Chemists from the McMaster University have developed a unique yet simple method of computing by shining patterned bands of light and shadow through different sides of a polymer and cube and reading the combined results that emerge.
The material in the cube responds similarly to the light the same way as a plant towould turn to the sun.
Kalaichelvi Saravanamuttu, an associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology whose lab focuses on ideas inspired by natural biological systems, led the graduate student-researchers in chemistry.
The researchers were able to develop the process into performing simple addition and subtraction questions.
"These are autonomous materials that respond to stimuli and do intelligent operations," says Saravanamuttu. "We're very excited to be able to do addition and subtraction this way, and we are thinking of ways to do other computational functions."
The researchers' work, published today in the journal Nature Communications, represents a completely new form of computing, one they say holds the promise of complex and useful functions yet to be imagined, possibly organized along the structures of neural networks.
The highly localized form of computing does not require a power source and operates completely within the visible spectrum.
This research is part of nonlinear dynamics, a branch of chemistry, that uses designed and manufactured materials to produce specific reactions to light.
Layered stripes of light are shone through the top and sides of a tiny, glass case that hold the amber-colored polymer that is about the size of a die utilized in a board game. The liquid polymer converts to gel when subjected to light.
A neutral carrier beam passes through the cube from the back, toward a camera that reads the results, as refracted by the material in the cube, whose components form spontaneously into thousands of filaments that react to the patterns of light to produce a new three-dimensional pattern that expresses the outcome.
"We don't want to compete with existing computing technologies," says co-author Fariha Mahmood, a master's student in chemistry. "We're trying to build materials with more intelligent, sophisticated responses."
