ITR - (ASE+ECS)-(int): Synthetic Reality: Physically Rendering Dynamic 3D Objects from Programmable Matter

该项目致力于开发一种名为Claytronics的可编程物质，并研究如何使用它来创建动态3D物理工件。Claytronics是一个独立组件的集合，称为catom，每个catom都是一个独立的计算机，可以与其他catom进行通信、移动和连接。利用Claytronics，这项研究探索了一种叫做“pario”的新形式的通信媒体，它可以用来捕捉和产生动态的3D物体。利用pario，该项目寻求开发科学技术来实现诸如“pario-conferencing”之类的应用。与视频会议不同，pario-conferencing将参与者和他们的环境呈现为可以互动的实际物理对象，而不是视频屏幕上的图像。为了实现这一远景，该项目正在设计和建造原型，这些原型将在原子数量（数百万个原子）和原子大小（半径为微米）上进行扩展。这需要在许多方面进行研究，包括：新材料，运动方法，包装，3D捕获，分布式规划和编程，网络和仿真。该项目正在开发一种方法，通过这种方法，用户可以将一组原子作为一个单一的实体进行编程，并使其看起来像一个单一的实体，即使每个原子都独立运行。就像电话（音频）和电视（视频）一样，Claytronics （pario）的出现有望通过提高人类之间的通信质量而产生重大影响。在科学方面，Claytronics将成为解决我们今天面临的一些最具挑战性问题的试验台：如何构建复杂的、大规模分布的动态系统。这项研究是将计算直接集成到我们的物理环境中的一步，通过将其集成到我们周围的人工制品中，并允许它们与世界互动。

This project pursues research to develop a form of programmable matter, called Claytronics, and investigates how it can be used to create dynamic 3D physical artifacts. Claytronics is an ensemble of individual components, called catoms, each of which is a self-contained computer that can communicate, move, and adhere to other catoms. Using Claytronics, this research investigates new forms of communication media, called "pario", which can be used to capture andreproduce dynamic 3D objects. Using pario, the project seeks to develop science and technology to enable applications such as "pario-conferencing", which, unlike video-conferencing, renders participants and their environments as actual physical objects that can interact, rather than as images on a video screen.In pursuit of this long-range vision, the project is designing and building prototypes that will scale in both catom count (towards millions of catoms) and catom size (towards microns in radius). This entails research along many fronts, including: new materials, methods of locomotion, packaging, 3D capture, distributed planning and programming, networking, and simulation. The project is developing the means by which users can program an ensemble of catoms as a single entity and make it appear to act as a single entity even though each catom operates independently.Like the telephone (audio) and the television (video), the advent of Claytronics (pario) is expected to have significant ramifications by increasing the quality of communication between humans. On the scientific front, Claytronics will be a testbed for solving some of the most challengingproblems we face today: how to build complex, massively distributed dynamic systems. The research is a step towards integrating computation directly into our physical environment, by integrating it into the very artifacts around us and allowing them to interact with the world.