Researchers at MIT have developed ‘inFORM’ a Dynamic Shape Display that can render 3D content physically, so users can interact with digital information in a tangible way.
inFORM can also interact with the physical world around it, for example moving objects on the table’s surface. Remote participants in a video conference can be displayed physically, allowing for a strong sense of presence and the ability to interact physically at a distance.
The latest invention, built by students from the Tangible Media Group in the MIT Media Lab, is called inFORM, a computer-operated device that manipulates actuators and linkages to move a set of pins, allowing it to change shape 3-dimensionally, as if it were moving on its own.
According to the Tangible Media Group’s website, where a video shows off inFORM’s capabilities, the system is a “Dynamic Shape Display that can render 3D content physically, so users can interact with digital information in a tangible way.”
In simpler terms, inFORM can easily connect with the physical world around it, moving objects on a table’s surface with the swipe of a hand, and even mimic the hand’s shape. The concept uses an overhead depth camera to track a users movements, or other 3D objects placed underneath it, which then triggers the pins on the board to move independently in real-time.
Researchers said the system has the capability of allowing someone on the other end of a video conference call to have a “strong sense of presence and the ability to interact physically at a distance,” almost as if they were physically there.
For more details visit : http://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/inform/
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