Switchable Glass: A Possible Medium for Evolvable Hardware

The possibility of using switchable glass (also called smart windows) technology for evolvable hardware tasks is suggested in this paper. Switchable glass technology basically means controlling the transmission of light through windows by using electrical power. By applying a variable voltage to the window we can continuously vary the amount of transmitted light. Three existing technologies are reviewed in this paper: electrochromic devices, suspended particle devices and liquid crystal devices. An evolvable hardware application for a light-based device is described. The proposed device can be used for solving an entire class of problems, instead of one problem only as in the case of other dedicated hardware