Water Droplet Computing Needs No Electricity

As someone who has had to contend with any number of electrical devices to stay dry less one wants their iPad, or computer to fizzle out on them, then this revolutionary idea might be right up our alley. Imagine water droplets that can act as digital bits in memory devices or logic operations at the most basic level of computing!

Today's computers can short out if liquid enters their innards, but water droplets could form the basis for tomorrow's electricity-free computing devices.

The idea of turning water droplets into digital bits — the basic unit of data transfer — came from experiments at Aalto University in Finland. When researchers observed water droplets bouncing off one another like billiard balls on a water-repellent surface, they realized they could guide the water droplets along water-repellent tracks.

According to the article, "researchers demonstrated a 'flip-flop memory' setup with a single water-repellent track forking into two tracks. A series of water droplets rolling down the single track would collide with second droplet sitting at the fork, and alternatively knock the second droplet toward one fork branch or the other — a process repeated 100 times without error".

I have to admit I never thought something like this would be possible, but the theory would open a large 'Corn-o-copia' of new technology that wouldn't just be another water-downed hype, but a realistic way of contending with the real world. It's not often that I get excited, but this new idea has my mouth watering for more information, (puns intended).

Water Droplet Computing Needs No Electricity

Johnny

reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous


This is cool, in a way, but it kind of reminds me of this Slashdot thread where someone took up the challenge of replacing the physical layer of ther network model with BONGO DRUMS

TCP/IP over bongo. I forget what the bandwidth was, but, I don't recall it being too remarkable.

I'm now tempted to post video of Feynman playing bongos.

Perhaps the water droplet network will work for Aquaman's underwater hideout?

Originally posted by Druscilla
reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous

 

Perhaps the water droplet network will work for Aquaman's underwater hideout?

You might not be far off the mark here. In 2009 a revolutionary concept was worked on.

A project by xClinic (NYU) and The Living (GSAPP) developed for Towards the Sentient City

Amphibious Architecture submerges ubiquitous computing into the water—the substance that makes up 90% of the Earth’s inhabitable volume and envelops New York City but remains under-explored and under-engaged. Two networks of floating interactive tubes, installed at sites in the East River and the Bronx River, house a range of sensors below water and an array of lights above water. The sensors monitor water quality, presence of fish, and human interest in the river ecosystem. The lights respond to the sensors and create feedback loops between humans, fish, and their shared environment. An SMS interface allows citizens to text-message the fish, to receive real-time information about the river, and to contribute to a display of collective interest in the environment.

Instead of treating the rivers with a “do-not-disturb” approach, the project encourages curiosity and engagement. Instead of treating the water as a reflective surface to mirror our own image and our own architecture, the project establishes a two-way interface between environments of land and water. In two different neighborhoods of New York, the installation creates a dynamic and captivating layer of light above the surface of the river. It makes visible the invisible, mapping a new ecology of people, marine life, buildings, and public space and sparking public interest and discussion.

Amphibious Research, 2009

reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous


Hi Johnny , doesnt water surface tension dictate the size that water droplets can form? In other words to get anything like data storage or transfers the system would have to be bigger than a house to compete with even some of the smallest processing chips or electronic storage medium.

I can see this taking over all our basic arithmetic needs and without supplying power.
Pee on your laptop in the field to charge for basic computing.

reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous


I can imagine a leak into a water computer would likely cause it to cease functioning just as well as a short in an electrical device.

Fish tank computer anyone? starting price $5,000,000... I think it would be useful if combined with a water treatment plant or somekind of system that recycles water to calculate how many gallons have been recycled etc... All the while saving power.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

when i lived in Vegas, I knew a scientist that said memory chips of the future will be made from heavy water. In fact he said the technology is all ready being secretly used and we wont see it on the market for another 10-15 yrs. that was about 10 yrs ago. i dont know all the detail but he said something like 1 drop of this heavy water has the memory of over 100gb of current memory.

Originally posted by Alchemst7
i dont know all the detail but he said something like 1 drop of this heavy water has the memory of over 100gb of current memory.

That would indeed be an incredible feat that I would welcome.

It opens up a whole new world of questions as in;

(-) How do you protect it?
(-) Can it be stored with more than one droplet, & if so what device would be used to retrieve it?
(-) Would it be vulnerable to different temperatures (possibly adding degradation to the information stored)?
(-) If it evaporates can you still perhaps get it back with a Ghost Image program onto a new droplet?


Johnny

anyone wanna take a trip to inner harbor?

just kidding

this stuff is awesome, never heard of it before - really makes me think about a few things, such as the guy that invented super soakers... but that's a whole other story. I don't quite understand how you'd be able to store data on a droplet of water, or even how you'd be able to have it collide with another in exactly the same way over and over again. Yes, this is the basics of computing but there is a LOT more to it than just "flip flops", such as NOR, NAND, XOR... hmm...

en.wikipedia.org...

starting to make me think of the whole "steam punk" thing

Steam-powered computer gets digital boost