A computer without electricity? Mechanical computing concept 'could help improve people's lives' with all sorts of potential real-world uses

Date:
Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:36:04 +0000

Description:
Mechanical computing platforms could operate where it isn't possible to use silicon chips.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
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your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Researchers in the US have built a mechanical computer It's made from metal bars and springs, and is capable of basic computing operations This might
pave the way for important technological advances, and 'could help improve people's lives by having more responsive artificial limbs or tactile rooms' Can you build a PC from springs and metal bars, which operates entirely mechanically, without any electricity? No, of course you can't, but it is possible to fashion such a device that is capable of basic computations and doesn't need any power supplied at all.

Interesting Engineering highlighted a project by researchers from St Olaf College and Syracuse University , which has been published in the science journal Nature . The paper, titled 'Mechanical hysterons with tunable interactions of general sign', describes a mechanical computing platform that uses connected steel bars and springs. Article continues below You may like Could 'thermodynamic computing' unlock the true possibilities of AI? These studies think so, get ready for better image generation and much more This ridiculously wild custom Lego PC is the best thing youll see today A portable computer in a suitcase: Toshiba's 1982 T100 was nothing like any computer
ever launched till then and it even came with a modem and a mechanical keyboard

Joey Paulsen, who is Associate Professor of Physics at St Olaf College, explains: "We typically think of memory as something in a computer hard
drive, or within our brains. However, many everyday materials retain some
kind of memory of their past for example, rubber can 'remember' how far it has been squeezed or stretched in the past.

"The research team wanted to understand if we could use everyday materials to not only remember movement but also process information or compute."

This is indeed possible, as the scientists were able to build three
mechanical computers.

The first project could count (up to three), and a second computer was
capable of determining whether it had been pushed an odd or even number of times. A third was designed to remember if a medium or large amount of force had been applied to it, and all without a battery in sight. Get daily
insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Rotors next, then onwards and upwards from there? (Image credit: St Olaf College) Obviously, these initial inventions are relatively basic, and while it's impressive to build anything capable of functional computing out of simple bits of metal which has, of course, been done in the distant past it may leave you wondering what the point of all this is, aside from the novelty of such a mechanical platform.

Well, firstly there could be a lot to build on here in terms of combining these kinds of mechanical innovations. One of the next steps forward for the researchers will be to look at scalability here. (They are now testing how
the state of one rotor affects its interaction with a second rotor, with a view to adding a third).

Mechanical computing platforms may have serious real-world applications too, notably in harsh environments where traditional solutions won't work or even survive. For example, in the case of extreme heat, a mechanical computer
could operate in scenarios where silicon chips would melt. What to read next AI robot snaps together like Lego and moves unlike anything I've ever seen before I can't stop watching Nanometer-thick magnet produced at room temperature using lasers could one day produce better HDDs, faster
non-silicon processors Is this the beginning of the end for humanity?
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Paulsen notes: "Our results are one step towards designing materials that can sense their environment, make a decision, and then respond. Frequently called smart materials, what we learned could help improve people's lives by having more responsive artificial limbs or tactile rooms."

This isn't the first time such concepts have been explored in the
contemporary tech world. A couple of years ago, scientists at North Carolina State University created a mechanical computer design which used a series of plastic cubes that were pushed and pulled to input, store, and work with
data.

Now, a computer made of plastic cubes what does that remind me of? Oh yes, that rather nifty PC built out of Lego bricks from earlier this week The
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