The Insane Shape-Shifting Technology That
Will Change the Way You Work
The technology is still
years away--but its application could be huge.
Imagine if you could bend your phone and turn
it into a watch. Or if your desk could morph into a chair. Or if, when
using FaceTime or Skype, you could not only see and
hear the other person, but also feel him, too.
That's the world envisioned by Sean Follmer,
a computer researcher and designer. Follmer and his team at MIT Media
Lab created inFORM, a three-dimensional, shape-shifting interface for people to
interact with their computers.
"The computer ... can do a million
different things and run a million different applications," Follmer
said during a TED Talk about inFORM in
October. "However, computers have the same static physical
form for all of these different applications--and the same static interface elements as well."
To
solve this perceived problem, Follmer's team constructed a surface that
lies flat in front of the user. It displays text, figures, and other
information, and the user interacts with it much as he would an iPad. That's
where things get funky: As you manipulate the flat surface, hundreds of
small pins push upward to different heights. The interface takes on the
three-dimensional form of whatever you are looking at, be it a pie chart or an
urban landscape--like a high-tech raised-relief map. Follmer points out
that architects and urban planners can use the technology to create
three-dimensional, tactile views of cityscapes that can be manipulated by
touch.
The
interface can be used for person-to-person communication, too. Two people
talking via video, with the inFORM surface in front of them, can reach out with
their hands and cause the other person's interface to take the shape of their
hands and arms.
To
make this all happen, inFORM uses a depth-sensing camera that tracks movement
and transfers it to a set of 900 "linear actuators." By means of a
circuit board, the actuators send the movements to the pins above.
Follmer's
inFORM technology is still crude--the pins are rectangular and clunky, and
their large size means they don't get closer than the vague semblance of the
objects they're replicating. But it's easy to see where this is going. As the
technology is refined, it's conceivable that two people on opposite sides of
the world could work on the same physical object as easily as if they were in
the same room.
Using
the same technology, the team also created a flat table that can pop
up to become a work station--book shelf, monitor stand, pencil
holder--when prompted to do so. These shape-shifting objects could be the most
innovative application: Follmer's demonstration includes a flat object that can
be bend into the shape of a phone or watch, and a soft device that
can be squeezed into the desired shape and act as a remote or joystick.
BY KEVIN J.
RYAN
http://www.inc.com/kevin-j-ryan/shape-shifting-technology-change-work-communication.html?cid=em01020week06a
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