To conform to users' needs, perhaps as soon as 20 years in the future billions of volumetric pixels (voxals) will be simply manufactured and programmed: a bed that can be used at night that then reforms itself to be a desk or kitchen table during the day. The nanomachines are likely to be "printed" using the type of additive fabrication systems currently deployed to produce non-mold prototypes and low-volume direct digital manufactured parts, when the technology for voxals is ready.

The that researchers are developing molecular-sized machines that in our lifetimes will allow humans to live without a fresh intake of oxygen for as much as four hours was declared by an expert in nanomanufacturing.

The fact that underwater swimmers will need no special equipment to stay down for hours on end and that heart attack victims will be able to leisurely make their way to a hospital to receive treatment can be some of the benefits of this technology.

According to an aerospace engineer, Boris Fritz, who outlined the potential uses of these so-called "respirocytes" during his remarks at a conference and exhibition sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), RAPID 2008, this is not science fiction.

To provide the extra four hours of intake-free, life-sustaining oxygen, Fritz believes that respirocytes - which function as artificial red blood cells capable of transporting oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout the body - could replace 10% of actual human blood cells.

Fritz, who is a senior engineer technical specialist in the Materials & Processes Laboratory at Northrop Grumman Corp. is also founder and a past chairman of SME's Nanomanufacturing Technical Group.

The nanomachines are likely to be "printed" using the type of additive fabrication systems currently deployed to produce non-mold prototypes and low-volume direct digital manufactured parts, When the technology for respirocytes is ready.