Scientists claim to have discovered a whole new form of computing

The researchers have come up with a new computer form that uses the facets of a specially developed translucent polymer cube and visible light to perform addition and subtraction operations.Researcher Fariha Mahmood shows how magic works. Credit: McMaster UniversityGraduate students at McMaster University – supervised by Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Kalaichelvi Saravanamuttu – describe this new method an article published in the scientific journal Naturewhich uses a flexible polymeric material that turns from liquid to gel in response to light. Scientists describe this polymer as a "next-generation stimuli-reactive material capable of calculating".

For this to work, researchers diffuse a string of binary white light through the cube containing the operation to be solved. The internal properties of the materials then transform the entry of the beam into one, two or three sets of white light filaments that self-organize periodic three-dimensional geometries that correspond to the result of the operation, which are read by a camera sensor.

MORE: Best All-In-One Computers – Desktop Computers for Every Budget

How do these materials self-organize? I guess the answer has to be magics or, as they explain in their paper, the intrinsic nature of these new polymers. According to scientists, these thin films of flexible polymer, colloid, fluids, gels and solids open the door to amazing applications ranging from autonomous autonomous low-power detection – particularly tactile and visual – to artificial intelligence systems.Computer visualization and real computer filaments inside the soft polymer. Credit: McMasters University"When stimulated by electromagnetic, electrical, chemical or mechanical signals, these flexible polymer architectures transition between states while exhibiting discrete changes in physical or chemical properties that can be exploited for biosensing," he said. Controlled administration of drugs, adjustment of photonic band gaps, wettability and swelling of the surface, "say the researchers.

So what is the purpose of all this?

"[T]The ultimate goal of this field is the biomimetics of intelligent responsiveness, such as tactility, vision, camouflage, contractility and flight, where complex natural sensors such as skin, eyes and muscles seamlessly adapt to environmental stimuli with exquisitely programmed response sequences.

The scientists point out that they are not trying to compete with current silicon-based computing solutions, but are looking to increase the complexity of the operations they can perform. Speak with EurekalertFariha Mahmood, co-author of the article, said that they "were trying to build materials with smarter and more sophisticated responses."

According to Saravanamuttu, "we are very happy to be able to perform additions and subtractions in this way, and we are thinking of ways to perform other computational functions."