Intelligent Siftables blocks get even more face time

We were captivated when we first came across David Merrill's brilliantly simple Siftables idea last year, and though some time has passed us by, we're no less amazed this go 'round. The MIT graduate student has hosted up a few more videos and images of his pet project, which aims to utilize computerized tiles to initiate learning and allow Earthlings to "interact with information and media in physical, natural ways that approach interactions with physical objects in our everyday lives." Call us crazy, but we're betting Art Lebedev would totally take these commercial. Check out a music sequencer vid just past the break, and catch the rest of the media in the read link.

[Via TED, thanks Kaptix]

Siftables Music Sequencer from Jeevan Kalanithi on Vimeo.

[CoffeeDragon @ Feb 26th 2009 12:15PM]

Ok, I've officially had my mind blown! It's a shame they will cost $299 each when they come out, especially if Lebedev is the one who takes them to market.

[ghostshadow @ Feb 26th 2009 12:17PM]

Truly amazing. They look very fun.

[Steve T @ Feb 26th 2009 12:21PM]

Looks neat, even for non-musically inclined folk like me!

[Mark Sunday @ Feb 26th 2009 12:24PM]

Scrabble will take on an entirely new dimension!

[Benzodiazepine @ Feb 27th 2009 4:07AM]

It's Domino !

[Isaac Howard @ Feb 26th 2009 12:33PM]

This is some of the most innovative technology I have seen in some time.

*applauds*

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Feb 26th 2009 12:43PM]

Wow I want those to make music, so hands on and touchy feelly, incredible piece of work there. I really really want em, more than anything else right now.

[Rehehelly @ Feb 26th 2009 12:55PM]

Wow that looks awesome.

[benhc911 @ Feb 26th 2009 12:59PM]

I had seen this thanks to the TED conference... hate to plug things, even more so if I'm not directly involved, but I recommend their video podcast, it has full length speakers from TED conferences, if you can't make the real conference you can get a taste for it that way, some of the speakers are profound. Also, if you are from canada (like me) I recommend the ideacity conference, it is like a canadian TED. I volunteer for ideacity (since the regular admission is very pricey) and I get to see the majority of the speakers, meet great people etc... its a blast and a half of tech, science, social science etc etc, the best of the best talk about really interesting issues!

The TED video about siftables was for 12/02/09 in canadian date organization, or for you americans 02/12/09 :P entitled "TEDTalks : Siftables, the toy blocks that think - David Merrill (2009)"

[Deuche ex Machina @ Feb 26th 2009 1:11PM]

The only way i'm watching the TED footage is if there's an uncontrolled mob scene when Bill Gates released the mosquitos.

"NOOOOO!!!! Who will count my money when I've died of Yellow Fever??"

[benhc911 @ Feb 26th 2009 1:18PM]

I realized that I had forgotten to include a list of a couple good speakers from the TED vidcasts in case someone is a little too lazy to watch them all but wants a good cross-sectional view of the conferences:

How Benjamin Button got his face - Ed Ulbrich (2009) - this one is a neat look at the cg involved in the movie

How mindboggling science will outlast the crisis - Juan Enriquez (2009) - interesting take on cellular engineering, tissue engineering and robotics, and their crossover

How I'm trying to change the world now - Bill Gates (2009) - 'nuff said?

Hunting the next killer virus - Joe DeRisi (2006) - genomic, algorithmic virus detection

Inventing the next amazing thing - Woody Norris (2004) - ingenous use of distortion/corruption of hypersonic sound to create direction sound

Design, discovery and humor - David Carson (2003) - entertaining look at design

Understanding comics - Scott McCloud (2005) - re-invisioning of comics and similar media

How calculus is changing architecture - Greg Lynn (2005) - impressive use of computers and mathematical functions to create architecture that adapts to alterations

and finally

Great ideas for finding new energy - Bill gross (2003) - re-thinking solar thermal energy generation, using procedural evolutionary design (via computers)


There are numerous videos about all of these things and more, and I feel like they fall into three main categories, technology for the sake of technology (cutting edge technology for medicine, computers etc.), technology for the sake of culture (advancements in design, art, environmental preservation etc), and culture for the sake of culture (authors and musicians). All of which are great!

Sorry for the long post (and double post) much

[Adam @ Feb 26th 2009 3:13PM]

And THAT is why I applied to MIT. Because everyone there is a totally baller.

[Jaylord @ Feb 26th 2009 3:36PM]

?

[ssoltero @ Feb 26th 2009 3:08PM]

Wow, I really want those. That looks like a TON of fun and just imagine some simple games you could create using those things. How fun.

[Hackettman @ Feb 26th 2009 3:36PM]

Incredible!

[the real Brad @ Feb 26th 2009 5:35PM]

Dang it, when I first saw this, I thought they were digital Scrabble tiles, and I was already concocting a plan to hack it and win...

[Jeevan @ Feb 27th 2009 3:01PM]

Hi - Thanks for the feedback (This is Jeevan K.; Dave Merrill and I are the creators of Siftables) - if you are interested in learning more, we will be posting updates on our progress with Siftables on:

http://siftables.com
http://blog.tacolab.com

We also have an email list you can sign up for on siftables.com.