The Media Lab #20: Siftables

I stopped by the MIT Media Lab today and spied LabCAST #20: Siftables. I have been following the projects at Media Lab for about 10 years and my favorite project used to be Electronic Paper and Kismet The Robot.

Photo: MIT Media Lab LabCAST #20: Siftables

Siftables are a series of small screens that can interact with each other as they are moved on a table or in the air. They do not appear to have a touch-sensitive screen. While these look like engaging gadgets, isn’t this something that can be easily done with software on a Microsoft Surface?

But watching this video I felt the same as I had when I first saw Saturday Night Live’s fake commercial for a cross between an Apple Newton and 3M PostIt Notes in 1993.