Modern telecommunications allow you to see and hear from great distances – but they can't do anything about the sense of touch. Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) set out to change that.
A team from the MIT Media Lab has developed inFORM a panel that can display digital information in a way that makes it feel like you're touching it. A computer generates the data with plastic pins that move up and down to form a 3D shape. The project also includes a Microsoft Kinect sensor to track a person's movements.
As MIT's demonstration video shows, inFORM could be used by designers to create physical models without 3D printing, by doctors to examine cross-sections, and by students to visualize mathematical equations.
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