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Tangible Media Group | MIT Media Lab
Tangible Media group
In the research realm of shape changing interfaces in human-computer interaction, a variety of pin-based shape display designs have been ...
We present a mobile heart rate regulator—ambienBeat—which provides closed-loop ambient biofeedback via subliminal tactile stimulus based ...
We use sticks as tools for a variety of activities, everything from conducting music to playing sports or even engage in combat. However,...
The ComTouch project explores the interpersonal communication by use of haptic technology. Audio and video have been commonly used as a m...
What we can do if the screen in videoconference rooms can turn into an interactive display? With Kinect camera and sound sensors, We expl...
In this work, we propose a novel fabrication method for 3D objects based on the principle of spooling. By wrapping off-the-shelf material...
Cells’ biomechanical responses to external stimuli have been intensively studied but rarely implemented into devices that interact w...
In recent years, the retail industry has become increasingly interested in Information and communications technology (ICT) systems for en...
Digital machine knitting is a highly programmable manufacturing process that has been utilized to produce apparel, accessories, and footw...
How can people learn advanced motor skills such as front flips and tennis swings without starting from a young age? The answer, following...
A recent focus of our lab has been making use of Tangible Displays and Body Object Space to develop new assistive technologies. As a test...
State-of-the art liquid handling systems are generally pump-driven systems connected with valves and tubes. These systems are manually a...
LeakyPhones is a public/private headset that was designed to encourage face-to-face interactions, curiosity, and healthier ...
SCALE provides a framework for load data from distributed load-sensitive modules for exploring force-based interaction. Force conveys not...
We present AnimaStage: a hands-on animated craft platform based on an actuated stage. Utilizing a pin-based shape display, users can anim...
Printflatables is a design and fabrication system for human-scale, functional and dynamic inflatable objects. The user begins with specif...
The future of human life outside of Earth will heavily depend on the ability to fabricate and manufacture things. Yet fabrication in spac...
kinetiX is a transformable material featuring a design that resembles a cellular structure. It consists of rigid plates or rods and elast...
Auto-inflatables explores the design space of self-inflating structures. By using chemical reactions as a source of carbon dioxide on-dem...
We propose a novel shape-changing interface that consists of a single line. Lines have several interesting characteristics from the persp...
This project introduces layer jamming as an enabling technology for designing deformable, stiffness-tunable, thin sheet interfaces. Inter...
MirrorFugue is an installation for a player piano that evokes the impression that the "reflection" of a disembodied pianist is playing th...
An enabling technology to build shape-changing interfaces through pneumatically driven, soft-composite materials. The composite materials...
Pneuduino is a hardware platform for kids, students, artists, designers, and researchers who are interested in controlling air flow and p...
Translating ambient sounds of moment into tangible and shareable memories through animated paperWe present a tangible memory notebook—reM...
We introduce SociaBowl, a dynamic table centerpiece to promote positive social dynamics in 2-way cooperative conversations. A centerpiece...
We present a stiffness-changing interface based on a magneto-rheological (MR) fluid. The device consists of a material surface with ...
Our eyes are our our mind's window to the external world. Vision is the primary way we sense our environment, and is a reliable indicator...
Sleep is perhaps the most critical human activity for well-being, but seldom receives the priority it deserves. We get less rest than we ...
Imagine a physical object that floats through the air, unconstrained by gravity, which can move freely to display the motion of a planet ...
aireForm is a dress of many forms that fluidly morph from one to another, animated by air, reflecting the shifting of our own personas. P...
musicBottles introduces a tangible interface that deploys bottles as containers and controls for digital information. The system consists...
SandScape is a tangible interface for designing and understanding landscapes through a variety of computational simulations using sand. T...
Cord UIs are sensorial augmented cords that allow for simple, metaphor-rich interactions to interface with their connected devices. Cords...
Sourcemap is the social network for supply chains, connecting producers, manufacturers, and consumers for end-to-end visibility. Consumer...
uniMorph is an enabling technology for thin-sheet shape-changing interfaces. It affords actuation powered by environmental temperature ch...
Sensetable is a system that wirelessly, quickly, and accurately tracks the positions of multiple objects on a flat display surface. The t...
Furniture is the infrastructure for human activity. Every day we open cabinets and drawers, pull up to desks, recline in recliners, and f...
Andante is a representation of music as animated characters walking along the piano keyboard that appear to play the physical keys with e...
We propose a new approach to physical telepresence, based on shared workspaces with the ability to capture and remotely render the shapes...
MMODM is an online drum machine based on the Twitter streaming API, using tweets from around the world to create and perform musical sequ...
This project presents a weight-changing device based on the transfer of mass. We chose liquid metal and a bi-directional pump to inject i...
The ability of shape displays to move and manipulate objects enables the assembly, disassembly, and reassembly of different forms and str...
Rope Revolution is a rope-based gaming system for collaborative play. After identifying popular rope games and activities from around the...
FocalSpace is a system for focused collaboration utilizing spatial depth and directional audio. We present a space where participants, to...
Malleable user interfaces have the potential to enable radically new forms of interactions and expressiveness through flexible, free-form...
An environment for creative collaboration is significant for enhancing human communication and expressive activities. We introduce Second...
KidCAD is a digital clay interface for children to remix toys. KidCAD allows children to imprint 2.5D shapes from physical objects into t...
T(ether) is a novel spatially aware display that supports intuitive interaction with volumetric data. The display acts as a window afford...
Peddl creates a localized, perfect market. All offers are broadcasts, allowing users to spot trends, bargains, and opportunities. With GP...
Tangible CityScape is a platform for users to explore the real 3D cityscape by changing parameters such as population, building capacity,...
Augmented Physicality aims to explore the causal relationship between virtual information and its physical counterpart. We look at the ex...
We are collecting ever more data about our environment, from above using high-end satellite networks, as well as from below with the chea...
We present an interactive shape-changing display—Dancing Membrane of the reSpire- using the deformation of fabric and airflow contr...
deFORM is a deformable input device that supports 2.5D touch gestures, tangible tools, and arbitrary objects through real-time structured...
Inspired by the Surrealists' Exquisite Corpse art game, the NeverEnding Drawing project is one of several applications developed on a sca...
CopyCAD is an augmented milling machine that allows users to design new objects directly on the material they wish to cut using projected...
Recent research in 3D user interfaces has pushed in two directions: immersive graphics and actuated tangible shape displays. We seek thei...
Relief is an actuated tabletop display, able to render and animate 3D shapes with a malleable surface. It allows users to experience and ...
The way we represent ourselves in social media is intangible. What we choose to wear is public to the world and we are aware of it. In co...
O-Link is a communication tool developed by NTT Comware in collaboration with the Tangible Media group. O-Link allows users to link video...
An open publishing platform for visualization, social sharing, and data analysis of geospatial data.
Picture This! is a video editing tool progressing toward children's natural expression of play while telling stories with their toys. We ...
OnObject transforms any object or surface into a gesture-triggered interactive toy. By applying an RFID tag to an object, grabbing it wea...
We propose Coded Lens, a novel system for lensless photography. The system does not require highly calibrated optics, but instead, utiliz...
Shape-changing materials have been part of sci-fi literature for decades. But if tomorrow we invent them how are we going to use them? Am...
EmBuddy is a digital creature that senses its user's stress levels via an EEG headset. When EmBuddy's user is stressed, EmBuddy will wigg...
We present the design of a cost-effective, wearable sensor to detect and indicate the strength and other characteristics of the electric ...
Long-distance families are increasingly staying connected with free video conferencing tools. However, the tools themselves are not desig...
Kinetic Sketch-Up is a system for prototyping motion and kinetic transformability into interfaces. A series of actuated modules allow use...
PingPong++ (PingPongPlusPlus) builds on PingPongPlus (1998), a ping pong table that could sense ball hits, and reuse that data to control...
Human beings have long shaped the physical environment to reflect designs of form and function. As an instrument of control, the human ha...
The AFK cookset is designed for the hungry role-playing gamer who can connect her food items, e.g., Spicy Wolf Dumplings, to her online c...
Plants are very common in our world and and contain a vast amount of information. Although there are open debates about the intelligence...
MirrorFugue is an interface for the piano that bridges the gap of location in music playing by connecting pianists in a virtual shared sp...
Stress OutSourced (SOS) is a peer-to-peer network that allows anonymous users to send each other therapeutic massages to relieve stress. ...
We are developing gestural interaction techniques and applications using the g-speak platform from Oblong Industries. This work seeks to ...
The Wetpaint project investigates new interfaces for exploring the history of a work of visual art. We are seeking intuitive metaphors fo...
Bosu is a design tool offering kinetic memory�the ability to record and play back motion in 3-D space�for soft materials. It is used for ...
Piezing is an outfit which generates power using the natural gestures of the human body in motion. Around the joints of the elbows and hi...
The WoW Pod is an immersive architectural space that provides and anticipates all life needs of the World of Warcraft player. Outfitted w...
We have created a system that allows a person's heart rate to be displayed on an ambient orb color display. This system uses a heart-rate...
Trackmate is an open-source initiative to create an inexpensive, do-it-yourself tangible tracking system. The Trackmate tracker allows an...
Beyond is a collapsible input device for direct 3D manipulation. When pressed against a screen, Beyond collapses in the physical world an...
Touch�Sensitive is a wearable device that leverages stress and provides comfort for people on the move. It is determined by how the body ...
Topobo is a 3D constructive assembly system embedded with kinetic memory�the ability to record and play back physical motion. Unique amon...
We propose a system that reveals hidden physical properties of objects and the environment, and that reveals objects and aspects of the e...
We are developing a lower-cost portable system which allows passive RFID tags to be tracked on a flat surface. By creating a system that ...
AR-Jig is a new, handheld, tangible user interface for 3-D digital modeling. AR-Jig has a pin array that displays a 2-D physical curve co...
Slurp is a tangible interface for manipulating abstract digital information as if it were water. Taking the form of an eyedropper, Slurp ...
Amphibian allows users to easily imprint digital functions onto common everyday physical objects. Amphibian is a low cost, low infrastruc...
PICO is a new type of human-computer interface combining the usability advantages of mechanical systems with the abstract computational p...
SpeakCup is a digital voice recorder. Rather than being controlled via buttons and blinking lights, SpeakCup uses shape to proscribe func...
The Actuated Workbench is a device that uses magnetic forces to move objects on a table in two dimensions. It is intended for use with ex...
Jabberstamp is the first tool that allows children to synthesize drawings and voices. To use Jabberstamp, children create drawings, colla...
We are exploring how to navigate large information spaces naturally, quickly, and seamlessly between graphical and physical space using b...
Robo Topobo is a controller that children can use to save, replay, and adjust playback of up to four Topobo recordings. Robo introduces i...
Glume is a computationally enhanced translucent modeling medium which offers a generalized, modular, scalable platform with the physical ...
This project provides new ways to work with Topobo motion sequences. The Backpacks are a series of physical components with a knob that c...
CircuiTUI is an application for circuit design and modeling, intended to aid novice circuit designers or students in gaining intuition in...
Remix and Robo are two sampler/sequencer controllers that allow children to engage in (1) storytelling, and (2) competitive endeavors wit...
PegBlocks are networked tactile transducers. As users manipulate the array of pegs, sliding them back and forth, motion is converted to e...
Super Cilia Skin is a multi-modal interactive interface, conceived as a computationally enhanced membrane coupling tactile-kinesthetic in...
GrabIt allows users to collaboratively explore the principles of power generation, transfer, and consumption via tangible wooden sticks....
This project is developing new tools for querying databases through the manipulation of physical objects. Our approach should allow multi...
Tangible Viewpoints is a storytelling application for interactive character-driven narratives that was designed for the TViews platform. ...
Senspectra is a computationally augmented physical modeling toolkit designed for sensing and visualization of structural strain. The syst...
The �I/O Brush� is a drawing tool that not only releases ink, but also captures ink from the artist's immediate environment. Like an old ...
Based upon prior work on telepresence and tangible interfaces, LumiTouch explores emotional communication in tangible form. The LumiTouch...
We have developed Audiopad, an interface for musical performance that aims to combine the modularity of knob-based controllers with the e...
The mediaBlocks prototype is a tangible user interface based upon small, digitally tagged wooden blocks. The blocks serve as physical ic...
HandSCAPE is an orientation-aware digital tape measure used as an input device for digitizing field measurements, and visualizing the vol...
The activeShelves are a networked system of surfaces, servers, and displays that give real-time data about a collection of physical objec...
Strata/ICC is a computationally-augmented, two-meter-tall physical model of a 54-story skyscraper, serving as an interactive display of e...
Glass bottles have been a part of human culture for thousands of years, serving both practical and aesthetic functions. The "bottles" pro...
The goal of this project is to allow designers to continue using the traditional drawing tools they love, but to digitally enhance the dr...
This project explores the use of physical fixtures and objects to display temporal information within an architectural space in a subtle ...
The musicbox is a tangible interface supporting remote awareness through the medium of music and light. The musicbox is linked over the I...
curlybot is an autonomous two-wheeled toy that can record and play back physical motion. As one plays with it, it remembers its change in...
Senseboard is one facet of our using tangible media for manipulating abstract information. It allows the user to arrange small magnetic p...
The Strata project explores the design of layered, electronically-augmented physical models that serve as tangible interfaces to specific...
The pinwheels project continues the study of Ambient Fixtures to communicate digital information at the periphery of human perception thr...
This project explores the creation and use of a physical/digital construction kit. Triangles is a physical computer interface in the for...
The Furp ("Future of Urban Planning") project exists as a first step toward disseminating the Luminous Room project into the world at lar...
How can we pervasively transform all of architectural space, so that every surface is rendered capable of displaying and collecting visua...
PingPongPlus is a digitally enhanced version of the classic ping-pong game. It is played with ordinary, un-tethered paddles and balls, an...
TellTale is a story construction kit whose goal is to help young children create and experiment with the structure and content of persona...
CADcast is a system for projecting instructions into 3-D workspaces. It supports users in constructing three-dimensional structures with ...
inTouch explores new forms of interpersonal communication through touch. Force-feedback technology is employed to create the illusion tha...
The genieBottles system presents a story that is told by three genies that live in glass bottles. When a bottle is opened, the genie cont...
Illuminating Clay is system for the real-time computational analysis of physical landscape models. Users manipulate a malleable landscape...
TouchCounters are computational tags that track the use of physical objects. TouchCounters sense activity through magnetic, acceleration,...
GeoSCAPE is a reconstructive tool for capturing measurement data in field archaeology and for facilitating a 3-D visualization of an exca...
A palimpsest is a manuscript consisting of a later writing superimposed upon an original writing. This name has been borrowed for the tit...