Biomimicry in software and hardware design

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 6:12 pm

Recently I have been watching talks on TED on the subject “biomimicry” (by Janine Benyus and Robert Full), which is the concept of looking at natures solutions as inspiration, for solving our own engineering challenges. An example of biomimicry could be cooling a building without air-condition, by looking at the way termites have cooled their mounds for millennia, this does not mean they fill a building with termites and let them work it out, they simply replicate some of the principles of mound-architecture into human-architecture.

This got me wondering if we took some of the concepts of nature into software and hardware design, like creating super-light, strong, and thin enclosures for laptops, super low-power displays yet vividly colorful, by mimicking the structure of butterfly-wings, or even compact wide-range speakers by looking at the way small animals can generate loud sounds. Hardware design has been evolutionary, but we still use square boxes for hardware, and since the first commonly available laptops, only the exterior dimensions, and internal components, have changed, it is still a hard box, perhaps by replicating the concept of a spine, which is one of natures widely deployed inventions, to develop a better hinge for the MacBook Pro, would provide us with an even sturdier product.

In software I am at the moment designing a product that relies on heavily self organizing phenomena, inspired by bird flocks, fish schools, and the audience at a sports event.

Designing software and hardware that mimics nature, both under, and over the hood, is interesting, and I believe that as the field of biomimicry grows, we will all soon have a piece of the genius of evolution in our homes, and perhaps in our pockets.

For more examples of biomimicry visit: AskNature.org