Siftables – Beat Rocking Blocks
The miniaturisation of electronics is continuing apace, and it seems that each button we press has more computing power than an entire PC from a few years ago. David Merill has a vision of interactive computing where the building blocks of work and play come together…
Introducing Siftables
Siftables are small block-shaped computers that interact with one another in a physical way, and can be modified/controlled in a very physical way, much as children learn to play with toy blocks.
“Each Siftable has a color OLED screen, four infrared communication modules—one in each direction in the horizontal plane—a 3-axis accelerometer, and a Bluetooth radio… They can talk to each other side-to-side, or to a computer or other Bluetooth-enabled device over the Bluetooth radio. The cases were designed and made by Amit Zoran (MIT Media Lab) and Noah Murphy-Reinhertz (polysaturated.com).”
In the video above, Merrill demonstrates some uses for siftables, including using them as a controller system for music production. This is quite similar to the idea of Audio Cubes – there’s a video of Audio Cubes controlling Ableton Live here.
However, the siftables are clearly a more powerful creation with more potential for expansion, so it will be interesting to see what new sort of performance develops from this new music technology…
Want to Read More? Check Out These Related Posts:
Touchable Projections For More ControlBeat Rocking BlocksPitch Control On The Vinyl Side