Siftables, Choreographing a Tangible Interface of Sensing Video Blocks
Created by David Merrill and Jeevan Kalanithi at MIT Media Lab, Siftables aim to make it as easy to manipulate virtual objects as it is for us to handle and organize everyday physical objects.
I've included the video first followed by a brief description. As you watch the video, consider how the small Siftable video blocks interact with each other based on their proximity, content, function and groupings:
Imagine overturning a container of nuts and bolts, then looking through the resulting pile for a particular item. Or spreading photographs out on a tabletop and then beginning to sort them into piles. During these activities we interact with large numbers of small objects at the same time, and they utilize all of our fingers and both hands together. We humans are skilled at using our hands in these ways, and can effortlessly sift and sort - focusing on our higher level goals rather than the items themselves.
And a bit about the technology behind Siftables:
As an interaction platform, Siftables applies technology and methodology from wireless sensor networks to tangible user interfaces. Siftables are independent, compact devices with sensing, graphical display, and wireless communication capabilities. They can be physically manipulated as a group to interact with digital information and media. Siftables can be used to implement any number of gestural interaction languages and HCI applications.
At the heart of this project is the idea of using multiple sensors as a tangible user interface. And as you'll see in the above video, the possibilities for the individual Siftable blocks to influence and manipulate each other seems limitless. Colors can be transfered from one block to another. Video images of faces turn to each other on adjoining blocks. Gestures can change multiple video block displays simultaneously. And physical organizations of blocks can be reflected on a nearby computer screen.
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