Toward Wirelessly Cooperated Shape-Changing Computing Particles

Widespread research is being conducted on computational materials. The challenge for the realization of computational materials is how to weave computers into everyday objects consisting of various shapes and form factors. One idea to achieve this vision is to build physical computational particles that can cooperatively communicate among others and, thereby, change the whole shape like clay. Wireless communication and power transfer are keys to making such computing particles happen. Thus, we introduce an approach to embody these particles using multiple tiny IC chips, which wirelessly cooperate with each other. This article shows the current state-of-the-art wireless communication and power transfer technologies integrated into IC chips to achieve fine-grained shape deformation of computers. Moreover, this article also presents recent trends and future directions in shape-changing human–computer interfaces research.