Encoding and Storage of Information in Mechanical Metamaterials

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Mechanical Engineering
• Information Technology

Background:

• Information processing using inherent material properties is a growing research area.
• Mechanical metamaterials offer diverse deformation modes and design flexibility for applications like computing and data storage.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a mechanical metamaterial system for material-based data encoding and storage.
• To utilize programmed reconfigurations of structured building blocks for data manipulation.

Main Methods:

• Developed a 3D printed pixelated mechanical metamaterial featuring kirigami-based "pixels".
• Incorporated programmable, temperature-dependent bistability into the metamaterial structure.
• Employed multistep deformation for encoding text and binary data, and a specific stretching and heating regimen for decoding.

Main Results:

• Successfully encoded and decoded messages of text and surfaces with binary data.
• Demonstrated sequential retrieval of stored information layers through controlled thermal and mechanical stimuli.
• Showcased the metamaterial's ability to display retrieved data on its surface.

Conclusions:

• The developed mechanical metamaterial system enables material-based data encoding and storage.
• This approach provides a general framework for data manipulation using mechanical metamaterials.
• Highlights the potential of kirigami-based bistable pixels for advanced information processing applications.