Programmable World #TechVision Another noteworthy component of the The final layer of the programmable world is fabricated with their intended manufacturing experiential layer is AR. While AR glasses still material and constitutes how things are made. method. Furniture company Roche Bobois, for face challenges with battery life, image quality, It includes a new generation of manufacturing and instance, is letting customers use a software tool design, and more, some early products are materials, which will bring programmability into at home or in-store to create their own furniture already here. INMO, a Chinese AR developer, the truly physical aspects of our environments. designs, which are then fed to a giant 3D printer has created a pair of AR glasses equipped with Advances in digital manufacturing techniques for production.94 wireless connectivity and an AI recognition are changing how and where physical goods 89 system. The glasses superimpose information can be made, making on-demand and hyper- But being able to produce custom products on like directions or product details over the customized products a reality. For instance, 3D demand is only half of this material layer. New user’s vision and use gesture control for printers can now print a much wider variety kinds of smart materials and programmable communication and information sharing. Nreal, of objects, and the number of viable filament matter will soon make it possible to customize 92 another Chinese company, has released AR materials is growing too. This makes 3D printing or enable custom experiences with physical glasses in several markets, including South – which by nature is better suited for highly products after production as well. Programmable 90 Korea, Japan, and the U.S. These glasses customized and local production – increasingly matter is material that is “programmed” to connect to people’s phones and similarly attractive for more industries. Similarly, advances change its physical properties upon direct augment the physical world with superimposed in digital textiles production are making textile command or sensing a predetermined trigger. 91 digital content. Even in this early phase, the customization easier and on-demand production For example, MIT researchers developed value of combining AR glasses and digital increasingly possible. Knitting solutions provider a programmable matter system, called twins is clear: With them, any environment Shima Seiki’s WHOLEGARMENT technology ChromoUpdate, that can change the color of an 95 can be made digital and overlaid with a digital lets manufacturers program machines to knit item with a zap of light. The items are coated experience. A new dimension of information entire garments without needing to cut and in a light-activated dye, and an ultraviolet light 93 will be seamlessly embedded into people’s sew separate parts together. And in addition projector can alter the reflective properties in experiences as they move around physical to these manufacturing machine advances, the dye to change the color of the item. And a environments, and will give them unprecedented digital design tools are democratizing product team at Rice University has developed a smart insight into the world and the novel ability to customization, letting designers – or even material that’s strong, soft, and as conductive 96 control how they perceive it. customers – easily make changes to their as many metals. It contains carbon nanotube products while ensuring they can still be threads which can be sewn into clothing Introduction // WebMe // Programmable World // The Unreal // Computing the Impossible 47