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A glimpse into the Technology of 21st
Century NANOTECHNOLOGY
I. Introduction
Computers reproduce information at almost no cost. A push is well
underway to invent devices that manufacture at almost no cost, by treating
atoms like computers treat bits of information. This would allow automatic
construction of consumer goods with out traditional labour, like a Xerox
machine produces unlimited copies without a secretary retyping the original
information. Electronics is fuelled by miniaturization. Working smaller has
led to the tools capable of manipulating individual atoms like the proteins in a
potato manipulate the atoms of soil and water to make copies of itself
(Drexler, Merkle paraphrased). The secret to self-replication, biological or
synthetic, is prefabricated building blocks. Biology uses atoms. Atoms are as
new and squeaky clean as the instant they condensed out of pure energy of the
Big Bang, come in 92 flavors (elements), each atom is identical
(electronically) to any other atom in a flavor and have the remarkable attribute
of sticking to each, other.
The shotgun marriage of chemistry and engineering called
Nanotechnology is ushering in the era of self-replicating machinery and
self-assembling consumer goods made from cheap raw atoms (Drexler,
Merkle paraphrased). If we can place atoms on a structure under construction
individually, this opens up a realm of super large molecules not found in
nature, designed by engineers (adhering to the normal laws of chemistry)
Structures, big structures, or microscopic structures and machines could be
made of materials with unusual physical properties like carbon in its ultraNanoTechnology
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strong form, diamond. Ideally, programmed nanites, machines with atomic
sized components could take any source of required atoms and energy, make
copies of themselves, then grow things without traditional manufacturing
techniques and without by-products. No waste and no side reactions means
this tech would be super green Nanites could be programmed and unleashed to
clean up existing industrial pollution (and will within two decades).
II. The father of Nanotechnology
Who thought all this up Where did this outrage originate Dr. K. Eric
Drexler is the father of Nanotechnology, seeing the pattern of the passable in
his studies of biology; computer science, etc. while still a student in the late
seventies. He realized what a different world we could have, if we could build
with individual atoms like nature. Drexler (and Dr. Chris Peterson) fought one
heck of an uphill battle throughout the ˜80s and ˜90s for acceptance of these
radical ideas by the scientific community. Now, things have changed.
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History will read, Newton, Einstein and
Drexler.
III. Nanometre
A nanometre is one billionth of a meter (3 - 4 atoms wide) i.e.
1/1000000000 of a Meter. Utilizing the well-understood chemical properties
of atoms and molecules (how they stick together), Nanotechnology proposes
the construction of novel molecular devices possessing extraordinary
properties. The trick is to manipulate atoms individually and place them
exactly where needed to produce the desired structure
IV. Universal Assembler
Nanotechâ„¢s goal is a device called a Universal Assembler that takes
raw atoms in one side and delivers consumer goods out the other. It could also
make a copy of itself you could give to a friend. What happens to the economy
if demand for just about everything is foiled by a household appliance¦ is a
good question
Scientists are on the verge of manipulating atoms and molecules with
the same precision as life. Research in molecular biology, chemistry, and
scanning probe microscopy (scopes that can see and move atoms) are laying
the foundations for a technology of self-replicating molecular machines by
developing positional controlled chemical synthesis. By building objects on
such a fine scale, we could make extraordinary things from ordinary matter. If
the fields of molecular biology (which some call wet nano), chemistry and
solid state physics were all to shut down today and make no more advances,
chip manufacture in their quest for evermore speed would develop
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MNT(Molecular Nanotechnology) single handed. They have the incentive.
Nanotechnology is molecular manufacturing or, more simply, building things
one atom or molecule at a time with programmed nanoscopic robot arms..
This ability is almost in our grasp.
V. Robotic Arm
This is a molecule and a machine, just like proteins are molecular
machines. This molecule is not found in nature, but will physically stick
together. One such working molecule could build others that could build
anything possible with matter and spark the age of self-replicating machinery,
material opulence, super health and extraordinary inventions. According to Dr.
K. Drexler A general-purpose molecular assembler arm must be able to move
its hand by many atomic diameters position it with fractional- atomicdiameter
accuracy, and then execute finely controlled motions to transfer one
or a few atoms in a guided chemical reaction.. Yet, how are we going to build
it... when such a molecular machine needs to be built with an atomic precision
motion control robot arm Which comes first... the assembler or the
assembled Chicken and the egg problem...
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VI Technical feasibilities
Self-assembling consumer goods
Computers billions of times faster
Extremely novel inventions (impossible today)
Safe and affordable space travel I
Medical Nano... virtual end to illness, aging, death
No more pollution and automatic cleanup of already existing
pollution
Molecular food syntheses... end of famine and starvation
Access to a superior education for every child on Earth
Reintroduction of many extinct plants and animals
Terraforming here and the Solar System
VI. NanoMachine Components of AI Globus & Team,
NASA (in progress)
Extraordinarily Small, Strong and Resilient Components...
Smart Materials
Super Materials
Bucky tubes
Nanogear
Nanometer
Nanomachines can also be incorporated into various materials to make
those materials respond to their environment, or to outside commands.
Examples of such materials would be smart fabrics that respond to the
environment to become warmer or cooler, or walls and furniture that can
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move or change shape on command. Nanomachines could also be used as
tools both in industry and by consumers. Such tools could cut apart or glue
together material far more efficiently than anything large-scale that is used
today. Nanomachines could also repair cars, furniture, applicances, or almost
anything else quickly and efficiently. Or these objects could be designed with
nanomachines to repair themselves should the need arise. Life would be
greatly simplified by relieving people of the need to repair objects at home or
at work.
Smart Material: - Cosmetics is one of many multi-billion dollar industries
that will benefit from a new class of coating called Smart Materials. This
smart coating will certainly cross genders because of, some utilitarian
properties unrelated to fashion. The proposed class of smart coatings, though
extremely thin, contain a grab bag of nano structural composites. Laced with
nano-computers, their extraordinary powers offer usages yet to be imagined.
Like with all smart materials, conversion of the polish to a flat screen color
monitor or video phone is a snap. A fingernail may be a desirable place to
locate your personal computer interface. An environmental monitor could be
included to warn of high carbon dioxide concentration or radiation. Oneâ„¢s
physiological status could be constantly monitored. All of these functions
could run on solar power generated in normal lighting conditions.
If you combined microscopic motors, gears, levers, bearing, plate
sensors, power and communication cables etc., with powerful microscopic
computers, you have the makings of a new class of materials called Smart
Materials. Programmable smart materials could shape-shift into just about any
desired object. A house made of smart materials would be quite useful and
interesting. Imagine a wall changing colour at your command, or commanding
the appearance of a window where there was none, drapes of any style listed
in the smart materials software or from some source of the Internet. This is all
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purely mechanical and can be done today, although with much larger parts,
resulting in a coarser effect (and at great expense).
Super Materials: - Atomic precision construction could produce metal
structures devoid of micro imperfections, dramatically increasing strength.
Bearings made to (unheard of) atomic precision (every atom in round)
would last far longer, run cooler and bear greater loads. Todayâ„¢s industrial
products would benefit greatly, but why bother with first wave
industrialization materials when diamondoid super composites available
Nano-constructed materials can be to material utility what scientific notation
is to math. In diamond form, carbon is 50- 70 times stronger than steel and
less than one fourth the weights. Much of the carbon needed to build with is
available now from the billions of pounds of fossil fuel burned into the
atmosphere since the industrial revolution. The raw material delivers itself.
Bucky tubes:-Gears made of Buckytubes are great nanomachine
components... Buckytubes are carbon graphite sheets rolled into a tube (looks
like tubes of chicken wire), and are like carbon in its diamond form, but
with ALL available bonding strength aligned on one axis These tubes are
stronger than diamond fiber, and the strongest fiber possible with matter, so
weâ„¢re starting out with real racehorse material. Globus and Team designs are
chemically stable, very tough and varied in geometry, including gears made
from nested Buckytubes or tubs inside of tubes. Such a gear would be stiffer
and suited for a long drive shaft. And talk about performance.
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Results suggest these gears can operate at up to 50-100 gigahertz in a
vacuum or inert atmosphere at room temperature. The failure mode involves
tooth slip, not bond breaking, so failed gears can be returned to operation by
lowering temperature and/or rotation rate.
Long Buckytubes connected by their ends (a loop) could make motion
transition belts (a fan belt) for nanomachines.
Nanogear: - Synthesizing Nanogear... Drafted for gear teeth is the famous
circular (snake biting its tail) Benzene molecule, a hoop of connected carbon
atoms ringed by hydrogen atoms attached to each carbonâ„¢s unused dangling
bond. Globusâ„¢ computer simulations show (in a very non-Drexlerian
technique) Benzene atoms stick to and bond with Buckytubes if a collision
between the two is of proper energy †shoot Benzene high speed at a tube.
Too little energy and the tough, elastic carbon structure just bounce off each
other... too much, and they both shatter.
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Building gears this way and obtaining precise results at this resolution
is a formidable task, but perhaps not impossible. Another approach involves
bending the flexible tube, causing an electronic condition favourable for a
bond at the point of greatest lattice distortion (Carbon bonds are stretched
apart, holes in the chicken wire get bigger). Mass with these techniques again
are not impossible.
The Drexlerian method, building things the new fashion way, One
Atom at a Time is a more direct approach where carbon and hydrogen
deposition tools have elements delivered and a gear would be built (extruded)
like building with Lego Blocks. The atoms and the blocks will build just about
any structure, if you stick the right ones together in the right places.
Nanomotors by Oak Ridge National Laboratories :- NanoMotors... and the
Oak Ridge Natâ„¢l Lab Boys: Over the past 15 years, prominent scientists like
Noble Laureate Richard Feynman, Eric Drexler and Ralph Merkle have
hypothesized about these mechanical machines, said Don Noid, co-author of
a proposal that helped gain seed money for the project last year. Now, ORNL
is modelling nanomachines using fundamental calculations.
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Researchers Don Noid, Robert Tuzund and Bobby Sumpter of Oak
Ridge National Laboratories show these versatile burnt sausages can become
extraordinarily simple motors, when exposed to an oscillating polarized light
source. Certainly a candidate for the smallest motor, tubes act like an antenna
and rotate away from the highest energy state resonance. Exposure to the
oscillating polarized light continuously bumps the tub up into the high energy
resonance coupling while the tube continuously wants to fall down hill to
lower energy.
The motors consisted of two concentric graphite cylinders (shaft and
sleeve) with one positive and one negative electric charge attached to the
shaft. Rotational motion of the shaft was induced by applying one or
sometimes two oscillating laser fields [ MPEG animation (3.7MB)]. The shaft
cycled between periods of rotational pendulum-like behaviour and
unidirectional rotation (motor-like behaviour). The motor ON and OFF times
strongly depended on the motor size, field strength and frequency, and relative
location of the attached positive and negative charges.
Slap a few Benzyne teeth on the end and power up some rod logic
components on a nanocomputer or animate a conveyer belt. NanoPipes¦
Buckytubes, the multi-use nano component grow to different diameters and
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conduct electricity like copper, even better when stuffed with metal atoms.
Larger tubes are big enough to pipe full sized C6O Buckyball molecules as in
the illustration of the soccer ball shape (red) followed by Helium atoms
(green), used as a transport fluid. In addition to piping atoms and molecules,
for perhaps a nanomachine construction sites, these tubes could be used as
ultra small chemical reaction vessels.
The animations show a variety of features of fluid flow that are not
readily apparent from the raw computer data. As the fluid atoms, shown in
green, flow through the pipe, they bounce off the pipe wall and cause it to
flex. In some simulations, the helium gas carries along a comparatively heavy
buckyball molecule, which has a cage-like structure. Because of its tight fit,
the buckyball can cause the pipeâ„¢ to bulge as it passes through. If the pipe
flexes or bulges, parts of the nanomachine attached to it may vibrate. When
designing nanomachines, the effects of this vibration must be accounted for.
VIII. Nanotechnotogy in different branches of science
Biology: - The field of medicine will use nanotechnology most heavily, and it
will draw much more from engineering than from clinical medicine. While
engineers so far have manipulated matter only in great blocks of atoms, they
will now be asked to build medical delivery devices atom by atom.
Microminiaturisation will enable minuscule robots to flow through the
bodyâ„¢s bloodstream delivering lethal medicinal drugs directly to alien
germs and diseased cells such as cancer cells.
Cochlear implants restore a measure of hearing to some deaf people
Experimental implants for the blind can partially replace the brainâ„¢s visual
processing circuits. In these cases the advanced technology consists of
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neural networks, a configuration of computer intelligence that mimics the
learning ability of brain circuitry.
Using Buckyball medicine could be delivered to the body orally and the
body then eliminates the Buckyballs without any side effects. It is possible
to attach the needed drugs on the bucky ball structure as is required for the
particular disease. This is much easier and effective than the conventional
capsule approach. In capsules, a mixture of drugs is delivered into the
body, a major part of which is eliminated by the body. When using
mechanisms like bucky balls, it is easy to ensure that they are tailor-made
to deal with the specific cell disorder that the disease causes.
Drugs that make use of buckyballs for the treatment of AIDS could be out
by 2006. One of the daunting challenges faced by researchers in fighting
the HIV virus has been the inability of drugs to attach themselves to the
virus and stop it from reproducing any further. Nanotechnology-powered
medical techniques like buckyballs have the ability to fix themselves to the
virus, thus preventing further reproduction.
Tissue damages can be reduced by providing more oxygen in the form of
an artificial red blood cell.
Yet another exciting though futuristic prospect that Nanotechnology
presents is the ability to have minute machines travelling inside our body
protecting us from inside. These 'nanodoctors' will be able to find and
repair damage at the cellular level. For this to be possible, molecular
assemblers-with better capabilities than the current scanning tunnelling
microscopes are needed. They have to have the capability to move atoms
and molecules faster and more precisely than present day STMs. However,
this wouldn't be possible for the next 15-20 years, to say the least.
Computer: - The people working in computer are the best novel audiences.
They are intimately familiar with the concept of replicating quanta. The step
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toward treating atoms like bits of information is no distance at all. They see
their own hardware driven by economic frenzy in an exponential dive toward
the atomic realm¦ and beyond. They don™t need the chemist or biologist to
hit Nanotechnology, the chip manufacturer will develop manipulation at this
resolution regardless of any prejudice and a little math shows how very soon.
The computational power of the system can be increased drastically, we can
pack more computational power into a sugar cube than exists today.
Chemistry: - Chemists are another story. Having so much invested in super
clever synthesis of structures using Shake and Bake technology, when
presented with the idea of placing an atom on a hot spot of a synthetic
molecule the size of a 747... Chemists flinch with an involuntary negative
reaction difficult to quench with rational. To increase offense by saying
something like, This shotgun marriage of chemistry and engineering... is a
deliberate push over the edge.
Electronics: - Now in Chip Industry every 18 months or so the size of wires
and transistors is cut by 50% while the speed of the chip is doubled. The wires
are already a fraction of a micron small. How long can you keep cutting the
size of components in half and expect it to function As it turns out, not much
longer. Soon the wires will become so thin and packed so tight that an effect
of Quantum Mechanics will come into play, namely, tunnelling. The electrons
tunnel through insulating barriers too thin to keep them contained. If one
builds a chip with wires so smallâ„¢ and insulators so thin, electrons start
wholesale tunnelling, or shorting out, rendering the device totally useless.
Some chip designers will be forced to switch to an old-fashioned
mechanical calculator concept, but with a nouveau twist. If you can build
these mechanical parts one atom at a time, they can be thousands, of times
smaller and millions of times faster than existing transistors. The competition
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for faster chips is fierce and the profit at stake immense. Itâ„¢s a freight train
running downhill that cannot be stopped. And that trainâ„¢s destination is
Nanotechnology.
Economics: - Society is in for a spin as we head for a novel form of
economics in an age of self replicating machinery, where the design of an
object cost about the same as today yet production cost is nearly zero. All first
wave manufacturing will be obsolete. No cobblers, just shoe designers, no
autoworkers, just car designers, no feed lots, just chefs. Ask yourself, what
will be of value What is money in a nano age How will politics and war
change when we donâ„¢t have traditional resources to fight over Most people
think pace of technological change has increased over the last few decades,
but it really hasnâ„¢t. Weâ„¢ve just spread things out and made it seem that way.
We donâ„¢t have breakthrough developments anymore. The developments that
weâ„¢ve seen over the last three decades pale in comparison to those of the early
twentieth century when the telephone, automobiles, airplanes, television and
anti-biotics burst onto the seen for the first time. Todayâ„¢s seemingly goal-less
change has made many people believe that we are changing for no other
reason than for change sake. As a result, people are getting burnt out on the
idea of technological progress. Theyâ„¢re paying less attention, and thatâ„¢s when
you have the potential for a surprise that no ones prepared for. The goal of
developing molecular nanotechnology is something that must be pursued in a
direct way that gets the publics attention. The NTDC effort seems to be
focused on this more appropriate and opportunistic approach.
In a world of information, digital technologies have made copying fast,
cheap and perfect, quite independent of cost or complexity of the content.
What if the same were to happen in the world of matter The production cost
of a ton of tera byte RAM chips would be about the same as the production
cost of steel. Design costs would matter, production costs wouldnâ„¢t.
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IX. Arrival of Nanotechnology
Arrive, is broadly defined as the arrival of the first Universal
Assemblersâ„¢ that has the ability to build with single atoms anything oneâ„¢s
software defines. A Universal Assembler may look like a microwave oven,
connected to raw atomic feed stock, like carbon black, O2, sulphur powder,
etc. Other portable assemblers (for camping) extract atomic feed stock out of
the air and soil. The Assembler can make Dock Martins as easily as it can
make a supercomputer or a pizza (not any pizza mind you, but atomically
exact replicas from your favourite joint in Boston) or, (hold on) a copy of
itself.
So when already 8 -15 years seems to be the best guesstimate (Zyvex
says 5-10). As more people from all walks of life learn of the Nanotechnology
concept and add their talents to the quest, you can be sure that research will
accelerate and the time frame will shorten. How long will it take for paradise
(hopefully) to arrive on Earth and in Space after the Universal Assembler is
invented
Some Nanotechnology enthusiasts have become infected with an easy
Nanotechnology myth. They talk or write about Nanotech as if one day a
scientist will dump the contents of two test tubes together to create the first
nano-manipulator and thatâ„¢ll be it from then on weâ„¢ll have Nanotechnology.
Now probably most of these people understand that it will take a long,
disciplined effort, and it will not be an accidental discovery. Even so, they
seem to believe that shortly after getting the first Nanotech manipulator, weâ„¢ll
get many of the promised Nanotech miracles. As the premise quotation of the
novel Terminal Cafe puts it The first thing we get with Nanotechnology is
immortality.
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Probably the first thing weâ„¢re likely to get with Nanotech will be cute
publicity demos, intended to drum up funding for further research. And those
cute demos may not even be visible to the naked eye. Spelling ËœIBMâ„¢ in atoms
with atomic force micros has probably set the standard. Perhaps the first nanomanipulators
will stack up molecules as if they were blocks or force specially
prepared molecules to bond together into a chain or rod.
By this, they presumably mean a useful assembler, or even better, a self
replicator. OK so letâ„¢s jump ahead, over the years of work needed to get to
that point. Assume we have an assembler technology that can build an
identical assembler, and that can be programmed to build other things.
Itâ„¢ll take a few years of research to figure out how to safely use
Nanotech inside a living human body to achieve any useful results. And
maybe it will be a few years beyond that before we get any significant life
extension for most people. How about something more mundane such as
building consumer goods from the atoms up
Letâ„¢s just replicate a few billion assemblers, and put them to work
churning out a Nanotech toaster. Itâ„¢ll have arrays of infrared lasers and optical
sensors - so itâ„¢ll make perfect toast every time. Itâ„¢s bound to be a hot item! Iâ„¢ll
just call up the toasterâ„¢s CAD design helpfully specified down to the atomic
level by some over-eager Nanotech enthusiast.
How to tell one assembler to make another, and even how to tell a
billion assemblers each do the same thing. But how do I tell a thousand teams
of a million assemblers each how to cooperate with each other within their
teams and between teams to make a toaster Maybe if I used a million teams
of a thousand assemblers each No... Iâ„¢d better get the guys in research to
spend a week or two figuring this out for me.
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X. Risks Inherent to Nanotechnology
We are on the threshold of material opulence and greatly enhance
physical health. However, in a bed of roses, one still must avoid the thorns.
Like all technology nano can be used for good or not so good (serious
understatement) and could cause considerable panic to the under informed
during the transition. As post-nano international relations thinker Tom
McCarthy points out, if Chinaâ„¢s perception of its ancient rival Indiaâ„¢s
advanced software and technology lead might produce Nanotechnology first,
this could prompt China to nuke Indian research centres before India could
strike with Nanoweapons. Now consider this, unlike nuclear, nano is a desktop
industry... and one sufficiently advanced disgruntled hack working in a garage
could program a self replicating Nanite to kill all bovine on the planet, or all
people with brown eyes, or indeed, all DNA based life. But wait; check this
small example of the wonders possible building things with atomic precision.
Building on the atomic scale, mechanical computers with the power of a
mainframe could be manufactured so small, that several hundred would fit
inside the space of a biological cell.
XI. The Industries likely to disappear because of
nanotechnology
Everything -- but software, everything will run on software, and
general engineering, as it relates to this new power over matter... and the
entertainment industry. Unfortunately, there will still be insurance salesmen
and lawyers, although not in my solar orbiting city state. If as Drexler suggest,
we can pave streets with self assembling solar cells, I would tend to avoid
energy stocks. Mature nanites could mine any material from the earth,
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landfills or asteroids at very low cost and in great abundance. The mineral
business is about to change. Traditional manufacturing will not be able to
compete with assembler technology and what happens to all those jobs and the
financial markets is a big issue that needs to be addressed now. I intend to start
or expand organizations addressing these issues and cover progress in the
pages of Nänotechnology Magazine.
We will have a lot of obsolete mental baggage and programming to
throw out of our heads... Traditional pursuits of money will need to be reevaluated
when a personal assembler can manufacture a fleet of Porches, that
run circles around todayâ„¢s models. As Drexler so intuitively points out, the
best thing to do, is to get the whole worldâ„¢s society educated and
understanding what will and can happen with this technology. This will help
people make the transition and keep mental and financial meltdowns to a
minimum.
XII. New industries Likely to appear because of
Nanotechnology
Future generations are laughing as they read these words¦ Laughing at
the utter inadequacy and closed imagination of this writing... So consider this
a comically inadequate list. However, if they are laughing, I am satisfied and
at Peace, as this means we made it through the transition (although I fear it
shall not be the last).
Mega engineering for space habitation and transport in the Solar
System will have a serious future. People will be surprised at how fast space
develops because right now, a very bright core of nano-space enthusiasts have
engineering plans, awaiting the arrival of the molecular assembler. People like
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Forrest Bishop have wonderful plans for space transport and development,
capable of being implemented in surprisingly short time frames. This is
artificial life, programmed to grow faster than natural systems. I think Mars
will be teraformed in less time than it takes to build a nuclear power plant in
the later half of the good old, backward 20th century.
An explosion in the arts and service industries are to be expected when
no fields need to be ploughed for our daily bread, similar to the explosion
when agriculture became mechanized and efficient and the Sons and daughters
of farmers migrated to cities. This explosion will be exponentially greater.
Leisure time, much more leisure time, more diversions.. What professions
should disappear because of nano-technology
Ditch digger, tugboat captain -- most professions where humans are as
smart brawn, or as the best available computer, including jet fighter pilot,
truck driver, surgeon, pyramid builder, steel worker, gold miner... not that
there will not be people doing these jobs, just for fun. Charming libation
vendors a good future, until the A.I. people make some really scary
breakthroughs. I do expect the best available computer to be important for
novel for quite a while¦ and we are just on the verge for finding out how
frequent and varied novel situations can be.
Think of people who have reading and math impairments and thus --
poorly educated, yet a brilliant self taught mechanics. Molecular machines are
just small machines. With the right visualization tools (VR with tactile
feedback), those people could become a competent molecular machine
designer and trouble shooter. We all have our talents to contribute. Perhaps
this may be the greatest opportunity in history to express talents.
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XIII. New objects likely to appear because of
Nanotechnology
Perhaps the big story -- with mature Nanotechnology, any object can
morph into any other imaginable object... truly a concept requiring personal
exposure to fully understand the significance and possibilities, but to get a grip
on the idea, consider this: The age of digital matter -- multi-purpose,
programmable machines change the software, and something completely
different happens.
A simple can opener or a complex asphalt paver are both, single
purpose machines. Ask them to clean your floor or build a radio tower and
they stare back blankly. A computer is different, It is a multi purpose
machine -- one machine that can do unlimited tasks by changing software¦
but only in the world of bits and information.
Fractal Robots are programmable machines that can do unlimited tasks
in the physical world, the world of matter. Load the right software and the
same machines can take out the garbage, paint your car, or construct an
office building and later, wash that buildingâ„¢s windows. In large groups, these
devices exhibit what may be termed as macro (hold in your hand) sized
nanobots , possessing AND performing many of the desirable features of
mature nanomachines (as described in Drexlerâ„¢s, Engines of Creation,
Unbounding the Future, Nanosystems etc.). This is the beginning of Digital
Matter.
These Robots look like Rubicâ„¢s Cubes that can slide over each
other on command, changing and moving in any overall shape desired for a
particular task. These cubes communicate with each other and share power
through simple internal induction coils, have batteries, a small computer and
various kinds of internal magnetic and electric inductive motors (depending on
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size) used to move over other cubes. When sufficiently miniaturized (below
0.1mm) and fabricated using photolithography methods, cubes can also be
programmed to assemble other cubes of smaller or larger size. This self
assembly is an important feature that will drop cost dramatically.
The point is -- if you have enough of the cubes of small enough
dimension, they can slide over each other, or morph into any object with
just about any function, one can imagine and program for such behaviour.
Cubes of sufficiently miniaturized size could be programmed to behave like
the T-2 Terminator Robot in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, or a lawn
chair... Just about any animate or inanimate object. Fractal Shape Shifting
Robots have been in prototype for the last two years and Drexler rather expect
this form of digital matter to hit the commercial seen very soon. In the near
future, if you gaze out your window and see something vaguely resembling an
amoeba constructing an office building, youâ„¢ll know what IT is.
This is not to say individual purpose objects will not be desirable...
Back to cotton -- although Cubes could mimic the exact appearance of a fuzzy
down comforter (a blanket), if made out of cubes, it would be heavy and not
have the same thermal properties. Although through a heroic engineering
effort such a blanket could be made to insulate and pipe gasses like a
comforter and even levitate slightly to mimic the weight and mass, why
bother when the real thing can be manufactured atom by atom, on site, at
about a meter a second (depending on thermal considerations).
Also, single purpose components of larger machines will be built to
take advantage of fantastic structural properties of diamondoid - Buckytube
composites for such things as thin, super strong aircraft parts. Today, using the
theoretical properties of such materials, we can design an efficient, quiet,
super safe personal vertical takeoff air car. This vehicle of science fiction is
probably Science future.
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XIV. Commonly known objects likely to disappear because
of Nanotechnology
People living before and through the transition - at first and because of
prejudice for things we know and because people have not imagined the
variety and super rich realm of new possibilities -- the objects failure to
everyday life will be sought by the public and reproduced by assembler
technology. People will still want cotton beach towels, although the cotton
farmer will no longer be needed when fibres can be manufactured atom by
atom from carbon in the air or from limestone. Lots of familiar items will
appear traditional on the outside, yet posses a multitude of new tricks and
functionality made possible with MNT - cars with Utility Fog crash protection
for instance. Of course MNT Smart Materials can look like anything, yet
perform magic.
Now, the next generation and generations to follow, born into the age
of nanotechnology will have a clean slate without concrete historical
prejudices, will design objects and lifestyles that take advantage of the new
wealth of possibilities and I should expect design objects and environments
that would appear bizarrely alien, extraordinarily novel to even the most
advanced nano thinker today. The general concept is familiar in science
fiction, only now we have a clear engineering path to make real, the stunning
constructs of uninhibited imaginations and those yet to be born.
The wild card to consider and the reason that frankly, it is Ludicrous
project past a few decades -- or more than say, one generation or so, is the
affect nanotechnology will have on intelligence enhancement efforts. Once
these efforts are even mildly successful, the experimenters will spend much
of their time amplifying intelligence enhancement efforts and the valve
controlling what is imaginable and what can be engineered opens at a
NanoTechnology
23
geometric rate. By definition, what can and will be is unimaginable now, and
Drexler is not even addressing the issue of machine intelligence in the
equation. The curve approaches vertical.
XV. New professions likely to appear because of
Nanotechnology
The ninety-two elements can be combined in a zillion to the zillionth
power, forming different molecules of nanometre to gas planet dimensions.
Nanotechnology is about being able to put those atoms together any way we
want, in an affordable manner. An explosion of new endeavours and
professionals of such endeavours. Perhaps when Drexler order that extra grey
matter, his answer will be more imaginative. Ah, the freedom to imagine, then
build.
XVI. The Implications of Nanotechnology
Humanity will be faced with a powerful, accelerated social revolution as a
result of nanotechnology.
In the near future, a team of scientists will succeed in constructing the first
nano-sized robot capable of self-replication.
Within a few short years, and five billion trillion nano-robots later,
virtually all present industrial processes will be obsolete as well as our
contemporary concept of labor.
Consumer goods will become plentiful, inexpensive, smart, and durable.
Medicine will take a quantum leap forward.
Space travel and colonization will become safe and affordable.
For these and other reasons, global life styles will change radically and
human behaviour drastically impacted.
NanoTechnology
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XVII. Conclusion
Imagine being able to cure cancer by drinking a medicine stirred into
your favorite fruit juice. Imagine a supercomputer no bigger than a human
cell. Imagine a four-person, surface-to-orbit spacecraft no larger or more
expensive than the family car. These are just a few products expected from
Nanotechnology.
The ultimate goal of nanotechnology is to imitate life by producing
minuscule self-replicating devices to fight disease, store and process
information, and perform construction tasks. To be effective, nanodevices
must be self-replicating because to manufacture them individually would be
prohibitively expensive.
As a conclusion, we could say that the prospects of nanotechnology are
very bright .It will take some time to really make an impact on the human
race. But when it finally comes, Nanotechnology will be an undeniable force,
which will change the very course of life.
NANO TECHNOLOGY
Abstract:
Nanotechnology is the hybrid science combining engineering and chemistry
that have applications in the real world. The area of nanotechnology lets one build
elaborate structures ,atom by atom ,on a scale of 1 to 100 nanometers that can store
information, switch electrical signals, convert sunlight to electricity.
A nanometer is a billionth of a meter that is about 1/80,000 of the diameter of a
human hair, or 10 times the diameter of a hydrogen atom. In this paper we had dealt with
the main concepts involved in the field of nanotechnology which are as follows:
BioComputing
Molecular Computing
Quantum Computing
Optical Computing
Atoms and molecules stick together because they have complementary shapes that
lock together, or charges that attract. Just like magnets a positively charged atom will
stick to a negatively charged atom. A specific product will take shape as millions of these
atoms are pieced together by nanomachines.
The goal of nanotechnology is to manipulate atoms individually and place them
in a pattern to produce a desired structure of small size that spreads its wings in the
modern trends.
Reports indicate that Israeli scientists have built a DNA computer to tiny that a
trillion of them could fit in a test tube and perform a billion operations per second with
99.8 per cent accuracy. Researchers also found that a self assembled molecule could
sustain a current of about 0.2 microamperes at five volts - which meant that the molecule
could channel through itself roughly a million electron per second.
Molecular devices can be used as memory elements that forms the
basis for Nanotechnology.
Bio-Computing:
Nanocomputers, though have several applications, the one that stirs the
imagination is its identification of malfunctions in human beings by traveling inside the
human body. The molecular machines inside the living cell already posses the repertoire
of operations required to implement a universal computer. A design for a biological
nanocomputer shows that a Turing machine can be realized by a basic cycle consisting of
molecular recognition, two cleavages, two ligations and movement along a polymer, all
controlled by allostreic conformational changes. Each of these operations is routinely
performed by some molecular machine in the living cell, such as the ribosome,
splicesome and the replisome.
The computerâ„¢s input, and software are made up of DNA molecules. For
hardware the computer uses two naturally occurring enzymes that manipulate DNA,
Fokl, an enzyme that cuts DNA and Ligase and enzyme that seals two DNA molecules
into one. When mixed together in solution, the software and hardware molecules operate
in harmony on the input molecule to create the output molecule, forming a simple
mathematical computing machine, known as a finite automaton.
The automaton could be programmed to perform different tasks by selecting
different subsets of the molecules. Both input and software molecules are designed to
have one DNA strand longer than the other, resulting in a single strand overhand called a
sticky end. Two molecules with complementary sticky ends can temporarily stick to
each other (a process known as hybridization), allowing DNA Ligase to permanently seal
them into one molecule. The sticky end of the input molecule encodes the current symbol
and the current state of the computation, whereas the sticky end of each software
molecule is designed to detect a particular state-symbol combination. A two-state, twosymbol
automaton has four such combinations. For each combination, the nanocomputer
has two possible next moves, to remain in the same state or to change to the other state,
allowing eight software molecules to cover all possibilities.
In each processing step the input molecule hybridizes with a software molecule
that has a complementary sticky end, allowing Ligase to seal them together using two
ATP molecules as energy. Then comes Fok-I, detecting a special site in the software
molecule known as the recognition site. It cleaves the input molecule in a location
determined by the software molecule, thus exposing a sticky end that encodes the next
input symbol and the next state of the computation. Once the last input symbol is
processed, a sticky end encoding the final state of the computation is exposed and
detected, again by hybridization and ligation, by one of two output display molecules.
The resulting molecule, which reports the output of the computation, is made visible to
the human eye in a process known as gel electrophoresis.
The automation is so small that 1012 automata sharing the same software run
independently and in parallel on inputs (which could in principle be distinct) in 120 1
solution at room temperature. Their combined rate is 109 transitions per second, their
transition fidelity is greater than 99.8% and together they consume less than 10-10
Watt.
Using DNA for Basic Logical and Arithmetic
Operations:
After the potential power of DNA computing has been described by Adleman and
Lipton, researchers have developed an interest in DNA computing for solving difficult
computational problems.
Guarnieri et al. and Vineet Gupta et.al have proposed DNA based methods to do
arithmetic and logical operations. But in their methods, the strands representing result
have to be polymerized for each and every instance of a specific operation, those strands
are not reusable. The limitation can be overcome by using sticker-based method to
perform arithmetic and logical operations. The advantage of the proposed method is
that output values are computed and stored parallely. The strands which represent the
output can be used repeatedly any number of times. The main idea of this method is
grouping the strands according to the output value are stored. The result tubes are the
tubes, which contain the result strands after completion of the annealing process with
stickers.
Biological operations and Notations:
Some of the biological operations used in this paper and their notations are
described below
Initializing
Stickers corresponding to input blocks and memory strands are poured into a tube
to represent all possible inputs. initialize (No)
Extracting
Particular Strands in a test tube are extracted based on whether the stickers stick
with specific region of memory strands or not
S (test tube label, Region, 1)
S (No, Io, 1) - extracts the strands from No with which sticker in the Io
th region.
S (No, In, 1) - extracts the strands from No with which sticker not stuck in the In
th region.
(Note : Sâ„¢ (No, Io, 1) = S (No, Io, 0))
Setting
Multiple copies of a particular sticker are poured with memory strands to make a
specific region double stranded. Set (N1, Rn+1, 1) - add multiple copies of sticker
complementary to Rn+1
th region in N1.
Merging
The strands in two or more tubes are poured into a single tube. No = merge (N1,
N2) - pour the strands in N1 and N2 into N0.
The proposed method
To perform arithmetic operations between two binary numbers of length k or
logical operations between two statements with k variables, start with 22k identical
ssDNA (single stranded DNA) memory strands each n(3k + 1) nucleotides long, where n
represent the number of nucleotides in a block. Each strand containing 3k +1 district
contiguous blocks I1, I2,.....Ik, O1, O2, ....Ik, R1, R2,....Rk+1. There are 3k+1 stickers S1, S2,
.... S3k+1.
Input - I1, I2, .... Ik, Operand = O1, O2, ..... Ok
Output - O1, O2, .... Ik, wad.
Operand store - R1, R2, .......RK+1
Constructing the result tubes
The result tubes are constructed in three steps: initialization, separation and output
step.
Initialization step
The memory strands and multiple copies of stickers S1.... S2k are poured together.
The stickers randomly anneal with memory strands making use of Watson-Crick
complementarily of DNA. If a sticker anneals with a particular region of the strand, it
assigns value 1 to the particular region of the strand. Otherwise it assigns the value zero.
Care to be taken to see that all possible combinations of annealing are obtained by this
random annealing process.
Algorithm for logical operations
NAND Operation:
Consider N0 as an initial tube. It contains all 22k strands, which are randomly
annealed with stickers S1.... S2k to represent all possible inputs. That is N0 is properly
initialized. Now, the strands are separated into two tubes N1 and Nâ„¢1. N1 contains the
strands with which sticker Sk is annealed (i.e. Kth position is encoded as 0). The strands
in tube N1 is separated into two tubes N2 and N2â„¢. N2 contains strands with which sticker
S2k is annealed (i.e. kth position is encoded as 0). The strands in tube N1 is empty. The
strands in N1â„¢ and N2 are poured into N1 together. The strands in N1 represents the
NAND operation between the numbers 0 & a, 1 & 0 or 0 & 0. The result for all above
operations should be one. To represent the result in strands, multiple copies of stickers
S3k+1 are poured into N1. They stick with all strands in N1 and set the value 1 for the
region Rk+1. The tube contains the strands representing the value 1 for the last digit of
output. The remaining strands in tube N2 represent NAND operation between the number
1 & 1. The result for this operation is 0. So the strands in tube N2 are left without any
modifications, because the region Rk+1 already has value zero by default. Then the
strands in N1 and N2 are poured together into N0. Now the tube N0 contains the strands,
which represent all possible inputs and the last digit of outputs. To represent the next
digit of output in the strands, the strands in N0 are separated into two groups based on
whether the sticker S3k should or should not stick with strands. That is, the strands are
separated into two groups to represent the value 0 or 1 for the next digit of output.
Multiple copies of sticker S3k is pured into corresponding tube to stick the sticker S3k with
the respective strands. Again all strands are poured together into N0. This process is
repeated until sticker S2k+2 sticks with respective strands. Now result tube N0 contains all
22k strands, which represent all possible input values with itâ„¢s corresponding output
values. Tube N0 is ready as a working area, particularly for NAND operation. The
algorithm describes the above process is as follows.
initialize N0
for n = k to 1
{
input (N0)
N1 = S (N0, In , 1)
Nâ„¢1 = Sâ„¢(N0, In, 1)
N2 = S (N1, On, 1)
Nâ„¢2 = Sâ„¢(N1, On, 1)
N1 = merge (Nâ„¢1, Nâ„¢2)
N1 = set (N1, Rn+1, 1)
N0 = merge(N1, N2)
}
result tube = N0
Similarly algorithms can be written to get the result tube corresponding to other
logical operations AND, OR, NOT, XOR, NOR etc. Since NAND operation is
functionally complete, separation and output step for NAND operation have been
described in detail above.
Molecular Computing:
Notre Dame researchers have been developing an alternative approach which is
naturally suited to molecular devices, molecules do make excellent structured charge
containers. In the quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) paradigm information is
represented by the charge configuration of a molecule. A QCA molecule is designed so
that its ground-state charge configuration is determined by the state of its neighboring
molecules through the Coulomb interaction. Current does not move between molecular
cells. Instead, information moves without current flow. This approach is capable of
supporting general-purpose computing and offers the possibility of extremely low power
dissipation. In the QCA paradigm, the field from the charge configuration of one devices
alters the charge configuration of the next device.
QCA Cells
An idealized QCA cell can be viewed as a set of four charge containers, or dots
positioned at the corners of a square. The cell contains two extra mobile electrons which
can quantum-mechanically tunnel between dots but, by design, cannot tunnel between
cells. The barrier between dots should be high enough so that charge can move only by
tunneling and is therefore localized in the dots and not in the connectors. The
configuration of charge within the cell is quantified by the cell polarization, which can
vary between P= -1, representing a binary 0, and P= +1, representing a binary 1
the potential of the QCA concept extends beyond Boolean circuits.
QCA Circuits
QCA Circuits can be created by putting QCA cells in proximity to each other. A
QCA binary wire is formed simply by creating a linear array of cells. The Coulomb
interaction makes nearby cells align in the same state. The corner interaction is antivoting
so it can be used to make an inverter. The natural logic gate is the three-input
majority gate. A full adder has been stimulated using the full self-consistent Schrodinger
equation, verifying that the adder works for all input possibilities. For complex circuits it
is useful to be able to clock the cells. Clocking consists of controlling the activity of the
cell by effectively raising and lowering the interdot barriers.
Quantum Computing
AC electrokinetic techniques such as dielectrophoresis and electrorotation have
been used for many years for the manipulation, separation and analysis of cellular-scale
particles. The phenomenon occurs due to the interaction of induced dipoles with electric
fields, and can be used to exhibit a variety of motions including attraction, repulsion and
rotation by changing the nature of the dynamic field. AC electrokinetics offers
advantages over scanning-probe methods of nanoparticle manipulation in that the
equipment used is simple, cheap and has no moving parts, relying entirely on the
electrostatic interactions between the particle and dynamic electric field.
Dielectrophoresis
Dielectrophoresis is the manipulation of polarisable particles in non-uniform
electric fields. It has been demonstrated to be effective for the manipulation of
nanometre - scale particles including polymer and metallic colloidal particles, DNA and
other macromolecules, viruses and also potential nanocomponents including carbon
nanotubes, semi conducting nanowires and carbon-60 molecules.
Consider a dielectric particle suspended in a spatially non-uniform electric field.
The applied field induces a dipole in the particle; the interaction of the induced charges
either side of the body with the electric field generates forces in opposite directions. Due
to the presence of a field gradient, these forces are not equal and there is a net movement.
If the particle is more polarisable than the medium around it, the dipole aligns with the
field and the force acts up the field gradient towards the region of highest electric field. If
the particle is less polarisable than the medium, the dipole aligns against the field and the
particle is repelled from regions of high electric field. The magnitude and direction of the
force is dependent on the induced dipole and is unaffected by the direction of the electric
field, responding only to the field gradient. Since the alignment of the field is irrelevant,
this force can also be generated in AC fields which has the advantage of reducing any
electrophoretic force (due to any net particle charge) to zero.
Optical Computing
Optics, which is the science of light, is already used in computing, most often in
the fibre-optic glass cables that currently transmit data down Internet lines much more
quickly than traditional copper wires. In an optical computer, electrons are replaced by
photons, the sub-atomic bits of electromagnetic radiation that make up light.
Advantages of Optical Computing:
Low-loss transmission
Large bandwidth
Compact and light weight
Inexpensive
Current use of Optics for Computing
A group at Brown University and the IBM Almaden Research Center (San Jose,
CA) have used ultrafast laser pulses to build ultrafast data-storage devices and able to
achieve ultrafast switching down to 100ps. NEC (Tokyo, Japan) has developed a method
for interconnecting circuit boards optically using Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser
arrays (VCSEL). Optical data processing can be done much easier and less expensive in
parallel than can be done in electronics using a simple optical design, an array of pixels
can be transferred simultaneously in parallel from one point to another. Parallelism,
therefore, when associated with fast switching speeds, would result in staggering
computational speeds.
Since photons are uncharged and do not interact with one another as readily as
electrons, light beams may pass through one another in full-duplex operation.
Signals in adjacent fibers or in optical integrated channels do not affect one
another nor do they pick up noise due to loops.
Finally, optical materials possess superior storage density and accessibility
over magnetic materials.
Ultrafast Pulse Shaping and Tb/sec Data Speeds
Generating ultra short laser pulses in the picosecond and femto second range
by sending it through a modulator is known as ultrafast pulse shaping.
If the optical pulse that we wish to shape has a temporal duration of fs or ps, then
we will need a modulator that works on this time scale. The idea of shaping a pulse by
sending it through a modulator, such as a Mach-Zehnder, is referred to as direct pulse
shaping. Current modulators can operate at 60GHz, which is much slower than necessary
to shape a femtosecond pulse. Therefore, the technique of indirect pulse shaping, which
includes Liquid Crystal Modulators (LCM pulse shaping), Acousto-Optic Modulator
(AOM pulse shaping) and time-stretched pulse shaping is used. The choice of which
pulse-shaping apparatus to use may depend on the particular application; each technique
has different advantages to it.
A grating spreads the pulse, so that each different spectral component maps onto a
different spatial position. The collimating lenses and grating pair are set up in a 4F
configuration (F being the focal length of the collimating lenses), and in the center of the
4-F system, an element is placed that will modulate the spectrum. In case of the AOM as
the encoding element, there is a huge difference between speed of sound and speed of
light in AOM crystal. Since the ratio between two is about 1 to 1 million, we can use
MHz electrical signal to achieve THz programmable modulation of an optical signal and
still keep a reasonable update speed. In practice, high resolution spectral encoding is, by
definition, a variation of the Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) and can
be used to significantly improve the bandwidth efficiency. The idea can be illustrated in
the following way: If we start with a 100fs Full-Width at Half Maximum (FWHM)
optical pulse and encode, for example, 16 amplitude on-off-keying return-to zero (RZ)
format bits in its spectrum, which in the worst possible cases would broaden the pulse by
a factor of 16-to about 1.6 ps FWHM. The encoded pulses can, therefore be well
confined in a 4ps optical switching window, without much distortion to the encoded
spectrum. By doing this, the Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) system can benefit from
spectrum encoding by a factor of 16 and achievable Data Translation Rate (DTR) can be
as high as 4 Tbps.
Need for Nanotechnology:
Computer process combines several million transistors to form logic gates, adders,
memory in a highly ordered and complex fashion.
Such devices are fabricated using planar technology whereby masks are used to
define areas of
Electronic doping (the addition of electron donor or acceptor atoms),
Metallisation (the addition of conducting metal wires), or
Etching (the removal of unwanted material by chemical means).
The mask process is only applicable for the definition of devices half the size of
the wavelength of light used to expose the material through the mask. Since it is not
possible to focus high-frequency (short wavelength) energy with sufficient precision, the
limit of conventional fabrication (presently about 100nm) is fast approaching;
Nanotechnology allows the placement of small structures such as nanowires or
DNA molecules to be placed with precision, simplicity and low cost and which allows
the process of fabrication to be either completely automated or at least semi-automated.
Application:
Nano Scale Architectures and Quantum Computing
Techniques for Image Feature Extraction
Quantum Computation
Quantum computation, unlike classical logical devices, which only exist, in two
states (0/1), uses atoms that can have three states (0/1/01). Thus a superposition of the
first two states exists in quantum computation. The use of quantum computation is very
much useful in investigating properties of complex systems since quantum registers allow
all possible numbers to be stored in a given moment of time using quantum superposition.
The property that atom can also be prepared in a coherent superposition of the two states
is exploited in quantum computation, and the use of quantum registers increases the
storage capacity exponentially.
Image Feature Extraction Using Quantum Registers
In Image Feature Extraction, a large database is needed and processing using
conventional logic takes large amount of time. The use of nano scale architectures
employing quantum registers can drastically reduce the computation time without a
complex algorithm. By using an L bit quantum register a total of 2L numbers can be
stored at once. Thus by using a quantum register of size 16 bits a complete image feature
of size 256 x 256 can be stored at once.
Classical Image Feature Extraction Algorithm
The classical image feature extraction algorithm uses nano scale architectures
with quantum registers, etc., but the algorithm that they run will not involve quantum
mechanics. One such algorithm is given in this paper, where quantum structures are used
for data storage tasks but non-quantum mechanics algorithms are used.
Merging Existing Non-Quantum Computing Tools and
Nano Scale Architectures
Embedded systems designed for image feature extraction should reply back within
a bounded time. The algorithms that govern the Feature extraction should
Minimize the time of processing,
Minimize the computations necessary to predict/extract a feature with high
degree of accuracy i.e should be robust
Handle large volume of data.
The first and third factor can be achieved easily by using nano scale architectures for
data storage tasks. The second factor is achieved by using existing Computing tools such
as Genetic Algorithms or Neural Network which are implicitly robust and which can
predict results with good accuracy even in ill-defined problems. The proper combination
of existing computing structure for robustness and nano scale architectures for
minimizing time will become inevitable in any embedded system developed for image
processing applications such as feature extraction in future.
Nano scale architectures are less robust due to the reason that quantum nano
computers store data in the form of atomic quantum states or spin and instantaneous
electron energy states are difficult to predict and even more difficult to control. A
sophisticated and subtle programming of the nano machines is required and hence proper
computing paradigms are needed in order to help us gain the benefits of nano scale
structures. This can be done easily since both robust computing techniques and nano
scale architectures are parallel tasks and one can assist the other.
Classical Quantum Structure Based Image Feature
Extraction Algorithm
Initialize:
Store Total Features characterizing the image in a particular terrain in Quantum
registers.
File Declaration:
For (Feature = 1; Feature < = M; Feature++)
For (i = 1, i< = SAM ; i++)
Read feature [i] from quantum registers
Relational Matrix Declaration:
Store relational matrix upto higher order in quantum registers
For (i =1; i<M;i++)
For (j=1; j<M;j++)
Read a[i] [i] from ith relation matrix table
Call Decision Loop:
{
Use relation matrix for Image feature prediction and Robust computing subroutine
}
Robust computing Subroutine:
Function Robust (k)
Set Rob [input] = kth sample
If (Rob[output] = 1)
Set flag = 1
Else
Flag = 0
Return flag
End Function.
In optical fibre communication systems:
Nanotechnology has played a vital role in dramatically advancing optical fibre
communication systems using bulk gallium arsenide lasers and multimode fibre with
transmission distances of a few kilometers and bit rates of a few megabits per second.
Now the systems have single mode fibre with bit rates a thousand times greater and
distance is no object. This is possible by two developments in nanotechnology
The development of the multiquantum well laser based on indium phosphide
technology which operates in single longitudinal mode and has good thermal
characteristics
The discovery of erbium doped fibre amplifier and the use of nanoscale fibre gratings
to provide uniform amplification over a substantial fraction of the low loss fibre
window
Competitive models in nanocomputing:
Unlike the hofield energy function approach that requires the researchers to
define the constraints of the problem and then go through an imprecise and obscuring
energy function to define the weights, these nano-networks have properties that can be
directly defined and controlled.
Basic idea of the network:
The network used here was a neuron-matrix type neural network. Here the
neurons are arranged in the form of a matrix and each layer of the matrix were linked
with switching mosfet which was switched by the status of the linking registers. The
linking register was an array of flip-flops which can be selected and can be made set or
reset. When it was set the switching mosfet connected to it will be ON and the node
connected to it will be connected to the next node adjacent to it.
Neuron hardwired circuit:
It will select any of the weights through shift-register which run through the length
and breadth of the neuron matrix. Now it will compare the existing output and ideal
one which will also be given in the learning mode. If error occurs it generates a
perturbation signal. This happens when the clock is high.
When the clock goes low, it will activate the compare and correction block of the
learning circuit and it will compare
