Technology up-gradation has indeed made much progress and newer forms of it have been emerging. McMaster researcher Fariha Mahmood does make use of new computing technology by shining patterned bands of light via a polymer cube.
McMaster researchers have indeed developed a simple as well as a highly novel form of computing by shining patterned bands of light and shadow through different facets of a polymer cube and also reading the combined results that do tend to emerge.
Nature inspires a novel new form of computing, using light
The material in the cube does read and react intuitively to the light in much the same way a plant would turn to the sun, or a cuttlefish would change the color of its respective skin.
The researchers are rather graduate students in chemistry who have supervised by Kalaichelvi Saravanamuttu, an associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology whose lab focuses on ideas inspired by natural biological systems.
The researchers were indeed able to use their new process to perform simple addition and also subtraction questions. These are autonomous materials that do respond to stimuli and do intelligent operations. One is indeed very excited to be able to do addition and subtraction in such a manner and one is also thinking of ways to do other computational functions.
The researchers have published in the journal Nature Communications, represents a completely new form of computing, one they do say holds the promise of the complex as well as useful functions yet to be imagined, possibly organized along with the structures of neural networks.
The form of computing is indeed highly localized, needs no power source and does operate completely within the visible spectrum. The technology is part of a branch of chemistry that is referred to as nonlinear dynamics and does make use of materials designed and manufactured to produce specific reactions to light.
A researcher does indeed shine layered stripes of light through the top and sides of a tiny, glass case thus holding the amber-colored polymer, itself roughly the size of a die used in a board game. The polymer does start as a liquid and transforms into a gel in reaction to the given light.
A neutral carrier beam passes through the cube from the back, toward a camera that does read the results, as refracted by the material in the cube, whose components do form spontaneously into thousands of filaments that tend to react to the patterns of light in order to produce a new three-dimensional pattern that does express the outcome.
One does not want to compete with existing computing technologies as one is trying to build materials with more intelligent, sophisticated responses.
Conclusion
Technological progress has indeed made great strides and newer forms of computing have emerged thus making it much easier to use light. Science has progressed well and has facilitated the lives of mankind. Every innovation is meant to make life more easy and comfortable. Nature has been cultivated in order to ensure that lifestyles are convenient and also more modernized.
