For decades our options for interacting with the digital world have been limited to keyboards, mice, and joysticks. Now with a new generation of exciting new interfaces in the pipeline our interaction with the digital world will be forever changed. In this post we will look at some amazing demonstrations, mostly videos, that showcase new ways of interacting with the digital world. Enjoy!
First up we have a video of MIT’s David Merrill demonstrating a technology called Siftables at the 2009 TED conference. Siftables are cookie-sized, computerized blocks you can stack and shuffle in your hands. By arranging them in different configurations or tilting them at different angles you can do math, play music, spell worlds, pour virtual paint, and more. The implications for hands on learning and manipulation of data are fantastic! We have not seen any word on how/when this technology will be commercialized, but we hope it will be soon!
Next we have a technology for making music called Reactables. By arranging and manipulating computerized blocks on a special table, musicians are presented with a completely new way of creating and interacting with music. As seen in the previous video, Siftables are also capable of music composition, but reactables are unique in their singular focus on doing only music. Whereas the siftables can perform many functions, the reactables are specialized for one task only, and in the coming years we can expect them to far outstrip the ability of Siftables when it comes to music. Orginally created by Music Technology Group at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona Spain, Reactables have recently been spun off into a private company that is hard at work commercializing this exciting product. For those that are really interested in this technology, there is a competing effort from Sony that may be of interest:
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