The dinner tables of the future will set
themselves, and desks will get tidy on their own.
Just set the devices to "vibrate."
Dan Reznik/Univ.of
California/Berkeley |
|
A magic
table, also known as "Universal Planar
Manipulator." | |
Scientists at the University of California-Berkeley have created
a magic table, though they prefer "Universal Planar Manipulator."
But a wise man named Arthur C. Clarke once said that a "sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." And the UPM
certainly seems to fit the bill.
Place an object like a penny on the UPM, tap a command into the
computer, and the penny starts to move across the device's flat
surface. What's happening? Four very precise motors — think of them
as table legs — are moving the surface horizontally less than a
millimeter at a time, up to 70 times a second.
The movement produces a rapid, controlled vibration that makes
the objects atop the UPM move. Think about a dining room in an
earthquake, when glasses and plates slowly dance across the table
and crash to the floor. Changing the frequency of the vibrations,
you can send objects in any pattern on the device.
The vibrations are strong enough to move objects, but are almost
imperceptible to the senses.
"It's like when you go to a Sharper Image and put your feet in
the foot massager, or you put your hand on a stereo," said Dan
Reznik, a graduate student at Berkeley who created the UPM with his
advisor John Canny. "The human skin doesn't respond to the table; if
you lay your hand down it wouldn't move."
The device, a 16 by 16-inch slab of strong yet light honeycombed
aluminum, costs about $5,000. Reznik, speaking from his family's
home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, said his group has already
brainstormed dozens of practical applications for the technology.
Dan Reznik/Univ.of
California/Berkeley |
|
An
example of how a parts manipulator can move objects
placed atop it.
| |
"You could pretty easily develop a kitchen table that set
itself," he said. The system isn't just a table and some motors: it
includes a camera that would look down on the forks, knives, plates
and glasses to constantly monitor where they are.
"There could be a pressure-sensitive surface so the device could
'feel' the objects," he said. So your desk could rearrange itself,
always putting the coffee cup close at hand and keeping the Rolodex
next to the phone.
Other possibilities: an intelligent Monopoly board, a chess set
with pieces that knock each other around and a host of important but
less-sexy uses in manufacturing and other industries that use
robotics.
"Usually manipulating means robotic arms," Reznick said. "But
this lets you move things with no visible means."
Sounds like magic to us.