No tools required!? Programmable matter!

[supratentorial]

[youtube]Pg8VAVWkz3k[/youtube]

I don't think we'll eliminate the need for tools (esp. multi-tools ) anytime soon but researchers from MIT and Harvard have developed a programmable material that may be further developed for a variety of "tool free" uses. ...I'm hoping for a Leatherman multi-tool that unfolds itself.

News article:
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100628/full/news.2010.317.html

The scientific article was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/06/24/0914069107

 

[shecky]

Reminds me of Felix The Cat's bag of tricks.

 

[geekmedic]

Wow, the possibilities for this are endless. A soldier carries a tarp that turns into a tent, then into a boat, then into a ..... and they combine it with camoflage technologies that let it mimic the terrain around it. Very cool stuff.