Researchers at MIT are rethinking the filesystem that exists in today’s computers. Rather than the traditional, one piece of hardware and numerous software programs, MIT’s Siftables consist of several modular-based hardware devices that allow data to be manipulated physically, by the arrangement and interaction between the modules. Each Siftable is a small OLED screen along with “short range infrared communicators, a 3-axis accelerometer, Bluetooth radio, flash memory, an integrated processor, a lithium polymer battery, some haptic hardware, and what look to be USB expansion ports.” This allows each Siftable to be it’s own minicomputer yet they need each other to produce desired data manipulation. The demonstration of how they interact with each is other is the most interesting aspect of these tiny devices. The ability to pour color on objects, shaking an image to add blur, etc. allows for the metaphor that seems to get lost in the world of software to become literal again, in a similar aspect to how the Nintendo Wii has transformed videogaming. I would be interested to see more practical applications of such a system, rather than just the playing shown here because I imagine the mouse and keyboard interaction with a computer will soon seem old-fashioned; however, to be successful, every process currently possible will need to be reproduced in these newer forms of interaction.

– Terrence Scoville