The goal of the claytronics project (AKA Synthetic reality) is to understand and develop the hardware and software neccesary to create programmable matter, a material which can be programmed to form dynamic three dimensional shapes which can interact in the physical world and visually take on an arbitrary appearance. As of 2006 researchers have already created a prototype catom that is 44 millimeters in diameter. The goal is to eventually produce catoms that are one or two millimeters in diameter-small enough to produce convincing replicas.