Today it may seem like computers are everywhere, but things such as desktop monitors will be a thing of the past. In the future, chips and sensors could be embedded in everything. The planet will be filled with smaller, more powerful computers that will communicate with each other and with humans. Even furniture could be constructed entirely of molecule-sized computers that can reshape themselves according to how they are programmed.
You may say that is way in the future?
Try within five years. Developers have already been dealing with this programmable matter for four years already. It already has a name: Claytronics. Claytronics is a form of programmable matter, a collection of computers. Each computer not only computes and communicates with each other, but they also move around and cooperate with other units, combine in clusters, and form any 3D shape the user wants them to be. The first official application of Claytronics will most likely be tested on is the 3D fax machine.
Below is a video that gives an example of the future technology of Claytronics.
The Claytronics Project is currently being directed by Carnegie Mellon and Intel http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~claytronics/ .
