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tered untethered into the air, to become embed-
ded throughout a digital environment, creating
a digital skin that senses a variety of physical
and chemical phenomena of interest” (Poslad,
2009, p. 47). Information from digital skin can
be localized, current, and directly accessible by
the end-users and applications. Smart dust motes
contain micro sensors, an optical receiver, passive
and active optical transmitters, signal-processing
and control circuitry, and a thick film battery
power source. MEMS are based on integrated
circuit (IC) silicon chips and fabricated in mil-
lions with the use of photolithography. MEMS
attached to a substrate (paint, gel, in air or in
water) form smart surfaces or smart structures
that can reorganize. “Smart paint coating on a
wall can sense vibrations, monitor the premises
for intruders, and cancel noise” (Poslad, 2009,
p. 197, after Abelson, 2000).
Goldstein et al. (2009) describe Claytronics,
as programmable matter made out of millions of
sub-millimeter sized spherical robots. Their goal is
to create ensembles of cooperating sub-millimeter
robots, which work together to form dynamic 3D
physical objects, for example, in telepresence, to
mimic, with high-fidelity and in 3-dimensional
solid form, the look, feel, and motion of the person
at the other end of the telephone call. Claytron-
ics can be used to implement pario, a new media
type, which would render physical 3-dimensional
objects that one can see, touch, and even hold in
hands, and thus may change how we communicate
with others and interact with the world around us.
According to Kirby et al. (2005), modular robots
called Catoms can move relative to one another
without moving parts, which allows manufacturing
at smaller and smaller physical scales using high-
volume, low-unit-cost techniques such as batch
photolithography, multi-material submicron 3D
lithographic processing, and self assembly, radi-
cally altering the relationship between computa-
tion, humans, and the physical world. “Claytronics
envisions multi-million-module robot ensembles
able to form into three-dimensional scenes, even-
tually with sufficient fidelity so as to convince
a human observer the scenes are real” (Kirby et
al., 2005).
According to the Ubirobots workshop (2012)
organizers, “ubiquitous robots as cognitive en-
tities have been able to add value to services
compared to traditional systems. They are able to
coordinate their activities with other physical or
logical entities, move around, sense and explore
the environment, and decide, act or react to the
situations they may face anywhere and anytime.”
At the UbiComp (2012) the 14
th
ACM Interna-
tional Conference on Ubiquitous Computing,
digital designers and researchers are working on
current advancements in creating location-based
social networks; sensing, interpretation, and in-
tegration of events, behaviors and environmental
states; using mobile devices as instruments to
collect data and conduct studies; testing and
using subliminal stimuli and information below
aware perception; capturing and interacting with
information on connected objects and devices, as
well as capturing, processing, and sharing data on
events; the implications of pervasive eye tracking
for context-aware computing to assist users in their
daily activities, among other issues.
Some hold that ubiquitous computing creates
Synthetic Reality present in everyday life and
directed toward commonplace targets without any
sensory augmentation, in contrast with virtual real-
ity or augmented reality. For example, ubiquitous
computing devices may control environmental
conditions such as light and heating according
to the personal biometric monitors painted or
woven into clothing; refrigerators might inform
users about the amount and the state of the tagged
food inside and plan a menu.
Moonlit Manifestation (Figure 4) reflects upon
the ways the networked technologies and ubiqui-
tous computing make the new city environments
familiar and easy to absorb and accept:
