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Get Ready For ... Nanosoccer!
DeviceGuru writes "For the past few years, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology has been sponsoring nanosoccer — a new team sport for universities with programs in micro-electro-mechanical systems. The soccer nanobots, operated by human players via remote-controlled magnetic fields and electrical signals, slide tiny discs around on a 30mm x 30mm playing field. Two demonstration competitions have already been held, and a third one is slated to take place next summer in Austria at RoboCup 2009."
it really is pretty impressive (FTFA):
Sixteen nanosoccer playing fields are built onto a single silicon chip (photo above-left) thatâ(TM)s roughly the size of a quarter. The the playing-field chip is mounted on a small circuit board assembly, along with interface connectors .
Each nanosoccer âoeballâ (photo at right) consists of a silicon dioxide disk approximately the size of a red blood cell, NIST says. Each disk has a T-shaped marking, to help the human players locate it on the playing field. The three small circles correspond to a set of tiny bumps on the bottom of the disk; these reduce friction, making it easier for the disks to slide across the playing field.
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As a ps, there are 16 'fields' built into a chip which measures under 30mm x 30mm - each field is significantly smaller than the summary gives the impression of, at about 2.5mm across (although the article's not exactly clear either).
Is crushing a suspect's child's testicles illegal?
John Yoo: "No, [if] the President thinks he needs to do that."
I think the article is wrong. The football field is described as "the size of a grain of rice". A 3cm x 3cm x whatever cm grain of rice would be considered pretty big for a grain of rice. However, there is a picture of the chip with 16 playing areas on it compared to a US quarter. I've no idea howe big a US quarter is - 3cm diameter still sounds like a pretty big coin - but maybe the 3cm refers to the dimensions of the chip with 16 playing fields on it.
BTW they justify the term nano- by saying that the mass of the playing robots is of the order of a few nanograms.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
It may be impressive, but it's not nano : "Generally nanotechnology deals with structures 100 nanometers or smaller, and involves developing materials or devices within that size."
From FTA : "The tiny nanobots ... measure from a few tens of micrometers to a few hundred micrometers, NIST says."
So, that's 3 orders of magnitude off. Microsoccer. But not nanosoccer. And the physics is rather different on those scales.
I've no idea howe big a US quarter is
Supposed to be one inch or exactly 2.54 cm (25.4 mm).
So, the playing field is just a little bigger than a US quarter.
The movie from NIST was linked to uses "microrobotics" i.e. on a micrometer scale.
The yokels at "DeviceGuru" just stuffed it up.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
As the old saying goes:
Give a man a fire, and he will be warm for the rest of the night.
Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
Coz eternity my friend, is a long *ing time.
What? That was Dr Farnsworth when his horse lost in a quantum finish.
http://www.clipstr.com/videos/FuturamaAQuantumFinish/
It doesn't even make sense for a chess game.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
I'm going to feed this troller to death.
The 2009 US military budget is 651,2 Bil. and $79.6 Bil. of that goes to military research and testing. http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/budget/defense.pdf [gpoaccess.gov]
On the other hand, only $6.9 billion went for the National Science Foundation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_United_States_federal_budget#Total_spending [wikipedia.org]
Now, to be fair, the NSF doesn't include medical research so we'd have to consider that but where do you think you'd have to cut first?
*walks away*