power is 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:08.200 one of those things that we haven't really cracked yet, right. 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:13.960 We we can miniaturize circuitry to astonishing degrees, but manaturizing 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:18.120 things like batteries is a lot more problematic. Um, assuming 0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:20.520 that you are using batteries and you're using something that 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:25.000 is relying upon a chemical reaction to produce electrons for electricity, 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:26.840 that eventually that's going to run out, You're gonna have 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:29.439 to recharge. How do you do that? Like, what's the 0:23:29.560 --> 0:23:34.320 what's the mechanism? Right? What is the actual uh, method 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:38.280 of delivery and method of execution? Because if these elements 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:41.520 are going to be forming any shapes that they're going 0:23:41.560 --> 0:23:45.000 to move about and take on specific forms, they obviously 0:23:45.040 --> 0:23:46.879 need to have some form of power to do that. 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:50.439 They can't just you know, do that without any outside influence. 0:23:50.480 --> 0:23:53.040 There has to be something acting on them. Uh. And 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:55.920