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dear jane, Please take me off the list temporarily. Thank you...Sandi > > > US scientists have invented a smart table that can sort and rearrange > almost anything put on it. > > The development may lead to bar counters that take drinks to customers, or > restaurant tables which automatically arrange cutlery, crockery and cruets > into place settings. > > The ultimate result of the research could be programmable rooms that can > rearrange furniture without the help of humans. > > PhD student Dan Reznik and Professor John Canny of the computer science > department at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed the > table. > > The pair has discovered that by vibrating a table many times per second > they can move the objects sitting upon it. > > The device has been given the grand name of a universal planar manipulator. > > Table-top tricks > > The table is shaken using motors positioned on two adjacent sides of the > table, which move it in one of two directions. Anyone looking down on the > table would see that the motors could vibrate it either North-South or > East-West. > > The motors shake the table via small rods that touch it near three of its > corners. By combining vibrations applied from the different directions, the > academics have found that they can shuffle objects placed on the table > surface. > > The control system for the table uses algorithms developed by the academics > over the last four years. These reveal how the table should be shaken to > move an object to a particular position. > > The vibrations whip the table out from under the objects that then, thanks > to friction, come to rest a tiny distance away from their initial position. > > By repeating this many times a second, focusing on a different object every > time, it is possible to move separate objects in different directions and > even divide up groups of objects. > > Object lesson > > The researchers have demonstrated the table's prowess by showing how it can > make three pennies follow a bow tie shape, make another penny trace out the > shape of a plus sign and sort a random scattering of eight poker chips by > their colour. > > Sitting over the table is a camera that records the position of all objects > on the table so the control system can work out how close they are to their > destination. > > Mr Reznik and Professor Canny have designed a graphical interface for the > table which shows what is on it and lets people tell the table where to > move the objects with the click of a mouse. > > The first prototype of the smart table was a baking tray, but now the > researchers are using an aluminium honeycomb that transmits the vibrations > better and is less likely to turn them into useless vertical movements. > > Future work will involve speeding up the movement of objects and making > bigger tables. > > Mr Reznik has presented his work at several academic conferences over the > last couple of years but news of the smart table was first reported on the > US technology news site Wired. > > Related to this story: > 'Smart scalpel' spots cancer cells (23 Mar 00 | Health) > DNA makes tiny tweezers (09 Aug 00 | Sci/Tech) > Robots rule OK? (20 Aug 00 | From Our Own Correspondent) > Smaller is better (21 Feb 00 | Washington 2000) > 10 ways Tivo will change your life (28 Sep 00 | UK) > Thai 'Robocop' tools up (31 Aug 00 | Sci/Tech) > Doom on wheels stalks slugs (02 Nov 99 | Sci/Tech) > > > By BBC News Online internet reporter Mark Ward > BBC News Online: Sci/Tech > http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/sci/tech/newsid_957000/957762.stm > > janet paterson > 53 now / 44 dx cd / 43 onset cd / 41 dx pd / 37 onset pd > TEL: 613 256 8340 URL: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/ > EMAIL: [log in to unmask] SMAIL: PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario K0A 1A0 Canada >