Application of Claytronics/DPR

          The potential applications of dynamic physical rendering are limited only by the imagination. Following are a few of the possibilities:

> Medicine: A replica of your physician could appear in your living room and perform an exam. The virtual doctor would precisely mimic the shape, appearance and movements of your "real" doctor, who is performing the actual work from a remote office.

> Disaster relief: Human replicas could serve as stand-ins for medical personnel, firefighters, or disaster relief workers. Objects made of programmable matter could be used to perform hazardous work and could morph into different shapes to serve multiple purposes. A fire hose could become a shovel, a ladder could be transformed into a stretcher.

 

>  Entertainment: A football game, ice skating competition or other sporting event could be replicated in miniature on your coffee table. A movie could be recreated in your living room, and you could insert yourself into the role of one of the actors.

> 3D physical modeling: Physical replicas could replace 3D computer models, which can only be viewed in two dimensions and must be accessed through a keyboard and mouse. Using claytronics, you could reshape or resize a model car or home with your hands, as if you were working with modeling clay. As you manipulated the model directly, aided by embedded software that's similar to the drawing tools found in office software programs, the appropriate computations would be carried out automatically. You would not have to work at a computer at all; you would simply work with the model. Using claytronics, multiple people at different locations could work on the same model. As a person at one location manipulated the model, it would be modified at every location.