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Shape-shifting robot forms from magnetic swarm
The article has a nice quote at the end from the researcher: "I'll be done when we produce something that can pass a Turing test face-to-face. You won't know if you're shaking hands with me or a claytronics copy of me."

Also a nice neologism, claytronics, is used in the article, which currently has only about 2000 hits on Google.

Reminds me of the Michael Crighton book "Prey"...
7 votes  by davidorban  on 2008-01-30  3 comments   

Comments

taintmaster    1 votes   Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 9:15 AM
Neat, thanks for the post.
[Reply]
wal    1 votes   Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 6:30 PM
I'm not clear on the utility of this! Can anyone think of a practical application, or is this a for curiosity kind of research?
[Reply]
taintmaster    2 votes   Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 7:08 PM
Often times, research that is done for the joy of research yields practical applications.

Some applications off the top of my head are swarms of bots cleaning up industrial waste, monitoring environmental conditions, or patrolling the human body. These are a ways away from current technology, however.
[Reply]
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