Tangible Media Group

Pins generates dynamic three-dimensional geometries within a tabletop environment serving both as volumetric display and co-spatial input device. Our goal is to liberate otherwise static everyday objects and surfaces with intelligent materials that react to both environmental and user input. Within this realm, we intend to redefine the boundary layer between positive and negative space in which the materiality and surface form become tangible portals into the digital world.

The display component of Pins comprises a densely packed array of discrete nodes
operating in harmony as a computationally deformable surface. The geometric representation
allows the visualization of geometric, scalar, and relational change of complex
form over time. A tangible overlaid input component allows users to manipulate
and mold surfaces and tabletop objects using both hands directly on the surface
of Pins. Similarly the surface is responsive to environmental change (i.e. placement
of an object on the surface) thereby serving as sensor skin to capture ambient
and physical world variations.

Applications for Pins are wide ranging as they fundamentally transform the way
we interact with our world. Surfaces are no longer static, but shape-shift dynamically
to re-accommodate for changing current tasks establishing a flexible input/output
platform. We envision Pins for urban planning, geological, and medical simulations
in which the display and manipulation of physical data is optimally represented
as a tangible duplicate of the original form.