Communications of the ACM
'Invisibility' Materials Could Do Computer's Work
An international team of researchers contend that metamaterials may be used to carry out mathematical operations.
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An international team of researchers has proposed that metamaterials, which can alter the properties of light waves often to render an object invisible, also could carry out mathematical operations.
The research shows the mathematical basis for the technology, which could dramatically accelerate calculations such as those used in image processing. Metamaterials could change the shape of an incoming light wave in ways that have the same effect as performing calculations on a computer, according to University of Pennsylvania professor Nader Engheta. "As [a light wave] goes through a block [of metamaterial], by the time it comes out, it should have a shape that would be the result of mathematical operations," Engheta says.
The researchers ran simulations of light waves passing through metamaterials and demonstrated that the method could perform calculus operations. This method of computation is known as analog computing, and it differs from digital computing, which is what most existing computers do. Engheta notes that in the future, metamaterial blocks do not have to be limited to a single mathematical operation, because the properties could be adjusted.
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